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This is my first post on this site so please forgive me if I ask something that's been asked 1000 times.

I have a 17" Whaler Striper model that I would like to mount a Minn Kota trolling motor on. The location for the mount would be the left front corner which has a flat platform just big enough for the mount. (I would post a picture but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do that on this site).

I should tell you that I have had my trolling motor mounted there before using the tee rubber expandable nuts. That worked fine for a while until my nephew took the boat out in a heavy chop and the entire mount came loose and the motor was almost lost to the lake. The only thing that saved it was the power cord. Unfortunately the motor dipped into the water just long enough to allow water into the head resulting in a $200. repair.

Needless to say, I need a better mounting solution. My idea is to use 5/16 ss bolts with phillips heads which recess perfectly into the mount. I would also need ss pan washers and nuts underneath the deck.

The problem is, there is no access underneath to attach and tighten the bolts. My solution is to cut a 3.5" hole in the inside wall of the whaler, remove as little foam as possible for access, attach washers and bolts and I'm done. To cover the hole I bought a 4" deck plate and I also bought a 4' screw in water tight deck plate (I am not sure which would work best yet.)

So before I get out the jig saw, I thought I better run it by people who know a heck of a lot more than I do about cutting access holes in Whalers. Will it work and any cautions I should be aware of? Thanks!

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Yikes, Before you go wild with the saw take a look at MSD58 and Bottomfish they are in a post under boats where they have mounted bow mount trolling motors to their boats. They have a pretty good handle on what they are doing and it should help you. I am planning on adding one to my Outrage next year and I will be doing something similar to their set up.
Chris

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Take a look at this thread.

Bottomfish and MSD thread on mounting trolling motor

If you do a site search on "trolling+motor+mount" you will find dozens of threads on who it has been mounted.

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I guess I wont be using the rubber tee's!

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If you do decide to cut a 3 1/2" hole use a hole saw not a jigsaw. It will be easier, and it will give you a perfect circle.

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After much searching and a whole lot of thinking I believe I have the answer on how to re-mount the trolling motor without cutting an access hole.

Currently I have the 5 mounting holes I used before to mount the trolling motor. They are 1/2" in diameter. These are the same holes the rubber T swell nuts pulled out of. I also have two more holes that were previously used to mount a trolling motor from the past. They are located further back on the step.

So what I did was cut a plate out of 3/4" pressure treated plywood. The pattern of the plate follows the contours of the whaler's step. I drilled holes in the plywood to line up with the existing holes already in the step. I then sanded the plywood and plan to stain and coat it with either tung oil for marine use, or urethane if the wood drys out enough. That is as far as I gotten physically. But here's the next step.

I own a quick dissconnect mounting plate for my minn kota trolling motor and plan on mounting it to the plywood plate independent of the holes that are already in the step. To do that I bought 6 stainless steel 1/4" T-nuts (no these are not the rubber T swell nuts I spoke of earlier). These nuts do not protrude below the plywood. They are counter sunk into the plywood allowing the plywood to fit flush to the fiberglass step.

So then I need a way to attach the plywood plate to the step.

I found a new product called "Toggler Anchors". Now everyone knows what a toggle bolt is but this is somewhat different. I bought them in stainless steel and takes a 1/4" bolt which comes with it. While it does the same thing as a toggle bolt the difference is it is it holds a lot more weight. Also after it's put in the hole and you need to remove the bolt the toggle won't fall off. Best of all it uses only 1/2" diameter holes. To get a better idea of what I'm talking about go to www.toggler.com and watch the video. Make sure you get it in stainless steel if your using it on your boat.

Now I may not use the toggler in every hole, in fact I may use a combination of the T-swell nuts in some and the toggler in the others. Why? The Rubber T- swell nuts do provide some degree of vibration cushioning. But perhaps the same could be achieved with using rubber washers between the step and plywood. So I am not sure yet. But the bottom line is I feel very confident the trolling motor won't fall off this time. I hope to finish the project in the next few weeks so we'll see how it goes.

