New MotorGuide Xi5

[SeaRay]

I can answer for the I-Pilot and I think they would be similar.
It has a pretty good range assuming your batteries are fresh in the remote. I did just that when I launched one day at a private lake. I wanted to see how it would work and I had friends standing by in case I could not bring it back in.
I launched it, put the motor down and hopped out on the dock by the ramp and ran it out about 50 yards so it would be clear of the ramp, then set the anchor lock.
After I parked the car, I went to the main dock and retrieved the boat and off I went.
What would be really neat is if you could store and deploy the motor remotely. Maybe that is in the works for the future. How many times have you gotten ready to move, stowed rods minnow buckets, etc, sat down, cranked the outboard and realized you had left the TM in the water?? I have done it on occasion, but so far I have not run down the lake with it still in the water, but have seen others do it.
SeaRay

[boat49]

Thanks for the info. I'm thinking around 50 yards would be plenty for the places I usually fish. I agree on the remote store and deploy idea! and yes I've done that a few times also!

[Gobob]

I have my boys get in the boat , I launch it out . One of them will deploy the TM I hit the spot lock and go park. Was real cool until they hooked up the pedal and left Dad standing on the dock. Laughing the whole way down the lake. Lucky for me they hadn't got out of range and I was able to override the pedal. They had a good time lol.

[boat49]

lol, that sounds like what some of my family would do!

[geowits]

I got the new trolling motor out and tested it pretty good today. We fished with it in anchor mode most of the day. And spider rigged a bit. The wind was blowing 10-15 and only I'd say twice when very hard gusts came up did the boat move more than a few feet out of position. One really big gust came and blew the boat about a boats length back, but the motor didn't over react. It slowly pulled us back into position. It never over shot the position. It kept the boat straight into the wind better than a regular anchor I thought, the back of the boat wasn't whipping around. I threw out a buoy and it did just like the you tube video of the guy next to the buoy. When searching for crappie I sat in my drivers seat watching the 998 side image while steering the boat with the remote control without any problems. Once you push the heading lock button and then set the speed, you can still steer the motor with the remote without it kicking anything out. It sets a new heading lock each time you move the motor without you having to reset anything. I spider rigged for a short bit with it. The speed I set was .6 mph and on the Lowrance graph and it stayed at .6. Only a few times did it even go down to .5, But the wind had settled some by then. But as I was trolling around looking at the side image it seemed that the speed was very regular. It kept the speed very well, and also seemed that it would go as slow as anyone would want. I was trolling at .1 and .2 and it seemed to be holding that speed easily. I never got the foot pedal out and I don't see any real practical use of it yet for me crappie fishing. I just used the hand held remote. Both me and my fishing partner were really impressed with the anchor lock. He was so impressed with it that he said he's going to have to get him one now.... After reading so much about the I-pilot, I was worried it wouldn't work very well either, but it did. The 5 foot incremental movements it makes was also very handy and I used it all day. I threw out a buoy and moved around it with the 5 foot increments on anchor mode most of the day. Just using the buoy as something to go by where some structure was holding some crappie. This is just the first time out but so far so good. I had 2 27size marine batteries hooked in parallel for the 55 lb. 12 volt motor. At the end of the day the battery level indicator was still showing almost completely charged and we fished with it in anchor mode in 10-15 mph winds basically all day. It didn't seem like the motor had to work too hard to keep us in position. I put the motor on high and headed into the waves and top speed into the wind and waves was about 2 mph, so it seems plenty of motor for my 17.5 foot aluminum bass boat. It was really about as windy as I care to fish in today and it did very very well. We managed to catch 20 crappie. Sun runs the fish deep in this clear lake and makes them hard to catch on sunny days. But it sure was nice fishing and not having to worry about trying to run a trolling motor too. And not having to worry about tossing the anchor and pulling it in...The motor really did all the work. To me I can already tell that it's going to be like my side imaging is..... I don't know how I ever managed to fish without it... But keep in mind this was the first trip, so I'll update next time out which will likely be next weekend. But I thought I'd be fighting the motor all day trying to figure it out, but no it was very easy to use. And anchor mode really worked very well even in winds that were making some small whitecaps. I did read about it a lot so I already knew all the functions and how to use them before I got there. We fished for 9 hrs today and didn't find any faults with it yet. It is advertised as keeping the boat within a few feet on anchor mode, and it does. Almost all of the time the front of the boat actually stayed in a 5 foot circle. most of the time it seemed to be less. And this was in pretty windy conditions. So far I'm very pleased.

