Bellyboat Trolling Motor Bracket

There are many options to install a trolling motor bracket to your bellyboat. Supplier offer many models with different quality, mostly all imported from China. It can be pretty hard to find the correct bracket that is compatible with a certain type of bellyboat. The basic metal frame mounts look all very similar and use 4 pads that needs to be glued on the surface of the bellyboat. A plastic plate or sometimes even a wooden plate serves as a transom to attach the electric trolling motor

Installation Not Hassle Free

Most Bellyboats don’t have a motor mount pre installed. To use a trolling motor you have to install the bracket. Standard motor brackets are held by 4 glue pads, two on top and two on the front of the bellyboat. Good quality bellyboats have a protective side bumper that runs allong the side and front. When installing a motor mount this bumper needs to be altered by cutting and grinding to get a flat surface for glueing the two front pads. This takes also a lot more time to perform the installation. Also the position of the mount and therefore the trolling motor is making the bellyboat longer. The motor is further away and less easy to reach.

Bellyboat Transportation

Standard motor mounting brackets are held in place by inflating the bellyboat. When not in use or during transport these standard type motor mounts take a lot of space. Most bellyboat fishers leave their belly inflated during transport and storage. It is not possible to uninstall the motor mount without deflating the bellyboat.

Design and Alternative

Four glue pads have a lot of retention force. How much depends on the direction in which they have to hold the load. The two front glue pads getting all the load from the trolling motor when traveling in the forward direction. The motor is pulling on these two pads and thus on the bellyboat including the payload. Since they located on the PVC bumper, extra care must be taking when glueing them. Not many bellyboat owners like to cut away the front bumper to glue a motor mount. For that reason Bellyboottuning asked a German company to produce a better alternative for the standard trolling motor mount.

New Type of Motor Trolling Mount

After many tests on the water we opted for a Two pad bellyboat trolling motor bracket design that simplifies everything. From installation to better power distribution so more powerful trolling motors can be deployed. Furthermore the dimensions are not bigger than necessary and the new mount can be installed and removed at any time, wether the bellyboat is inflated or deflated. It comes in two models; one for pointed bow style bellyboats like 12bb, float master and savage gear and one for flat bow bellyboats like the FLOAT EXPERT PRO 170

Hardware

The supplied hardware consist of two 100 x 100 mm glue pads with holes for the nylon bushings. Also a D-Ring Pad and tension strap is supplied. The d-ring needs to be installed in the front of the bow. The tension strap threads to this D-ring and the available hole in the mounting bracket. Two machine knobs prevents the bracket to come loose and the tension strap provides the needed fixation. Prevents play and offload the power from the both glue pads on top of the bellyboat.