Trolling motors

Holy crap shoot batman! I was just looking around at electric (battery) trolling motors, please pinch me, why are some of them $1,700?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

yep ! I was watching a saltwater fishing show on TV
and the "boat driver" decided to go fish another spot - - -
withOUT parking the TM !! after a few bounces, it swung
up onto the bow all twisted up.

The TV host (I can't remember if it was Bill Dance, Roland Martin or whoever)
started swearing and throwing things around shouting ......
THERE GOES TWO %$@& GRAND !!!!

so yes, I am sure the big saltwater rigs can go well over a grand.
(but, not in my pond).

check out the Minn Kota Riptide Ulterra Bow Mount Bluetooth Trolling Motor with i-Pilot
$2,159.00

my haswing cayman bow mount remote cost me $550.sure,there's no gps, but i don't need it.

Some of the new expensive ones have Anchor Lock; can follow a shoreline; can self-store when you press a button; are remote controlled and have a myriad of other features.

I can't justify one the way I use my tinny.

richg99

OK info I was well unaware of. If you can lock a position in and it will auto stay on it, that has great value. It's not just an electric motor anymore.

You don't have to spend big bucks, you can get some deals on craigslist. Today I bought a 3 yr old Riptide 55 lb 12 volt and it came with a fish finder for $200. A couple of weeks ago i found a decent 1980 25 hp Mercury for $175.

I rigged a boat about 2 months ago, high dollar tin boat. Guy who spec'd it wanted this big bad Minn Kota motor. I forget the actual model name. It had anchor lock, ipilot, bunch of stuff in it. I remember the BOS showing $2180 for it by itself. Anyway long story short, the guy was tickled with the install and asked me to go fishing with him. Ok, yeah free fishing trip? You bet! We spent almost 3 HOURS trying to figure out how to get it all set up and communicating with his GPS and cell phone. Never really got the hang of it. At the end of our trip he was a little upset, but I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually. He asked me which motor I used, and I told him...a lowly Motorguide wireless W45....which I absolutely love. Sucker was expensive but it took me all of 30 seconds to figure out how to use it. Only reason I bought that one was because my dad will sometimes go fishing with me and his eyesight is not very good, to the point where he can't see which way the little arrow is pointing on a regular motor, so I can sit in the back of the boat and run the trolling motor for him; so he can focus on fishing.

Them high $$$ motors are nice once you figure them out. iPilot, you basically choose a track on your GPS/fish finder unit, and the motor will follow that track within reason, so you can focus on fishing. Pretty slick but it's still not perfect and therefore, to me, a waste. The couple I've used will hold that track but it's within a few feet either way. Where I fish, where there's a TON of submerged cypress trees and if you're off by 3", your expensive trolling motor is subject to expensive damage. You'd think those trees, most of which are smaller than 6" diameter, would break-and sometimes they do-but more often it's the motor (or sometimes the boat) that gets hurt.

The new 112lb 60" Ultrex has roughly a $2800 price tag!!!

How hard are the new style to retract. Been playing around with my Riptide and it feels like it's going to be a two man job.

Apparently, you are not the only one to be concerned about lifting a TM. This thread (LINK below) discusses adding some gas-powered shock absorbers to various trolling motors.

The device is supposed to cut the lift power necessary by a great deal. One guy did his own using car parts. Why not?

richg99

https://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=756811

Thanks. I need to do more research before I mount that thing and I may go back to the old style bracket. I just assumed the new style was an improvement.

I added $20 worth of automotive hatch lift assist struts to my old Minn Kota Edge bracket that I connected my Traxxis TM to the front of my boat & it made a WORLD of difference easily deploying/stowing it - and that was a light trolling motor (55# 12v hand control), I can only imagine the night & day difference it would have made on a bigger unit.

Got the Powerdrive mounted and took it for a spin and it wasn't as bad as it looked at first. Minn Kota should do something about the cradle though, I don't see the need for all the spring tension when some kind of clamp would do the job.

Unfortunately most things in life have to experience to know what you like and what works best for you. I wanted i-pilot so I bought a power drive 50 lb thrust with the hand remote only. Worked absolutely great trolling for crappie and strippers. Having saved six two mile treks all I had to do next trip out was get to within 100yds of my trek and hit the button and lay down the remote and work my rods. No need to touch trolling motor after that point for two miles or 12 miles if they were close together. The motor stayed on track and covered the same water and would hold your select speed no matter of wind or current. Then the weather warmed up and we started redbreast fishing OH what a shock as we ran the banks throwing spinners I found myself having to stop fishing grab the remote and put my eyes on it each time I adjusted the motor. My old hand control was way better for this type of fishing at least all I needed was my hand with out having to look at the motor to adjust. Also the deploy of the motor was by force only, the wife gave up and said get rid of it. WHEW man was I glad that thing was 750.00 and I hated it. Then after much research I bought the Terrova 80lb thrust because I still wanted that i-pilot but also wanted a foot control for fishing the banks. Well thats a winner, the wife can deploy with ease much better than the power drive and I still have the remote with i-pilot and spot lock. The remote and foot control work at the same time, the wife has the remote in the back as Im running the foot control up front. When I stop to take a fish off she takes over to keep the boat on course, man thats the ticket right their and the 24 volt is way more power than the 50 lb thrust motor not to mention trolling 12 miles on a pair of batteries. Like I said you just have to experience it for yourself. Guess thats called learning the hard way but you dont soon forget.

I have the 80lb Terrova also and love it. I had a PD before and that thing was a pain in the butt. It was hard to deploy and half the time it would jump out and slam down on the mount as the release was horrible. The foot control went out 3 times and that was 85 buck each time. Best thing I did was to get the Terrova. The mount it totally different and very easy to use.

I really want that Ultrex. I have been asking them for years to make a PD with a normal t motor mount like the Maxxum. Finally they are making it but at a cost I don't know if I can take.