dawallace45 said:
I now have the head of the motor turned around and have mounted it on the bow of my johnboat ...
That's exactly what I do in my johnboat. All the bow mount motors, even if they are hand control, are too expensive. You can get a small transom mount hand control for $100 or less, at least the last time I checked. Unscrew the head from the shaft, spin it around in the right direction, and mount it up front. I actually LIKE hand control, so I have it made.
The only problem is that a proper bow mount usually has some sort of breakaway device so that the weight of the boat doesn't wreck the motor when you run the motor into something. Using a transom mount, you don't have that feature. Get the boat moving along good, run the lower unit of the motor into a solid object, and something will have to break.
Considering how cheap the motor is, and how light my johnboat is, I'll take the gamble.
George