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The E-TEC 90 on my 1984 Montauk 17 runs at 700 RPM at idle in gear. Trolling speed is 3 mph + or - depending on conditions but I've found this is much too fast. I'm afraid if I have the in gear idle RPM's reduced to 500 the vibration will be intolerable and I'm not sure what my minimum speed would be then anyway. I would like to have the option of trolling from 1.5 to 2.5 mph. I've thought about a trolling plate but that would require drilling some holes in the engine and I'm not sure I want to do that and again I'm not sure if that would help me obtain my goals. Anyone have any suggestions as to kicker size or anything else to accomplish these trolling speeds?

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What pitch prop are you running? What is your max rpm with a typical load for fishing? One might be able to get the 90 to troll slower with a lessor pitch prop, but maybe not as slow as 1.5, and still not be over reving at WOT.

We used to be able to troll for salmon with our old Montauk 17 with an 80's Merc 90 tower of power, so I would guess that E-tec should be able to do it with some fine tuning of the setup.

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Mark, 13 1/4 x 15 Stiletto advantage, mounted three holes up, 5050rpm at 38.5 mph at wide open, one person (215lbs) aboard with 2 batteries and about 24 gal gas. Fishing tackle, anchor etc. probably add another 50 lbs. I believe my speed is what it is because of the drag of the T top. I really don't want to reduce the prop pitch.

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Wing. My buddy has a Montauk and I sold him my tiller handled 2008 9.9hp 4 stroke Evinrude (I switched to a remoter control motor) to use as a kicker. Extra long shaft (25") mounted on the port side. Correct height when lowered. Handle gets in the way but usable. I believe we clocked a little over 6mph wide open with gps (not exactly sure). Slight list to the motor side (not bad).

The 9.9hp kicker powerered my 22ft Revenge for trawling quite well, and I believe you can get a smaller motor for your use which is lighter should you desire. Another buddy has the plate attachment on his E-tec and more often than not, we are climbing over the motor to adjust due to bending,breakage, locked up. He ended up reinforcing the plate with aluminum angle stock.

I would go with the remote control version and study up on the weights of the kickers to see if there was a big difference in hp/weight ratio. I use my large motor as a rudder and lock the kicker in place. Nice for trawling as well as safety backup. I loved the fuel savings running the kicker with the 1981 235hp Johnson it was originally paired with. Happy trawling.

Garris

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Cool re current prop.

If it was my boat, I would be to try the 500 rpm idle and confirm if the vibration would be a problem.

Most current 4s kickers approach 100#, and a lightweight single cylinder 4s may vibrate more than the 90.

There is always a compromise required somewhere, and of course the trick is to find the best one for your use.

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I agree with Mark. I have the same engine (on a 1991 Outrage 17) and @700rpm I can't get slower than 2.8mph. On my last 300hrs service, I asked to lower it to 500rpm and can now go at 2.1mph, with no more noticeable vibrations, with a 13 1/8 x 17 OMC Viper SS prop. I've also added some ProTroller Smart tabs, that can act as trolling brakes when retracted, bringing me at 1.6mph...

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20 inch long shaft motor bolted directly on the transom of a Montauk 17' or Outrage 18' etc. is correct length.
See examples of both model here:
http://www.whalercentral.com/articles...icle_id=48

The lighter kicker the better.
http://www.whalercentral.com/articles...ticle_id=7

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Joe, thanks for the correction of shaft height. For what it is worth, the 25" shaft is still out of the water when all the way up.

Garris

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I put a Tohatsu 6 HP 4 stroke kicker on a few months ago on my Alert 17. It is the Sail Pro model,it weighs 58 Lb.,comes with a high thrust prop and a 5 amp. aalternator as standard equipment.This motor pushes my hull 6.1 MPH and this is at 1/2 throttle running motor even at full throttle will not gain any more speed. It will troll at 1.5 MPH at an idle so there is really no vibration issue whe trolling I replaced a 9.9 Mercury 2 stroke that weighed 81 Lbs.A 2 cylinder motor runs much smoother than a 1 cylinder but like I said it really is not an issue when trolling and the vibration at 6 MPH at 1/2 throttle is not that bad.For a 58 Lb. kicker as opposed to a 80 or 100 Lb. kicker I figure it's worth it.The high thrust prop gets a good bite. My 9.9 Merc. kicker gave me 6.4 MPH

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Anyone out there running an E-TEC 90 on a Montauk 17 at 500 rpm? What is your speed at 500 rpm? I'm thinking it may finally be a matter of dragging a bucket to slow down.