DIY Trolling Motor Installation for Ascend 128T 

Thanks man I appreciate the kind words! I have navigation lights and an anchor light as well. I’m usually river fishing though, so I don’t use them unless I’m on the lake.👍🏻👍🏻

@@FlintHillCatfishingDo I HAVE to install nav lights?

Man I’m so glad that the video was helpful! Thank you for watching. I just released another video today that shows how I installed a pulley system to raise and lower the trolling motor from a seated position with ease. You’ll definitely want to check that out because it is the best and most useful thing I’ve installed to assist with the trolling motor. It’s a real pain in the butt to not have a way to raise or lower the motor when you are seated. Thanks again for watching!

I’m glad the double-sided tape idea works for you. I do it all the time and it really helps to dial things in. You’ll definitely get some use out of those pulleys somewhere on the Kayak. Thanks for watching man!!!

I really appreciate that Chris! Git er dun brother!!!

I’ve had it in the water a few times, just trying to work out the kinks😉 that for watching mark!

Thank you for watching man!

You too🤙🏻

Me too!

They have some advantages in rivers....lakes not so much. Thx for watching brother

Absolutely, thank you for watching!!

@@FlintHillCatfishing I do however have an interesting question : This PWM box has now "separated" the FWD/REV function from the speed control. Is there any electronic equipment that would retain the FWD speed control AND the REV speed control on the same device - similar to a bidirectional potentiometer (so clockwise is FWD speed increase and counterclockwise is REV speed increase) ?

That’s a great question… I don’t know of any components that you can buy to do that particular function. I was thinking the same thing when I put the system in and I did a little bit of searching. There are a Few companies that sell PWM’s that looks in the way you explained but I didn’t want to pay the money for them. They weren’t overly expensive, but at the time had already sunk enough money into the boat😂😂

@@FlintHillCatfishing I've searched as well but I couldn't find any - can you perhaps share the company's details? I am busy looking at taking a HDPE kayak and adding the following : a) A light and sturdy "roof" (250cm x 125cm) on it for 2 reasons 1) sun shade 2) solar panel mount. b) A 410W solar panel will work 100% with a 12V MPPT (210cm x 110cm). c) The trolling motor (12V / 55lbs thrust) would max (full speed) at 54A (12V = 648W). d) A 12V/200Ah battery at 50% D.O.D. (using only 100Ah) for backup. e) A small and light centre console for 1) extra storage 2) strong support for solar panel roof mount 3) housing for steering wheel + system. f) Steering wheel on centre console with cable system. g) A Swivel and sliding chair for rapid position change on the kayak. A Speed control with integrated FWD/REV will work great on this - similar to a boat throttle! ( sportrend.com/e_productshow/?19-Speed-Controller-Lever-for-Brushless-Trolling-Motors-19.html )

Oh those are all great ideas… I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it before so I would love to see it if you built it. You seem like a pretty smart guy, so I don’t think you’re gonna have any problem with your understanding of electronics/electricity. Here’s the link to the company that makes the PWM with a single pot forward/off/reverse feature that you were looking for. This company makes quality products I’ve done a lot of research. www.wirelesstrollingpro.com/12cp.html

Hey David, I understand exactly where you’re coming from and I have some ideas for you if you were interested. A little bit of backstory for you… 2020 gave me a lot of time to create videos and start a RU-vid channel etc. but 2022 my job started to ramp back up and I got busy again so it made it very difficult to continue my channel. With all that being said, I have a couple things I’d love to run by you. I have actually implemented and refined a few new things with my trolling motor steering, etc. about six months after I released the video. If you are interested in chatting, hit me up on Facebook messenger and we could video chat or audio chat. I learned a lot trying to implement different methods that did not work, somewhat worked and finally worked well, so I’d love to run them by you and save you some trouble if you’re interested and if you haven’t already thought of the ideas I have to share with you. Last, but not least… I’m free right now, which is rare, so if you hit me up on messenger in the next 15 minutes, I should have about 20 to 30 minutes to chat if you have time just FYI. You can find me on Facebook and hit me up on messenger by searching for Brian Sheldon Jones. You’ll know it’s me because my Flint Hill cat Fishing logo is what I use on my Facebook page. If you see this message later or on another day, hit me up anyway on messenger and we can connect sometime soon. Thanks for watching, and sorry for the long message lol

Thx brother!!

