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"