How about some detailed likes and dislikes on this trolling motor by folks that have been using it now long enough to give it a chance for a good honest opinion.
How about some detailed likes and dislikes on this trolling motor by folks that have been using it now long enough to give it a chance for a good honest opinion.
Not a long term review, but 10 trips with it so far:
powerful - 24v 20x72 aluminum side console and 115 4 stroke. Fuel
fuel empty wells will pull to 3.8 mph. Will pull with 2 power poles and drift paddles down to 8’ to 1.6
mph.
quiet - quietest motor I’ve ever driven. Way quieter than the ultrex. Turns are quiet and smooth.
pedal is awesome and almost as good as ultrex, not quite but almost
spot lock is at least as good as ultrex from a seat of the pants perspective
jury is still out on heading lock. Seems to hunt a little more than I think k it should. Still haven’t updated and I’m still playing with settings.
so far, id recommend.
wannabe...
I’ve had mine for a month now. I’m out 2 or 3 times a week so I think I’ve got a good handle on it.
It’s very quite, it’s fast, uses a lot less battery. Stows and deploys super easy. Complaints; PITA getting it set up on Active captain. Way to Difficult to do updates. The Ultrex is much easier. The arrow on the top is not lit up. So if you fish in the dark be careful.
Garmin engineers need to learn how to fish. If they did these little issues wouldn’t exist. It’s the best trolling motor on the planet yet it’s a bitch to update and no freaking indicator Arrow.
Love the Force and hope they fix these nuisance issues.
2024 Phoenix 818, Mercury 175 (3B414035) Trick Steps, 3 Garmin 106 SV,s, LVS 34. BoatEFX dual bow mount. Ionic 12V 125AH, 2 12V 100 ah LiTime’s for the TM. Minn Kota 345 PCL charger,
Im done with Minkotta, thats 4 broken motors in 3 years with them for me. Time to move on and I have yet to see a real bad report about a Force...I think its time i start saving up my pennies.
Ill be watching this thread very very closely.
06 Stratos 294 ProXL
Just got rid of mine, I found it grossly overcomplicated and alot of tech for the sake of tech. WTF does a trolling motor need 8 digit encryption ? Oh good luck when the bluetooth craps out on you and you are somewhere without an internet signal and cant re pair the pedal. Never did find or figure out most of its features.
Also Garmins directions tend to be garbage and leave out steps. Endless menus and sub menus. make sure you have the right app on your smart phone and hope you like watching videos, vs reading instructions.
Steering motor is noisy, there is also a delay in the pedal steering, takes a bit to get used to.
I never did figure out how to keep if from going full power reverse for about 10 feet every time I hit anchor lock.
Way it sounds and how it is jerky doesnt instill me with confidence it will last very long.
Only good thing I can say is I got most of my money back and will buy shallow water anchors. Went fishing yesterday with my new 112lb Foretrex. No muss no fuss worked like a charm
On a side note I do have a NIB spare foot pedal for sale
Not being critical, or insulting...an honest question. Would you consider yourself to be "tech savvy"? I know my father is running a garmin and he complains that it is overly complicated as well. He also however struggles with operating his Helix unit on the boat as well and I have provided him with assistance to get it set up correctly. To me the Helix operation was second nature, i never read the manuals or had used one before but i simply just knew how to use it. Almost like when you give an ipad to a child...its second nature to them.Originally Posted by Dropdeadfred
Ive had the benefit of growing up with a computer though and spend a great deal of time playing with my electronics. Im exactly as you described, the type of person that would prefer to watch a video on my smartphone explaining how to use the thing rather than reading a manual.
Have you ever used ipilot features on any other TM's prior to using it with your garmin. I see you reference the fortrex (perhaps MK's best TM ever IMO) but Im curious if this was your first time using a TM with ipilot hence you were not used of how TM's "search" and can be jerky from time to time when attempting to hold spot lock.
The reason I am asking is because your feedback is absolutely being taken into consideration by me when i finally decide to make my purchase of my next TM. Id really appreciate your feedback.
06 Stratos 294 ProXL
Dude,, I am a Chief Marine Engineer. I work on commercial dynamic positioning systems , (think spotlock for tugboats and oil rig supply boats) auto pilots, gyro's etc,, so no,,, I am not a Ludite.
No clue what "I" anything is,,, I see "I" i think apple... best thing I can say about apple is its really tough cause I beat snot out of one and threw it out truck window ,,, son got it and it still worked.
The jerk was all the time,, not just in spot lock.
I cant see my phone at all while out on boat too bright.
I hate videos,, they tend to be lots of times listening to someone flap their gums before getting to the point. I can flip to a page and get the info pretty fast... Also I live jn an area with no broadband
If I fished deep structure and needed spotlock Id go ultrex, otherwise I would go fortrex and a shallow water anchor. I mean really I searched a bit but the square throw out markers work as good today as they did 30 years ago.
