Garmin Force review after 4 months: Likes/Problems — compared to Ultrex.

[Digger004]

Hi BBC. I've seen quite a few questions on the Force. I now have a Force after I’ve had three ultrex’s in the past. So I thought I’d chime in.
Some of these points I’ve seen posted on the boards, other problems concerns, I’ve have not seen yet.

1st of all, when everything works perfectly, I love the motor! It’s quiet, smooth, strong, and efficient. Works really really smooth. The built in Tranaducer works amazing compared to my Lowrance 3-in-1 Tranaducer. I love being able to replace slag for $19.99. And love being able to use other company props in a pinch. My boat cover even fits over the motor went stowed and that did not happen on my Ultrex. I love the LED display and how is stows so smoothly while stowed. It also looks great in the boat.

The only two designs that I don’t completely like are the buttons by the heel are tall and I hit the wrong button often and the foot pedal turns a little too easily for me, even when adjust it all the way tight.

That is my review/opinion with no problems. Here are the issues that I’ve had in 4 months. It’s been one after another:
1) The prop/slag breaks very easily. I’m not easy on my equipment, but I never broke an Ultrex prop in 4 years, I’m on #3 now with the Garmin. And my 2nd skag after bumping rocks once.
2) The motor turns off if Anchor locked in rough water and boat slaps down. This has happened twice while re-tying and I almost hit the rocks once.
3) The boat backs up 5-10’ when hitting Anchor lock. Then adjusts.
4) The bounce buster support is nice, but on my Ranger 520L, it lands right on the gel coat when open, the rubber grommet falls off because it hits awkwardly, and it chipped the fiberglass on front of boat. I mounted in stock holes from factory. Maybe I need to put spacers to raise motor?
5) Last & biggest complaint: foot pedal started working backwards in middle of a pre-fishing day. I left a message with Garmin support and they called back in about 15 minutes. They told me I needed an update. I’m not sure why It decided to stop working in the middle of fishing day with no changes made, but they sent me a link (same as you find online, no other help) to update the trolling motor and pedal from the water. I spent about two hours downloading, registering, linking and unlinking my Wi-Fi with bad signal on water. The foot pedal did work fine the rest of the day, so I assumed it was working...... So next morning footpedal is working backwards again and nothing I do can fix it. So I ended up fishing the day with a remote control in title water with current. It’s very hard to fish that way with a remote control. Note: this issue has yet to be resolved. I’m hoping for a good outcome.

I hope my experiences are helpful for others.

[ifishinxs]

Garmin will end up replacing your footpedal after a few re pairing episodes. The speed control on mine was bad. The last update 4.0 should make anchor lock better. I will know tomorrow.
I have heard about the motor shutting down when the prop blows out. I personally haven’t had that happen YET!

Garmin seems to have made doing updates a chore for some reason. The update procedure needs to be much easier. Uploading to your phone to down load to the trolling motor and Mfg’s is an unnessary step. Mfds should pick up the updates directly. TM update should work through the remote much like the Ultrex.

[juhealy]

If you update the firmware on the motor to the latest that came out in the past couple of weeks, you'll fix items #2 and #3.

[cldtx]

I understand all except #4. This seems like an installation issue to me. Essentially, the motor was mounted in existing holes and you don't like where it sits? If that's the case, I am not sure how raising the motor would help. Can you drill new holes? When I installed mine, I took about 2 hours, installing 1 bolt (in an existing hole), angling the motor, deploying, stowing etc, to ensure I liked the position. Then, I drilled the remaining holes relative to the 1 "fixed" location. I understand that you want it to fit in the existing holes, but I am not sure how that is an issue with the unit itself. Another option could be to mount a flat plate/block over the fiberglass so the prop-pole rests on that???

[2dwoods]

I'm thinking the bounce buster can mount on either side it seems I remember 2 holes on each side for the bracket

[cldtx]

I'm thinking the bounce buster can mount on either side it seems I remember 2 holes on each side for the bracket

Re-reading the original post, when you say "open" do you mean deployed? In other words, the rod hits the nose of the boat near the forward end of the trolling motor? Or, the top cap when stowed? I was thinking you meant stowed. In any case, like 2dwoods mentioned, you can essentially flip the mounting bracket so it is offset a bit up or down.

[86 inches]

If you update the firmware on the motor to the latest that came out in the past couple of weeks, you'll fix items #2 and #3.

Maybe...

[2dwoods]

Also did you cut it ,I sawed a good bit off mine

[fishin couillon]

As for the skeg, TSS has an aluminum after market they made for the force.

https://www.transducershieldandsaver...rolling-motor/

[RonToronto]

hi bro, how is force tm going now?