Kicker Rigging

[AaronJ]

2nd what Aaron said. You will never be able to turn a 21ft. boat with a kicker they way you want. Do not get the panther system. Steer with the trolling motor is the best way. Also way better to get a tiller and install a trollmaster pro 3 for the speed regulation. It is the one with the remote. That way you don't have to sit in one spot to adjust the speed. Also does Mercury now have a fuel injected kicker? If so get that. I am disappointed with my carbureted Merc kicker. I have to run it dry every time I use it at the end of the day. If I don't it starts to run like shit. Reasoning for the extra battery is the power steering. The electric power steering pulls a lot of juice out of your battery. I know a few people that had to use their kicker to get back to the boat ramp at the end of the day because their starting battery was dead.

The 15hp Merc. on up is now EFI. The changes they made to the last 2-3 years of 9.9 and 15s (carbed) have been much better than in the past; but still not as good as EFI.

To the OP. Main reason for 5 batteries (as recommended by Mercury) is 1 for the main motor mainly due to the amount of juice that the power steering takes and how sensitive the electronics are in the motors these days (with Verados). The other batter starts the kicker and runs all electronics. Tiller vs forward controls is a horse a piece. I do 99% of my steering with the bowmount but on last boat I ordered a tiller for a couple reasons and will be on this years boat. 1 being cost (about 1200 less the forward controls) and the rare occasion I would want to hover over fish in reverse with the kicker (VERY RARE). You can still tie the kicker to the main motor if it is a tiller. You just have to go to the back of the boat to raise, lower, start, and put the kicker in gear. All other functions can be ran with the I-Troll or trollmaster and the bowmount.

And, since no one has mentioned it I will. You did chose the wrong boat. Get a Yar.... Just kidding.

 

[1804]

look at warrior 10 times the boat ranger is or will every be ranger is a shit riding wet as hell chi-com junk, wait a few years and you wont get parts for it, ranger service sucks over priced crap,

I'm in the process of ordering a new 621 Ranger. I'm wondering about setup for the kicker motor. I'm no expert at this as my old boat has no kicker. I'm looking for setup recommendations. If I use a tie-bar and use the power steering at the wheel the dealer is recommending another battery and a separate charger. I'd like to have a trollmaster for the speed control. Do you recommend using it only for speed only or should I install a Panther steering unit for remote steering. It sounds like if I do that I need a different trim/tilt unit.....??? I'm a bit confused and wondering if you guys that run kickers can give me some advice on setup pros and cons.

P.S. I know others might think I'm buying the wrong boat, but I'm pretty set at this point.

 

[AaronJ]

look at warrior 10 times the boat ranger is or will every be ranger is a shit riding wet as hell chi-com junk, wait a few years and you wont get parts for it, ranger service sucks over priced crap,

Oh good Lord, don't throw stones in regards to ones boat choice. Your house is made of thin glass. I speak from personal experience.

 

[SLE]

I throw my 2 cents in here on a few things to consider. The port versus starboard side I think depends comes down to if your going with remote controls or a tiller. I know many of the pros that run till kickers run them on the starboard side. It provides a better line of site to the dash graphs, the driver is already on that side of the boat, and the weight being on that side will counter the prop torque from the main engine. I had a tiller on the port side of my last boat and noticed 2 things that I didn't like. I couldn't see my dash graphs without looking over my shoulder so I ended up mounting another hds 8 on the rear passenger gunnel. The other thing, it seemed anytime I had three in the boat, the third person always sat on the passenger side. That in turn always caused the boat to list a little with three people at idle or slow speed and If I wanted to run the kicker I had to ask someone to move over to the other side of the boat so I had a place to sit and run the kicker.

I'm currently patiently waiting for my new 219TFX to be rigged. I'm going to try it on the starboard side this time around. I did change my order from a 9.9 to the 15 pro kicker strictly for the EFI. I can't wait. It wasn't that the carbed 9.9 was terrible but not having to try an figure out if I should choke it, advance the throttle, use the primer or what not to get it to start will be nice. Also no more carbs to worry about cleaning and the weight increase is only 14lbs. It also comes with a 12 amp/145 watt alternator vs the 9.9 with a 6 amp/76 watt alternator. I believe this would alive the battery draw from the power steering if you went with forward controls. This part probably won't matter much to me as I'll be rigged with 5 battery anyway. FYI, if you go with the 15 efi, hopefully your dealer has one on the floor, I've been told they're back ordered like 20 weeks (it's kind what holding up rigging on mine). Get your order in now if you want it for open water season!

