INTEX 68624EP Motor Mount Kit: Easy to Attach – Heavy-duty Composite Mount – Marine Plywood – Aluminum Support Arms – Fits up to 3.0 HP Motors

So far I love the Intex Motor Mount Kit (composite plastic mount platform, not one of the BS wood ones available) which is much sturdier than I would have expected. I use it on my Intex Mariner 3. I didn't get the Intex Mariner 4 because I wanted to keep the boat under 10 feet in length so I don't have to register it where I live in Minnesota.About the electric trolling motor and deep cycle marine battery I chose; First of all, when I first ordered the raft, I had no intention whatsoever of going with a motor, but rather to row everywhere I went with it, including row trolling for fishing purposes. During my first outing on a secluded little lake (100 acres), that was fine. During my second outing on a decent sized lake (+1000 acres), it wasn't so "fine" anymore! And keep in mind, when I go fishing it isn't for a morning or afternoon, but rather from before the sun rises till at least sunset.Anyway, I did some serious research on electric trolling motors. Which brand to go with and what pound thrust to go with. I expect it goes without saying it had to be a 12V setup since there's only so much room in a raft, and I'm not lugging more than one large lead acid battery around. The 12V Li-ion batteries are much smaller than their lead acid counterparts and would be a really nice way to go, but I can't afford those. For the motor I went with Minn Kota over Motor Guide in general for the composite shaft and much better service support should it ever be needed. On a side note, there's nothing really wrong with the Motor Guide motors in general and it seems they are just as reliable as the Minn Kotas. I just didn't feel Motor Guide was the best choice for me. I guess some other brands exist too, I simply stuck with choosing between the two biggest names.As for the pound thrust to choose; Seems like most people just go with the 30 lb thust Minn Kota, and if you want to buy brand new and can't afford anything beyond $100 (amazon.com price) then I believe it is the best way to go for you. The 30 lb thrust will work, just not as efficiently in any conditions as a higher pound thrust model. I chose to go with the Minn Kota Endura C2 55 pound trust model which more or less doubles the cost at about $213 (amazon.com price). For the additional +$100 you get almost double the thrust, a much beefier motor, and a larger prop. In my view that adds up to a longer lasting motor that will buck wind and waves much better while holding a steadier speed in the wind and waves. Don't expect much higher of a top speed though (around half a mile per hour) as that's not what they're designed to do per se. Think of it as more power (torque) to fight the elements and get up to speed from a dead stop quicker rather than appreciably more power (horsepower) for top speed. The 30 pound trust model basically equates to .5 horsepower. The 55 pound thrust model basically equates to .75 horsepower. So you can see thrust (torque) almost doubles, but horsepower (amp draw) not so much. As for the 40 & 45 pound thrust models, for me, I just don't see the point. Your mileage may vary.I run a watt meter and power analyzer (all one unit) inline between my battery and trolling motor so I can view actual amp draw (along with other detailed info). I was able to find similar info from someone else who does the same with his 30 pound trust model Minn Kota. Our results are as follows in calm conditions for both our readings (the 1st two numbers separated by a "/" will be amp draw and miles per hour with my 55 pound thrust motor and the 2nd two for his 30 pound thrust motor) (for reverse speeds I only have info on my motor and never checked the mph) -Forward Speed 1 = 6.7 / 1.5 7.2 / 1.6Forward Speed 2 = 8.3 / 1.7 9.3 / 2.0Forward Speed 3 = 15.0 / 2.6 12.5 / 2.4Forward Speed 4 = 18.0 / 3.0 15.3 / 2.8Forward Speed 5 = 43.0 / 4.0 29.8 / 3.5Reverse Speed 1 = 7 amps with my 55 pound thrust motorReverse Speed 2 = 15 amps with my 55 pound thrust motorReverse Speed 3 = 41 amps with my 55 pound thrust motorI hope that helps some of you trying to decide what pound thrust to go with. It is true like I've read many reviewers post that no matter which pound thrust model you go with, the difference between speeds 4 and 5 is huge! Honestly, I don't even use the 5th speed hardly at all in my own usage. When conditions allow I generally don't go beyond the 3rd speed to save battery power.As for a deep cycle marine battery to power the trolling motor, I found it impossible to beat Walmart's EverStart DC series in terms of bang for your buck, and in many cases overall. At some point I came across someone suggesting Interstate Batteries is manufacturing the EverStart brand for Walmart. If it is true or not I don't really know. Walmart has 5 different deep cycle EverStart battery choices which include 2 different warranties. The non-MAXX models have a 1 year free replacement warranty, and the MAXX models have a 2 year free replacement warranty. The following info on the 5 batteries is what I have written down from this past summer of 2014 and are listed in order of amp hour capacity as listed by the manufacturer -EverStart 24DC MAXX = $99.97, 690 MCA, 92 AhEverStart 24DC = $76.58, 690 MCA, 101 AhEverStart 27DC = $81.67, 750 MCA, 109 AhEverStart 29DC MAXX = $99.97, 845 MCA, 114 AhEverStart 29DC = $86.83, 845 MCA, 122 AhCertainly that info can change over time but I'm hoping it still gives everyone a good baseline to start with, and keep in mind there's also currently a $12 core charge you will have to pay up front additionally unless you have an old battery laying around to take in so you don't have to pay the additional core charge. I chose the 29DC MAXX because it is simply going to be a longer lasting battery than a non MAXX model even though I'm giving up a few amp hours worth of juice to the same size battery in a non MAXX model. Y'all can decide what works best for your own sanity:) BTW, the EverStarts on the shelves at Walmart are all marked with a date on a sticker on top of the battery showing the month and year they were manufactured. You want to get the newest manufactured one you can. The longer a battery sits on a shelf doing nothing, the further along it is toward a slow death! 2 main bad issues happen to batteries that are sitting around doing nothing; one is that their charge slowly drains, and the other is that when that happens a sulfation process occurs which kills battery capacity and life expectancy. Sulfation is when crystals build up inside the battery causing two main issues; one, the batteries loose their ability to hold as much of a charge as when new, till eventually they are useless, and two, they loose their ability to accept as much of a charge as when they were new. There are two main ways to avoid this (it can never be avoided 100% and will always occur, the idea is to slow the process down as much as possible); always keep them fully charged when not in use (trickle charge once per month or at the very least every 3 months) and don't drain them any more than you have to before recharging them. Obviously you'll have to use as much energy from them as you need to for whatever you're using them for, just keep in mind that less is better. One other key note is to always charge them as soon as possible after you've drained them down, preferably not letting more than 24 hours go by, and never more than 48 hours if at all possible. Paying attention to these details will allow your battery to live much longer than it otherwise would. No doubt, eventually they will die for good, as no lead acid battery is capable of lasting "forever", but the idea is having them last as long as possible.Someone posted that they were told you shouldn't or can't (I forget which) charge a deep cycle lead acid battery with a trickle charger. That is NOT true. Sure, it will take a long time to charge a high capacity deep cycle on a trickle charge that was drawn way down to begin with, but there's certainly no harm in it, and it will charge up normally, just at a slower rate. On top of that, the slower you charge any battery, the better for overall battery life. That's not to say you will kill your battery overnight by charging it at a high amp rate, it's just harder on the battery forcing it to charge so quickly. So if you need the battery for the next morning and you drained it all the way down, by all means power charge it at a high amp rate. But if you don't need it till the next weekend the a trickle charge is actually healthier for the battery.As far as determining how long you can use the battery just divide the amp hour (Ah) rating of the battery by how many amps you're drawing from the battery. For example, my battery is rated for 114 Ah and on Speed 3 my motor is drawing 15 amps. So 114/15 = 7.6 hours my battery should last till it is completely dead. But also note that that is at the 77 degree F temperature the manufacturers test their Ah ratings. Above 77 degrees F there will be more available Ah, and below 77 degrees F there will be less available Ah, so keep that in mind. For example, at 120 degrees F your battery will have approximately 10% more charge available to use than at 77 degrees F, and conversely at 50 degrees F your battery will have approximately 10% less charge available to use than at 77 degrees F. Also it is better to store a battery in a colder area than a warmer one (still fully charged of course) for longest overall life. And if your battery is not maintenance free and has removable top caps, always keep the battery full of DISTILLED water. Full of water means simply keeping the lead plates that you can see in the fill holes covered with water. There is no reason, and it is actually a bad practice, to fill them all the way to the top of the fill holes because if you do, the water and acid will overflow out of the top fill holes of the battery during the charging process, and more the faster you charge a battery like at a high amp rate. Just put in enough water to keep the lead plates covered and you won't be cleaning up acid spills from battery charging later. And NEVER EVER add any acid of any kind to your battery!!! Distilled water only.I know I went into a whole lot more than just a simple Intex Motor Mount Kit review. But for me this info all went hand in hand with getting my motor mount and I spent a whole lot of time researching it all. So I hope it helps the rest of you too. If anything changes over time I will update this review. Now I just can't wait till next summer.

