how much would a small marine battery and 30lb thrust trolling motor weigh? I assume that 30lb thrust is plenty for a kickboat.

You assume right I used to have a 30lb on my 15' boat! I have a hand controled one on my little dinghy it probably weighs in the 15lb range, problem is w/ a small battery I dont think it will last long if you planning on using it alot you may have to rig up some sort of way to hold a bigger one.

how much would a decent battery that will last me all day for major moves weigh?

Let me check my boat and see how heavy mine are I am no expert in these feilds but I do have a dinghy that probably weighs 100lbs and have run that one out within a few hours if just running a trolling motor all the time. I am guessing your plontoon weighs close to 100lbs + the weight of you and your gear? You may want to check with this sublect with some guy's who are experts I dont want you to end up buying the wrong stuff because of me. But for a trolling motor I think you should get this one it is designed for smaller crafts and it has teh shortest shaft avalible http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jhtml;

Dude, I have been in the market for a boat for a while. Trolling motor specs are high on the agenda. I can tell you that the pros say 5 pounds for every 200 pounds. 30 pounds thrust is way more than enough for your application. Find a way to go minimum 12 volts (deep cycle) and you will be more than happy. Have fun, James.

Btw, I see a lot of older trolling motors in ebay. Are the new trolling motors a lot more efficient in regards to battery useage?

Nemorino, how much are you willing to spend? The fact that you're looking at E-bay I would assume is that you're on a really tight budget. Be honest with you I think 30 pounds is way more than you REALLY need. Are you going to be fishing or trolling around and wasting valuable fishing time? Are you fishing a giant lake? Dude, find a good spot and work it! You can do just fine with a much smaller trolling motor, battery, and most importantly FISHING SKILLS!!! I hope to hear from you soon. I am about to spend thousands of dollars on a boat. I can tell you that asking questions/researching everything involved has prevented me from making a bad decesion. I hope you will make the best decision and be content. Are the older trolling motors more battery efficient? I really feel that for the dollar go with the newer ones.

I am sure you meant no insult by capping the fishing skills part so I won't take any. The reason I am looking at a trolling motor is because at lakes at Castaic it would be unsafe to row across the boat lanes to reach the "inner" V of the lake. Of course, not counting that it will take a very long time. I don't know about you but I don't enjoy being in the middle of speeding boats for too long. Also, 30lb is about the smallest that I see. Lastly, the reason I am looking at ebay is because I don't feel like spending too much money for something I won't be using too often except for very long treks.

Sonny,
I used a 34 lb trolling motor that I picked up at Walmart for $90, about the smallest you'll find. I picked up a motorcycle sized deep cycle battery for $50. This setup worked great. If I just used it for major moves across the lake and large bays I could go all day on a charge. I used oars and flippers for other positioning. By the time I got back in the motor was slowing down, but still running.
Here's a couple of pictures:
More pictures here:
http://calfishing.com/gallery/ken_anderson

Thanks for the info Ken. I see you positioned the battery near the front. That was one of the questions that I had. From what I see a battery can be upto 50lbs if you go deep cycle marine. Any problems with a motocycle battery leaking?

I use a Minnkota 30 lb and a deep cycle trolling battery on my V.V. The motor is about 12-15 lbs and the battery is about 40 lbs. All approximate. You can see pics in the gallery.

30 lbs is way more then we need, but it's nice for those long moves. I just moved my frame worward a few inches on the pontoons to compensate for the weight.

I bought a 10 amp high performance battery on e-bay for about $40. Unlike a lot of the motorcycle batteries, it is truely 'sealed'. There are no bags to fill or caps to put on. The only position it cannot be mounted in is upside down. I left it on it's side for 14 days just to check ;-) No leaks! I use it to run my graph and livewell. It will run both for 2 days no problem! It would run my graph and trolling motor all day if I only used the troller in short bursts.

Thanks for the excellent info. What is the make/model of the battery? It sounds like the perfect solution since most batteries I have seen are almost 45lbs and that seems a bit heavy.

Purchased at Wal-Mart. Just weighed it 41 lbs in plastic battery box.

EverStart 24DC-6 with these specs: 500 MCA, 405 CCA & 75 AH

I think it was $40.

btw, can I use the same charger that I have for my 12v 7ah battery on a 33ah battery?

If you still have not bought a battery you may just want to keep checking the classified ads on different sites the one on western bass usually has lots of new stuff posted every day. I have bought alot of stuff from guy's off these things and have never been gyped alot of people are worried about that. If your in no hurry that is probably the cheapest way. Also I belive the smallest trolling motor I have seen NEW is 30lb although they do have older ones that are like 10-25 if you look at yard sales you could probably get one of these cheap?

It's mainenance free so the tops are sealed. No leaks, I'm still using it. I had it in a little tupperware container just to be sure.