I just purchased a 16 foot Smokercraft Lodge series boat. I have an old Sears electric motor that says it is one Horsepower. It doesn?t have enough power to let me troll as fast as I need to. Does anyone know what the one horse designation translates to in foot-pounds of thrust? If I get a new ? bigger electric ? how big do you recommend. I see Cabalas has 55-foot pound thrust motors for $299. Do you think that?s big enough?

How fast do you want to troll? I have a Minn Kota 30lb on my 15' Alaskan,and it moves my boat along very well. Your boat is wider than mine,but I think a 55lb should just about put your boat on plane. It may be that the old motor you have now isn't as efficient as the new motors. I had a mid-eighties 33lb shakespeare,and it only ran for a few hrs,before killing the battery. I can troll for 6-8 hrs with the same battery and the new motor. Maybe a new motor of similar size will help out?

My pal has a 14' smokercraft and a MinnKotta 55lb thrust RipTide. We troll 4 fat guys without any trouble at a good pace. Get a Rip Tide, or some other salt water trolling motor. That way you can use it anywhere. Try using a standard trolling motor in the salt and it will be ruined in no time! About the same cost, how can you go wrong?

I looked and looked for hp equivilents when I was looking at one for my big AK drifter ... never found a good comparison. I chose a Minn Kota Riptide 74 and I zip along pretty well with five of us in the boat. The newest Cabela's shows a 48 volt version for a party pontooner and they rate it a 2hp ... that's a lot more power than I'm currently running based on the current draw and such.

With a 50-55 lb. thrust, you ought to have plenty of power for even a fast troll.