Papacon357 Loc: West Texas (Permian Basin)

If you’re wanting to save some dough, I’m about to have a MinnKota 80# thrust Fortex for sale. It’s not new but it sure works good. PM me if you’re interested.

hookemjim

Had both. Perfer minnkota.

Huntm22 Loc: Northern Utah. - West Haven

MinnKota has been the go to for us. Both sales and service are great.

Ron620DVS Loc: Guntersville Alabama

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TROLLINGMOTORTHRUSTGUIDETability the most important consideration when you are looking for the right trolling motor is how much thrust your boat will need. Thrust, measured in pounds (lbs) is the standard measure of how powerful a motor is. The larger and heavier your boat, the more thrust you'll need to achieve satisfactory results on the water. If there's one thing you want to avoid, it's purchasing a trolling motor with too little thrust. A common misconception about thrust is that it will provide higher speeds, which is not necessarily true. In many ways, thrust is similar to "torque" in a car; it's about pull, not speed. Adequate thrust level is of particular importance if you purchase a trolling motor with GPS functionality like Minn Kota's i-Pilot. i-Pilot is designed to keep your boat in a fixed position or steady course.In practical terms, a trolling motor with adequate thrust for your boat and common conditions will achieve the following: Allow your boat to get on plane easily Cruise at roughly 3-4mphIf equipped with GPS, your boat should be able to hold on a spot in anchor mode even if you typically fish in swell or strong currentKeep a relatively straight heading without being blown way off courseNothing kills a day on the water quite like an underpowered trolling motor that is sluggish or ineffective at positioning your boat for casting or keeping your boat over that great structure! Boat Weight Boat weight is the most important consideration to take into account when choosing a trolling motor. A beginning rule of thumb is that you want a minimum of 2 lbs of thrust for every 100lbs. For example, if you have a 3000lb boat, fully loaded, then the calculation is (3000/100) * 2 = 60lbs of thrust. When calculating boat weight, make sure you calculate the heaviest potential weight which includes a boat fully loaded with gear, fuel and the maximum number of passengers. Not sure how much your boat weighs? The easiest way to find out is to lookup your boat in the NADA boat directory, which lists boat weights for thousands of boats and is organized by manufacturer, model and length. Fishing Conditions and StyleFishing conditions and style should also play into your decision. If you usually fish on smooth lakes with no current, you should be able to stick to the listed minimum thrust without problems. However, if you spend most of your time in very fast moving water, significant currents or waves, you'll definitely want to move up a level or two in thrust to ensure ample power in all conditions.If you want the ability to fish for multiple days without recharging, you'll also want to consider stepping up to a motor with higher thrust which also means higher voltage. Moving from a 40lbs 12-volt motor (requiring one battery) to a 80lbs 24-volt motor (requiring two batteries) will provide you with significantly more run time. You may not need the high-end power available with the 80lbs motor, but the additional power and extra voltage will provide dramatically more run time. For more details on understanding and calculating run time, please see our guide on Calculating Motor Run Time. Boat Specific Thrust ChartsTo help you select the best motor possible, we've assembled thrust recommendation charts for individual boat types below. The thrust portions highlighted in yellow represent the most effective thrust range for each specific boat given its common use, weight and application. Please note that while boat weights and lengths have been adjusted to better correspond to individual boat types, these are estimates only. For more information to help you make a purchase, please grab our FREE Trolling Motor Buyer's Guide or call us at 800-472-3509.

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Gone Fishin'
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johnklang Loc: Oakhurst, CA