Man I don’t know why I did not think of that! It would definitely suck if you fell out with that thing running. I would love to hear your idea and if it’s easier for you you can email me at flinthillcatfishin@gmail.com

You’ll enjoy it man! Thank you for watching!

Thanks Bobby!

Thanks David, and thank you for watching!

Glad it helped Andre!!

Jobuck66 thanks Joebuck....I really appreciate you taking the time to watch man. I think this trolling motor thing is gonna spoil me though😂

Fishing with Big Nasty ... I’m working on a video now that I shot Thursday morning while fishing on the Catawba so you’ll get to see it in action.... it doesn’t go fast but I tied a rope onto the back of my kayak to my sons kayak and I towed him all the way up the river about 1/4 of a mile. I love it. Anyway thanks for watching brother!

Man I don’t know how I missed your comment but I just saw it and I wanted to reply. Glad the video was helpful and I really appreciate you taking the time to watch!!🤙🏻

I appreciate the kind words and thank you for taking the time to watch Robert!

I like the way you think man! I really appreciate you taking the time to watch🤙🏻

Absolutely man! Thanks for taking the time to watch and I’m glad the video was helpful🤙🏻

Well good luck to you with the trolling motor Sarge… I love mine and I’m sure you’ll love yours. You just can’t beat the price on the 128T for what you get in my opinion. I appreciate the sub and thanks for watching bro🤙🏻

By the way...I lived in Kansas City, MO for 4 years. What part of MO do you live??

I always like to advertise the v-lock mounting bracket if no one here has been introduced to it yet.

Zach Wilson .... i’ll check it out I’m not familiar with that

Thanks dude I’m getting ready to do another video on some of the newer mods ive done to it and a more detailed portion for the trolling motor which I’ve made some more modifications to

Your welcome....thanks for watching

Hey man thanks for the kind words! I actually didn’t ditch the Amsteel… I love that stuff. I use it when I hammock camp etc. as well as a lot of other things. I I am actually working on a video now of what I did to the guy at them and what it looks like now. I added some things, took some things away and got it just about how I want it for the way I fish. Anyway, thanks a lot for watching and catch me on the next one!!

Hi Chris, that’s a great question and I had the same question when I started this project. I did not use a 50 amp breaker because of the 30 amp draw. I used a 30 amp breaker and I have had no problems. I was an electrician for 18 years and I don’t understand fusing a circuit that draws 30 A with a 50 amp breaker. That usually means your wires are going to melt before your breaker trips lol. As far as the wire size is concerned, are used #8 stranded copper AWG. #10 is rated for 30 A, but I had a little extra length so I wanted to compensate by increasing the wire size. Hope this helps.

Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate it

Hey thanks for watching indigo… I only put a few years on the positive wire that goes into the PWM👍🏻

It doesn’t have a pointed stern. Is squared off from the factory so it makes it a lot easier.

that’s not dumb… That’s a great question... Home Depot and Lowe’s sell aluminum angle...Basically it’s a flat piece of aluminum that they’ve bent directly in the center 90°. So looking at it the long way, it’s shaped like an L. This would basically simulate the same thing I have on my kayak. The stainless steel that I have on my kayak is a little bit wider where it mounts to the kayak hull so in your case if you used 3” x 3” angle aluminum you would want to put A bolt through the aluminum into your hole every 4 inches to distribute the tension from the motor thrust and from maybe hitting something underneath the water, which always happens to me. I wouldn’t go with anything any thinner than 3/16 of an inch thickness. You probably already know this, but make sure you “dry fit “everything before you secure it firmly with bolts to your kayak that way you can see how it looks before putting holes in your vessel. I hope that helps, and I hope it makes sense… If you have anymore questions feel free to reach out man🤙🏻

@@FlintHillCatfishing Thank you so much, Flint Hill Catfishing! I really appreciate your response.