When you were running in heading lock at speeds less than 1.0 mph, did you have cruise control activated? The manual implies that cruise control has a minimum speed of 1.0 mph (bummer, I hope that is not the case).

[geowits]

The factory installed transducer in the Xi5 is 83/200kHz only (no 455/800kHz). I assume that disables the HDI function in the Lowrance Elite-4 HDI (DownScan function) and probably in other HDI units as well. Does anyone know if and when Motorguide will provide an HDI compatible factory installed (or retrofitable) transducer to support SI and DI requiring 455/800kHz?

[Cray]

Probably never on the DI/SI. It would have to be compatable with to many different units.

[endoracing]

When you were running in heading lock at speeds less than 1.0 mph, did you have cruise control activated? The manual implies that cruise control has a minimum speed of 1.0 mph (bummer, I hope that is not the case).

Just purchased one of these and have been playing with it the last few times out. When you hit cruise control it locks in at 1 mph but you can adjust up and down in .1 mph increments. I only dropped to 0.8 mph so not sure exactly how low it will really go. I can tell you that on the lowest setting the motor spins about half a revolution per second - seemed way overly slow to me but if you are trying to achieve slow trolls I guess it might have a place. Heading lock wasnt working right for me when I tried it last (my heading went about 20 degrees from where I was headed and then headed straight) but I re-read the manual and now I'm not sure I was using it right. I will try it again next time I am out and see how it does.

Registered just to post this (OK that and because I want to get into some crappie fishing). I have been loving the Xi5 so far but I came from a MotorGuide Pro 75 so its pretty much night and day. Pedal quit on my last time out jigging the Detroit River but I've heard the early ones had some issues that got resolved. Hopefully that's all it is and Motorguide takes care of me.

edit: Also, anchor mode is rock solid. I've tried it in wind, current, wind and current and out in the middle of the big lake. I like it for when I'm setting my rods up, I don't have to worry about drifting into a wall or shallow spot.

[Don G]

Just purchased one of these and have been playing with it the last few times out. When you hit cruise control it locks in at 1 mph but you can adjust up and down in .1 mph increments. I only dropped to 0.8 mph so not sure exactly how low it will really go. I can tell you that on the lowest setting the motor spins about half a revolution per second - seemed way overly slow to me but if you are trying to achieve slow trolls I guess it might have a place. Heading lock wasnt working right for me when I tried it last (my heading went about 20 degrees from where I was headed and then headed straight) but I re-read the manual and now I'm not sure I was using it right. I will try it again next time I am out and see how it does.



Registered just to post this (OK that and because I want to get into some crappie fishing). I have been loving the Xi5 so far but I came from a MotorGuide Pro 75 so its pretty much night and day. Pedal quit on my last time out jigging the Detroit River but I've heard the early ones had some issues that got resolved. Hopefully that's all it is and Motorguide takes care of me.

edit: Also, anchor mode is rock solid. I've tried it in wind, current, wind and current and out in the middle of the big lake. I like it for when I'm setting my rods up, I don't have to worry about drifting into a wall or shallow spot.

There is a software update for the Xi5. Call 920-929-5040 & MG will send you the kit to do the update..

[endoracing]

Called up and they said the firmware fix is for GPS issues not the footpedal and that they send them to dealers, they flash them, then send them back. Apparently to get my foot pedal fixed I have to take it to a MotorGuide dealer out in BFE and have them look at it for them to send a new pedal which will go to them. I'm not real pleased with that answer since its less than two weeks old and they want me to trailer a boat to a dealer an hour away for them to tell me "yep, pedal don't work."

They did give me one more thing to try - disconnecting it completely from power and then re-syncing - but even if that works I'm not real confident the pedal is going to keep working. It went out in the middle of jigging the river and made for a fun second half of the day.

Is this something you have done yourself? If so do you know the name of who you talked to that was willing to send the software update kit?

It took 3 trips to Bass Pro in 2 days when I bought it because the first package didn't have a foot pedal, then then gave me the pedal out of a second one they had and then I had to take it all off my boat and exchange the rest because the motor was shot. I'm losing a lot of faith in MotorGuide at this point.