Thread: Will I regret not getting a brushless trolling motor?

I have owned trolling motors for over 40 years, never wore a set of brushes out in one of mine, but if you ever did, it's not to bad to have them replaced.

Other than the price, why would you regret buying one? I went from a brushed to a brushless and never looked back. The brushless eliminated all of my interference, it has more power at the same voltage, most can be run on 24 or 36v, the batteries last a lot longer (fishing) and they are quieter, at least in my experience.

Nope

Here's the hook you need to keep in mind...........You buy a new motor if your brushless motor fails. That's it. $4K and when it fails it is not I repeat NOT repairable. It's not in the fine print either. I fabricate trolling motor mounts for a local warranty center and that bit of info is important to me. I have working trolling motors here that are 25 years old because I can buy parts. It is very important you buy a digital trolling motor as a resistor motor eats battery for breakfast.

Rojo - I am not sure what this means and what motor each applies to: “ It is very important you buy a digital trolling motor as a resistor motor eats battery for breakfast.”

If you are on a budget, you should be find with a brushed trolling motor. When dad wanted to upgrade from a 12V to a 24V Terrova, I traded him my 24V Terrova for his 12V to sell to put towards my new trolling motor. I didn't want to sell investments or shift enough funds for either the Ultrex Quest or Garmin Force at the time, so I ended up getting a 24V Ultrex with most of the same Advanced GPS features of the Ultrex Quest without regrets since I fish for food--this left me a little extra money for kids' activities and vacations. Look at the parts availability and price differences for the different brushed and brushless trolling motors at Minn Kota & Yamaha Outboard Parts and Service--you will see that the brushed motors can get individual parts to fix a motor that is acting up while the brushless are limited to lower unit or drive assemblies

Originally Posted by titanxt

Rojo - I am not sure what this means and what motor each applies to: “ It is very important you buy a digital trolling motor as a resistor motor eats battery for breakfast.”

A resistor motor has fixed speed switches, you click thru the speeds - usually 5. A digital TM is Variable speed because they fire SCR's creating a pulsed wave to make the TM motor turn. Longer the pulse wave the more motor torque is produced. When the SCR's are closed no current is flowing to the TM motor. Way more efficient than stepping resistors across the windings as current is always flowing in some capacity as long as it's turned on.