When searching for a new boat, I did consider the option of buying something that I could possibly attach a trolling motor to. That was another thing about the NuCanoe that had caught my attention.
I began shopping for a decent trolling motor and investigated registering the boat to make it all legal. Everything just happened to came together at the same time. The same week I got the boat registered, a coworker of mine decided to part with a trolling motor he had that was two years old and hardly used.
I happily took it off his hands for $75.00. It's a 40lb thrust Minn Kota. Anyone who knows trolling motors, knows that this beauty goes for about 160 brand new, so I was happy with the deal.
As most kayak and canoe owners know, our boats sit lower in the water than conventional boats, justifying the need to shorten the length of the trolling motors shaft. This particular monster had a shaft that seemed like it was 4' long, so it was definitely headed to the chopping block.
I investigated the best methods to taking apart and cutting the shaft on one of these.
1) Place the trolling motor on your boat. Set it at what you feel will be it's best operating depth. Then add another 6" for precautions sake. Make your mark on the shaft where you propose the cut will be made. (Determining the length of your trolling motor shaft is a personal decision. I can only tell you that I cut my shaft down to 22").
2) Take the top off the head of the trolling motor. This is done by backing out a few screws on the underside.
3) Disconnect all the wiring from the shaft in the head. (I "HIGHLY" recommend you take pictures of all the wire placements. There aren't that many, but it helps to know you've got the info on backup).
4) Remove the bolt and nut that attaches the shaft to the bottom of the head.
***At this time, you should have a lower unit, attached to a shaft, with a bunch of wires sticking out of it. Now there are different options to get the next step done. I had read that you can use a 1/2" piece of conduit, slide the wires into it, and slide the conduit into the inside of the shaft. This would protect the wires while you cut the shaft. I elected to try a different method. I purchased a pipe cutter (red) off Amazon for $6.00. It's sitting on the table in the above picture.***
4) Place the pipe cutter at the proposed cut site. Set the cutter in place and start spinning it around the shaft, giving the handle 1/2 turn to tighten the cutting wheel each spin as you progress. It only took me about 2 minutes to cut my trolling motor shaft to the desired length.
5) You can use the top part of the shaft you cut off to measure were to redrill the new hole that attaches the shaft to the bottom of the head. You will have to take this very slow, and keep an eye on your wiring as you are drilling. Be careful, the fiberglass of the shaft doesn't allow for many mistakes. To much playing around with drilling this hole may cause the fiberglass to flake/break off the end as you are drilling.
6) Once you have drilled the new hole and confirmed it will fit, snake the wires back into the bottom of the head and reattach to their original contact points . On smaller size trolling motors, the head is a bit smaller. You may not have enough room to hide the slack you now have in the wires. It may be necessary to cut the wires and put new fittings on them. My particular trolling motor had a large head, I didn't have to cut mine.
7) Once the wires are connected, you can insert the shaft into the bottom of the head and attach it with the nut and bolt.
8) The final step would be to reinstall the head cover. That's it. You should have everything buttoned up and complete.
I had noticed one of our other NuCanoe owners had painted their trolling motor, I couldn't resist doing the same. It took me three different colors combined to come to something that matched the "Hunter Brown" color of my NuCanoe, (see above picture). Overall, I'm thrilled with the outcome of this little project. And I can tell you, that 40lb thrust makes my boat "scoot". :)
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