Quote Originally Posted by icefisherman View Post
I am looking at buying a minn kota power drive v2...when you take your foot of the control does will it keep going straight?
Quote Originally Posted by icefisherman View Post
Do you have to have a gps on your fishfinder to link it with your t.m.?
Quote Originally Posted by jimp View Post
Not sure about the PD model, but the Terrova is electric steer/foot control and comes with autopilot (based on compass heading not gps)...I did not see spending the $$ for the 3 additional memory locations....
Quote Originally Posted by lcookie View Post
Wind and waves will still be an issue. Only ipilot takes care of that
Iceman-
Break the piggybank and get a Terrova with iPilot. You will never regret this decision and you may never need another TM!!!

After 153 repair-free trips, my 24v Terrova is still humming along. I bought the Terrova to replace a POS powerdrive that fell apart. Trip after trip to the shop, my repairman urged me to move up to the Terrova because it's built like a tank and will not loosen up & allow water to get in. I've run it aground (hard) a few times, hit a few docks, and experienced other accidental bang-ups. As a result, my armature shaft is slightly bent, causing a tiny wobble in the prop. Even this has not broken the seals and lead to motor failure. (The vibration is somewhat annoying at mid-range speeds and degrades the performance of my SI transducer mounted under the motor, so I don't recommend running into things.)

MK offers both the AutoPilot and iPilot control systems as options for both PD2 and Terrova. AP is nice, but as others point out it uses compass headings and does not correct for drift. iP includes both the original AP feature and also what's called "advanced autopilot." Advanced AP projects a course of plot points and uses GPS to navigate from point to point. When side-drift is significant, this navigation method causes a "sawtooth" course.

Combine "cruise control" (which is unique to iP) with AP, AAP (iP only), and track record/replay (iP only), and you have the dream longline trolling system. Cruise control works just like your car--you set it to the nearest tenth of a mph and it maintains that ground speed (compensating for wind and current) using GPS.

Although you can add iP to a PD2, you don't get to switch back and forth from foot pedal to the hand-held remote. CanePole has designed a "black box" add-on (extra cost) that gets around this problem, but dual control is a standard feature on the Terrova/iP. You can use the pedal to run the boat from the front seat and your buddy in the back seat can take over with the hand control while you're handling tackle & fish. You can even use multiple hand held remotes if that meets your needs better. From the safety perspective, you can stop and "retrieve" your boat if you fall overboard wearing the remote around your neck. If you enjoy an occasional "look, Ma, no hands" stunt, launch or return to the dock, get out onto the dock, use the iP remote to run your boat back out into open water, hit spot lock, and then take or retrieve your rig to/from the parking lot!! Your boat will sit where it is, unmanned until you use the iP remote to call it back to the dock!

As jimp observes, most crappie fishermen should find 3 memory buckets are enough. Since that's the main difference between the original iP and the 2012 version, jump on an "old" version if you can find one.