Been reading all the .. uh ... stuff about the Ultrex and its problems. There have, no doubt, been issues, but this post is not about that. I just wanted to give my impressions about mine (80, 45, non link), having now used it a couple of weeks.
Right out of the box, mine had a bent armature and/or an imbalanced prop (I am relatively certain it had both). MK took care of it. Then, I didn't feel it was locking on to spot lock satisfactorily. Again, MK took care of it. I cannot complain, not one bit, about MK's CS. Completely satisfied, with one of the CS representatives even "bending the rules" to keep me on the water.
Now that I have that out of the way, I want to give my impressions on this expensive piece of equipment.
In my opinion, it is awesome. I have an Xpress X70 that is very susceptible to wind (blows around like a parachute). Thus, the main reason I made the leap was for the spot lock feature. I can't say it stays within 3' as claimed with my boat, but I am satisfied with how it locks on. It takes a bit for it to get locked on, but once it does it stays plenty close enough. Playing with the boat offset has helped with different wind conditions (haven't had it in any current). I cannot tell you how nice it is to hit the button and take care of whatever business I need to do - get a deep hook out of a fish, re-tie, whatever - and not worry about being blown a mile off my spot or into trouble. It is very, very nice to be able to spot lock on the downwind side of a point, ledge or brush pile and just stand there and fish. As far as functioning as a normal trolling motor, I must say I am very impressed. The turning response is very quick. It is not nearly as noisy as I expected. It has taken some getting used to in that the pedal does not offer as much resistance as my old Maxxum. I haven't played with the pedal adjustment screw, but not a big deal either way. It does turn further with the same amount of pedal movement when compared to the Maxxum, but I like that it does. Backing up is a breeze. After a few uses, I have adjusted and am pretty much able to know where I am at direction-wise without looking.
I haven't played a whole lot with other features like setting a course and letting the motor go, but it seems to do a reasonably good job with that.
Time will tell as for how well it will hold up, or if my pedal will freeze, etc., but for now, I am very pleased.
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Originally Posted by catdude28
