When to get a kicker

[BucksPA]

At what size main motor does it start to make sense to have a kicker motor for trolling ? Assuming that you are trolling say 75% of the time. Say you have a light boat and only have a 20 or 30 horse would you want a kicker then? At what point going up in hp would you want a kicker ?

[bridgeman]

When you get tired of buying gas..or when your main won't go slow enough

[yarcraft91]

I use one with a 50 horse- because the 50 won't troll slowly enough.

[moose-hunter]

Originally Posted by BucksPA

At what size main motor does it start to make sense to have a kicker motor for trolling ? Assuming that you are trolling say 75% of the time. Say you have a light boat and only have a 20 or 30 horse would you want a kicker then? At what point going up in hp would you want a kicker ?

With a 20 or 30? Probably not. Both sizes seem to be able to troll down quite a bit. For me it was a coin toss. We had a 75hp 2 stroker that couldn't troll down far at all without stalling. Kicker needed. Then there was a 100hp 4 stroker that would troll down to a crawl. However, you're still feeding all those cylinders.

For my last 2 boats, powered by 150 and 175 four strokes, both boats had/have kickers. For me it was save the hours on the big engines and use the heck out of the little guys.

I'm a big fan of kickers. Your mileage may vary...

[sdphil]

I have a 16.5 ft lund SC boat, it is underpowered a little with a 40hp yamaha 4stroke (max is 60hp on boat). It works very well for the type of fishing i do. It will run 28MPH, a little slow for the longer runs, but i troll cranks 90% of the time and it will troll all day quiet as mouse and not a hicup. It will troll down to 2.3 MPH and with bags out i can get around 1.2. I will be upgrading to a larger boat in few years as the family is growing. I will without a doubt have a kicker on my next boat, an 18 ft tin boat with a 150 or so on it. Just to give you an idea i guess.

[mudpuppy]

I had a 50 on my last boat, but never had a kicker. But had a bow mount and transom mount electrics. Trolled cranks with the 50 and did everything else with the electrics. I used the 50 and bow mount together quite a bit when trolling in the wind.

[Prov275]

The day you pick your boat up.

[yarcraft91]

The thing about a gas kicker...serves two purposes.

1. Let's you troll at speeds from 0.8-5 mph, something no electric will do, while keeping hours off your main motor.
2. If the main motor ever fails, the kicker can get you home. BTDT.