MK PowerDrive V2 vs Terrova

[Lacy1]

I am going to replace my footcontrol TM. I am addicted to pulling cranks and w/ my motor it is a 2 man job. Please give me feedback if Terrova is worth the extra money over the PD V2. Also is the ipilot is necessary or will the auto-pilot be sufficient. I have read some on the ipilot and it seems that it might be overkill. All advice appreciated.

[DonDon]

Actually no problem at all unless you get 3 or 4 Striped bass on at the same time. That or If you're going into a pretty strong wind. Just got to keep a close eye on things.

["G"]

I would like to know about this as well. I tried out a PD V-2 with Co-pilot the other day and I liked everything about it except deploying the motor and stowing the motor.

[feelay]

Terrova with i-pilot is the best money I ever spent. I can set a heading, set my speed, and fish without worrying with driving. If you fish alone a lot, like I do, it is ideal.

[C N]

Terrova with i-pilot is the best money I ever spent. I can set a heading, set my speed, and fish without worrying with driving. If you fish alone a lot, like I do, it is ideal.

Is it sensitive enough to keep you above a particular brush pile? Or works best in the manner you describe above?

[Wannabe...]

I've used the Powerdrive with Co-Pilot and the Terrova with IPilot. Either are the bees knees for pulling cranks. Yes, the Co-pilot is sufficient for pulling cranks as it will do what is most needed while by yourself - keep the boat headed in at least a relative straight line so you can get a fish in or put rods out without spinning or turning so bad as to tangle your lines. That said, the Auto-Pilot is even better because left unattended, the co-pilot will go into a turn due to waves or cross winds, although it's a soft turn if you're basically headed in a straight line.

The only other function I use on the I-pilot is the spot lock to hold me while I do something else like rig up or take down and the Speed control if I want to lock in a GPS speed in particular with gusty winds or pulling accross a wind that is variable. The track feature I'm sure could be nice at times if you had something particular you wanted to follow and go back over. For me, I kind of wander around some so I haven't used it at all.

The killer for me is batteries. With my boat - 18.5' glass with a 175, max I can get is 3 hours at 1.8 mph when I'm pulling with 2 group 31s. I get one more hour at a decreasing speed of down to about 1.3, then I the batts give up on me. I can nurse 'em for a little more using the wind, but it's basically over after 4 hours for me. I'm gonna have to do something for additional juice before crankbaits really get going...just haven't figured out what yet.

In summary, Co-Pilot is fine, I-Pilot is as good as it gets though. Juice is your limit and without 4 batts, you'll never get a full day of pulling cranks with either.

Wannabe...

[feelay]

Is it sensitive enough to keep you above a particular brush pile? Or works best in the manner you describe above?

As long as the wind is dead calm. I'm assuming you're referring to the spot lock feature. It's not good at guaging wind drift, overcorrects too much. It works well enough in less than 10 mph wind to cast slip floats to a brush pile, but not well enough to verticle jig...for me anyway.

[Wannabe...]

CN, spot lock will keep you in the vicinity of the pile, but not on top of it exactly. You'd still need to make manual corrections. Haven't really tested it for that purpose, but from what I can tell, it wouldn't work good enough for you to fish a small pile. Maybe a large, room sized one though.

Wannabe...

[C N]

As long as the wind is dead calm. I'm assuming you're referring to the spot lock feature. It's not good at guaging wind drift, overcorrects too much. It works well enough in less than 10 mph wind to cast slip floats to a brush pile, but not well enough to verticle jig...for me anyway.

K we were discussing this and wondering TY sir

[Wannabe...]

And me and Feelay didn't even PM to get our stories straight neither.

Back to the original question, Bigger pulls cranks with his Terrova 80 and Co-Pilot remote and has no plans to upgrade to the I-pilot.

Wannabe...