Does anyone use a hand controlled trolling motor?

Not the remote control but the actual extenstion, My boats forward pedastol is too close to the bow. It makes for an awkward time trying to work the foot pedal.....Any thoughts would be appreciated.

yes i do, and i love it. the foot controlled are awkward to me, but with the hane controlled it seems i can manuever my boat better.

What brand TM do you have? I have a motor guide 54lb thrust brand new I wonder if I can get an extension, or if I have to replace the whole thing?

I have a hand controlled that i use on my smaller boat and I have to say i do like it. Its a 34lb minn kota and i got a big foot on off pedal for 10 bucks at wally world and thats the key i think.

I had the same problem on my new boat, but figured it was just me. I'm 6'-5" and it is difficult to find leg room in anything. I replaced the straight seat pedestal with an offset one from BPS (Swivel-Eze Pro Power pedestal) for $33. It is a couple inches taller than the old pedestal, but that's no problem for me. It only comes in a 3/4" pin model, so I had to change out my seat mounts ( I had 2-3/8" posts) for the one seat. I now have plenty of leg room to run the foot-control.

Joe

I have a 15 foot boat with a smallish front deck so the hand operated TM works best due to size limitations. I have a Minn Kota AT 40 with 5 fwd. speeds and 3 rev. speeds and the tilt handle. I use an extension to make it easy to reach without stretching too much. I really like it a lot.

I've been running a MK Maxxum 74# hand-control for 3 of the past 4 years, and a 65# MKMaxx hand for the last year. Both of these have been on a 17.5' TR-176. It's one of those things where you will either love it or hate it. I don't fish with any kind of seat up front, as I love open deck space, so the hand control just gives me that much more room. Have it set up with 3 foot switches, one with a lock bar. That way I can either operate it like a foot control with a button or with the bar down to stay on constantly.

Pluses include open water, rough water, windy days, cutting across banks while down in the boat retying or such, or having a bad back where youneed to keep 2 feet flat on the deck. Also slower type methodical fishing.

Negatives include heavy cover where you need to weave in and out out of stumps and such, long runs down banks covering water because they never seem to run perfectly straight or following banks withmlots of cuts, turns and points where you are constantly changing direction.

I put the 65# on last year when I needed to get some work done on the 74# motor. he 74# had a 42-inch shaft and the 65# had a 56 inch-shaft. I've like the 56" one so much I have kept it on their despite the lower thrust. Sits high enough that I didn't need to use the extension arm to operate and gives me better ability to run in rough open water.

-T9

I have to use a hand controlled unit out of necesity. In order to get a trolling motor mounted to my small run-about I had to have a mount customized and had to modify a transom mount Minn Kota. Also I dont have the room in the bow to install a unit with foot control. I have never had any problems and actually enjoy using the hand control, I feel like it gives me more percission.

Maybe some day I will scrape up the cash to get me a real bass boat and give the foot controlled units a try.

Keep on chuckin'

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON May-04-06 AT 07:44AM (EST)[/font][p]Have you seen the new seat poles in the bass pro magazine, they come up about 5 inches and then have a bend in it to move the seat back a few inches from the original spot/location it was in, might be just enough room to still use the foot control trolling motor