Thread: What's your vote? Minn Kota Terrova w iPilot and Spot Lock, or Motor Guide Xi5?

Motor Guide Xi5

Xi5!!! It interfaces via NMEA 2000 network cable with my HDS 9s using PinPoint GPS to allow me to tell it to g to a waypoint and Anchor when it gets there! It is handier than a pocket on a shirt. You can tell it to Anchor at any time so you can eat lunch or re tie a jig. It replaced a MinnKota Fortex. I have so much more room on the bow of my Z9. no cable to trip over. Mine has the 60" shaft to allow for easier lifting when it is time to move some where else with the Merc. It is 105 lb 36 volt. I love the wireless handheld remote with lanyard that comes with it. It also came with a wireless foot control. Which I never will use though.

I appreciate the comments. Please keep them coming. This isn't an easy decision. Anyone out there love their Minn Kota with Spot Lock? According to MK they have recently made huge improvements to their anchoring (Spot Lock). The US2 feature also seems very nice, as I can connect it to my Elite sonar on the front, and I can keep using my HDS 7 SS Gen 2 on the back of the boat. Looks like with the Xi5 I would need to upgrade my front locator to an HDS for it to work properly. Is that true?

Originally Posted by KCMasterpiece

I appreciate the comments. Please keep them coming. This isn't an easy decision. Anyone out there love their Minn Kota with Spot Lock? According to MK they have recently made huge improvements to their anchoring (Spot Lock). The US2 feature also seems very nice, as I can connect it to my Elite sonar on the front, and I can keep using my HDS 7 SS Gen 2 on the back of the boat. Looks like with the Xi5 I would need to upgrade my front locator to an HDS for it to work properly. Is that true?

No sir that is not true. The Xi5 via Pinpoint GPS interfaces with Lowrance unit only. If you have a HDS 9 in the console you are good to go as long as you have the PinPoint GPS installed. The PinPoint GPS was sold separately when I got my Xi5. My two HDS 9s are also Networked so when I set a waypoint on one it sets it automatically on the other. The accuracy of the Anchor mode is +/- 1 ft per Motorguide. I also run a Lowrance Point 1 antenna on the stern to insure I get all 15 GPS satellites to get the best waypoint data possible. The HDS Gen 3 has the best GPS software standard and locks onto all 15 GPS satellites. The Gen 2 locks on to all but 5 at best.

If you are a Lowrance man go with the Motorguide, Humminbird man go with the Terrova. In my opinion the Terrova matches the way I fish better, troll 99% of the time.

The boat I just bought had a 2014 model Terrova Riptide on it with I pilot and I have used it several times. As far as the trolling motor goes it works great. The remote is handy when you have to go to the back of the boat for something and need to hold in a general area. I dropped a marker buoy on a brush pile and turned the boat into the wind to give the spot lock a fair chance. If you think they will hold you in a small area, you are going to be highly disappointed. I had full signal strength and the boat would drift 20 to 25 ft off of the buoy marker before the trolling motor would re-engage. When it finally did it would go at times 10 to 15 ft left or right of the marker and sometimes 15 ft past it. That was in a 5 to 10 mph wind. It was designed to hold the boat within a circle so big and that's a pretty big circle. They say the XI-5 is more accurate with spot lock. The Terrova is quiet on lower speeds and that's the most important thing for me spider rigging and fishing shallow water. At .01 to .03 mph I can't hear it running but I'm half deaf. Remote is simple to read and easy to use. Battery draw is also very low. The new ones with blue tooth are supposed to be more accurate but I am going to wait and see reviews on them before I spend 350.00 on a new remote and blue tooth pod. Last thing a lot of interference if you try to mount a transducer on the motor especially with structure scan. I had to buy a separate transducer pole and mount it on the opposite side of the boat. Overall the Terrova will do anything I need it to and the speed control is really accurate because I checked it with GPS. When spider rigging, that's more important to me than spot lock.

This is something I've been wanting to purchase also but have been holding off because that's a big investment to be disappointed. I'm all Lowrance so maybe the Xi5 is the way to go.

I have a Xi5 and have been in a boat with a Minn kota spot lock. Prefer my Xi5 over the Minn Kota. The Minn Kota took forever and would move all over the place to get it's bearings and lock where the Xi5 doesn't. Also like the Xi5 jog feature of double tapping the remote forward, backward or left or right to move 5' in whatever direction you pressed.