We may earn a referral commission from some links on this page. It doesn't change your price or our recommendations.
Bass and flats boat thrusters: bow, stern or both
On most bass and flats boats the bow thruster is already bolted on, and you call it the trolling motor. This guide shows why, where the real gap is (the stern, once the outboard is in neutral), and what the kits that fill it cost. Read it before you spend anything.
The short answer
A bow-mount trolling motor sits at the very front of the boat. The ones in the thruster list this site keeps publish 80–115 lb of thrust.
The shallow planing bow has no depth for a tube, and nobody sells a tunnel kit for these hulls.
With the outboard in neutral, nothing moves the transom. Stern thrusters that bolt to the outboard's cavitation plate, the flat plate above the propeller on the outboard's leg, run $4,495 to $5,495 as kits.
We found no owner figure for a fitted thruster on a bass or flats hull. Every price on this page is a maker's kit price.
Bow, stern, or both on a bass boat
In one line: the bow is probably covered already, by the trolling motor. The stern is the end with no help once the outboard is in neutral.
At the bow, the trolling motor already pushes the bow sideways. The section you probably already own the bow thruster explains why.
At the stern, the outboard steers only while it is pushing. In a ramp queue, or backing in between two boats, nothing moves the transom. The section the stern is the actual gap lists the units that bolt to the outboard’s cavitation plate. Nothing goes through the hull. Sideshift says they can go on with the boat afloat, but we recommend fitting them with the boat out of the water, where the leg is easier to reach.
At both ends, the trolling motor and a stern unit together give you a steering force at each end of the boat. The section authority at both ends covers that setup.
Buying only one? Our page bow or stern first? helps you choose, and our page on what a stern thruster costs has the dated prices for the back of the boat.
A 19 ft bass boat, stopped, turning about her middle. The arrows point the way each unit pushes to turn her: the bow one way, the stern the other.
Most thruster advice is written for a different boat
Almost everything written about thrusters is written for boats two to three times the size of yours. Here is what turns up when you search:
- Jet systems sold for “boats from 25–60ft”.
- Tunnel ranges from Sleipner and Quick.
- Marine-store category pages built around cruisers.
A typical bass boat is about 19 feet. Tie her up beside the boats those pages are about and she looks like the dinghy. Almost none of that equipment is made for her, and none of the pages recommending it were written with her in mind.
One forum thread does ask the question for a bass boat (thrusters for a bass boat instead of a trolling motor). It has no answer in it.
You probably already own the bow thruster
A thruster steers by pushing sideways, as far from the boat's pivot point as it can get. Turning is thrust multiplied by that distance.
That describes a bow-mount trolling motor exactly. It is bolted to the very front of the boat, on the longest The distance from the point the boat turns about to the place the push is applied. Double the distance and the same push turns the boat twice as hard. the boat has.
| Model | Price | Thrust published |
|---|---|---|
| Minn Kota Terrova Freshwater Bow-Mount Trolling Motor with MEGA Down Imaging
West Marine listing, read 28 August 2026. See it on West Marine | $2,500 | 80 lb. Thrust |
| Minn Kota Ultrex Freshwater Bow-Mount Trolling Motor with Dual Spectrum CHIRP
West Marine listing, read 28 August 2026. See it on West Marine | $3,200 | 80 lb. Thrust |
| Minn Kota Riptide Instinct QUEST Saltwater Bow-Mount Trolling Motor
West Marine listing, read 28 August 2026. See it on West Marine | $5,000 | Riptide Instinct QUEST 90/115 lb. Thrust |
| Minn Kota Terrova Quest Freshwater Bow-Mount Trolling Motor with MEGA Side Imaging
West Marine listing, read 28 August 2026. See it on West Marine | $3,800 | Terrova QUEST 90/115 lb. Thrust |
| Minn Kota Riptide Terrova Saltwater Bow-Mount Trolling Motor
West Marine listing, read 28 August 2026. See it on West Marine | $2,900 | 115 lb. Thrust |
Compare that with the thrusters. Those trolling motors publish 80–115 lb. The external thrusters marketed at this hull publish nothing at all, so you could not compare them on power even if you wanted to.
On a bass boat the trolling motor is the better bow thruster. It has a published number. It is mounted further forward. It also lifts clear of the water, so nothing fouls and nothing drags.
Three things count against it:
- A trolling motor is built to hold a fishing position.
- Deploying it takes a moment you may not have.
- Older ones without spot-lock, the hold-position feature on the current models, are much worse at docking than the current generation.
Our page on where a trolling motor works as a bow thruster and where owners report it does nothing goes through the owner reports by hull. Light boats with a lot of The area of the boat the wind can push on: the hull sides, the cabin, the mast and rigging, or the canopy. A tall, boxy boat has a lot of it, and wind force does not care how slowly you are moving. are where it works.
A tunnel is off the table
This one is quick, and it rules out most of what is sold as a bow thruster.
A A tube bored straight through the hull below the waterline, with a propeller in the middle of it. It is the conventional thruster. Fitting one is mostly a labor job rather than a hardware one. needs a tube passed side to side through the hull. It has to sit far enough below the waterline to stay fed with water. A bass boat has a shallow planing bow with almost no depth forward. There is nothing to put a tube through.
