A$$ heavy and can't get on plain

Okay looking for some help here.

Finished my boat build a couple months ago, and thanks to this site helped me tremendously. It's a 16' with a 8hp Honda. It's decked front to rear. Storage compartments on sides, gas tank and dual 105 AH batteries all in back, PLUS myself plus motor. Ahhhhh.

I know I know way to much weight in the rear. I'm also thinking I don't need dual 105 Ah batteries. It's running a min Kota maximum 65 24v and on average I fish 6 hours at a time, trolling motor not always on.

I dangerously turned boat to full, (empty wide lake that I know well) crawled up to front and with my weight in bow I doubled speed. Plus I could hear the motor sorta calm down n level out rpm. Since this isn't practical by and stretch, I need to figure this out.

I'm tossed around the idea to putting batteries in side rod locker boxes, as near as front as possible, and snaking new 2/0 wire. I've thought about trim tabs? And I even recall a member here who put some sorta rear extension pods on rear, with motor in center. Or do I try and return these 105ah batteries and get a smaller set up.

Any help or ideas is greatly appreciated

16' with a 8hp ???

in MY world, that puppy would be sporting a 40 or 50 horse Johnson

Sometimes the answer is just you need a bigger tool, or I this case motor.


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Well yes, that thought has come to mind. I'm looking for a 20-40hp. But also in Nj where I'm from some lakes have limited HP

I just bought a 1648 Alumacraft. I lake tested it the other day for the first time with a 1967 9.5 hp Evinrude and got ~15mph and 4600 rpms and up pretty good on plane. I only had a few gallons of gas and myself in the back and then a 15hp motor, group 29 battery, trolling motor, and my dad up towards the front with the motor pin in the top hole/setting. When he moved to the back not much changed either. These little 9.5's aren't power houses so I bet they are fairly comparable to a 8hp.

With your weight and decking, your batteries definitely need to be up front and you may benefit from a tiller handle extension and moving forward as much as possible yourself.

Lose weight, re-distribute weight, bigger OB, try a tiller extension. Why do you need a 24v TM on a 16' hull??? Most 12v TM's will last all day on a boat that size.

Well it was a craigslist special I paid $100 for in perfect condition. I figured new it was worth over 5, I could always resale it for $300.

Which might be the smartest thing. A smaller motor and 1 battery in rear would solve all issues

IMO, you went with too much power on the front and too little power on the rear. My boat is only 15/38, but I've got raised decks, 2 batteries (1 riding mower size for starting, & a 29 DC class for trolling) and a 40 # TM. I go out trolling through the cypress tress for 4-5 hours straight and can't tell the difference between the 5th hour of running vs the 5th minute of running. I almost never need to use anything above 1 on the speed setting but sometimes when the wind kicks up I'll use it on 2. Or if I'm just wanting to move a good distance quickly, I'll even kick it up to 4 to cover 50-100 yds quickly. I've never been wanting for more power or duration. If you need to worry about HP restricted lakes, I'd go with an 8hp that would accept a larger carb/exhaust for increased power or get a 15 and switch out the cowl stickers if you know what I mean. LoL Some may consider that wrong, but it's what I would do. :mrgreen:

Rda2187 said:

Well it was a craigslist special I paid $100 for in perfect condition. I figured new it was worth over 5, I could always resale it for $300.

Which might be the smartest thing. A smaller motor and 1 battery in rear would solve all issues

Click to expand...

Sell it and get a 12v 45-55#r, will be 50#'s lighter due to one less battery, and possibly a new TM to boot, unless you go CL again.