How big a kicker needed?

[bigeasy1]

Originally Posted by cdavisdb

There are several members with 23's and Yamaha kickers that fish on the great lakes, big rough water. Bigeasy1, I think. I'd pick his brains on his experience with kickers.

I set my kicker on a block welded to the platform, a less than optimal arrangement. If I had to do it again, I'd modify the platform and use a Garelick type mount on the transom. Shaft length, I'm not sure. Its long and is whatever is the standard length.

Keeping the stern as light as possible is highly recommended for this hull. It really doesn't like weight aft, bow heavy works much better. I vote for one motor, mounted on the transom or very close to it, plus a kicker.

On my Tsunami I went with a permanent mount solid kicker bracket made by Adventure marine. It's pricy but is rock solid. Its fabricated and made with 1/4 inch welded aluminum. with 5 7/16 inch pre drilled holes for mounting to the transom.For previous years on my other boats i used the offshore model bracket by Garelick but the adventure marine mount is much much stronger.
It doesn't flex or bounce at all when under power with the outdrive and is also solid when trailering.
The mount also has a long setback so you can trim up the motor completely out of the water.
Adventure also lists the maximum weight capacity of 140 pounds but Ii think its a lot stronger than that. That's probably a liability issue to be on the safe side. Below is the link to their website. if you scroll down you can get all the specks.

https://adventuremarine.ca/product/h...motor-bracket/