Trolling motors

[Bill Babler]

I think the ulterra is a better motor, however I have gone thru 3 of them. Mostly a drive issue with retract and deploy. 

[Jerry Rapp]

the best TM I ever had was a Green Shakespeare 12V stern mount.  Ran forever and had forward and reverse and cost less than $100......................................LOL!

[Bill Babler]

The old cable Evinrude  was pretty bullet proof along with a red and white hand turn I cannot remember the name of. Was it a Silver Something?
I transferred one of those old Evinrude trollers over to 2 different boats. 6 years old when I sold the last package and never did anything to it. 

Yep, Silvertrol, Heavy Duty, 6 and 12 volt 😂😂😂😂

 

[Dock-in-it]

I think each brand has its fair share of lemons. My Lowrance Ghost works good as far as the motor and steering. 

The spot lock on mine has a mind of its own. It can be death trap in cold water Temps because it can throw you out of the boat. Sometimes I hit spot lock and the motor speed goes wide open and turning from left to right,,,,etc. I only hit spot lock when I am braced for the unknown and ready to disable it. My spot lock worked good for my first 300 outings. 

Lowrance told me it is probably interference from my Lowrance graph, but the issue happens when the front graph is turned off. I will get it fixed via warranty, but an expensive trolling motor should work using technology that has been around for years. 

Lowrance was not able to master the simple concept of having the direction arrow match the direction of the motor....but got that fixed via warranty. 

If the boat sits in the garage 99% of the time,  then any brand would probably work just fine.

[willyfish]

Thanks for the opinions and input. Every time this topic comes up I always hear good and bad. One of the big differences between the "pros" and everyone else is that they have tech crews in the boat yard that are ready to work on their boats if needed to get it all dialed in. We don't. Technology is a fickle friend.

[fishinwrench]

I had a Motorguide wireless on a flyfishing rig I built, and it seemed to have a mind of it's own.   Turned out that it was reacting to feedback from home security systems here around Lake O 

That SOB would slam the boat into docks and run me aground randomly, as if it was possessed by a demon.   😅

[Ron Burgundy]

6 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

If they were  giving Ultrex’s away free I still wouldn’t have one. 

Bought one, they replaced it with a free one and it broke too. 

Replaced it with a Garmin an no problems except a worn pull cord. 

I really like the Lowrance also, but guys that have them seem to be going back to Garmin. 

My Motor Guides never did me wrong and now you need to throw Power Pole Move into the mix. I’d wait a bit on it. Over priced and not exactly the start the company wanted at the Classic, Heavy Hitters and Redcrest. 

Depending on your electronics I’d probably match the motor except the Ultrex. 




 

Bill will you expanded on the Move ….is there problems already ?

[DavidB]

I assume that my experience with the Ghost's spotlock is similar to that with Garmin or MinnKota.  If I hit spotlock while moving, it will immediately return to where I engaged it.  The faster I'm going when I engage spotlock, the more likely I am to be thrown off balance.  Advancing age might have something to do with that😎.

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

I have found that connecting my Garmin to my graphs has no benefit what so ever to me, Same when i had a motorguide that connected to lowrance graphs. IT sounds cool but i never have found it useful. Trying to control the motor from a graph is just a pain in the butt

[Bill Babler]

From what I’ve been told the steering mechanism stripped gears at all 3 events as it was being beta tested. 

I believe one of the selling points was to be the ease of steering.  This is second hand info but from an extremely reliable source. 

If you watched any of those events especially Heavy Hitters you saw these trolling motors in use. 

I also believe it was ever so slightly mentioned that a competitor was having issues. 

I think they  get it worked out quickly if there was indeed an issue as Power Pole is really trying to get to the top of this industry. 

I’m really not one to purchase 1st. year on the market gear, let someone else beta test. 

My Garmin Stuff is really dialed in and when I get a new boat it’s going to be super hard to get me off that bandwagon. 

Someone in this thread pointed out if your boat is in garage the majority of the time and was new to begin with you may be totally satisfied.   If your putting 1,000 plus  hours on a trolling motor a year you might have another perspective.