Opinions on the Minn Kota Power Drive trolling motors

[moguy1973]

Anyone have a Power Drive on their boat and if so how do you like it?  I've heard good and bad about them. 

[grizwilson]

I have the Terrova and love/hate it. For deeper fishing over brush piles, using the anchor feature it is super. For working ledges dragging bottom bouncers at 1-1.5 mph great. For working through the timber or around all the docks at LOZ not so great. I mainly crappie and walleye fish these days, so will stick with it. If I were mostly bass fishing think I would go the other way. I also feel that the built in transducer seems to scare fish.... just my opinion. Maybe J-Doc will jump in he has both and a quick detach system so can change for needed application. I am considering going with. I also am told the ix5 has a tighter anchor area, and that a unit with foot control/powerdrive is comming out.... hope this helps. g

[Quillback]

I have a Fortrex, had it for over 4 years now and it works fine.  My main gripe about Minkotas are that nylon pull cord.  It will break at some point.  And it will happen when you are out on the water.  Minkota makes a steel replacement cable, and you'd think they would just sell them with the steel cable installed rather than the nylon one.  I'm sure they save a few bucks by sending them out with a nylon cable.  But dang it, these nylon cords have been a problem for years. 

If I ever buy another one, I'm going to ask the salesman to throw in a steel replacement cord for free.

[fishinwrench]

As with everything else on your boat/motor/trailer you have to at least visually inspect the deploy cord from time to time and replace it when it shows signs of wear.  Replacing a piece of rope once every year or two is alot easier/cheaper than trailer tires, wheel bearings, batteries, and gear lube. 

Personally I prefer a lightweight and limp piece of cord that I can kick out of the way, over a stiff piece of cable that's strong enough to rip the trolling motor off the bow, so I hope they don't make the cables standard equipment.  A lever to disengage the locks if a cord breaks would be nice though. 

[Quillback]

Where mine broke you have to take the housing apart to inspect it that's why it got me.  I'd rather put a steel cable on there and be done.  And I'm not worried about ripping the TM off the bow when I pull it up, that would be pretty extreme.  But, to each his own.

[Quillback]

BTW, there is a lever on the Fortrex that you can pull back to get the motor up if the cable breaks with the TM deployed.  You have to pull the plastic side panels off and there it is.  Had to figure that one out one day on the water when that cable broke on me.

[moguy1973]

Eh, went ahead and bought a MK Maxxum 65 from BPS.  Seemed to be priced right and has the digital speed control that I wanted and the Maxxum seem to be a pretty stout trolling motor that will taking a beating.  Read too many things about the Power Drive being slow to turn and better suited for trolling and open water fishing.

[Smalls21]

i put a piece of heat shrink tubing over the nylon cord to help it last longer.

[Ketchup]

On my 2nd Maxxum and no complaints. Guess if it had assist or self deploy then I wouldn't feel my age while pulling it up.. Great motors tho. 

[skeeter]

I started just using the rope on Motor Guide to just release the latching mechanism then actually lifting the motor back into the boat by grabbing the heavy duty cables and wiring assembly going into the head to actually lift the motor out of the water.   One cord in 18 years and it seems doing a minor thing like visually inspecting not only the cord but where it's routed thru the motor brackets for any sharp edges helps avoid on-water surprises. 

I hope the M-K motors are OK because I'm waiting on a National back-order to put an Ulterra on the new/used boat.  Eventually hope to hook it up with a Helix10 with all the bells and expensive whistles required to connect the two....the Humminbird is costly enough but all the additional junk required to connect the two is going to require a tax refund first