In the plumbing department…I believe it was a 1” pvc elbow. I wrapped the shaft with electrical tape because it wasn’t a perfect fit. I then used pvc glue in the fitting and slid it down over the tape. No issues.

Oh…and I used and epoxy putty to plug the bottom where the cable coming from the kayak entered the fitting.

I’m glad you asked, I didn’t think about the fact that I didn’t mention it was a waterproof plug. Yes it is waterproof, and you can buy many different kinds, You just need to make sure you get the ampacity to match your motor. I’ll be putting out another video soon with some of the newer upgrades to the kayak and I’ll be sure to include the plug in this one! Thanks for watching man!!!

I have run across this problem a couple times myself. What I have narrowed it down to is, some PWM’s are made differently than others obviously… So somehow in the electronics something is lost along the way. I’m not an electronics expert so I haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly what the problem is yet. I have changed out PWM‘s a couple times since they are so cheap and I found some that are better than others. I can’t remember the name because they’re all Chinese. Also make sure you use wire that’s adequate in size... that can definitely give you voltage drop going back to the motor which in turn would affect your speed. Let me know if you have anymore questions I’ll try to help if I can and thanks for watching!

That’s a great question Matt… At first I just used 14 wire which I knew was on the small side for sure, and it got too hot and was giving me a lot of loss to the motor. I later changed to number eight stranded THHN copper, and then but spliced an 8 inch piece of number 10 stranded THHN onto the number 8 so it would fit under the screws in the PWM. Hope this helps!

Hey there and thank you! The answer is no. The PWM has a positive and negative contact for the battery and a separate positive and negative contact for the trolling motor. So you will definitely need a positive and negative from the battery and a positive and negative from the trolling motor, both sets of wires will be Terminated into the PWM. Go to 11 minutes and 40 seconds in the video and I have a whiteboard drawing that explains it pretty well

@@FlintHillCatfishing amazing thank you very much for your help! If I give power to the pwm motor and the trolling motor is hooked up to the pwm would it power the trolling motor at the same time? 🤯

@@Camileon8 The battery just sends voltage through the PWM so you can control the speed sending it out of the PWM to the trolling motor

@@FlintHillCatfishing done! Thank you very much! I might do a video of my set up similar to yours and another guy with the green tamarack

@@FlintHillCatfishing hi again!! Jus my wanted to let you know that I took it out on the ocean last Monday! That thing worked perfect!! Absolutely smooth everything worked as I expected. Couldn’t be happier

Nathan that’s a great question! I have tried several things, none of which really worked well until recently. I plan on doing a video on my “modifications to my modifications”. With everything I tried it brought me to the conclusion that I really needed something simple and quick when I’m coming up on a shallow river shoal etc...I have two different methods that I will put in the video… One that is a bit complicated to install, and one that’s very very simple. It’s too much to put in a comment. Keep an eye out for that one!

That’s a great question Angel and you’re the first person who’s asked me that! I’m surprised someone hasn’t asked before now…..The PWM’s that I’ve been using don’t seem to put off much heat at all however, he will certainly reduce the lifespan of any electronics so I’m sure it’s not the best practice. The only reason I do it is to keep it waterproof. I really appreciate you taking the time to watch!

@@FlintHillCatfishing ok thanks appreciate it love the channel

I would say no. It can be done but the 128T is not the most stable boat for its size. Look at some of the kayaks with a 500lb capacity and the stability increases dramatically. Thanks for the kind words...I like the minimal approach with kayaks because u don’t have much room anyway. Helps keep things streamlined and a bit more pleasing to the eye.

Most definitely! The 350 pound max capacity coupled with the whole design makes it very tippy in my opinion. I’m 64 and 230 pounds, the only reason I haven’t been in the drink a lot is because are used to paddle white water and became very adept in a kayak. But compared to my friends that have bigger kayaks in the 550 pound max capacity, there’s no comparison. Thanks for watching and thanks for up,!