The rest of the stuff I have no use for or have no interest in spending time to figure it out.
I only get to fish a couple times a month, and those times I like to fish,, not fiddle fart with gadgets.
Not being able to fish because I dont have the right app crap on a smart phone and no internet signal is kinda a deal breaker for me....
PS,,, I want to go fishing with your dad.
Last edited by Dropdeadfred; 10-21-2020 at 03:19 PM.
Same thing on an ultrex is you're moving when you hit spot lock....it wants the position where you hit it, that momentum thing will get ya
I'm glad I don't mess with all that tech ,I mounted mine a year ago got it paired and I just push the pedal and fish it will reverse if you push spot while moving forward it reverses to that exact spot
uh, no, it does it when boat is sitting still.
When the motor wasnt paired to the graph, the spot lock held dead on, I figured the update had fixed it. But when I paired it to the graph it started doing it again. It almost makes me think when you hit anchor lock, the motor is trying to place itself where the dash graph is located.
Probably a setting buried in a menu in the graph somewhere. I found anchor gain and thought that was it, but it wasnt.
I suggest you keep a copy of the manual in the boat. Although if your pedal comes unpaired one of the procedures is to turn it off for 2 hours if the button combo doesnt work, like mine did to me. Personally I think the wireless foot pedal is pretty stupid. Its not like the TM doesnt have wires, what would one more be
When you first turn it on it takes it a minute to boot up and pair everything, so take that into account. Its not a huge deal,, and only does it first thing. I believe it has a 2 hour auto shutdown. So will stay on all day.
Cant use the onboard style chargers like Troll bridge with it. As the motor needs 36 volts constant. Or you will have to return it on and wait for it to boot everytime you reloacate.
Oh also make sure you are holding on to something if you come across the "turbo mode" setting and decide to push it to see what happens.
I can say the garmin motor is really fast compared to the Foretrex. about 5.9 mph from a Triton 18TRX, yesterday was getting 3 on the foretrex, ALthough I am guessing its a prop pitch difference based on the initial power. Either do to pitch or a better ramp up feature the Garmin doesnt jerk you as much as the Foretrex if the power is higher than you expected.
It is lighter than the Foretrex,,
The constant on button can be operated with your foot, vs the side toggle
The motor stays where you point it, so if you are going a bit of a distance you can aim it, turn on constant and go do something, like change lures without staying on the pedal.
That combined with the speed, had me using it in places where before I would have started the main. Like crossing a cove.
thank you for the fantastic honest feedback on the motor.
Many of the things you describe regarding jerkiness seem dead on with my experiences using the terrovas with the newer ipilot function. I actually find that sitting dead still and putting them on anchor makes them do crazier things then when you are moving a little bit. I find that when you are moving the motor will kind of adjust to get you back to where you hit anchor, but if you are sitting still it seems to make them go a bit crazy. Maybe its because once you are close to target the angle at which it needs to move to to move to target is narrower than when you are further away from target.
Im very interested in what you are saying about the force seeming to have a different prop pitch which allows for a slower start up but then much faster top end.
It sounds like you ran a 36volt on an 18 foot boat...that seems wild to me, it would have a ridiculous amount of power at that point. Probably feels a lot like when i threw my 55lb thrust on my 14 foot tinner. I had to be careful because if I mistakenly hit rabbit on my remote it would basically chuck me. The front of the boat only weighed 60lbs so you can imagine how fast that thing bucked me lol.
06 Stratos 294 ProXL
Well my original motor was a 24 volt foretrex... I knew I wanted more power as I fish in current.. current as in below a damn. You can always turn a 36 volt down,, So I went with the Garmin as I have garmin graphs, and figure same brand would integrate better.
As far as the anchor lock,,,no it doesnt randomly jerk around, and doesnt matter if you are still moving or stationary.. EVERYTIME you hit anchor lock the motor will go to exactly pointing 180,,, come on fairly high power, move the boat about 10 feet, then go to 0 degrees, and stop boat,,, then hold it there.
And as mentioned it DIDNOT do this after I updated and repaired pedal and did not have the trolling motor connected to the graph, soon as I reconnected the graph, it started doing it again.. Honestly for me there wasnt any reason to have it paired to the graph, as the pedal has constant on, and anchor lock.. I never tried the nav features.
Oh one of the first things that made me want to punch the designer. Day 1,,, I hit anchor lock and get a pop up window that says I must calibrate compass. Hit OK,,, so i hit OK expecting the next screen to be the calibration button..
Nope, that would make sense. It kept telling me I needed to calibrate compass. NO INFO ON HOW, or where to find the setting. Dug through every menu and sub menu and sub sub menu,,,, notta.
Despite a big button labeled MENU, that I was evidently dumb enough to think led to the menu, there are 3 little lines at the top right corner of screen. Hit those three lines you get a completely new and different menu. Included in that was a link to calibration procedure.
