Johnny Maxwell

[Tim Powell]

The speed of rotation on the Ultrex is great, its extremely fast with the foot pedal. I do however use the remote 99% of the time, and follow the contour will just plain ol spoil you!

[tritontr21]

My new Ulterra has arrived so I will be ready to roll in a day or two. Pretty pumped now!

[Johnny Maxwell]

You will love it Jay. Give it a few hours of time to learn it and it will grow on you a lot.

[NOTGSXR]

Just th at foot pedal....

[JOEALLY]

My new Ulterra has arrived so I will be ready to roll in a day or two. Pretty pumped now!

I'm looking forward to hearing your opinion. I love mine so far.

[tritontr21]

If it quits raining I hope to test it the weekend! I am really excited to see how it works. Been reading all the stuff its capable of and may take me a year to figure it all our lol

[Johnny Maxwell]

If it quits raining I hope to test it the weekend! I am really excited to see how it works. Been reading all the stuff its capable of and may take me a year to figure it all our lol

Jay, the basic stuff I have down pat. There are a few things such as storing trails that I have not had a chance to work on but it does look pretty simple from what I read. I have not tried jogging the unit over yet either. Like most computers there is a lot more "power and capability" in this thing than what I'll ever need or use.

[tritontr21]

About to drop in the city lake and test this thing out!

[JOEALLY]

About to drop in the city lake and test this thing out!

All right, let's hear it!

[Johnny Maxwell]

I was about to say the same thing Joe. Let’s get a report on the trip.

[tritontr21]

I somehow left my manual at work so it was a trial and error trip! I did catch fish and use both the foot pedal and hand control. It is totally different but I already like it and think once I get the hand controller figured out with all its capabilities it will be the bomb! Spot lock and cruise worked fine on the foot pedal and cruise and steering did as well as stow and deploy but spot lock didn't communicate. I think I will resolve the issue once I actually read the instructions lol. Plan to fish Saturday afternoon and Monday as well so I'm sure I will love it even more by next week!!!

[hooken203]

Does the steering work different between the Ulterra and the Ultrex? In other words does the Ultrex still use a cable of some sort to steer? The foot pedals are different between the two? If you are in the contour mode is it using mapping to follow the contour or a depth reading? When you are in the follow contour mode how do you get out? Say if you get a snag and have to go back manually? So now that the snag is unhooked do you manually have to get the boat back to the contour depth and go back into the follow mode. If your trolling motor head is up against something say a rock or tree limb and it is forced to turn by the wind moving the boat does it break or strip the gears so that now you can’t steer the trolling motor.
Way back maybe 20 years ago I had a Pinpoint trolling motor kind of the grand father to all of this trolling motor technology. It was very short lived on my boat. I had it in contour mode got a snag backed up got it off. I hit the button to return to contour mode. The boat was facing shore and in less water than contour mode had last seen. When I hit the button it started to turn towards deeper water then freaked out when it couldn’t find it ramped the speed up and ran up on shore. Ok my mistake I should have got it back out to the depth and headed in the right direction before I hit the button. Next day we are fishing flooded timber I sat down to retie. There was a breeze and it pushed the trolling motor up against an under water branch when I stepped back up to the front it forced the trolling motor head to turn. I heard a crackly crunch of the steering gears breaking and now the trolling motor runs but you can’t steer it. I hope they were smarter about a few things on these motors.

[tritontr21]

The Ulterra is completely electric steer the Ultrex is cable but electric as well I think. I did discover retrieving snags near the bank requires a little fore thought or quick thinking to trim the troller up in extremely shallow water. I was concerned about the ramp up feature but think it performed great. I did not trust it to kick the boat off by itself yet lol. I hear you have to get into the habit of turning on the troller first of swim! I just got my dongle cable adapter in today so this means more learning so I can try the autopilot/contour features. Using cruise is awesome and the ability to steer around stumps is extremely important on my lakes as well. I like that I can use the foot and remote as needed so when I caught my first fish I hit spot lock with my foot and stayed there and caught 2 more before moving on all while fighting the first fish! More testing will come this weekend. So far I have to say this might be the best purchase I have ever made.

