Ghost durability?

I have had my Ghost installed for just under a year. I fish 2-3 days per week. Overall I have been happy with it. I Like the power and how quiet it is compared to the Ultrex on my last boat. But I am less than thrilled with its durability.

So far I have had to:
1) Replace control sensor that failed in a tournament. Covered under warranty.
2) Replace the entire head assembly after hitting a stump while fishing. Covered by insurance but I was shocked that it broke. In 20+ years I have bumped into my share of stumps or rocks and never had any damage.
3) Replace the pull cord handle. Lowrance sent a replacement but I installed a TH Marine handle instead. Seems like the handle is a well known issue.
4) Replace the lift assist crutch. This is the plastic piece the lift assist strut mounts to. It broke yesterday for no apparent reason while stowing the motor. it looks like very cheap plastic. A replacement is just $11 and Lowrance is sending one under warranty. But it will take up to 2 weeks and then takes some work to install. I'm surprised they'd make such an important piece out of such cheap material.

Are others experiencing these kinds of failures?

Hate to poke the bear but having one quite awhile so far no issues. Hope you have better luck in the future

Hope I'm in the minority. Had some issues with the Ultrex as well over 5 years, which is not unreasonable. But this has been more than I expected with the Ghost.

I have one of the first retail shipped ghost sold, zero issues with mine; but I don’t fish 2-3 times per week.

I've had mine longer than most with two screws of one of the sideplates fall out and they sent two sideplates with screws under warranty.
Other than that no problems and I definitely don't fish 3 times per week.

3 years, no issues

I had the crutch break on my unit and they sent me a new one when I went to install it I realized that the lift assist piston was bad, the piston works in both directions and on the one on my unit was frozen in one direction! You may want to test the piston before you install the new crutch.

The hold down strap on mine rusted almost immediately - they send me a replacement but I just put a MK strap on it that I know won't rust.

The handle is not a great design, it's lower grade plastic almost designed to fail once you take it apart once or twice. I replaced with a Red One handle, but am waiting on Bobs Machine to get the Ghost version of thier handle to the market. Supposed to be in final testing stages now. Although, tbh I really have no complaints about the Red One handle.

But other than that, nothing major. Getting the mounting bolts tightened correctly/evenly is a big deal, moreso that other brands apparenly. I would prefer some pedal adjustability, both in setting the angle of the pedal relative to the TM head direction, as well as force required to move the head, but appears neither are adjustable. Also waiting patiently for the ORBIT update that will give it Targetlock-like capabilities as well.

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Originally Posted by rangerranger

I have had my Ghost installed for just under a year. I fish 2-3 days per week. Overall I have been happy with it. I Like the power and how quiet it is compared to the Ultrex on my last boat. But I am less than thrilled with its durability.

So far I have had to:
1) Replace control sensor that failed in a tournament. Covered under warranty.
2) Replace the entire head assembly after hitting a stump while fishing. Covered by insurance but I was shocked that it broke. In 20+ years I have bumped into my share of stumps or rocks and never had any damage.
3) Replace the pull cord handle. Lowrance sent a replacement but I installed a TH Marine handle instead. Seems like the handle is a well known issue.
4) Replace the lift assist crutch. This is the plastic piece the lift assist strut mounts to. It broke yesterday for no apparent reason while stowing the motor. it looks like very cheap plastic. A replacement is just $11 and Lowrance is sending one under warranty. But it will take up to 2 weeks and then takes some work to install. I'm surprised they'd make such an important piece out of such cheap material.

Are others experiencing these kinds of failures?

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What were the symptoms of the control sensor failure? I am getting a shutdown followed by 5 beeps and 2 fast flashes. Lowrance tech is describing a head sensor failure but I honestly don't think they know what the problem is. My closest service center is 70 miles away.

If I recall my symptoms were similar to yours on the sensor failure. My dealer said they have seen quite a few of them.

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Originally Posted by 1pooldoc

What were the symptoms of the control sensor failure? I am getting a shutdown followed by 5 beeps and 2 fast flashes. Lowrance tech is describing a head sensor failure but I honestly don't think they know what the problem is. My closest service center is 70 miles away.

