Good discussion. I've never been fully satisified with my bucket solution and have been considering a trolling plate. One question I have is when they are up, do they have any residual effect on boat speech, maneuverability or noise? Have people been satisfied with the EasyTroller in this regard?
Very happy with mine... I bought the one with hydrofoil fins and it definitely helps the boat plane better at higher speeds. You wouldn't know it was there when its in the up position...
I've also got the Easy Troller with hydrofoil fins on a Honda BF-90 4 stroke on an 18-ft Alumacraft Magnum 175cs. Since my boat is a little bow light, the fins help with control and planing quicker at low speed. Seems to run nice at high speed too. At first I thought it took about 2 mph off my top end speed(about 33-34 mph before), but I found that if I adjusted the tilt up a little bit (which I normally run all the way down at high speed), I found a sweet spot where I got most of the speed back, maybe I lost 1 mph. All in all, I'm very happy with it, just wish I could get up to Winni soon...
Another thing, it definitely helps in trolling in rough water as others have posted.
Im a bit late one this but here's my 2 cents.I just put an 8 hp kicker on my boat and my main thing is keep the hours of use off the $6,000.00 motor and put them on a cheaper and more fule friendly 8hp.
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