BTW thanks for the tip on the red paint. Got any suggestions for the gray?

I was thinking the same thing as far as supporting the head goes, but as it turns out folks are still getting the cracks even though the head is supported. There is also a chance that the troller itself could get damaged by supporting the head because apparently Minn Kota designs them to flex and bounce while they are being transported or ran on in the water and if you make them too rigid it induces too much shock. I'm not sure adding an extra plate below would do anything for the two joined surfaces. I have definitely seen the mod, but I'm still not totally sold on it yet. I think as the years pass we'll definitely see what works on it and what doesn't, but there are way too many variables to say one way or the other what is really the solid "aha! Gotcha!" Sort of factor here. As far as the gray paint for retouching the underbelly of the hull goes, check my description under the "resources" section. I listed it there. Ace has a pretty close match to it.

I think its the way the reinforcement is on the boat -- it doesn't go all the way to the front it comes back from the triangular bow in a step pattern it youre not really careful you can put screws into the non-reinforced area when mounting the new motor maybe thats part of the problem???? who knows?? I wonder how common it is esp. with these newer Motors with a much smaller mounting area than the edge had? I am going to add a ram mount support to the deck or the carpeted piece in the very front if I can make that work to avoid drilling into the deck itself --- I want it out of the way anyway so I dont trip over it while im fishing -- Im kinda clumsy to begin with so dont need any more challenges while im walking around up there.

@@anonimous596 I've seen the area beneath. It doesn't look to have any ribs or reinforcement of any kind so you are looking at putting a lot of leverage on it. I think if the plate had ribs underneath it that tied into the primary stringers we probably wouldn't be having this issue but doing something like that would require pulling the entire deck and then pulling off the bow plate most likely then adding ribs underneath and then welding them all up. The work required would be quite extensive all to reinforce that one area.

@@extremeboating7347 yep -- we shouldn't t be needing to rebuild our boats...... hopefully your weld fixed it permanently and you wont have any more issues and Im really hoping I dont have the issue at all!

After very very close examination of the situation (after pulling the troller off of course) what I found is exactly what you are describing. The short base is 1000% the cause of it and has so much force that it can literally dent in the entire section of the bow plate base it's mounted on. I only know that because that is exactly what happened to mine which is why my welds cracked. I have a follow up video to make but have been really busy trying to fix the entire issue currently so I haven't had the time to put up a part two yet. I'm swapping out to a Garmin Force and ditching the lift assist style troller. It'll be nicer on my messed up back anyway when trying to clear the prop of weeds.

Yeah the whole issue is no longer an issue at all. Reinforced it and I got a scissor style troller now in the Garmin Force.

The reservoir I normally run in is pretty heavy as far as wind and as a subsequent result, a lot of wake, rollers, chop. It's pretty heavy duty on all of the rigs that run out there. The problem with these bow plates is that they are thin and not very well reinforced so they do eventually see a lot of flex. The fact we are putting the equal to a Corvette worth of troller motors moving this thing around in front I think only compounds the issue. I don't have any other photos of the damage other than what I posted. If you want to see an up close version of the cracks I'd be more than happy to email them over to you so you can zoom in on them. Look at the paint, there is a break in it all along the weld lines. The repair itself wound up being about a foot to about 1.25 feet long. It was a pretty extensive crack. When inspecting for a cracked bow plate, look for a split in the paint at the welds. That will be your smoking gun giveaway. I don't think you are going to find one person who knows what the issue is. There are too many variables as I stated to narrow it down to one specific causality. Now that it is all welded up and back to zero, I spoke to the welder and asked him if it would help to put on a reinforcement plate on it. He said yes, but he said if you are going to do a plate then you should do a full triangle shaped plate that is basically a cutout of the entire bow plate. He said 12 gauge aluminum should be fine but I'll probably run a1/8 to 3/16" plate. Whether or not that will solve the issue is anyone's guess. We can only work with what we got.

I appreciate that brother!

So far zero issues with it whatsoever! It's been good to me. I just really think the aluminum in the bow either needs to be thicker or it needs a sandwich piece on top of it/ below the troller itself to make it stronger and capable of being able to handle loads on it better.

I made a follow up with those details.

I have not actually. I think they constructed the bow on those correctly.

No, it's just lack of reinforcement on the bow plate itself. They didn't do anything to reinforce it from under so if you move the thrust point forward outside of factory style (even then, jury is out if stock style won't cause problems in and of itself on the bow plate) it will accelerate and expose the weak points on the factory bow plate setup.

It is and or an improper trolling motor installation.

If you have a Bass Tracker Classic XL I invite you to install a troller on yours and take it out into the waters where white caps are common. It is a common occurrence on those rigs and while I can't guarantee anything obviously my money says that you would/ will run into the same issue on yours if you install it without some sort of reinforcement plate right beneath it.

Meh... Potato like Potato, Tomato like Tomato. 🤣

Interesting, so that has to mean that the reinforcement there is lacking or the aluminum itself is not thick enough to be able to handle frontal loads as a whole. I would think it would be a lack of reinforcement because of the fact that the thickness aluminum they use there is just as much as the rest of the hull and the transom itself and that stuff is strong enough to handle a 50 HP engine? You know what I mean?

Lack of proper reinforcement up front from the factory coupled with mounting points on a troller that is not designed to be on this style bow in the first place. It's not a speed issue, but hard water sure doesn't help the issue either.

Possibly. If this happens again then that will confirm the bow is just too weak period, but it seems to be a common recurring theme amongst XL owners. So much so to the point that Tracker added a rib beneath the bow plate in attempts to remedy that issue. If you look at the 22 or 23 and up models they have a notable mark on the bow indicating they did something under there, presumably added a reinforcement of some sort under there.