So this is the type of stuff I am referring to when I say grossly over complicated to the point of being unreliable and stupid tech for the sake of tech vs make things better.
I mean really if the dang thing is so smart it can give me a big pop up telling me I need to calibrate. Why cant it be smart enough to have a link to that calibration ? Or for that matter a search function in the settings ?
I dont recall ANY electronic device, phone, kindle, computer, ever having a pop up window telling you to do something that didnt have a link to do it in that popup.
Anyway I am very happy with my new foretrex,, Garmin is gone, money is buying probably a raptor or 2, See what comes out in next couple years, Ultrexs seem to have matured, maybe MK will come out with a brushless motor. But really the way I fish, I will be just as well served with shallow water anchors.
Far as the speed, sense you asked and please dont take it like I am condescending I have no idea your background.
prop pitch is basically gear ratio,, pitch is how far the prop moves forward in 1 rotation, so say a 10" pitch moves forward 10" (not counting slip) where a 12" pitch is 12... So like a car... Low pitch you get lots of initial power, but maxes a lower speed. High gear you have more top end but less take off power.
Now I dont know if it is a motor rpm thing, or a better delayed start circuit or the prop pitch, but the Garmin is way better than the MK,, you dont get that instant jerk , yet much more top end..
If your units are paired I would venture a safe bet that GPS is reading off the console unit. I have a garmin head unit but only use it for LS so not sure how things pair and settings. I know birds you can select the GPS source and that has some effect on it.
Man sounds like my fortrexx every time I turn around my foot pedal buttons out and must have fixed my pivot point every other few months I was tired of it and got a force which has worked fine so far hopefully we both can just fish now,I did have a transducer problem I rubbed a rock my left side went out on side image but new one under warranty
Honest take here:
1) It is incredibly quiet.
2) The pedal works but I find it too touchy. I miss the cable steer of my ultrex. Seemed to more precise for me.
3) Spotlock works 70% of the time. There are times where it just steers to some random spot that is NOT where I hit the button at.
4) The anchor button and the heading button are too close to the pedal. I randomly hit them all the time.
5) It is crazy fast!
6) I do not like where the power button is. I would prefer it on the pedal like the ultrex. Takes too long to power up completely with GPS etc.
7) So easy to deploy and retrieve! Love that part.
8) Integrates with my Garmin units nicely. Now what does it do with it being integrated? No bloody clue!
9) Anchor is WAY better in little to no wind than the Ultrex. The Ultrex was terrible if there was no wind. It would run all over the place and dang near throw me out of the boat.
Overall, it is a very good TM. Is it better than the Ultrex? I am not convinced. If I had it to do all over again, I probably would still make the switch (maybe) if simply for the ability to anchor with no wind. But I REALLY miss the steering of the Ultrex
Sean Fullerton
~~2022 Skeeter FXR20 Limited~~
Yamaha SHO 250
Helix 12
Mega 360
MegaLive
Raptors
https://www.youtube.com/ruggedoutdoors
I have only had mine out twice. First time I liked it second time I loved it. I think it's going to really help me . I'm not a tech guy so I'm not worried about pairing it or anything . It diffentaly does a lot I will never use . Super easy up and down,smooth as butter. Spot lock is super nice for what I use it for re tying. Fishing brush etc. super quite and powerful. Heck I bet I could fish four days on one charge . I fish hard all day go home and my batteries are still 90 percent.
I've had min out a handful of times and so far I love it. The few annoying things I have found are not really major. Accdentially bumping the spot lock and course lock buttons with my feet is a pain but not really big deal. I wish it would remember the speed setting when powered back on.
The biggest annoyance is something I only just noticed on the last trip out. SmallmouthCrush also mentioned this in one of his videos. When I hit the spot lock it moves me way off the spot and slowly brings me back. I don't get that.
I love it so far other than the above.
Mine will drive backwards to the spot I hit because I'm still coasting forward if I do it into a wind so the wind stops my forward progress it doesn't do it at all and has never drove me to the side then came back,I'm almost a full season on it and I like it.I or my back has really liked the pedal being a little thinner making it flush with deck I don't get home and limp to the house with a stiff back
Has anyone experienced what Travis talks about in the below video? He says when the motor comes out of the water on spot lock (not sure if it only happens with spot lock) it goes into a guardian mode and you have to turn it off and back on.
I haven't had mine in water rough enough that it comes out of the water. If there is no way to disable this I could see this being a big issue.
Relative to those users that mention accidentally hitting the Heading Hold button on the pedal, with current software the ability to disengage the Heading Hold button has been added. To disable or enable, you press the heading hold button on the pedal exactly 6 times quickly. The LED lights RED for a second to signal disabled, and lights GREEN for a second to indicate enabled.
Garmin Pro Team
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