Make a Trolling Motor Mount From a Gunwale Hook Type Boarding Ladder

I could not find any good way to mount a trolling motor on this small old 16 ft runabout. I came up with this design, built from junk laying around the house. Works great and keeps the trolling motor out of the way.

This is a cheap 3 step marine boarding ladder found in a dumpster at the local lake. Yes im a dumpster diver. :) First thing to do is go ahead and disassemble it down to it's individual parts.

Take a step and grind down both lips on the face of it. You want it to lay flat on your boat. I used a belt sander mounted upside down with 80 grit on it. It will take it down quick.

Notice that the one aluminum tube has that white protective covering missing, it was flaking off. Probably why it got thrown in the dumpster. Ok go ahead and cut off the tubes to length. I cant give you a measurement on this as all boats are a little different but the tube must be long enough to connect up to the "L" brackets on the transom. Cut it long, you can trim it up next step.

Cut out your pads, any size you want as the tubes can swing in and out at this point. I cut 8 x 4.5 inch pads out of starboard but wood would be better as the clamp on the trolling motor likes to slide around a bit. I had to bolt the motor to the pad to keep it from slipping.

Put it together and lay it out. Figure out where the pad should go so that the motor is in the water and motor handle will clear the tubing. Its also a good time to figure out where your "L" brackets will mount so you can trim your tubes to fit.

If the layout looks good its time to bolt it up. Bolt the step down first, each side has a bolt 2 washers and a nylon locking nut. Next level up your pads drill holes and bolt it all together. Then i used a  self tapper to secure the tubes to the step. Make sure you have everything lined up and where you want it for this last step. Stainless steel hardware is recommended.

This photo shows how i mounted my brackets. Because of the weird angles on this boat and the fact my brackets were to small, i had to make spacers under the brackets to reach the tubing.

For a snug fit i had to use pieces of that white protective covering. Last step is to glue the rubber caps on the end of the tubes. The rubber caps were scavenged off the ladder also.

It would not be hard to make something better looking to use other then the ladder step on top. I probably will in the future.

That's it, hopefully i didn't forget any steps.