Improving trolling motor performance/speed?

[tahtah]

I have a 12' flat bottom aluminum jon boat. I literally lift and drag it into the back of my pickup. I have a 55lb thrust Minn Kota trolling motor. My battery is new, as of this summer. For just floating around and fishing, it does the job. However, I've recently located a deer hunting spot that I'm accessing via water. With my current setup, it's at least a 30 minute cruise.

Is there a way to increase the speed of my setup? Are there replacement propellers that might increase performance? If so, do they really work? Any downside? Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance for the input.

 

[Pilchard]

Adding a faster prop, if there is such a thing, will likely burn out your motor. Speed will be what it is in my opinion but you would be smart to bring a second battery. Also, running it at 70% of max speed will dramatically improve the performance of the battery on a single charge.

Perhaps a 24 volt system with extra thrust would be feasible but you'd have to wire the batteries in parallel each time you launch since you aren't using a trailer....

 

[skipperbrown]

2nd motor with 2nd battery?

 

[Doecrusher]

I'd be looking for an old johnson/evinrude 6hp. If it's transom mounted you could try adding a tiller extension and sitting more towards the front of boat and maybe moving the battery forward.

 

[mike243]

Lip stick on a pig, buy a gas motor and be done with it

 

[4Low]

2 stroke motor

 

[Snowwolfe]

A 2-2.5 hp motor will smoke that electric. Plus you won't need a 50-65 pound battery

 

[tahtah]

What would a motor like that weigh? Would it be easy to take off and in like the trolling motor? Again, I'm very simple with this setup and don't want to deal with a trailer.

 

[Grnwing]

Upgrade to a small 2.5hp outboard, it ll have a small built in fuel tank and it ll clamp on like your trolling motor and will likely be lighter than the trolling motor and battery. We used them a lot up in Canada on some remote lakes and worked great.