A question for some of you folks, I fly into lakes all summer long, for the most part I bring an electric trolling motor and a booster pack (I have boats already in at these lakes). This works great if I am not going far but not so great on the bigger lakes. I do not like carrying an outboard and gas can in the plane because no matter what I do the plane smells of gas. I have been looking at making a bracket (bear with me as I try to explain) that would clamp around a strut at the bottom with a plate that came out across the top of the float, that way I could lay the motor down on top of the float and tighten the mounting clamps to the plate to secure it. The front part of the bracket I am thinking of making a basket out of small round bar that I could set the gas can in and secure with a bungee cord.

I know a lot of you guys have seen everything carried outside of float planes, has any one ever come across a good way to carry an outboard externally? I would like to hear about what others have seen/done. What worked and just as importantly what didn’t. as well as any thoughts on the topic.
Oh… I am in a Maule M6-235 on EDO 2440’s
Thanks
Ian

Guessing that it won’t fit in the float compartment ? That would be my first choice if it would . Not sure how big the outboard is. Just pad the top of the float and tie it down real good . ? As in really really good . As far as gas goes maybe bring an empty 5 gallon can in the plane and fill it up with airplane gas when you get there ? Your bracket thing for the motor sounds like a solid idea I think .

Not room for it inside your M-6?

Back when I was guiding we would always put the motors inside and the fuel in the floats. If memory serves me correct we could get 3 40s and 3 guides + a pilot inside a beaver. We never worried with it, but you could you run the fuel out and wedge a towel in the hose attachment point to keep any drip out of your plane.

Although it wasn’t as frequent, we occasionally tied outboards on the strut with plain old rope and used a truckers hitch to get it good and tight. On a beaver, a 40hp with a jet boot would sit upright and ride pretty nicely hog tied against the strut. We didn’t use a bracket or anything although we were running Edos. Might have done things differently with aerocets or the like.

We also strapped on other stuff at times....like 18’ boats.

One of the outboards I use for the small lakes is a folding 3 hp Evinrude that fits in it's own case, it does not take up much space. I take a 3 gallon cruise-a-day tank, then run the motor dry before taking it off the boat. With a setup like this, you could put the motor (in it's case) in a garbage bag and the gas smell would be contained inside. They have not made these motors for years, but if you Google Evinrude folding outboard motors, there are a few out there for sale, they did come in different sizes. That did not answer your question, but it may be a consideration rather than strapping an outboard to the floats.

Steve