Trolling Motor Selection - Volts, Thrust, and Shaft length

[flatheadsteve]

The cable wrapping thing on Powerdrives and Terrovas is a major annoyance, but I'm not sure that it has as much to do with the size of the motor/boat as it does poor programming on MK's part. Sucks when you're fishing a spot, not paying much attention and the motor wraps the cables then cancels spot lock. Once you've realized what happened you're way off and get to start over.

One thing that helps is to make sure the boat stops moving completely before you hit spot lock, and approach your spot from straight downwind. I've found that it is most likely to wrap if it has to move the head more than 90*. It should be programmed to only rotate opposite of the last move, but it simply moves whatever direction is nearer to the target heading.

Once I started being more careful about when I hit spot lock, it only tends to wrap when the wind is really variable, or when it's dead calm and the boat tends to move around aimlessly. It definitely works best with a steady breeze.

What bugs me the most, is that mine is smart enough to feel the added drag from twisted cables and cancel spot lock, but it's somehow not smart enough to just not do it in the first place!

Reading this makes me glad I didn't get a minn kota. Wouldn't have been too hard for them to program in limits on rotation. The garmin is "self aware" and will turn off the motor and perform a 360 to free up cable and turn back on. Takes maybe a 2 or 3 seconds for it to do this.

 

[jethro]

Reading this makes me glad I didn't get a minn kota. Wouldn't have been too hard for them to program in limits on rotation. The garmin is "self aware" and will turn off the motor and perform a 360 to free up cable and turn back on. Takes maybe a 2 or 3 seconds for it to do this.

Minn Kota does the same thing, at least my 2019 Ulterra does.

 

[FuzzyGrub]

The ProNav GPS system that was mentioned is an add-on device. It probably does not hae any sensor that can tell revolutions of the trolling motor shaft or indexed in degrees. I think some of MK's early stuff was just add-on to the Power Drive, and might havve been the same issue.

 

[Tin Man]

Reading this makes me glad I didn't get a minn kota. Wouldn't have been too hard for them to program in limits on rotation. The garmin is "self aware" and will turn off the motor and perform a 360 to free up cable and turn back on. Takes maybe a 2 or 3 seconds for it to do this.

Sounds like the newer motors may have the programming the prevents the wrapping.

 

[Buster]

Sounds like the newer motors may have the programming the prevents the wrapping.

I did a software update before my last two-week trip of the year and come to think of it, the cable wrap issue didn't happen. It stopped and unwound (but didn't resume the lock.) still had the oscillating issue when on a track at moderate speed (1.2-1.8mph or so.)

 

[Still Afloat]

Sounds like the newer motors may have the programming the prevents the wrapping.

I did a software update before my last two-week trip of the year and come to think of it, the cable wrap issue didn't happen. It stopped and unwound (but didn't resume the lock.) still had the oscillating issue when on a track at moderate speed (1.2-1.8mph or so.)

Interesting. It would be good to hear if this update has fixed other issues or perhaps created a few new issues.

What do you mean by oscillating, sort of a zigzag? Mine does this occasionally in the wind or maybe when running a circle course. I actually catch more fish when the boats zigzags. Would be nice if this were a selectable feature.

 

[Still Afloat]

Well, I guess that confirms what MK told him. Seems odd comparing to my MG. The Xi3 will rotate back 360 instead of wrapping the cord. It’s think this hard to imagine, if you had this issue, and you called MK customer service, and they tell you its your fault, you bought too much thrust!

This looks like an extreme case though, a really light 14 ft boat with an 80# motor. I have to wonder where the heading sensor is mounted. Also, you would think that the motor would be smart enough to start with lower rpms before overcorrecting.

 

[FuzzyGrub]

This looks like an extreme case though, a really light 14 ft boat with an 80# motor. I have to wonder where the heading sensor is mounted. Also, you would think that the motor would be smart enough to start with lower rpms before overcorrecting.

Maybe, but still think it is odd that MK brought up the issue to TinMan and others confirmed that there is a "light boat" setting on the higher end models. I agree with you, it seems like it could be programmed better to handle a broader range.

 

[Skunked again]

If in doubt, go bigger. I’ve seen those Minnkota numbers before, never have believed them. I call a big fat BS on them!

A previous boat was a g3 1756 with a four stroke 50hp, had (key word here) a 12 volt 45# thrust trolling motor, from the factory, one 27 series lead acid. I put a second battery, in parallel, it helped. Was underpowered . In winds over 10mph, on high speed, it would barely hold a spot. Switched that tm out to a 24volt 70#, could go anywhere at about any speed with it. Was a night and day difference.

Current boat is a Lowe 1467UV with four stroke 9.8hp. I put a 12 volt 55# tm bow mount hand control on it, two 27 series Lead acids in parallel. I’ve now switched to crappie and spider rigging. Yeah, I know, I have the wrong setup for this. Maintaining .8-1.8mph, I can get 4-5 hours before noticing battery drain. If I would swap to a 24 volt tm, my run time would increase, significantly.

 

[thill]

Hmmm...folowing this cord wrap issue...never had it on my powerdrive 2 MK bow mount. Had it for over two years and never a wrap up. Thought about it when I first got it, but it has never wrapped more than one full turn when controlling itself. After that one full turn, the motor stops the prop and turns back a full turn before starting the prop again. I do know, that I can wrap it more when under manual control, but when on the auto control, spot lock, anchor lock or whatever it is called has never happened. Always stopped and backed up after one full turn. What am I missing, or what are others missing ??

This is my experience, too. It doesn't wrap more than one turn or so, then backs up and unwraps itself

Maybe older generations of iPilot didn't have this feature???

I HAVE had it where I leaned on the remote, or something got set on top of it and pushed the button, and the motor started spinning and spinning. Took a second to figure out what was happening.

Some years ago, I ripped a transducer cable that way, but the iPilot doesn't do this on it's own. That was user error.