Well I am extremely proud to be a new owner of a Minn Kota Terrova Trolling Motor. I had told my wife that I'd planned on trying to save up enough money to purchase one by May or June when I started trolling crankbaits. I'm a really lucky guy, she conspired with the rest of the family, worked a bunch of overtime and they all chipped in and surpised me this Christmas with one.

I'm very excited to get it mounted on the my boat but just wanted to see if I could get some input from some of you who already have them in use.

Anything special I need to know about the install that maybe you guys found out through trial and error. Just looking through the instruction manuel, it doesn't look like it will be to difficult.

I have the 80lb thrust with auto-pilot feature and will be mounting it on an 18ft. fiberglass boat. My only concern from first glance is the overall length of the shaft itself. Does it's length become a problem when stowing the TM. Also, I've read where several have had difficulty with deploying the TM, but it's advertised to have an easy stow and deploy feature. Is this really an issue or not?