Last but not least is the trollmaster/itroll/forward controls discussion. This is a personal preference thing. I found myself doing exactly what others do using the TM to steer and fine tune speed with the kicker locked straight and the speed set. I like the tiller for quick adjustments when contour trolling steep breaks and points just due to the increase turning motion and quickness. I have however contemplated and have been thinking about adding the troll-master PRO3 which is wireless. I need to get a call into panthersteer because ideally, I would go with a panther-steer/troll master/Tiller 15 Pro Kicker setup, but will only do this if there is a way to put the panther steer into a bypass or free-wheel mode where I can still steer with the tiller. The panther steer and trollmaster will both work off the troll master pro3 wireless remote which is pretty slick. This would give the best of both worlds. Tiller control when needed and wanted, and if pulling cranks covering depths and lots of water, fully remote operation short of starting, tilt, and gear shifting.

 

[eyexer]

SLE if your steering with your bow mount why would you desire to steer with your kicker. I have always locked my in straight forward and did all of the steering with the bow mount. And I think one big deciding factor when locating the kicker is boat balance. Some boats you simply can't mount them on the right side because the boat would lean too much to that side. Maybe that isn't a problem with 21' boats I don't know.

 

[SLE]

Convieniance factor of having everything tied to a single remote. Just more user friendly when trolling open water. I would’ve used the excuse that it would save me a trip to the front of the boat to deploy the TM, but since the new rig has a ulterra I guess I canny use that one, lol.

As far as kicker mounting, I don’t think 100lbs matters much on any of the 18.5 foot and bigger boats. More just a preference thing. For tiller guys, there is actually a benefit mounting it starboard. In most cases the tiller arm is on the left hand (port) side of the engine. Because of this, when mounted on the port side, the tiller handle has to swing out and over the passanger gunnel to make a hard right hand turn. When it’s mounted on the starboard side, the tiller handle swings within the inside of the boat. Now with the new 15 efi, it doesn’t matter as the tiller arm can be mounted on either side of the engine.

 

[Bfishn]

look at warrior 10 times the boat ranger is or will every be ranger is a shit riding wet as hell chi-com junk, wait a few years and you wont get parts for it, ranger service sucks over priced crap,

Little early for drinkin isn't it? Or still drunk from last night?

 

[raider]

not to hijack but, what happened to the whole smartcraft troll down option that was going to eliminate kickers??? does it work and people just don't want big hours on the main motor, or does it just not work well???

 

[pluggin]

I am curious why you guys want a tiller if you are going to lock it in one position and steer with your trolling motor most of the time. You want to go back to motor to trim it up and down and start or is it a price thing? Especially with multiple people in boat it is really nice to have the controls at the steering wheel if you are moving from spot to spot a lot

 

[AaronJ]

I am curious why you guys want a tiller if you are going to lock it in one position and steer with your trolling motor most of the time. You want to go back to motor to trim it up and down and start or is it a price thing? Especially with multiple people in boat it is really nice to have the controls at the steering wheel if you are moving from spot to spot a lot

Cost, ability to still use as a tiller for super quick turn radius when coupled with use of bowmount, and still have the ability to tie to main motor. The only thing you lose is a key on the dash and another control along the drivers wall. Yes, you do need to go back to the motor to raise or lower it, start it, and put it in gear; but the above reasons outweigh these minor issue IMHO for my use. If a persons mobility is an issue, remote steering/throttle, and an Ulterra would be the cats meow. You'd never have to leave the captains chair.

 

[SLE]

The smartcraft system works fantastic however most of us who are rigging with a kicker are doing so to both keep hours off the main engine and the fact that our main engine will not troll slow enough. When your main is running a 22 or 24 pitch prop even at 550 rpms your still probably moving along close to 3mph. For us fisherman in the north, our presentations often times require slower speeds than are not attainable with the main engine. I would think the guys running backtrollers would find it highly useful as well as the guys running smaller outboards. Also remember, us walleye fisherman are a small part of the market, where as the offshore boys are trolling from 3-7 mph and can use there main propulsion for trolling and speed control. FYI, last year fishing off-shore out of Key West, I don't think the triple 300 Verado's on the back were ever shut off the entire day of fishing. apples and orange's unfortunately and I think that's really the market this system really works well for.

- - - Updated - - -

Reason for a tiller is flexibility and precise control. As mentioned, if I could run both the throttle and steering with a small wireless control similar to an I-pilot remote when doing open water trolling or similar and yet be able to still go back and run it as a tiller when I'm looking for more precise control, it would be the best of both worlds!

 

[eyexer]

I am curious why you guys want a tiller if you are going to lock it in one position and steer with your trolling motor most of the time. You want to go back to motor to trim it up and down and start or is it a price thing? Especially with multiple people in boat it is really nice to have the controls at the steering wheel if you are moving from spot to spot a lot

I think one reason is with the Verado's the main motor has to be running to steer it no?

 

[Velva_zv21]

Main motor doesn't have to be running to steer it

 

[eyexer]

good deal. That would be sketchy.