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Long time classic Mako guy, first time Whaler owner. 1984 Outrage 18, 2009 Yamaha 115 4 stroke. My Q's are this, I need advise on mounting a stainless bracket that the black Minnkota slide bracket bolts to on the bow and running the wires. I have battery and charger issues taken care of. Has anyone cut a access hole and bored throughout the foam to run wires down the gunnals to the counsole? Also, I could use the access hole to pull out foam and back bolt the mounting bracket. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Gregg,
Yes , we ran a heavy wire inside my buddies 22 outrage's gunnel for his trolling motor mounted on the bow. We drilled several holes on the gunnel with a hole saw under each bow rail mount. So as we dug the foam out, we put through bolts and fender washers on each rail mount. There were 2 panels were the speakers are mounted and on the right side of the boat there was a channel that ran right up into the console. So we ran the wire from the console , under the floor, behind the panel and drilled a hole on the side of the gunnel into the foam. We got a heavy gauge wire that was aluminum coated from West Marine. We dug out the foam and put a female plug in the mounting plate right at the bow. The foam is not hard but it is tough to get the correct angle from hole to hole. You just have to chip away at it and we used fish tape to help feed the wire. The holes were patched by a fiber glass man and if you look really hard you can see the patch job but most of the time you would never notice. On my Montauk, I cut a hole to put a through bolt on a 1/4" stainless steel mounting plate for my trolling motor. A big glob of 5200, a fender washer and 2 nylon lock nuts and I had the hole patched. You can not even tell it on the white gel coat. I just have the trolling motor wire ran on the outside on the Montauk but the gunnels are about 4" thick on the 22'. I would think there would be plenty of thickness on the 18'.
I have a 1986 outrage 18'. I am installing a trolling motor next week when it arrives. In all my research I plan on using the aluminum bracket that the sampson post screws into as well as through bolting. I am going to glass a piece of mahogany and use the quick release bracket to clear the "lip". I am planning on running my wires into the bow locker and into the rigging tunnel. There is a small plastic cap on the aft starbord side of the locker that conects to the tunnel. As I stated this is all theary. Once I figure it out I will post my findings.