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I'm having the same issue with my Ghost

Going round and round with the service center on just getting my ghost diagnosed. They obviously keep no record of phone calls and have yet to call back after checking on my case. Called again yesterday, 3rd different girl answered, no record of my previous calls. At least she was honest and said they had 4 other motors in the floor that had not been repaired. She said she would have to call Lowrance and dreaded that call. Tough to deal with in her words. Supposed to call back today to update me. Said my best option may be to get nasty with CS at Lowrance!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 1pooldoc

Going round and round with the service center on just getting my ghost diagnosed. They obviously keep no record of phone calls and have yet to call back after checking on my case. Called again yesterday, 3rd different girl answered, no record of my previous calls. At least she was honest and said they had 4 other motors in the floor that had not been repaired. She said she would have to call Lowrance and dreaded that call. Tough to deal with in her words. Supposed to call back today to update me. Said my best option may be to get nasty with CS at Lowrance!

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Yes. Communication from Navico is lacking. There was some personnel changes. Main thing is use the case number issued my bitch is they give a new case number everyone you email into tech , I've had 3-4 case numbers for same motor and I've told them many times to stop issuing multiple numbers for same problem.

UPDATE on ghost problem resolution. None. Still trying to get it repaired through service center 70 miles away. Latest is that they have not received the part to replace which is supposed to fix it. To begin with the service center didn't even have the direct service phone number for dealers. Dealing with tech service by email. I called Lowrance and got them to call service center and supposedly got them the correct number and told them what to do for my issue. The service manager at the dealer said I had to bring entire boat for them to agree to look at the ghost. Said they needed to check all the wiring first. i agreed to that and we set up a date 3 weeks out to bring in my boat. Well that date is Monday and now they don't have a part or delivery date for the part. NOt even shipped from Lowrance yet. Round and Round we go!! Right at 1.5 months down today.

That's crappy, I'm on my second season with the ghost. So far so good (knock on wood). Only issue is the Velcro strap is not that strong of a grip. When the season gets rolling I'm fishing often as well.

3 seasons no problems ! A lot quieter than ultrex.

Problem solved! After a journey thru lowrance and service center I set out just over a week ago to service center with boat . Was told by service manager that it would require leaving rig with them for an indeterminate length of time. My appointment was just to get it in and check problem, solution may take longer. Just dump it and leave(we'll call). Long short, we spent about 30 minutes in tackle shop and when we come out notice tech working on my boat. Check with him and he says he will be though in about 15 min. Replaced the lowrance advised and supplied head sensor and ghost worked again. Dropped it in water and ran it for 30 min. no problem. Fast forward to last Monday PM, check out excursion and ghost acts weirdly. Spot lock making big circles, randomly taking off on high speed in some direction other than prescribed, unable to steer in some direction (right or left), ect. Wow, what now? Well late yesterday I go back out to see if i could recalibrate things. I did a full factory reset, and recalibrated everything and it worked fine. Hopefullly end of my journey!

terrible prop also cover just broke mine in half last week

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 1pooldoc

Problem solved! After a journey thru lowrance and service center I set out just over a week ago to service center with boat . Was told by service manager that it would require leaving rig with them for an indeterminate length of time. My appointment was just to get it in and check problem, solution may take longer. Just dump it and leave(we'll call). Long short, we spent about 30 minutes in tackle shop and when we come out notice tech working on my boat. Check with him and he says he will be though in about 15 min. Replaced the lowrance advised and supplied head sensor and ghost worked again. Dropped it in water and ran it for 30 min. no problem. Fast forward to last Monday PM, check out excursion and ghost acts weirdly. Spot lock making big circles, randomly taking off on high speed in some direction other than prescribed, unable to steer in some direction (right or left), ect. Wow, what now? Well late yesterday I go back out to see if i could recalibrate things. I did a full factory reset, and recalibrated everything and it worked fine. Hopefullly end of my journey!

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Are you calling the compass (looks like point 1) a heading sensor or is there a heading sensor in the Ghost head that was replaced?

It's inside the head. Plugs into one of the boards there. Took the tech longer to disassemble and reassemble than to replace the sensor even though it was way down under a couple of boards and countless wires.