Thread: Which TM with lowrance

Define "hook to my fish finder"?

Do you want to be able to utilize your fish finder (Lowrance) to follow a path, hit way points, move the trolling motor left and right, speed up, slow down, and follow contours? If so, you are looking for a Motor Guide XI5. Minn Kota doesn't offer the ability to do this sort of thing with a Lowrance unit as they are married to Hummingbird. If this is what you are looking for, you would need the XI5 motor and the NMEA 2000 compliant connections. They sell a kit that includes the power connection to the NMEA backbone, two terminators (on on each end of the buss), three "T" connectors, and pictails running from the "T" to the trolling motor and fish finder.

If you are simply looking to "hook your fish finder" (Lowrance) up to the trolling motor to utilize the built in transducer (US2 transducer on a Minn Kota) then you need the conversion cable that connects from the Minn Kota wiring (Small barrel connection) to the transducer port on the back of your Lowrance.

For me, I troll 95% of the time. I own Lowrance products but I do NOT own Motor Guide products. Do I wish that Minn Kota would allow Lowrance to hook up and operate just as they do for Humming bird? Sure I do. The issue that I see (and have heard from people who switched) is that Motor Guide has a terrible hand control. What I mean is that they don't have a display on the control. There is zero way to tell if you are running the trolling motor at 3.5 capacity or 5.5 capacity (huge difference in battery life). Also, there isn't any indicators to tell you what mode you are in. You cannot look on the handheld and see that you are in GPS trolling mode, or Compass navigation. If you are in autopilot etc... In other words, it becomes a useless guessing game. The minn Kota remote gives you the clear ability to look on the screen and see speed, trolling mode indications, spot lock, auto pilot etc...

Many guys I know in the tournament industry that switched to Motorguide while using a Lowrance, used them for less than a year and quickly moved back to Minn Kota. They simply troll better!

Wicklundrh is correct..in his statements if you just want sonar Motorguide or Minnkota will hook up to your gen 3.If you want to integrate the the Lowrance with the trolling motor you need the xi5,nema network,and gateway cable.One thing I'd like to point out with the xi5 and Lowrance running through the gateway system all of the hand remote features show up on the Lowrance screen on,off, percent of prop power,heading lock,anchor lock. ect.

I went with the Xi5 because I wanted to be able to use the functions offered within Lowrance. I was testing out trolling last Friday on a fairly large lake but that is mostly shallow. I was having to follow the channel and it was becoming a pain in the rear because I was facing the back of the boat and I would occasionally venture into shallow areas and drag bottom or hang up. Then I remembered I could set routes within my Lowrance unit and the Xi5 would guide it. I used the map on the screen showing the contours and plotted a route, then hit navigate (can't remember the exact verbiage) and just paid attention to my poles for the most part. Worked like a champ. I also tried this in a river with lots of bends with no problem.

I think it really all depends on what you want to do. I'm a technology guy so I like to take full advantage of what's available.

Rumor has it .... Garmin is coming out with a trolling motor. The upside is, you'd have to switch to Garmin units !!

Originally Posted by skunked again

Rumor has it .... Garmin is coming out with a trolling motor. The upside is, you'd have to switch to Garmin units !!

Competition is good I guess but it would be nice to be able to mix and match as wanted.


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Originally Posted by Stainless

Competition is good I guess but it would be nice to be able to mix and match as wanted.


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Agree 100% !