So I’ve been running a single Minn Kota endura 30 on the back of my Native 11ft kayak/canoe hybrid with the standard left/right stainless cable pedals for steering and then just relocated the factory hand throttle mounting it facing up on my left hand side, works great. I get just under 180° full swing of the motor, no problem but frankly I really don’t like the analog feel of the cable pedals and the rear swing of the kayak.
I like the idea of a zero turn mower type of steering (tank steering) using dual left/right static trolling motors as thrusters, meaning they don’t rotate and always point straight (photo below). They’d be wired to left and right electric potentiometer foot throttles with fwd/rev. This would eliminate the cable pedals, hand throttle, and reduce the rear lateral swing with tighter steering. Cons obviously being a higher amp draw and syncing the two motors to track straight.
One guy on YouTube tried it and concluded it wasn’t worth the extra power demand, but with advances in battery tech, my 100ah lifepo4 battery, I rarely drop below 70% on my battery.
Posted by jakewest
9 Comments
A **kayak** is a small, narrow [human-powered watercraft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-powered_watercraft) typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed [paddle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddle).
I feel like the power required for steering is going to be excessive due to the amount of torque it takes to turn a kayak.
Small maneuvering thrusters positioned fore and aft might be more advantageous in terms of power required but that’s REALLY overcomplicating a problem that’s already been solved
Why not have one good motor like most people do?
Personally sounds like a hassle to get it all wired and setup correctly and if something were to go wrong I could see this going bad real quick if the motors were to somehow lose steering but I’m intrigued to see you make it happen.
Wtf
just curious, becuase this was my issue running a trolling motor… how are you clearing the grass and weeds from the blades? or have things changed? or am i just in different waters
neat
I kinda get it, but it seems like a lot…and maybe I’m just ignorant, but what’s the purpose of a zero turn kayak?
You’re just wasting battery and adding extra weight and extra cables that will 100% be annoying at that point for no real actual gain.