Thread: Suggestions For A New Trolling Motor

Ultrex


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Good report crappiemax. Thanks.

One thing I forgot to mention...when I was looking at the TM shaft length. My old MG Tour had a 42" shaft and it had 34" of shaft below the bottom of the mount. That left the motor itself 12" below the surface and worked just fine. On the Terrova, they offered a 45" shaft but it only had 32" of shaft available below the bottom of the mount. That left the motor itself sitting just 10" below the surface which just wasn't going to work for me. I wanted the motor a minimum of 12" below the water surface and 14" below would have been even better for fishing in choppier water. The Terrova has added a "lift assist" which takes up some of the shaft above the mount leaving less shaft available below. That lift assist is a great plus for the Terrova and well worth loosing the few inches of shaft but I do wish manufactures would list their shaft lengths by length available below the mount.
For the Terrova the next available shaft length was 54" for a 12v and 60" for the 24v. I was just a bit leery of going to a 60" shaft so I went with the 12v and 54" shaft. My boat is aluminum and my old TM was a 12v so I wasn't concerned about the power. For a glass boat 24v would be my choice.
Also I will say we have used spot lock on some truly miserable days. One day we found some really nice fish stacked in the back of a cove, the wind was blowing at 15 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. Like most days it even had a little swirling winds in there too. My friend and I both thought this will be a test. It performed way better than either of us thought it would. It surprised us and passed with flying colors. For the most part I'd have to say it held within a 3'-5' area. When a really strong gust would hit we may move a little farther out but recovered quickly and it was so much better than either of us could have held on those fish with a that old cable steer.
I truly do like a cable steer TM and was really leery about going to an electric steer. My deck isn't huge but I've always had cable steer in the past, it was a little tight up there but I always found a way to make it work. I do not miss having that big foot pedal in my boat, not at all. The electric steer did take a little time to get used to but it's really okay but for the most part I use the remote.
My friend and I will take turns fishing up front. He seems to use the foot pedal more than I do. The remote does have functions available that aren't accessible on the foot pedal.
MK support (on their website) is great for any questions you may have and are very quick to answer any question you may have. I spent about 3 months looking at all of the different TM options before finally choosing a MK. I would email them questions at night and always had my answers the next morning.
With all that's going on it the world of TM's these days with so many options it's definitely more involved than selecting a TM say even 5 years ago.
Good luck in your decision.

One option that I’m looking for is cruise control at low speeds such as .3 - .5mph. Feedback is all over the board on that from everyone I’ve talked to. Some say MG won’t go below 1mph. Ghost says no problem but I haven’t talked to anyone who has used it to confirm. MK says theirs goes down to .2 on speed but I don’t think thats a cruise speed but setting a speed.

With the Ultrex me personally have the Ulterra and luv it but you can get the Ultrex with MDI SI transducer built in, but that means at least one Hbrid unit to take advantage of it.

Originally Posted by mcdenney

One option that I’m looking for is cruise control at low speeds such as .3 - .5mph. Feedback is all over the board on that from everyone I’ve talked to. Some say MG won’t go below 1mph. Ghost says no problem but I haven’t talked to anyone who has used it to confirm. MK says theirs goes down to .2 on speed but I don’t think thats a cruise speed but setting a speed.

That's a good point. I think the .3-.5 may be possible but won't swear to it.
I will set the TM on advance autopilot and cast along a shore. At times if I feel I'm going a little too fast I'll slow the TM down and at some point it seems to struggle to find it's way. It only does that when I try to go super slow like .1 but I don't seem to have any problems going faster. Next time out I'll try to figure out at what speed it seems to "get lost" or can't keep track at where it's going. I more pay attention to the prop speed on my remote but I do reference sog on my electronics
I use spot-lock jog a lot when I'm working along a bank. I'll work an area then hit the jog forward 4/5 times. cast again, repeat, repeat.

My Terrova which has 10 speeds struggles to run on its lowest 2 settings (1/2 and 1). Untill I tuned the prop it struggled running on 2

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I sold my new terrova and got a Garmin Force. Couldn’t be happier. Love the foot pedal