Power pole TM

[mflora98ss]

It may be a great product, but what will it do that the others don't? The other TM companies all offer electronics too so the PP motor will almost have to offer "universal sonar" capabilities. I think they are too late getting to this party.

Agreed.

I’m sure that they will sell some of these but I don’t see them taking the majority of the market away from the others unless it has some kind of mind blowing top secret technology that the others don’t. Too many guys are already comfortable with their Ghosts, Forces, and Ultrex’s to make the move to an unproven TM.

[mflora98ss]

I see one on Cory Johnston's boat in the Toyota pics today as well.

Off topic, but how come he runs an external Garmin GPS antenna?

[WStorey]

This is the most sensible post here. There are plenty of people who will discard good Ultrexs, Ghosts, and Forces just to get the latest and the greatest. They'll sell their old motors at a loss and pay big bucks for the Power Pole, just because.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the pros, who are sponsored by an electronics company and power pole, have to deal with their sponsors about which trolling motor they will run. I have to imagine that the Power Pole motor will have to seamlessly integrate with all electronics for many pros to make the switch. Or Power Pole will have to give make them a really good deal. Only time will tell.

Honestly not too many pros have electronics sponsors anymore. They all run multiple brands nowadays.

[fishnfireman]

DON'T see this bird flying very far..
Doubt they have any game changing attributes. So unless there much cheaper than what's out there.

[Bassmeister]

Me and my Ulterra are doing jus' fine....

[Cajunhunter67]

If the new PP Trolling motor is lighter, durable an offers the same features as the others, it will sell even at 4k.
The new TM's have gained a lot of weight. Add additional Electronic units and the nose is getting real heavy.
If power pole supports their TM with the same customer service as their shallow water anchors, its a no brainer.

Don

[basscat tyler]

Off topic, but how come he runs an external Garmin GPS antenna?

I could be wrong but I thought the external antennas were more accurate?

[basscat tyler]

I think this trolling motor would be a bigger deal if Lowrance and garmin had not released theirs and had unreal success with it. Both garmin and Lowrance have broke into the trolling motor market and taken a massive share of the trolling motor market. It will be hard for me to leave the ghost trolling motor right now.

You are right on this, at least in the bass boat market (not sure how many they sell on multi species rigs). But just for the fact that WRMG Is currently rigging most of their boat packages with Lowrance setups alone is a huge chunk of the market

[Fishshooter]

Brushless motors are a good idea. The biggest cost is the electronic controlls & making them reliable & small enough to fit the application. Most low voltage brushless motors operate by converting DC power to AC current. Watched & experienced the electric forklift world go thru the transition & some problems along the way. Cost went up as technology advanced. Have seen controll modules about the size of a group 24 battery & some cost 3-4 grand. Not too surprising to see something small enough to put on our boats cost so much without having to remote mount a big controll module.That said if I spend the money it better well hold up. Hopefully Power Pole is getting it right. To me the "gamechanger" will be if it will be compatible with all electronics which possibly opens up a whole different can of worms. Anxiously awaiting both Power Pole & if Minn Kota will come out with a brushless troller as well.

[RangrSkipr]

I see one on Cory Johnston's boat in the Toyota pics today as well.

Like someone else mentioned, looks like a lot of cable management and consideration is needed to tidy things up. That's a mess hanging everywhere that could be a problem when nosing in and out of trees to retrieve my lures.

If the head pivots when steering thats even more exposure and crap moving around. I hate pivot head electric steering. Hope my Ultrex continues to provide years of flawless operation.

[MichAngler]

SO its called the "MOVE"

[mactlman]

In the Skeet Reese boat walkthrough video that was posted recently, he was talking about his Power Poles and said that for the first tournament he will have a new surprise for the front of the boat and will be doing a video. I took that to mean the PP TM, also in the video when talking about his TM and graphs he stated that was his setup "for now". I could be wrong but we'll see, tournaments start pretty soon.

john crews is getting one soon also

[ttranger]

I think the availability of service is a major consideration for anyone purchasing an expensive product, and the majority of TM's will require service at some point. It's easy for a tour pro who receives priority service from these companies along with two extra motors in the garage. What about the average fisherman who doesn't live near a large marine dealer who might be authorized to fix all these brands? Taking a trolling motor in for service isn't like boxing up a depthfinder and sending it back to the company. Right now I still run an older MotorGuide, but MinnKota is the only one with authorized service centers within reach of almost everyone. I plan to upgrade my TM in the next couple of years, and having a nearby service center will be an important consideration for me.

[MichAngler]

Weren’t there photos of a new Ultrex about 6 months ago with the statement it was being field tested?

Might be that some of these anglers are getting one of them

[MI bassassassin]

And this will bring something new to the table too, so is it automatically worth hundreds more than it's competitors? That is for us to decide, but as a group (tournament/serious anglers) have proven people are willing to pay top dollar for marginal improvements, minor convenience, and bragging rights. Weight reduction is a big deal to all those whining that the ultrex's piston isn't strong enough and all those that are willing to drop a couple thousand dollars on motor mods and prop work to gain 5 mph. That combined with their customer service will be enough.

Sure the charge charges trolling motor batteries. How many tournament fisherman have issues with battery longevity, and how much of a charge does a 36V system really gain in the amount of running that people regularly do? The emergency start function could be done with a pair of jumper cables. Spotlock was big, I'll agree with that. I really think brushless is another marginal improvement. Again, how many tournament fisherman have issues with an ultrex's power and how many tournament fisherman are running out of juice in a tournament?

The motor doesn't have to be revolutionary to up charge $500. The market has proven that point time and time again.

You left out the integration with the electronics for Ultrex, Ghost and Force. You might consider that a marginal improvement but to a lot of users it was a significant improvement. I was also able to purchase my ghost for maybe $200 more than a comparable Ultrex and to me was well worth it because I had Lowrance electronics. You do make some very good points.

[mastergun]

There are going to be a lot of people who will buy it based on PowerPole's reputation for taking care of customers alone.

I don't understand why they chose to make the shaft out of titanium, I have to believe it adds a significant chunk to the price. Titanium isn't cheap and they are competing against the auto industry, airline industry and government for material.

[Bill Reynolds]

In my view this TM is designed to be a lower cost alternative to the current market.
Look at the simplicity of design, single shaft, probably one or two through hole pancake stepper motors and an electronic footpedal.
Probably all digital so all electronics are integrated onto one board that resides in the foot pedal. All the complexity is in programming.
With any reasonable volume they could make a profit at $2000 each and sell a bunch.
I could easily be wrong about all this but that is what I see in the picture.

[Riccochet]

Why sell em for $2000 when suckers will line up with cash in hand at $4000 because their favorite lead chucker has one on their boat?

Seriously, they could sell em for $5000 and they'd still sell because such and such says they couldn't have won without one.

[Ckfishin]

In my view this TM is designed to be a lower cost alternative to the current market.
Look at the simplicity of design, single shaft, probably one or two through hole pancake stepper motors and an electronic footpedal.
Probably all digital so all electronics are integrated onto one board that resides in the foot pedal. All the complexity is in programming.
With any reasonable volume they could make a profit at $2000 each and sell a bunch.
I could easily be wrong about all this but that is what I see in the picture.

multiple people have said 4k for it....

[Scottw]

In the Corey johnston pic where you can see his feet it looks like he has each foot on a pedal,could that be a livescope steer/tm steer all in one shaft?