Trolling Motor with Steering Wheel?

Trying to rig up a transom mount motor on a pontoon boat to the steering wheel. Would also like to use the existing throttle. I'm sure both are possible, but I haven't a clue as to how.

Interesting......Will be wathcing this system closely.

Do you mean in place of an outboard or in conjunction with one?

It would be easier, and might be less expensive to buy a new or used Powerdrive trolling motor and utilize the really long cord on the pedal.

Or, use a co-pilot system and go footless and wireless, and use the small remote.

I've been thinking about a setup like your talking about for a few minutes now and have an idea. At least for steering.

Have a metal bracket built that matches the threads on your push/pull cable. Basically just a the male threaded portion. To that weld a U channel to the threaded part. Basically you would have this
UO. You could clamp the U to your transom a distance from your motor. Screw the steering cable nut to the new brackets threaded stud (for lack of a better term)...Have clamp machined that fits around the trolling motor shaft. It needs to clamp down to the shaft, and have a hole for the steering cable. Slide the cable into the sleeve, install the pin, and your done.

This won't address your throttle input, but you could wire up one of the remote foot trollign motor switches. The ones that can be wired in to regular trolling motors.

89Suburban said:

Do you mean in place of an outboard or in conjunction with one?

Click to expand...

Yes, in place of an outboard. The thought was you could put a junk outboard on the boat and then mount one of the electric motors designed to mount on the outboard to handle the steering, but if I could wave a majic wand.... The steering wheel would be controlling a transom mount trolling motor.

LonLB said:

It would be easier, and might be less expensive to buy a new or used Powerdrive trolling motor and utilize the really long cord on the pedal.

Or, use a co-pilot system and go footless and wireless, and use the small remote.

Click to expand...

You're right about easier, and probably about cheaper, and that's the way I'm trying to push the decision. I'm not the boat owner, and some folks just want what they want.... I think this is mostly about the "kool" factor of envisioning sitting in the captains chair using the steering wheel and throttle while under electric power. Personally, I would just assume sit in the captains chair with the remote, or even the pedal.

LonLB said:

I've been thinking about a setup like your talking about for a few minutes now and have an idea. At least for steering.

Have a metal bracket built that matches the threads on your push/pull cable. Basically just a the male threaded portion. To that weld a U channel to the threaded part. Basically you would have this
UO. You could clamp the U to your transom a distance from your motor. Screw the steering cable nut to the new brackets threaded stud (for lack of a better term)...Have clamp machined that fits around the trolling motor shaft. It needs to clamp down to the shaft, and have a hole for the steering cable. Slide the cable into the sleeve, install the pin, and your done.

This won't address your throttle input, but you could wire up one of the remote foot trollign motor switches. The ones that can be wired in to regular trolling motors.

Click to expand...

The idea with the bigfoot switch and fabing a bracket for the steering is as far as I have been able to take the concept, and your description of said bracket sounds better than mine.

Thanks for the input!

I guess I don't see the hard part.

Clamp an arm to the motor shaft that is hooked to a steering cable.
Then clamp a smaller arm and cable to the twist grip for throttle. Hook it to an old motor controller.
(Make sure to hook the cable to the motor head so you won't be shifting as you turn)

I agree with partsman, the steering hookup is jus backyard fabricating and ingenuity.

As far as the throttle control, pull the whole tiller/throttle section off the top of the trolling motor, there is usually only one screw holding it to the shaft. Mount it where the existing controls are now at the helm with the tiller handle sitcking up at a position that is comfortable to control with your hand. Then just pick up some of the appropriate guage wire to run from the helm to the trolling motor and splice it together. You also need to run feed wires from the helm control to the battery or power source. Make sure it is suffient enough and right guaged wire for the working load.

Like said above, steering cable is no issue. A conventional rack and pinion or rotary steering cable, that the pontoon probably already has, will be fine. Back in the '60s and '70s, when the rotary/rack and pinion style were in existence, but not as common as the pulley and cable method, motors didn't have the universal tube in the transom clamp for the cable to attach to. Instead, a handful of different bracket ideas that bolted to the transom, and had pivot abilities, were created. Most of these were just a ball and socket to provide the pivoting the cable would need, however in recreating one of those, a hyme joint is probably just as versatile.

The electrical side of things is where it will get fun. Read this link.
https://www.glen-l.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7680

He used a 30 amp PWM for his smaller motor, but a quick search found that 50 amp ones do exist, and are easily acquirable. This is basically what is in a MK Maximizer trolling motor. If you had one of those motors, I imagine you could pull the PWM out of the head, and rig it in the console, but purchasing a separate one will allow you to leave the trolling motor exactly as it is (think along the lines of warranty), and if you had a motor without the Maximizer (Endura line), it would give you that technology.

The only thing left would be to fabricate a nice throttle handle, and link that up with the PWM, and you would be good to go. A very nice aluminum one would just take a little bit of machine work, and the results would be pretty nice.

Now, Brine, your title brought a laugh for me! That is thinking out of the box! What an idea...