Seems to be working fine. It's a Minn Kota Endura 50 Lb thrust trolling motor installed 10 yards from the blind in 30" of water. It's facing a jerk cord set another 10 yards away. I mounted it onto a pair 6' Steel T-posts driven 18" into the bottom and secured together near the top with a 2" X 6" brace, U-clamped onto each post, that the motor mounts are then clamped on to.

The motor is currently set with the top of the prop about 2-1/2" below the water surface and 20" above the bottom. It's tilted to position #1 which is about 12 degrees up from straight vertical. It's set on forward speed #3 of 5, and it has the dekes 10-12 yards away dancing.



I placed 4 additional T-posts between the blind and the motor and attached a 2" diameter tree trunk to each. The 30' of battery cables are then supported above the water back to the blind, wired to and hanging from the tree trunks. Still need to secure the pair of cables together, wire tie them to the posts and also cut a small access door into the side of the blind to run the clamps through from the outside. That way I can start, run and stop the motor from inside the blind and easily take the battery to and from home as needed for overnight charging. I'm Also finishing a 1" mesh wire "basket" that completely surrounds the motor's lower unit and prop to avoid any possibility of dawg injuries. That will go on tomorrow along with a camo cordura bag that was made to cover the top of the motor and its mounting bracket.

Oh ... by the way ... anyone recognize my helper? He was kinda busy fooling around with "other stuff" this morning but was still a big help with the ice eater installation!



Back home before 11:00

looks great Jim, can't wait to see pics of it with ice out there

Does look good, but no. Can't tell who your helper is?

Cappy really water temp was likely low 50s lowest not saying it did not will not work but it has not been tested yet

Cool! Can't wait to see the pics of it in action when it gets cold enough to ice over.

Definately cheaper than the real thing too.

http://store.rogerssportinggoods.com/servlet/-strse-1953/Mallard-View-Outdoors%2C-1/Detail

Looks like in your test run it is agitating the water almost as much as in this picture. Should work fine.
http://pondperfections.com/assets/images/ice_eater_dock.jpg

..

did it move your decoys around?

SJ ... My young hunting partner and installer assistant for the day was "Quack Track" from THF. He's in the picture next to the motor. It was on throttle position 3 of 5. Position 4 caused so much turbulence it was making noise (cavitation maybe?) as the water broke the surface coming up. Position 5 was danged near a rooster tail, far more than wanted or needed!

One of my next tests will be with a freshly full charged deep cycle battery precisely measured at start and finish of a 3 hour run cycle to see how many amps were used and what was remaining. I'm assuming there would be proportionately decreased charge life as the prop speed is increased.

There are 4 decoys on our jerk cord set approx 12 yards to the left of the motor in the above pic There are 3 other mallard dekes close by as well. The wake from that motor pushed all 7 of those dekes as far as the lines would allow them to move and they were bobbing.

we may put one of these on our place if I can talk someone else into toting a battery out there.

It's like marching through Cambodia to get to where I want it.

Cappy believe me when I say im interested in your motor function I'm an asc for minn Kota. They will tell you that their motors are not designed for continual use. I hope it works I have a shaft and motor I am going to set up to put in the boat

Hey Cappy,

How about hooking up a 12 volt solar panel. That should keep the battery charged.

Great idea, bet it works great.

Carl

Looks like you finnally got Track on some geese!

My wife and I hunt a maximum of three hours at a time, usually every other day. That's the only time the motor would be running which is far less continual use than a bass fisherman would typically give it. Please keep in mind that it will most likely be used far more on dead calm days (as is forecast this morning) for decoy motion purposes than as an ice eater during the season.

Carl ... I was looking at one similar to this ... http://www.batterymart.com/p-batteryminder-12v-5w-solar-battery-charger.html

I can mount the panel on the roof of the blind as long as it's not so shiney as to flare birds. It would certainly be cheaper than buying a 2nd deep cell marine battery, and would eliminate the hassel of hauling a battery back and forth every couple trips. I have some tech questions that I'll call them about Monday but a main one is to make sure there is an over-charge prevention feature included.

Cappy,

Looking good, I like how you elevated the wires, almost just looks like an old fence coming out into the water.

And after learning about these solar systems when I did my rain collection watering system for my house there are several things to consider too that it looks like you are already inquiring about. The major thing is over charging! If the Suregaurd will prevent over charging then you are good to go, if not you will HAVE to get one, but these systems are generally used to "maintain" batteries not really charge them.

For $25 more I would defenitely be looking at the 1amp model- http://www.batterymart.com/12v-15w-batteryminder-solar-battery-charger-2.html
To better charge it and I would always rather have too much then two little.

Not sure about this model but generally these have a reflective sun spot on their face, will it flare ducks, only 1 way to find out.