While my trolling motor is no with spotlock it definitely was mounted in the most superior fashion I have seen, in my opinion. I will be order a new version with spot lock soon. Not sure of which manufacturer to go with. Leaning towards Minn Kota for the lower cost replacement parts per the other forums I have read on them.Here are some pics
View attachment 23953View attachment 23954View attachment 23955
Thank you all for sharing your Seafarer TM installs, I'm planning to put one on my 228 and this is all very helpful!
Bazzturd, I like the pulpit install and leaning toward installing mine like that if i can work it out. I noticed you didn't cut your bow rail so do you manually slide it forward in the horizontal position far enough to clear the rail before you move it upright? Is your bow light still OK in its original location or did you need to move it?
Also to anyone with a Seafarer, between the porta-potty and the anchor locker there's a small compartment under the bunk that would be a perfect spot for the battery. My boat is not nearby so had anyone measured that space and hatch opening to determine how big of a battery would fit in there? I've already cut a hatch to access the aux fuel tank compartment so that would be my second choice but it would be great if I could fit a smaller 36v Lithium up there.
I will connect the trolling battery to my charging system (aux and solar) but I keep my boat on the trailer so I'll likely need to remove the battery periodically for charging. I'm willing to sacrifice battery capacity for fit and portability but I'm wondering how many AH I need for 5 hours of spot lock fishing in average conditions. Is 60AH enough?
Edit with more info:
I found an onboard charger from Monster Marine called the Quantum 12v to 36v. It'll prioritize charging my starting battery and when it's full it'll charge my 36v TM battery from my alternator but it's isolated so it'll never draw down my starting battery. House batteries are charged from the Aux charging port and both systems are on separate A/B switches with a crossover so I can jump the boat from House in a pinch.
Sorry for the lengthy post, I have a bunch of questions but I'll stop there.