Electric power Hobie Pro Angler?

Guys,

  I'm making good progress on a cool project.  I bought a Pro Angler recently and decided after fighting the current trolling for springers, I would come up with an electric solution.  My Kayak is currently pedal power, so there is a dry well that the pedals go through in the bottom of the kayak.  I'm using the same dry well for my electric trolling motor.  I made a mounting bracket out of plastic.  I have two sealed 35 AH batteries under the seat.  The space under the seat would otherwise be wasted.  I also took out the rod holders on the port side and installed a mini control panel.  It has a voltage display, quick disconnect outlet for power to the motor, and an on / off switch for the power.  The only thing I'm waiting on is the motor, then I can finish the mount.  A lot of what I did are spin off ideas from the good folks on the internet.  Here are some pictures  of what I have so far.

Looks pretty snazzy so far.  Keep us all up to date as you progress. I think we're all a bunch of gear nuts who dig inventing and improving (even if its only selfishly better for our own purpose)

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be better.  Below is a link to a video of the completed trolling motor setup.  A mentioned before, the two 35 AH batteries are under the seat.

I had trouble with that link. Try this. 

Also these guys make a cool setup for Kayaks.

https://www.currentdrives.com/videos.html

Very nice! 

now go test it to see what kind of speeds you get out of it.  Looks nice.

I'm curious what your turning radius is with that.

The turning radius should be about the same as before.  I'm using the normal rudder in back of the boat to turn....I'm not using the new electric motor to turn.

I assume you need some type of "prop vertical alignment tool" in order to get the motor removed from the well.

There is room to reach down inside the well to align the prop if needed.  I would think a small dowel might be handy.  The other option would be to set the motor back down in the well and bump the motor over to see if it aligns the 2nd time.

This guy has more info, including a couple of videos, of his drive plug motor install:

http://www.afteryoufishing.com/trolling-motor-in-hobie-outback/

Just an update, I was able to get out and test the motor set-up and do some fishing on Saturday.  I managed to bring in 6 fish for the day.  Most were smaller but had a couple that were good size.  Below is a video that has me and one of the fish and some of the boat under way. 

The turning works good on the boat.  The 18 lb thrust motor pushes the boat about as fast as I could make the boat go with pedals.  There is a need for a bit more power to make better progress when going up river.  I plan on upgrading to a 30 lb thrust motor.  That should help.

Looks like it turned out great, not to mention a really clean looking install.

Thanks Dave!

This is awesome! What did you make the insert of? And how did you do that? I really want to do exactly the same thing, which the difference that I want a 30-35lb motor right from the start.