Motorguide Xi5

[Jim Elam]

Decided to get rid of my old Minn Kota Edge and get the Xi5 in July.  I fish a deep V aluminum multi species boat 17.5 feet, and got the 24 v 80 lb thrust model with pinpoint GPS and built in transducer.  You will need the ducer in the TM cone if you want a front signal source for your front graph as adding a transducer and cable won't work on motors that rotate and deploy like this one.  I have found the transducer to be as good as the one that came with my HDS unit.

Mounted the motor on a MG detachable base.  It is solid and handy, but I'm sure you could break it if you tried hard enough.  The base does not have a good area to place a padlock on the detach mechanism, so it could facilitate theft under certain conditions if you get lazy and fail to remove the TM from the boat when needed.  Takes me less than a minute to remove or mount the unit on my rig.  Overall I like the detachable base.

I mostly fish alone for bass and enjoy fishing NED rigs and jigs, crank baits, some deep spoon/vertical jigging /drop shot with electronics, and thought this TM might really be helpful with these techniques.  Additionally I like to sight fish with a fly rod for carp in the summer, and the ability to cast from various points in the vessel while the TM held my boat position interested me.  I also take my children from time to time, and anything that could free up my hands when they were along seemed attractive.

 

Cost was...well, more on that later...

 

Install was straightforward.  The motor looks weird because it hangs way out off the bow, but once I got my head around the fact that this is by design it was not a problem.  Just have to double and triple check before drilling and bolting to make sure the motor will deploy and operate with adequate bow clearance, then mounting was simple.  Have to be a little more careful when docking the bow in wind or waves because of the TM than before, not really a big deal.

 

Control is accomplished with a wireless foot pedal and a handheld remote.  The foot pedal is different from a cable system.  I had to get used to a little less feel and a tendency to over control if not careful.  Not a big deal, but I definitely like a cable control better.  I was amazed at how frequently I relied on the handheld remote at first, as I thought I probably would not use it much.  It is very simple and works well.  There is occasionally some trouble getting the TM to lock in on which control device to prioritize, likely driven by operator error.   This is infrequent and easily solved.

 

Operation has been fairly intuitive.  Youtube has been helpful on learning some things, however, most of what I do with this motor is what I did with the old cable control models I have used since my teens.  There are really only 2 functions that I use beyond what I had on my conventional TMs previously, and they are both worth the $1500 investment in this TM.  They also justify the slight loss of feel when giving up the cable control system IMO.  They are as follows:

 

1) Anchor lock - WOW!  All I can say is this feature simplifies so many things that I can't really imagine going back to the old motors now.  The TM does exactly what is advertised, and I have found the utility of this feature alone to be worth every dollar I have spent on this piece of equipment.  It is particularly useful in moderate wind or current when inattention to boat control even for a few seconds could have you in a pickle.  Also great when you need to help a co-angler with a fish or a tangle, when you need to attend to a child or novice, and when you want to really work an area thoroughly (great for NED rig fishing and vertical jigging).  It is also handy if you happen to have mechanical problems or live well issues that need attention while in the wind.  The utility of this feature is tremendous because the function is reliable and very precise. The ability to move the boat in small increments is quite useful as well.

 

2) Heading lock - this feature compensates for wind and current when you want to, say, fish a bank at a certain speed with your favorite crank bait, etc.  You can even combine this feature with a cruise control feature to precisely control your speed while on the desired heading.  Nice.  If I trolled much this would be even handier.   You can make heading adjustments quickly on the fly, so operation is simple.

 

Of course there are other more complicated features like course and spot recall, and you can even link it to your HDS touch screen MFD, but I didn't do that because it already does what I need and I don't need to make things more complicated.  Your milage may vary on these features, but they aren't really needed in my kind of fishing.

 

Overall, the precision and simplicity of the unit and its ability to allow me to fish from multiple spots in the boat makes it a great bargain compared to a $700 cable controlled model IMO.  I would definitely buy again.  It is without question the most useful piece of equipment on my boat.

 

Summary:

Pros - Works as advertised, easy to install and operate, very reliable (so far), very battery efficient, very quiet, anchor feature has tremendous utility, Heading lock and cruise control features are useful and simple, multiple other features that could be handy depending on application

 

Cons - No feel with foot pedal, TM head is difficult to see at night, TM is bulky and hangs over the bow more than others, pretty pricey, long term durability not yet proven

 

I hope this is helpful.  PM me if you have other questions that I might be able to help with .

 

Jim

 

 

 

[dan hufferd]

I love mine I would add to the CONS no read out on the hand held control. I don't have mine wired to the depth finder so I am always looking up front to see if it is on. I have the 80 it will keep two men in a loaded deep v on the spot in a 20mph wind. Not what I want to do but just in case you need it's there.