[Johnny Maxwell]

The Ulterra is completely electric steer the Ultrex is cable but electric as well I think. I did discover retrieving snags near the bank requires a little fore thought or quick thinking to trim the troller up in extremely shallow water. I was concerned about the ramp up feature but think it performed great. I did not trust it to kick the boat off by itself yet lol. I hear you have to get into the habit of turning on the troller first of swim! I just got my dongle cable adapter in today so this means more learning so I can try the autopilot/contour features. Using cruise is awesome and the ability to steer around stumps is extremely important on my lakes as well. I like that I can use the foot and remote as needed so when I caught my first fish I hit spot lock with my foot and stayed there and caught 2 more before moving on all while fighting the first fish! More testing will come this weekend. So far I have to say this might be the best purchase I have ever made.

I thought you would love it. I wouldn't want to go back to a cable steer.

[tritontr21]

I only logged about an hour on it and I can say I don't see me ever having a cable steer again. I did discover that my old Evinrude did not quit. Had a plug go bad so I have a good backup in case the new one fails! Quick release works good so far but I think I am gonna add a support between the troller upper shaft and the deck of the boat for those silly rough days and wake board boats!

[K-DAWG]

Johnny could you measure the width of the front and rear of the foot controller as well as the length? I am gonna have to change out my recessed foot tray. Having the foot controller dimensions will make it easier finding the right one. Thanks.

[River Rocket]

Johnny could you measure the width of the front and rear of the foot controller as well as the length? I am gonna have to change out my recessed foot tray. Having the foot controller dimensions will make it easier finding the right one. Thanks.

If it were me I would get the troller first and use it before modifying the boat. You may find that you give up the foot pedal and cover the tray for added deck space. Many don’t use the foot pedal at all. It is in my boat as the 3rd back up if two remotes fail and I’m out of batteries. Also used as ballast. In other words a lot has to happen before I use it. On this boat I have used it one time at smoke on the water when I forgot batteries for the little remote I use and forgot to charge the main remote. Perfect storm.

[JOEALLY]

I used my ulterra again today - fished from 7 am - 3:30 pm. I like it more each time I use it!

What I have grown to love about the foot control is the ability to set it on the speed I want, hit the continuous on, then just bump the left or right steer buttons as I cruise the bank. When needed, just bump the continuous button to stop propeller. So stinky easy and fishing without having my foot on the pedal. The same is done with remote but with the foot pedal, my hands stay on the reel.

The trim feature is neat as can be for retrieving hung lures and trust me we have retrieved plenty in the last few outings! Before I go to the hang, I just run the trim up then move in. As I'm easing toward the hang, I've also learned to go ahead and turn the troller to back out, then as soon as the lure pops free, I hit the continuous button and back out - hands free!

We fished a lot of shallow lay downs and cypress knees today, I did bump a few but everything seemed fine.

The auto deploy and stow has just spoiled me!

As I've said, yes it is a lot of moving parts and can break and if it does, I'll be frustrated but man this thing is handy.

[K-DAWG]

If it were me I would get the troller first and use it before modifying the boat. You may find that you give up the foot pedal and cover the tray for added deck space. Many don’t use the foot pedal at all. It is in my boat as the 3rd back up if two remotes fail and I’m out of batteries. Also used as ballast. In other words a lot has to happen before I use it. On this boat I have used it one time at smoke on the water when I forgot batteries for the little remote I use and forgot to charge the main remote. Perfect storm.

I fish a lot of coastal tidal rivers. Cant see a scenario where I don't ever use the foot pedal again. But, I guess you never know until you know right.

[MET]

Has anyone gone from a fortrex to ulterra? Would it be possible to get a quick release bracket and drill to match fortrex holes on bow rather than drilling additional holes in the hull?