Motor Guide XI5 User Report

[Ramrod25]

The purpose of this thread is to make owners and potential customers aware of an issue I am having with the XI5 motor guide trolling motor. Hopefully this information will help those of you that own these units.

I have owned my unit for two years and six weeks. The "and six weeks" also will indicate to most of you that my warranty expired six weeks ago.

Last week I got my boat out of storage and cleaned it up to get ready to go crappie fishing. I put new batteries in the handheld control unit and also in the foot pedal. The old batteries were not corroded, but had lost their charge.

Went fishing - the handheld unit worked just fine, but the foot pedal would not turn on at all.

When I got home, I double checked the batteries to make sure I had not installed them incorrectly and that they had good voltage. Everything was ok with the batteries in the foot pedal.

I then took the next cover off of the bottom of the foot pedal and discovered a PC board installed in such a manner that it has no protection from water, dirt, or any other contaminate. It is completely ' in the open ' . The batteries are in a waterproof enclosure, but not the PC board. It had, at sometime, gotten wet and corrosion set in and subsequently, over the winter, ruined the PC board.

I looked back through my instructions and could find no mention of any warning or acknowledgement that the foot pedal contained an unprotected PC board that needed to be dried off in case the foot pedal became wet.

We fish on a big flatlander lake and on one occasion have been caught in a fast developing storm with high winds and the subsequent large waves. Even though my boat is an aluminum multi-species 17 foot deep vee, we took a few waves over the bow. And yes we had our life jackets on.

I make this point because when I called MG they seemed surprised that the foot pedal could have become wet.

Since it was out of warranty, they asked me to drive to the nearest dealer so he could inspect the foot pedal. So this morning I drove the 200 mile round trip to the nearest dealer. It took about ten minutes on the phone for them to decline any assistance. Oh, they did offer to sell me a new pedal at retail price.

I pointed out that the corrosion had not simply occurred within the last six weeks, but had began while the unit was still under warranty. I simply did not discover it in time. No joy.

I do want to thank to good people a Nichols Marine in McAlister, Oklahoma for taking time out of their busy day to make a phone call to the factory on my behalf. He was swamped ( lol ) with 16 boats he had to get ready for delivery, but he was kind enough to take the time to help me. Thanks!

After I left the dealership, and on the way home, I called MG one more time. I think, this time I got a sympathetic customer rep, and even though he could not help me directly, he said he would send the file up to their main customer service department for review. He told me I should hear back next week sometime. I thanked him for his concern.

I understand that the unit is out of warranty and any assistance from them would solely be as a result of their good will. However, I think my biggest disappointment is that this design ever got out of their engineering department and approved for production. As most of you know, this is a very expensive unit, I think I paid over $1500.00 for it, not including tax. To me, this is an engineering design defect. I'll leave it at that.

For those of you that have this model, and perhaps other models that have wireless foot pedals, may I suggest that it would be well to determine if the PC board has any corrosion, or might be susceptible to getting moisture on it. If you can catch it in time, perhaps you can avoid my dilemma. This is a case of Murphy's law: If it can happen - it will.
Regards

Rodney Wren

[dbowling]

have never used my foot pedal yet, honestly I hate the thing it just sits under my storage compartment and takes up space.

[Stainless]

have never used my foot pedal yet, it just sits under my storage compartment and takes up space.

Same here.

[Tom 513]

From what I remember the foot control has to be synked with the unit when you change batteries. I rarely use mine, the springs are too stiff for me.

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[dbowling]

exactly, makes my back hurt just trying to use it.






[QUOTE=Tom 513;3652559]From what I remember the foot control has to be synked with the unit when you change batteries. I rarely use mine, the springs are too stiff for me.

Sent from my SM

[Dollfly]

Same story, foot pedal too stiff!

[JLSandusky]

My foot pedal keeps my rods company in the rod locker! Its really only in the boat for just in case purposes. Good to know that if it ever gets wet, I will need to dry it out.

[Tom 513]

The only time i use mine, us if I am beating the bank for bass

Same story, foot pedal too stiff!

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[Ramrod25]

If I may, I'd like to update this thread. Today I received a box from UPS and in it was a brand new
footpedal.

MG customer service decided to, out of good will, send me a pedal.

Obviously, I am very appreciative and want to thank them. I truly did not expect it.

Regards
Rodney

["G"]

Good deal

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