holds my motor very well, after 3 years still working good! very sturdy! fits my Mariner 4 intex

Very happy with this it fit perfectly, it is high quality and very durable. I appreciate how quick it is to assemble and disassemble. My motor mounts right onto the plate. Great overall product. Very happy

I tried this out with a Minn Kota 30lb thrust motor a few weeks ago on my Intex Excursion 5. It works, but the poles seem like they are just a tad short, and the two setting areas only offer around a inch difference in length. The back plate came loose, but that was after 5 hours of play and 45 min of max speed, and I didn't torque the nuts down very tight.It fit but was a bit of a pain to attach, on the instructions it says to wait untill fulling inflated but it was easier to hook it on halfway through inflating.Overall a good, fair priced mount, I'm just really picky

This transom mount kit is excellent and the fact that a simple, easy-to-use transom kit allows you to quickly mount a trolling motor to your inflatable boat for such a low price is nothing short of extraordinary. On my Intex Excursion 5, this mount worked perfectly for a little Minn Kota 30lb thrust motor but I found that motor way under powered. However, when stepping up to a 55lb thrust motor, I found the mount wasn't up to the task in its original configuration due to the motor being twice as heavy and having double the thrust. It worked, but barely, and the mount would buckle under the boat under full power. I was able to make it work somewhat after carefully adjusting the shaft height and angle but the motor still tucked under pretty good and I'm pretty sure I was effectively losing thrust because of the angle of the prop and the fact that it would bob up and down as the inflatable hull flexed. This isn't so much the mount's fault but the Excursion 5 has a very light duty hull at only 1 psi so it doesn't take much to collapse it - this might not happen on an Intex Mariner with higher pressure.This was a very easy fix, just make tube extenders that extend the top tubes from the original mounts all the way to the rear oar mounts. Much more stable now and it was a very easy modification.