Good deal. I've got to do some preventative maintenance on my dad's Ulterra. He has only used it about 5 times but reported a problem last fall with it. I purchased it for him so that he didn't have to get up front to deploy and stow the motor. After the debacle a couple of weeks ago, I'm regretting my decision. If I do have to deep six this motor (yes I will throw it. No it won't be in the water) I will purchase another terrova but with lift assist.
I've installed a good many motors for my boats and others over the last 6 years. I've never had to use a locking device such as a RAM mount for any of the powerdrive or Terrova models I've installed (7 in the last 6 years). With the ulterra, I noticed just how sloppy the head was. So much so that, if I didn't install a RAM mount, I knew this thing would break. Great concept, but very poorly designed.
I'm guessing that that up and down is driven by a screw. That screw is probably metel. I also guess that the lift and lower gears are plastic! Metal screw, plastic gears equals a recipe for dissaster. I'm betting that after a couple of lift, deploy cycles, the water is getting on the plastic gears and freezing. Because the screw is metel, there is no stopping it and it is ripping, stripping, or breaking the brittle frozen gears. Obviously, the rectification would be to use all metel parts or, install a tourque assist that would get to a cert ftlb of pressure and then start clicking.
The other issue with these turds... If you have a problem on the water and have to manually stow it, the motor is done and must be sent in. I'm not a fan of that. Last year there was a team camped next to us at one of the tournaments. After day one, both of our teams along with them were in the top 15. They were out on the boat working on their "Turd". I guess they had to manually stow it and obviously couldn't get it working again. They were forced to use their kicker motor only on day two and quickly slipped to 40th place. I'm starting to hate these motors the more I see them.
Stay tuned and I'll bring more information on the Ulterra A.K.A "The Turd".
I have OCD "Obsessive Crappie Disorder"
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Reply With QuoteOriginally Posted by Rustyhunter
Installed a “new to me” Ulterra with Bluetooth. This thing is AWESOME. Only problem I have had so far is occasionally it won’t deploy all the way. It gets almost upright then stops and says motor error. It will go back down fine. It did it once Saturday but worked fine the rest of the day. It did it several times when I first put in today.but by the time I was done for the day it was working fine. When it does it I can take my hand and follow the head of the TM (not pushing or forcing just keeping a little pressure as it goes) and it gets to the point it usually stops and it will keep going fine. Try it without my hand and it stops again. Puzzling to me especially when it starts working just fine later. I even tried it once I put the boat back on the trailer and it was fine. I’m sure it’s nothing major but I would like to figure it out. One more thing, it was really cold today bad pretty cold Saturday. Not sure if that caused it or not. Thanks in advance for the help.
The Ulterra has current sensing. If anything resists movement too much, it will detect over current and stop.. Safety feature. Didn't have current sense, might loose a finger or other members the suspend from the body.
