Personally, I plan to go twins next year. I am not buying a kicker. Why spend another $4-5 K on a motor and the added cost to install and engineer the kicker bracket and set up a third steering motor which is always a pain. And you have a third motor to service. I just talked to a guy in Nootka who replaced his twins (200 HP I think) on his 25 foot boat that he used for trolling. He had 12,000 hours on them, mostly trolling. My immaculate Yam F225 blew up at 700 hours that had never been used for trolling. I don't think using a large motor to troll is an issue at all. Although I have a kicker on the current boat, I have trolled with my new Yam F250 and it burns .7 GPH according to my NMEA. Doubt my 9.9 HT is much better. Just one mans view.