12v VS 24v Trolling Motor

10 to 11 MPH on a kayak with a trolling motor is suspect.

The reason you won't get a speed increase with a more powerful motor is that the pitch on trolling motor props doesn't require much power to spin under the weight of a kayak. A more powerful motor isn't going to spin the prop any faster than a lowered powered motor.

Now if you had a situation where the vessel you were propelling put the motor under a heavy load and it wasn't able to spin the prop very fast, a more powerful motor would indeed get you more speed as the RPMs of the prop would increase. But most kayaks simply don't tax most trolling motors. The only way we were able to obtain a higher speed was by swapping the common trolling motor props for small RC aircraft propellors. We also tried the prop from a Native pedal drive kayak as it has much, much greater pitch than standard trolling motor props. But it ate battery life very, very quickly.

But don't take my word for it. Play around and see what you can do.

Exactly my point. He's got a prop with a much higher pitch, and it pulls so any amps that he couldn't likely stack enough batteries on board to go very far.

10 to 11 MPH on a kayak with a trolling motor is suspect.

The reason you won't get a speed increase with a more powerful motor is that the pitch on trolling motor props doesn't require much power to spin under the weight of a kayak. A more powerful motor isn't going to spin the prop any faster than a lowered powered motor.

Now if you had a situation where the vessel you were propelling put the motor under a heavy load and it wasn't able to spin the prop very fast, a more powerful motor would indeed get you more speed as the RPMs of the prop would increase. But most kayaks simply don't tax most trolling motors. The only way we were able to obtain a higher speed was by swapping the common trolling motor props for small RC aircraft propellors. We also tried the prop from a Native pedal drive kayak as it has much, much greater pitch than standard trolling motor props. But it ate battery life very, very quickly.

But don't take my word for it. Play around and see what you can do.

I think I am going to be building out my own Lifepo4 battery pack. Looking for good cells on alibaba now! Will keep everyone updated on which way I go. Thanks!

try here for (used) Li batteries
https://batteryhookup.com/

More power will not equal more speed on a kayak.

I've seen and heard this comment so many times and it's just not true at least in most cases on a fishing kayak. More power can and often will equal more speed. Granted the goal shouldn't be more speed but on a kayak a bigger, higher thrust trolling motor often will increase the speed slightly. I've watched too many tests and done it myself to believe otherwise.