Came from an old hand control motorguide with HB Helix 10 and 999, went to Force with bow 106sv and console 106sv, all linked together, shoot-thru transducer and latest HD SI/DI on the transom.
Force is strong, no doubt. Pulls a 22+ft boat 3.9-4mph (lithium batteries).
I never had a cable foot peddle, but the Force foot controller works fine, responds well to small movements, etc. I've tried using a friends cable TM and it's definetely not the same thing. I prefer the Garmin foot controller, while my friend complains about "feel".
The foot controller has a little lip at the heel. It will catch a flip flop bad and sometimes a shoe. Muscle memory helps, but somedays I want to shave that lip off. It has caused me to trip backwards, waiting for the big splash.
Spot lock is a big step up from hand controlled TM, but I have to agree with others. When you hit spot lock it will immediately turn to stern and power up. I believe the intent is to stop forward motion, but the effect is the back of the boat will start to swing around. Very annoying when you are all lined up. It will do this even when you are not moving forward, almost like it is trying to go backwards 5-10ft no matter what, then settles in. Very annoying, turning spot lock off and back on again helps, but you shouldnt have to do that.
Spotlock offshore is a challenge. There may be some settings to help this problem, but the TM does not like climbing waves and dipping into the next set. I was spotlocked next to another boat with an Ultrex. He was just sitting there nice and steady with the Ultrex making small corrections while my Force was power pushing my bow back and forth (left/right). It was unsettling to watch the Force spool up to full power, then swing 180 and spool back up to full power. Back and forth, just kept doing it. I tried turning Spotlock on and off, didnt help. Something was definitely wrong with how the software interprets larger swells and wave motion.
Spotlock, if it looses it's spot and cant get back, it will give 3 small beeps, then shut off. Fishing a rock jetty, sat down to re-tie and for some reason I didnt hear the 3 beeps. Luckily the current pushed me away from the rocks, but this TM beeps alot and for it to not beep more when loosing spotlock is a bad design. Of all times to make a bunch of noise, that is the time. See next comment about when it should shut up.
My Force is linked to the 106sv. If the TM hits bottom or hits something and it comes out of "alignment" an alarm will sound on the graph and not shut off until you reach down and touch the notification on the screen. Let me explain, right at the moment you are struggling to meneuver and need to focus with multiple things going on like lifting the TM over the log, not smashing your boat or getting stuck or taking out a tree limb, it starts beeping, even though the trolling motor has already automatically corrected itself, the graph just keeps beeping and wont shut up. This is an easy fix by Garmin, and should of never been setup this way. If the TM realigned itself, there is no need to take it to a "service center".
My Force worked 3 trips before the board died, my TM remote worked 1 trip before it started eating batteries. Garmin support was great, but it should of worked correctly the first time. The remote was backordered so I ended up buying a 2nd one as a backup. More $$$
Remote menu is funky, hard to find items, simple commands are not simple, again a year in and still trying to figure things out but maybe it's just me not spending enough time memorizing steps.
I know there is a bunch of whining up there, but over all it's still a great TM, I'm working through my issues, everyone uses these TM's differently so my experience may be just my own.
If I were to do it again, I would still get the Force TM but only one 106sv on the bow dedicated for Livescope and keep my HB's for HD SI/DI, depth, maps, engine data, etc.
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Originally Posted by Cajunhunter67
