# Homemade power pole



## Ranger J.

Hey everyone, I am working on making my own homemade power pole for my Tracker 195. I am using 3" channel aluminum, HDPE plastic, 225 lb 12v linear actuator, 3/4" fiberglass pole with a metal base tip, and a wireless remote. I worked on it all day today, and for a few hours yesterday. I made decent progress on the main body.


----------



## rednecknproud21

Can't wait to see it finished. Glad you started a thread.[GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk


----------



## Fire1386

Following with interest.... good luck!


----------



## Ranger J.

Put in some more work today. Got the pole moving. Video won't upload, will try to get more pictures tomorrow and install the fiberglass pole.


----------



## Skunked again

=D> very nice


----------



## Lockndam25

were did you find a 12v linear actuator and how far will it go out?


----------



## Ranger J.

I found it on Amazon. I bought the fiberglass pole, tip, actuator, and remote from Amazon. It's water resistant. It will extend out 12"


----------



## Jim

Awesome! looking forward to seeing this completed!


----------



## Ranger J.

Alright, I got the pole test mounted on the boat, and tested the remote. I found that I miss measured making the mounting bracket. The poles sit at 22 degree angle instead as close to 90 as I thought, but I will work on that tomorrow. I am also considering reducing the length of the poles or drilling holes to reduce the weight. I bought the clamp on base for the power pole micro anchor to use for mounting the poles. I'm not too keen on drilling holes in my boat. I had to cut out a hole in one of the poles to allow the actuator to fit in between the two. I am probably going to switch the arms around so that the hole faces the boat instead of away due to the wire rubbing the inside of he channel. Or I will make a wider hole.

I don't know why my pictures are posting sideways.


----------



## Ranger J.

I got the angle of the pole fixed. I didn't take into consideration the the dead rise of the transom.


----------



## edwonbass

WHOA! That's really nice work. Any chance there will be some video? How much does it weigh?


----------



## rednecknproud21

Can't wait to know how it works and see it in action

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk


----------



## Ranger J.

edwonbass said:


> WHOA! That's really nice work. Any chance there will be some video? How much does it weigh?


 Thanks! I can't get the videos to post. It weighs about 20 lbs.


----------



## Ranger J.

If anyone knows how to post videos, let me know. It will make this thread much more helpful.


----------



## Ranger J.

I got the pole mounted today. I took it out and tested it, and the pole has a lot of flex. It held the boat well in soft to semi hard bottom, but was not as stable in gravel. The metal tip actually echoed pretty loud across the gravel. I am going to cut the arms down from 6' to 4' tomorrow, and cut the pole from 8' to 4'. I swapped the arms locations so that the actuator motor faced the boat instead of away, and allows the wire to move freely without rubbing the arm. You can see the brackets I made for the base to attach the pole to the clamp. These were made out of a piece of channel I cut in half, and made a 22 degree cut to make room for the arms. The bolts used for the pivot brackets and to attach the base bracket to the arms are 3/8", and the bolts used to attach the actuator and the clamp base are 5/16". All the nuts used are thread locking. The pole system is sturdy during travel. I still can't get my videos to post.

I should clarify that the flex I was referring to was if the boat was moving when the pole hits bottom. I am also going to find a better way to secure the fiberglass pole to the top bracket.


----------



## Ranger J.

Well, I got the pole secured, and everything wired up. I left the arms at 6' for the time being, but cut the fiberglass pole from 8' to 6'. Now I am going to paint it black or blue, I can't decide which would look better.


----------



## Ranger J.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/CO32yb2Af78[/youtube]
Hopefully this works for y'all. I uploaded it to my YouTube. I will get another video of in the water this weekend.


----------



## Lockndam25

Your a mad man that is awesome love it.


----------



## rednecknproud21

I love it how much would you say you have in this build and where did you get the supplies from

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk


----------



## Ranger J.

rednecknproud21 said:


> I love it how much would you say you have in this build and where did you get the supplies from
> 
> Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk



I got the aluminum from a metal distributor, Ryerson steel $145. The actuator, control, aluminum tip, and fiberglass pole came from Amazon.com $190. Bolts and nuts all came from Lowes $90. The clamp base came from bass pro for $60. So about a total of $485. It was a fun build. I will likely remake the top knuckle, and possibly the bottom one. And add a cost of paint.


----------



## Ranger J.

So a bit of an update. The first day of travel on the road and the actuator broke. After tearing everything apart and checking all alignments, and found that many of the holes were not aligned. This put a large torque load on the actuator. When it broke, the pole fell on to the road breaking the top knuckle. The fiberglass pole took the hit and bounced off the pavement staying in one piece.
I replaced the actuator with the same style, on the hunch that it was my fault for the failure not itself. I had the base knuckle and top knuckle remade using CNC machine. I redrilled all the holes using a drill press instead of a hand drill. I now have the pole reassembled and painted. Everything lines up much better now. The only thing is from the base to the top of the arms, there is a 1/32" out-alignment. But there is no sign of twisting and torquing.


----------



## Jim

:beer: Very cool!

Thanks for the update!


----------



## onthewater102

Perhaps you should get a strap and wrap the assembly at the base so it can't flex while in transit? I don't think the misalignment had anything to do with the actuator failing - with 6' of torque working on it even little vibrations are powerful, let alone bouncing on the road. You might be able to restrict the motion and keep it from flexing some with a snug strap. Something like a deck rod securing strap or a trolling motor strap.


----------



## handyandy

nice work pictures of it down would be awesome. I've like the power poles and micro poles but I fear weather I made one or bought one that I would bust it on a low lying limb in the rivers I run. Great job so far thanks for sharing.


----------



## Ranger J.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/ZaqLG9-h5x4[/youtube]
Here is a walk through of the power pole. I have replaced the actuator since the last time it failed. Hope this is useful to you all.


----------

