I'm thinking about aquiring an electric motor for my drift boat -mainly for when I'm side drifting for steelhead so I'll get a chance to fish instead of being chained to the ores.

I'm looking at the Minn Kota 55T and 74T models. The 55T has 55lbs of thrust and runs off 12volts (one battery). The 74T has 74lbs thrust and is a 24 volt motor which requires two 12 volt batterises to operate. Anyone have either of these motors or can offer an opinion of which would be better for use on a drift boat for river fishing?

I've looked at them at GI Joes and the 74T is sort of a monster and looks to be about 40lbs or around 10lbs heavier than the 55T. Is the extra thrust you get with the 74lb model worth the added hastle of horsing the heavy motor in and out of the water everytime you go through a shallow spot and having to pack 100 lbs of batteries into your boat?