SALMON ADDICT Loc: Snohomish county Washington

Hello fellow stagers,
I'm getting ready to drop some coin on a new bow mount trolling motor, must be marine capable, I'm leaning towards two options, Minn Kota Riptide and Motorguide Xi3,12 volt with anchor/spotlock etc.I've done a little research via You tube comparison, but figure the best research would be to ask you people out here who might have hands on knowledge, not too concerned on cost so much as performance and reliability. And much thanks to everybody's input.

Huntm22 Loc: Northern Utah. - West Haven

I too am curious as to what the stage has to say.

Seegundo Loc: Lake s minole Georgia

I don't use the models you are asking about I've gotten good service from both manufacturers. Both are quiet. That's what I want most when fishing shallow water. After the first pass in an area I have my trail so I cut off the depth sounder so as to not spool fish with the sonar.

Ted A Loc: Eastern Washington

I went through that process a couple of years ago.

At that time I settled for the Minn Kota Ulterra and a Humminbird Helix 9. I think I liked the Lowrance that I had before better but I wanted the self deploy feature. Now I think that may have been a mistake. When the self deploy feature works it is great but too often it won't start the deploy and just keeps beeping. Then I have to go out to the motor and cycle it off and back on. It seems to stick so a little shove helps get it going. The shaft seems to be too tight in the stowed position. Lots of cleaning seems to help.

Lowrance has touch screens in much cheaper versions than Humminbird. My Helix 9 has problems displaying the "follow the contour" feature that I really like when the map has contours. Spot lock is great but that feature is not always available for some reason. I may be the problem at times because I don't think like the programmers seem to do.

Hope you can find something useful in this reply.

PM me if you think I can help you more.

JOS Loc: Florida

Salmon Addict:

We use the Minn Kota Terrova 24 volt set up for the 18' Mako LTS flats boat we use in Satellite Beach when back water fishing. We have had no issues with it and went 24volt for a longer day out on the water. We use the Garmin 94SV that works very well, again no issues. Good luck that's what I can say about the units we use. The trolling motor is a few years old and newer models have come out that can set themselves and retrieve back up when not needed from a blue tooth key fob.
JOS

Fredfish Loc: Prospect CT.

SA, both brands work well in my, and my friends experience. The biggest issue now is availability. Very many models are out of stock due to the microchip shortage. Check out what's available in your area. Even the manufacturers sites are out of stock.

OK John Loc: Oklahoma City,OK

Unless you have a small boat and don’t fish in current I would go 24 volt

Ted A Loc: Eastern Washington

My Minn Kota is 24 volt but I think for my boat a 36 volt would have been better. Any amount of current pulls hard from the batteries. I have an 18 foot Wooldridge Extra Plus so It may pull harder. Running my Minn Kota at 5 and above for a while will shut it off. I think it overheats.

JOS Loc: Florida

Ted A:

Funny you say that my son was telling me this morning that his started to do about the same thing and it would shutter a bit at high speed. We were going to check wire harness to see if we had a nick that is corroded that would drop amperage to unit?
Let me know hat you find out please.
JOS

woodguru Loc: El Dorado Ca

Try putting one of the dry silicone spray lubes on it, it's pretty amazing what reducing the friction that makes things balky does.

woodguru Loc: El Dorado Ca

Did you go with heavier gauge wires and a 60a breaker fuse? I've run mine at 8/8.5 for hours straight when my main motor quit. Previously it was overheating with smaller gauge wires, upgrading ended the heating problem. The other thing is that the hard draw can pull batteries down in voltage which the TM doesn't like. I got 120ah group 31 lithium batteries that run at full voltage right up to where they quit...the other benefit there is that they weigh a total of 50lbs versus 160lbs. I paid about $650 each for them a little over a year ago and recently saw where they are down to almost half of that.

bapabear Loc: Blaine, Washington

Good luck finding anything with anchoring capability. I have been looking for a Terrova rip tide 24 volt newer version with 60 inch shaft for 4 months now. I hit a couple bait and switch dealers, but no actual motors. Although the units are not available, the price keeps rising by leaps and bounds. Also be cautious about dealers that want to sell you the unit without navigation electronics claiming the electronic package will be provided when available. A good set of ores is looking better every day. No gas cost and my fat energy is free. Note: In the mean time, I purchased an older used 12 volt Minn Kota quite cheap. I split the shaft, sleeved it with pipe and extended the wires. The sleeve is sealed with epoxy and is working fine at this point. I will do the same with a Rip tide, if I can find one cheap. I need the long shaft as the bow of my Klamath is very high. Be sure to keep the pipe painted to prevent rust. I am curious how long the unit will last in the marine environment. I did it to a rip tide transom mount and it lasted 12 year before it gave up. The truth be told, My old body gave up before the motor. That is why I replaced the transom mount (on the bow) with a bow mount and easier stow system. Another side: I had variable speed. Now I have 5 speed. I want my variable speed back. I did have to cut my bow rail to accommodate the bow mount. It was no big deal as my rail is welded to the boat so it's strong. I just put nice looking end caps on the rail and it looks like a planned custom rail.

Fish 11 Loc: Washington

You will never regret buying a T motor with Spotlock!!!!

farmer tom Loc: stockton california

I bought a new boat in October of 2020 with Minn Kota Terova 24V . The first two times I used it I trolled
for 6 hours @ 75% with no problems. Now i cant get 2 hours before the batteries are almost dead. I have
had it to the service center 3 times with no luck. My next step is to take the boat to Bass Pro for warranty
and they will take it to the same place I did. The Terova when it works is GREAT but most of the time it
dosnt work well after a few hours. I have load tested the batteries and there good. I am not happy with
Bass Pro service so we will see what happens.

JOS Loc: Florida

Farmer keep us abreast on the progression of your finds please!
JOS