minn kota ulterra or motorguide xi5

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birdsnest

Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Purhasing one or the other, which is best. Leaning towards minn kota auto deploy. Any input
 
What are you currently running? I have the Minn Kota Terrova, and have been very happy with it. I wouldn't shy away from the Xi5 for a minute though. The auto deploy feature on the Ulterra would be fantastic, especially when you're on the hunt, bouncing around structure. However, I'm not sure they have that feature fully ironed out yet, I've read quite a few bad reviews of them not working properly and the last I knew there was no manual override to deploy them. You may want to check out some of the Walleye forums (Walleye Central, hope thats not blasphemy!) there are tons of threads on them. I fish FG a lot and know a bunch of Mack guys that have bounced from spot to spot with their electrics down. Most all of them have eventually experienced failure with the seals on their motors. They have a bearing thats made to take the thrust while powering forward, but if you leave it down and run your big motor, even at slow speeds the thrust pushes back on it , and there is nothing but a seal in that direction which quickly wears out, leaks, then freezes and won't turn. Thats how they find out, if you live were its warm and didn't find the leak in a timely manner it would probably ruin the motor. Lots of guys around here would love the auto deploy, but I don't know any who've pulled the trigger yet. Good luck!
 
no trolling motor at all. This is for my buddy's boat and it is a big up front cost but he is getting older with a jacked up back so the auto deploy looks good to him. I am the mechanic so of course one of my first questions was what to do if the auto deply quits working. There has to be a amanual way to lift and lower the unit or it's no good. Have not heard of the seal problem but it makes sense, most seals are designed for one direction of pressure. Thanks for the info.
 
Don't know anything about motorguide, we have an auto deploy and love it, we've had it for 4 years, deploy it many times a day, we go to Powell once a month and the only problem we've had is on occasion the prop hits the hull and binds up, easily fixed. We don't run the the big motor with it down and have read reviews that the auto deploy depletes the batteries prematurely so when we got it we also got a pair of agm true deep cycle batteries, we can take a 3 day trip, trolling most of the day and have had no problems. According to the manual there is a way to lift it manually, or you tube it, the easiest way is just to have a quick release mount, either way is not too bad.
we have a tonneau cover in front of our windshield that we use most of the year, so we wouldn't leave home without it.
 
By the way, we had a terrova that was almost new that we replaced (sold it to an a uncle we like) and yes it its quite an expense initially, but we are still happy with the swap. Another thing we did was to get a serious inverter and charge when running the big motor.
 
I have the Motorguide, I have cussed it since the day I put it on the boat. Someday it will become a very expensive anchor.
 
Minn Kota also has " spring loaded lift assist" .
I have one on my boat and it much easier to lift than one without the assist.
 
I have the old Terrova, one day it deployed itself while I was on plane, things got ugly quick. The shaft was totally destroyed so I couldn't stow the motor without taking the mount apart. They warrantied it and it sounded like it was a fairly common occurrence, I make sure it's strapped down under motion now
 
I have the old Terrova with I-pilot and love it. I have not had any deployment problems, but would love to upgrade to a Ulttera in the future, mainly for safety, (the clumsy old guy on the bow in waves problem) . The main problem I have is, I am a Lowrance guy and a Minn Kota guy and they don't link. If I had the extra money I would go with an Ulttera and a Hummingbird with side imaging and Bluetooth.
 
I have an ulterra, and I am about to sell and go with a terranova. That auto deploy sucks. It's great when it works, but is hell when you can't stow it and the wind picks up. Love the I pilot. Hate the ulterra.
 
I have had the Terrova and now the Ulterra on my Bay Boat. I wouldn't be without it.
Do your research and I am sure you will be happy with whichever direction you go.
 
I have the 24volt XI5 on two boats... bass boat and deep V- and other than not having the auto deploy / auto stow feature (which would be nice)... I think they are great for the 25-30% savings below the Ulterra.

But either one will beat a foot controlled / cable drive unit (IMO)
 
so -- this discussion has me thinking ---- how do you guys use the Terrova / ulterra / XI5? -- I have the Terrova, and I find that 99% of the time, I use it just like my old foot controlled only unit. Most of my fishing at powell is for small mouth / large mouth near shore. So for me, I plug in the foot controller, and use it to stay the distance away from shore that I like. I like the foot controller because I can maneuver with my foot -- The only time I use the hand held controller is when I am going across a larger bay. So what features am I missing, that others are using all the time?
( I have used the anchor button to try and stay over a group of stripers -- didn't help much because seemed the group was always moving)
 
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