Depth Raider & Small Boats

Does anyone here use a Depth Raider in a smaller boat? I have a 16 1/2 ft. Smoker Craft with an old 8 horse Mariner for a kicker. I can never seem to hold a steady speed on my Depth Raider. The best I can do is to try and keep in a range say between 1.8 and 2.2 mph. I've noticed in my friends Lund Tyee he can pretty much hold to a steady speed. He also has a new Yamaha 4 stroke kicker motor. My questions is, is it harder to keep a steady speed in a smaller boat, or is my issue the old Mariner motor??? Some days I have to constantly adjust the throttle on my kicker! Thanks for all responses!!!

That's a pretty big kicker for a small boat. Have you considered changing the prop on the kicker to the lowest pitch possible? Slight changes in rpm would be less obvious. Also if you tilt the kicker up it will be less effective there by making RPM changes less noticeable. My 2 cents.

depth raider version is also important, as the software that runs them varies with regard to the intervals for which speed readings are captured, computed, and displayed. The older ones vary more. My new one, not so much. I run an 18', 2000 lb boat.

I have a 16 foot Mirrocraft and with one person driving if I walk from the transom to the bow to grab something you can hear the difference in the motor. If we both sad dead center at 2.2, putting a guy up front would make us go faster and when I walk to the back we will slow down a bit. That being said we keep a pretty decent speed if we are sitting still and not resetting lines or moving around to grab gear.

The size of your boat should have little to do with your erratic trolling speed. Sure a lighter weight rig needs less horsepower to reach a trolling speed. The Depth Raider is just doing what it is designed to do, show your trolling speed at any given time. Check your OB’s compression first, no sense spending money on a dying engine. Check the compression on each cylinder, they should be about 100ibs or higher. If the compression is lower your kicker has lost power and it will be difficult to maintain a constant speed in waves or when weight is transferred in the boat. Changing where you have weight in the boat might be an option, like put as much in the bow to offset your weight and your crew. Every time you move to the transom to adjust your speed you’re changing where your weight is being transferred to. So if when you’re sitting in the middle of the boat, assuming a steering wheel and console, your trolling speed will be one value until you move around, transfer weight, or change trolling direction. It could also be a throttle cable issue with the tiller handle. If there is slop in the tiller handle the vibration from your two stroke might be causing the throttle position to change. You might also try a four blade prop for the 8HP kicker. A four blade prop should help the mid-range torque the kicker has. If your prop is beat up that too will affect your kicker’s performance. Last an auxiliary speed control for the throttle may make dialing in the trolling speed easier. ControlKing makes a speed control unit for 2 stroke Mariner OBs. http://www.controllking.com/ Good Luck

Your speed ranging would be an advantage. This small boat advantage adds life to the spread in my opinion.

Yes a smaller boat which doesn't have as much depth or weight of the boat below the surface is going to be influenced more by wind, chop or rollers.