Nobody sells a tunnel kit for these hulls. In the owner threads we read for this site, nobody had cut one in.
So this site lists no bow thruster for a bass boat. No tunnel or retractable fits the hull, and no external unit is listed for a boat that planes. The strip below says so, cell by cell. The trolling motor covers the bow, for the reason in the section above.
| External | Tunnel | Retractable |
|---|---|---|
| Not listed for a boat that planes | Not possible on this boat | Not possible on this boat |
A different length, or a different boat? The thruster finder prices your own, and the comparison by boat type puts this row next to every other kind of boat.
The stern is the actual gap
This is the part worth your money, if any of it is.
Your outboard turns its thrust with the wheel. Turn the engine and the push turns with it. That is why a bass boat backs and turns well under power. It is also why nobody who owns one complains about steering while the motor is pushing.
The trouble starts when the motor is not pushing. For example:
- Idling in a ramp queue with a crosswind.
- Backing into a slip between two boats, with no room to swing the motor.
- Coming alongside a dock and needing the The flat surface across the very back of the boat. to move three feet sideways with the engine in neutral.
The trolling motor at the bow cannot help the back of the boat, however hard you lean on the foot pedal. That is the gap a stern unit fills.
| Model | Kit price | Thrust published | Power | Boat length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sideshift OB230 Outboard Stern Thruster
The maker’s own listing, read 28 August 2026. Full page: fit, cost and wiring See it on the maker’s site | $4,495 | Not published | 2.5 hp, 12 V, 300 A | Up to 30 ft |
| Sideshift OB230-D Outboard Stern Thruster
The maker’s own listing, read 28 August 2026. Full page: fit, cost and wiring See it on the maker’s site | $4,995 | Not published | 5 hp, 12 V, 500 A | Up to 40 ft |
| Sideshift OB240 Outboard Stern Thruster
The maker’s own listing, read 28 August 2026. Full page: fit, cost and wiring See it on the maker’s site | $4,995 | Not published | 3.5 hp, 24 V | Up to 35 ft |
| Sideshift OB240-D Outboard Stern Thruster
The maker’s own listing, read 28 August 2026. Full page: fit, cost and wiring See it on the maker’s site | $5,495 | Not published | 7.5 hp, 24 V, 400 A | 35–50 ft |
Two things to know before you buy:
- None of them publishes a thrust rating. Sideshift publishes none for any model in its range, and our no-hole page has every model.
- They sit permanently in the water on the outboard's leg. That matters on a boat that gets trailered, beached and run in water you could wade.
Authority at both ends, without a tunnel
Put the two halves together. A trolling motor at the bow and a stern thruster on the cavitation plate give you a steering force at each end of the boat. They sit at opposite ends, so they work on the whole length between them.
Push them opposite ways and she pivots on the spot. Push them the same way and she moves sideways, off a dock or a piling, without touching the outboard.
A much larger boat spends five figures and a Lifting the boat out of the water on a travel lift or a trailer so work can be done below the waterline. It is billed separately from the job itself. to get that. On this hull one half of it is already fitted.
So on a bass boat, ask which end you are missing. Almost always the answer is the stern, and it is the cheaper half.
When it is genuinely worth it
A stern unit earns its place in a few situations:
- A slip you cannot beat. It is tight, with a boat either side and a crosswind that catches you as you come off the A hull running fast enough to climb on top of the water instead of pushing through it. Anything hanging below the hull adds drag and can be damaged at that speed..
- A busy ramp. You are keeping her lined up in a queue, in wind, with the motor in neutral and people watching. Owners describe that moment as the reason they looked.
- A heavier boat than a bass boat. These same outboard-mount units are marketed at A pontoon boat with three logs instead of two.-class hulls too. There is far more boat there for the wind to get hold of.
- Short-handed, or not as quick around the boat as you were. If you can move the boat sideways, you can dock it alone.
And when it is not. Maybe your complaint is about handling while the engine is pushing. No thruster will improve on an outboard that already steers its own thrust, so spend the money on something else.
What this means when you dock
If the bow wanders as you come in, use the trolling motor you already have. It sits at the very front of the boat, which is where sideways push does the most. An older one without spot-lock will do less than a current one.
If the stern drifts in a ramp queue with the motor in neutral, that is the stern gap. A kit that bolts to the cavitation plate runs $4,495 to $5,495. See the stern kits.
If you back into a slip between two boats, a stern unit working with the trolling motor lets you move her sideways without touching the outboard. The section authority at both ends shows how.
If she only misbehaves while the engine is pushing, a thruster will not help. The outboard already steers its own thrust.
What nobody has published
No installed price for a bass or flats hull. We went looking and found no owner stating what a fitted thruster cost them. Every figure on this page is a kit price from a maker.
No thrust rating on any outboard-mount stern thruster.
No editorial page anywhere aimed at this boat. The search results are equipment listings for boats two to three times the size.
Stern kit prices from the maker's own product pages, trolling motor prices from West Marine’s listings (28 August 2026), and every thrust rating the maker's own, all held in this site's thruster database.