I'm no authority on trolling motors but I have an Ultrex and my fishing buddy has a Motorguide. After using a metal anchor for a lifetime, the spot lock feature on both motors is probably more valuable to me than the boat as far as taking the pain in the a** out of getting right where you want to be and staying there. Well worth it in MHO. Also, this is a comparison of only two motors. I don't know if others have experienced what we have but I can tell you after several hundred hours of using both (we fish at least twice a week, 8 hrs a day) these are the characteristics that stand out to me. The Ultrex is seemingly well made from quality components. It's pricey but I've long since forgotten that. It locks on spot when you want it to and has a remote that you can move it 5 feet at a time in any direction with a button push. It also can be used as a standard motor with motor assisted foot controls and the typical attributes of such. The downsides for me is that it is noisy and it sometimes it freaks out in spot lock mode in very light wind. It appears that the electronics of GPS tell the motor to pivot the head in one direction and then immediately changes its mind to pivot back, over and over and over and over and over..... and as I mentioned, with a lot of noise. Sometimes so much that it annoys me enough to turn it off. It doesn't always happen but enough that I know it isn't some cosmic freak of satellite signal. It seems that it has some connection to heating up from the sun, I have placed a wet towel on the motor head and that seems to calm it somewhat but it was not the perfect fix. I still love it like I love my wife and my dog but it can be annoying sometimes. As far as staying in place in heavy wind, great, no problems with either motor.

So for the Motorguide, I don't operate it so I am only an observer. Its controls operate wirelessly from the foot pedal. I think he also has an app on his phone. It seems like there is a slight lag sometimes when he tries to maneuver it and on occasion he seems to struggle with it a little because of the lag. Again, I am only an observer and I sense there might be a little unspoken "competitive guy" thing going on because we chose different motors, you don't want to think or say you have chosen the second best in front of your buddy. Especially given what we spent. It seems to be made a little less robust and might be a little more vulnerable to accidental damage because the components are a little less stout but nothing has ever happened. The plus side is that it is quiet and it has never displayed the spastic head pivoting that I sometimes get on my Ultrex. Its spot lock feature has been pretty much flawless and again, quiet. Not sure how much that affects the fishing (I'm sure there is some) but I've never talked to a fish about it so I'm left to speculate. I haven't seen any difference in his boat or mine on having good days on one boat and then not on the other or the converse, bad days on one more than the other. So there you have it, my two cents worth. Your question just happened to touch on a subject I've given a lot of thought about having had the exposure to both motors for a significant amount of time. Hope that helps.

FixorFish Loc: SW Oregon

I have or had Minnkota, Motor Guide, Watersnake and Eska. All 12v, all transom-mount, 12-50 lb thrust. Outside of battery meter (on the 12lb, 40+ yr old Eska and the Minnkota 50), don't have a preference, except for the boat size and commensurate battery storage. Keep in mind, I don't have as much investment of all my present 4 motors, as I recently saw for A TRANSDUCER TO MOUNT FOR A FINDER THAT COST EXACTLY TWICE WHAT I PAID FOR MY BOAT WITH TRAILER ! Don't care to spend $3-5k as I see frequently on "the shows" and tournaments..... interesting, but certainly not one of MY priorities. That expenditure would buy me a bigger boat, or pay for some marvelous regional trips.... better fiscal strategy, since "seeing" 'em better, ain't gonna guarantee catchin' 'em better (more often).
Bow-mount, especially w/ I-Pilot is a whole different animal. My buddy has one, and have to agree...it can get quite annoying to listen to and see the motor "re-calibrate" and re-position constantly, when he punches the "anchor" setting.
Not sure if any of this helps you decide, but good luck.... check out sales at reliable dealers or even make friends with a boat shop electrical guy who can hook you up with some rich dude who's upgrading.... have two friends who acquired spendy motors on the cheap that way.

Machiwalla Loc: Sabastian, Florida

Try 'British Seagull'. They last and last! Starting at merely 2 horse.

trlittle Loc: Chico CA

You can not go wrong with either

Ted A Loc: Eastern Washington

I settled on the Ulterra. It's the latest version manufactured in March of 2020. It still doesn't self deploy all the time. I have to give it a push to deploy it sometimes. I've already had the deploy unit replaced with no change. I think there is something too stiff with the park blocks or hang up in the shaft. It kind of starts out with a pop. It's still under the 2 year warranty so they can figure it out and fix it.

Other than that it works fine. I ran 3 days trolling and anchoring before the batteries went dead. It stowed but would not deploy at the end. That was a good thing.

It's an 80# 24V 60" shaft Ulterra.