Kicker motors

Have a 04 Tracker PT175, with a Merc 60 2stroke, and a 43 lb MG TM, all as a package deal. Boat is in good shape. I usually longline (troll) for crappie 99.9% of the time, and pull cranks for crappie on an occassional basis. My TM is 12v, and there is no room for another TM batt to go 24v w/o alot of modification which I'm not interested in doing. I use the TM for longlining jigs, and can control my boat speed ok and the TM batt will last long enough for me when longlining, but will not last long enough when pulling cranks, probably due to the additional speed and resistance of the cranks being pull (2 rods). Pulling cranks the speed needs to be from 1.5 up to 2.5mph. I am considering getting a little kicker, but all of the new ones I've seen have a small gas tank on 'em, and I'm wanting a kicker that I can hook up to the main 20gal fuel tank.

Are there any 4 stroke kickers out there that will fit the bill as my 60 has oil injection so the 20 gal tank is NOT premixed?

What HP are you looking for? I think Mercury starts at 8 HP with remote tanks.

Hi,
For kicker duty i use a Honda 2 Hp four stroke motor with gas tank build right in...it will do 6~8 Hrs on lower speed on a quart of gas or a litre or so =D> .
Dan
p.s other than Honda =D> i would consider a Yamaha =D> and nothing else .

well, I was wanting one that could use the main fuel tank so I would not have to mess with the small tank on the kicker itself, but if a Honda 2hp can run 6 hrs chugging along, that would be plenty of run time for a pulling crank session. Thanks, will look into that.

A small 2-3.5 hp is all I would need as my rig is fairly light compared to most, and it just idling in gear would probably do what I want in most cases, even just a little bit of throttle would do the job.

TNtroller said:

A small 2-3.5 hp is all I would need as my rig is fairly light compared to most, and it just idling in gear would probably do what I want in most cases, even just a little bit of throttle would do the job.

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Don't bet on it. With a Tracker 16ft deep V, I had a 50hp Merc, and 8hp Merc 4 stroke off the main tank. Granted that boat had taller sides than yours, but 8hp would be the minimum I would want to go with for a kicker.

4 stroke Merc engines up to about 20 hp are the exact same as Nissan, and Tohatsu BTW.

TNtroller said:

well, I was wanting one that could use the main fuel tank so I would not have to mess with the small tank on the kicker itself, but if a Honda 2hp can run 6 hrs chugging along, that would be plenty of run time for a pulling crank session. Thanks, will look into that.

A small 2-3.5 hp is all I would need as my rig is fairly light compared to most, and it just idling in gear would probably do what I want in most cases, even just a little bit of throttle would do the job.

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I agree with LonLB, I don't think a 2-3.5 HP at idle will do it.

sf

well, can alway add a bit of throttle :mrgreen:

TNtroller said:

well, can alway add a bit of throttle :mrgreen:

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Very true. I think you'll have enough power, but fuel consumption and probably more importantly noise level will increase. At low RPMS, the new 4 strokes are very quiet.

Either way will work and like everything else, it is a trade off somewhere.

sf

have a starcraft 17' SFM,with a 4.5 merc. for a kicker. it does OK,but wish it was either a 9.9 or 15. guys I fish with troll with these bigger motors, on smaller boats, and seem to have no trouble. I trolled for years with a 14' mirorcraft with a 9.9 merc. am working on a 1654 tracker grizzly. the minimum I would go to, for trolling, is 8 hp.,but probably will go with the 9.9 or 15. if you want to troll very slow, you may have to go to a smaller motor. none of these were 4 cycle, and I use a 3 gal. tank for the kicker on the starcraft.

well, as I stated in my OP, the speeds I'm looking at are 1.5 - 2.5mph. My TM will do the 1.5mph for extended periods, but not 2.0 and up, the 12v system just can't do it. That's why I'm looking at a small 2hp for my application. Years ago(30 yrs), a fishing buddy had a heavy glass boat, and had maybe a 4hp for this purpose, and th 4hp was able to push the glass boat along when it was just idling in gear. This was well before gps, so have no idea what the speed was back then, but we caught fish anyway.

might be just me, but the noise, vibration, expense, and extra lake pollution just isn't something I would be interested in to go 1.5 to 2 mph.

Now, add all the negatives, but still have a motor that you can use to slip in heavy wind, as a back up to the big motor on big waters, and still be able to troll, both slow or fast, and then adding a kicker becomes something I would be interested in.