I hope I described the process well enough to understand but feel free to ask questions or post comments. Thanks all.

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I used such toggle anchors some years ago to attach the plate I had for my trolling motor. I believe I purchased them at West Marine. They worked pretty well but I wouldn't use them again for the purpose.

After about a year, I got a lot of spider cracks radiating out from all four toggle anchor locations. A few years after I had installed the mounting plate, I removed it because the finish had cracked and chipped so I intended to have the plate cleaned and powder coated. The nylon keepers that were supposed to have held the anchors in place must have suffered from age and/or weather because they had all broken away from the stainless anchors themselves. The anchors fell down into the holes where I had hallowed some of the foam out slightly in order to install them originally. This made it impossible to re-thread the bolts again.

I ended up extracting the stainless anchors eventually (took lots of patience) then hollowed out more foam from each hole.. I then filled each hole with epoxy mixed with fiberglass chopped strand. I estimate I hollowed at at least a good 1-1/2" diameter and 3" deep hole. I never made the original 1/2" hole in the fiberglass any larger. After the epoxy cured, I drilled it for 1/4" stainless lags I used to remount the plate. Its now been solid for about 4 or 5 years.

I'd also use something like Starboard or Seaboard before I used plywood.

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Thanks Johnny for your reply. I never would have guessed that mounting a trolling motor could require so much research and design. But maybe this thread will help the next person wanting to mount a trolling motor on their Whaler.

Unfortunately I have already experienced spider cracks around the existing holes. That was caused by using the rubber T-swell nuts. But you make a very good argument for using epoxy and replacing the marine plywood with starboard as the mounting plate. Here's my questions:

How did you hollow out the room for the epoxy?

What brand of epoxy did you use or would you recommend?

What did you mean that you mixed it with fiberglass chopped strand? I have never worked with fiberglass so I claim ignorance.

Using Starboard would you suggest 3/4"?

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

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I hollowed out the foam by chucking a length of wire close hanger bent like an "L" in my drill. Insert it through the existing 1/2" hole and spin away. The length of the wire set the size of the void you make. I then vacuumed the foam debris out of each hole leaving a void.

I used some West Systems epoxy I had on hand. The chopped strand fiberglass is sold at many marine centers as a additive/filler for polyester and epoxy resins. Mine came in a bag and its just a bunch of fiberglass fibers cut up in about 1/4" lengths. Adding it to the resin gives the resin structural strength. Gotta be careful not to add too much though or else your mixture will be too thick to get into the holes easily. I sided on still a little runny so it was still easy to fill the voids.

As far as the thickness of the Starboard, I'm not sure because I have an Outrage and I'm not clear on your mounting. I suppose about the same thickness as the plywood you intended to use. Structurally I wouldn't go less than 3/4".

BTW Starboard can be very expensive. If you don't have a decent local supply, there are a lot of sources on ebay that sell cut-offs (waste from production facilities) pretty inexpensively.

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I did some more research and called the manufacturer, West Systems about the epoxy and what they might recommend for this application.
The tech guy I spoke with said to use G-Flex 650 or G-Flex 655 epoxy. The only difference is that the 650 is more liquidy and the 655 is thicker. I ordered the 650 so I could put it in with a syringe.

I also asked if I needed to use the fiberglass strands and he said this epoxy is strong enough without it.
Hope he's right.

Thanks again Johnny for your help.

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I used laminating epoxy which isn't as strong as th G-Flex. I'm sure you'll be fine.

One more tip... Make sure when you pre-drill the cured epoxy for your screws, you drill the correct size hole and not too small. I also used just a touch of water based lube on the screws when I drove them. The epoxy is tough and if its too hard to drive the screws, you can twist the heads off. Stainless is especially prone to this.

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What brand of waterbased lube? Do you think using something like vaseline would work or cause a problem with the screws backing out?

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I wouldn't use a petroleum based lube. I used a medical lube but over the counter K-Y Jelly would be the equivalent.

It'll evaporate and dry after a period of time leaving the screws to a good bite.