That’s a great question Brian. You need to make sure you get the correct wire size between your trolling motor and the PWM, and From the PWM to the battery. In the manual for the 45 pound Minnkota… It will tell you what the max amps that the motor draws. With 12 V trolling motors, the pounds of thrust almost always equals the maximum amps drawn. 8 gauge copper wire is rated for55 amps so you would be fine using #8AWG copper. The other thing that you need to make sure of, and this is important.… The PWM that I installed on my kayak would barely receive an eight gauge wire under the terminal. Check the specs before you buy your PWM and make sure that you can put 8 gauge minimum and it be nice if it actually went up to six just in case you ever upsized you motor you wouldnt have to change your PWM. Let me know if that makes sense. Those are the two big things… And obviously you would need a fuse in line on the positive wire like I explain in the video that is rated properly for your trolling motor. It also tells you that in your manual. I had to find a manual online because I lost mine like a dummy😂 let me know if you have anymore questions and I’ll be glad to help if I can!

@@FlintHillCatfishing thanks for the reply I’ll let you know what’s going on it won’t be happening until late summer as I have too much going on I have 25 ‘ of #6 wire from a set of jumper cables I cannibalized for my motor when I was going to install it on my canoe but it never happened. I will take your advice and check the manual and oversized the components for safety and the future from what I read I think if you go over 55 # thrust you need to go with a 24 volt system and that would mean 2 batteries and that’s heavy for a kayak or super expensive if I go for lithium.

My plans changed a bit I couldn’t locate a Hobie but my Jackson Big Rig FD is due in 1st week of May. I’ll probably hold off on the motor till mid summer as I want to get accustomed to the kayak and then I figure out the best way to mount it. Not sure if I’ll do it similar to your install or just hold off and go with a motor for the built in flex drive.I still say your video is one of the best information wise on RU-vid. The only change I would make is to but a backing plate under the SS mounting bracket and I would modify it to flip incase I hit a underwater obstacle

Hey Cody thanks for asking. I did do a demonstration video…. But maybe I should’ve titled it differently. The video thumbnail has a picture of a Dakota lithium battery in it and it’s a full on the water, real time review of how long the battery will last using my trolling motor set up with that particular battery. But you’ve got me thinking now… I should’ve done a video just showing how each particular feature I installed works on the water.

Pete Ippolito ...Pete, I got really lucky man. A friend of mine knew I was looking for a trailer so he was visiting a friend and happened to see it in his friend’s backyard just sitting there, so he asked if the trailer was for sale. He wanted $100! I jumped on it. I made some minor alterations by extending the back end of the trailer since the kayak was much longer than the trailer. It makes going fishing SOOOOOO much easier!!! Thx for watching Pete!

Good question....I don’t think I mentioned that in the video. I had 2 solid nylon cutting boards lying around that worked perfectly....you could probably find some that have the dimensions and thickness you need on Amazon. FYI...My wife was not happy about the cutting boards😐

I can’t remember right off hand but I think I put the link to the PWM in the description

I had a friend of mine helped me fabricate it out of stainless steel. It has held up remarkably

It holds up just fine. I have never had the main components burn up or go bad and I’ve used it for almost a year now. The only thing I had trouble with was the three positions switch that has the forward reverse and off position. They are pretty cheap so I replaced it twice. I think my problem was I did not install a waterproof switch. The speed control dial has held up just fine I had no trouble with that. I’d say for $20, You can’t beat it! One of the best $20 bills I’ve ever spent

@@FlintHillCatfishing that's great! I have a minn kota remote that has one knob for power/forward/reverse. It feeds into the (broken) control board. I'm wondering if I can cut that wire and somehow splice it to the PWM. It would be really nice to use that just for simplicity and a nice clean look

Hey Rodrigo! Thx for watching... take a look at my channel and I have a review of the runtime on the water with a 30 amp trolling motor using a 54aH lithium battery.

@@FlintHillCatfishing I just watched that video thanks . would you recommend the 100 amp battery for a 45/55lb trhust trolling motor or is 54ah enough.

On 12v trolling motors, amps are almost equal to thrust pounds. 45 thrust a 54 would be ok but with a 55 I would personally jump up to a 100aH

Yes I did👍🏻 only the vessel, not the motor.

@@FlintHillCatfishing Thanks for the reply

Thank you for watching!!

Thanks Todd! You can hit me up on Facebook messenger anytime👍🏻

@@FlintHillCatfishing for the steel on the motor mount you made, how thick is the steel, and where can someone get some. Thanks in advance.

SUPA DUPA fast!! Yeah, definitely not fast But what a convenience!

The PWM link is in the description however, I just noticed that That particular one is no longer available. I’m looking for a couple more to keep for spares. As long as you get one with the same voltage specs, you’re good to go. When I find one and install it, I will put a new link in the description on this video.

Do you have an Ascend 128T?

@@FlintHillCatfishing yes and a 12t but nevermind i watch ur video again n again and figure it out thanks i appreciate u writing back some people dont thsnks again

It’s no problem angel… Reach out if you have any questions🤙🏻

@@FlintHillCatfishing hey man i got a lil problem i need some i ideas on how to mount the trolling motor i have a 12t ascend so i dont have the storage area to bolt it in i would sent u pic it dont allow me to on here if u can look up the kayak and give me ideas id really appreciated

If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re getting a 10 amp draw on low and a 30 amp draw on high with the PWM. That’s a big difference and will impact your run time in a positive way when running on lower settings. Let me know if I misunderstood your comment.

What size fuze for the in line? did you use the cabelas pos/neg wires for battery and motor running into the pelican or the yak power adapters?

From the motor to the PWM, I used # 12 THHN stranded copper wire. I happened to have some laying around my garage that had a weatherproof jacket on it but it’s not necessary just convenient… you could tape the wires or whatever there’s 100 ways to do it. From the battery to the PWM, I used number 8THHN stranded wire. You may have to use #10 THHN stranded wire if #8 will not fit underneath of the PWM terminal block. You have to look in your trolling motor Manual and it will tell you what the recommended a fuse size for whatever trolling motor you’re using. Just to be clear though… I chose all of these wire size is according to my trolling motor amperage demand and my battery size so be sure that you do the same to ensure it’s installed properly and works good for you. I really appreciate you watching and I hope everything comes together perfect for you!!!

@@FlintHillCatfishing my man!! Much appreciated brother and great video! I have the same motor Endura C2. What battery do you run? I have a 12v 55ah AGM

@@DirtNapDefense You have a great battery! I just made the switch over to lithium. It was expensive but it is well worth it in my opinion. I bought a Dakota Lithium 54 amp hour. I love it, however there’s a lot of new lithium batteries coming out that even have Bluetooth technology built into them. You can check the percentage your battery has left while you’re out of the water with your phone! 🔥🔥

@@FlintHillCatfishing that’s amazing brother! I really really wanted to bite the bullet and buy a lithium but the old lady would have whooped me 🤣 next year I plan to upgrade, too many benefits not to!! Last question lol so you didn’t even use the 14guage pos/neg that comes original on the motor to connect right into the battery? Instead you just ran from the battery a #8 THHN to the 8guage connectors (that you linked) then into the PWM via another 8 gauge connector. Did I get that right?

I lived in Kansas City Missouri for around five years but I live in South Carolina now

Great question. It won’t make a difference at all....you can just adjust the collar so it stops at the height that you prefer. I think mine has a 36 inch shaft as well.

@@FlintHillCatfishing makes sense. Deff going to outfit the kayak this winter as a project.... appreciate the tips man

I have 1 more question. When you remove the tiller head and you have the 4 wire plus battery wires..... where are you attaching your power wires? Or are you using the thinner gauge black and red if that makes sense?

Jmg391 ... no problem man...ask anytime. The black and the red are GENERALLY the positive and negative, the others are control wires. If you check your manual it should verify that for you. If you don’t have a manual, look it up online to be sure. I’ve always seen Black and red for the positive and negative.

@@FlintHillCatfishing yeah I get that but theres the main battery wire at 14 gauge wire, then there is a black and red smaller diameter wires . With the switch removed I'm assuming you're using the smaller diameter wires that hook to the prop directly vs the loose 14 gauge? I'll double check my manual but I'm pretty sure I did what you did in less words haha