New to the site. looking at a new minn kota with sonar and i-pilot. Do these two features work as indicated? worth the money?
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New to the site. looking at a new minn kota with sonar and i-pilot. Do these two features work as indicated? worth the money?
Welcome to the sight can not vouch for Ipilot but have minn kota fortex with sonar works well with lowrance hds-5x also mount is very sturdy.
Noslab.
welcome to the site, from lower Arkansas. I have an I-pilot ordered for my mk powerdrive, it should be in thursday.
Depends on how you fish. If you troll, you can't beat the Terrova with Ipilot. If you fish cover with jigs or bobber, the the Fortrex would be better. I'd get the sonar with either one.
I dont have ipilot, but have terrova with auto pilot and copilot and love it!
I had been looking at the 55 lb powerdrive with 48" shaft and these added features but now believe it only comes with sonar and auto pilot and not i-pilot. Appreciate everyones comments
I got the 55 PD V2 with I-pilot and had an authorized service center cut my shaft to 48" ($20). By them doing the work the warranty wasnt voided. I didnt get the sonar feature. This is far cheaper than getting the V2 and later adding I-pilot, or even co-pilot. You just gotta use your transducer instead of getting the US2.Quote:
Originally Posted by jtownstumpjumper
I'm going to be mounting on a 1548 WarEagle. Don't know but I don't think I'll need more than 48'' shaft. Where's your transducer mounted?Quote:
Originally Posted by gabowman
I have the 48 in. powerdrive on my 1542 War Eagle and it is plenty long.Quote:
Originally Posted by jtownstumpjumper
When you add I-pilot to Powerdrive, you cannot use the foot control of the powerdrive.Quote:
Originally Posted by L.A. stumpjumper
You can order a powerdrive 48" w/us2 then order the I-pilot as an add-on.Quote:
Originally Posted by jtownstumpjumper
I just returned a powerdrive 48" w/us2 and an I-pilot add-on back because of the issue with the loss of the foot control (per Minn Kota Tech Support).
I ordered a Terrova w/us2 w/I-pilot. It should be here Monday.(I hope)
So does the terrova work with the foot control with the I-Pliot? Sure hope so as I was going to order one for my Terrova. But not if I can't use the foot control also.Quote:
Originally Posted by yarddog
Pete
It is my understanding that the I-pilot does not affect the use of foot control on the Terrova. Just the Powerdrive.
It is suppose to still work after adding the i-pilot. Since I started this thread I have found plenty info on this topic over on the main page of crappie.com. When you enter the site stay on "crappie forum" and there will be a topic called "Fishing Electronics and trolling motors". You will find excellent discussion on these trolling motors and accessories.Quote:
Originally Posted by ShilohRed
yes. mine works just fine. and with the terrova, the us-2 isn't really necessary. the terrova shaft accommodates a sonar cable of less than 1/4" in diameter and there's no twisting or hanging up. us-2 only supports dual beam down sonar.Quote:
Originally Posted by ShilohRed
why does the terrova shaft allow the sonar cable attached but I hear that it doesn't work very well attached on the MK powerdrive? Also, does the transducer not get interference from the motor?Quote:
Originally Posted by luvin.fishin
Yeah, I wish the foot pedal would work with it, although I haven't used it since adding the copilot. So I should be alright, except the I-pilot remote is bigger and does not have a holder that mounts on my jig pole, I'll miss that. But the GPS features should make it worthwhile. My i-pilot came in today, will install it tomorrow.
I got the terrova/us2 with the i-pilot add on...doubt i'll use the foot pedal very much but the i-pilot add on seemed to be made more for the terrova with alot simpler installation...haven't been fishin' since i got it put on so i can't tell you how it works but it looks like it will do everything but fix you a baloney sandwich...lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtownstumpjumper
look at this link. both the terrova and pd-v2 are shown here. there is zero interference. same cables run inside the shaft when you buy a us-2 option. all you're doing is running them on the outside. shielded cable helps but if you run your cable on another troll motor it should work here. mine works fine and looks very good also.
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/fishi...ansducer+mount
I dunno thar TJ. Het might even do tha baloney iffn ya don't want mayonnaise!! :D :eek: :DQuote:
Originally Posted by gasper_goul
yep...surely if you press the right button on that tv clicker, it'll just take you to wherever the fish are hidin' out...surelyQuote:
Originally Posted by luvin.fishin
I went to the other site and found very good information. Thanks for the help. I think I might be leaning more to the terrova now over the powerdrive with being able to do this with the transducer and also sounds like you can add the i-pilot much better too. Keeping the foot control operating when you install the i-pilot is another good feature.Quote:
Originally Posted by luvin.fishin
Ok gents, here's my report on the i-Pilot. I installed mine last Wednesday and been working with it since. First, let me say I did not know that installing an i-Pilot on a PowerDriveV2 completely eliminates the foot pedal and thus your only TM control is through the remote. This gave me much doubt and reserve. Those that know how I fish know I do alot of hovering and the use of the momentary switch on the foot pedal got used often. Going totally wireless has taken some adjustment, but I found that if I just hooked the remote to my belt loop the adjustment from foot to hand for on/off and speed up/down was the easiest and I can still control direction by hand and fish with the other.
I also hoped upon hope that the spot lock would help with the hovering. It does not when you're fishing a very specific brushpile from a single side of your boat and targeting a specific spot on that brushpile. I look forward to using it in other ways like holding outside a shallow top and pitching or casting to it. I can tell you this, don't run up on a spot at over a mile per hour and hit the spot lock button. Of course you drift on past, reach the five foot limit quickly and then you had better hang on. I did this the first time and I thought I was on a bull in a rodeo. After it was all said and done the boat settled on the spot I had locked it to and we were facing the opposite direction. If you are going to use the spot lock feature, get to where you want to be and get the boat to a dead stop with the bow into the wind first, then spot lock it.
I did a little trolling Thursday and checked out all the autopilot, tracking and cruise control features. Sweet, just very very sweet is all I can say. I do love my crappie hovering but I just might have to find a way to troll more for other species. I had ultimate control of the boat in all aspects and didn't have to try very hard to do it. I am going to equate this to the lost art of correct spelling because of the spell check feature in word processing programs. Use the trolling features on the i-Pilot long enough and you will forget how to do all that stuff yourself manually. Effortless percision is how I would describe it.
Got another update on the i-Pilot. At first I didn't think the spot lock feature would help when hovering. I found a way.
In order to use my PowerDriveV2 when hovering, I made a bushing to wrap in the shaft to prevent it from locking into the motor base. This allowed me to control direction by hand freely. What I found is though it turns freely it's heavy enough that the motor base will still turn it.
So, I was sitting on a top with the boat at a dead stop and hit the spot lock. It did a pretty good job keeping me on the spot. With the bushing still on the shaft I was able to make immediate necessary adjustments then just hit the spot lock again. I still had to be the primary controller of the boat when hovering but the spot lock took the majority of those adjustments from me and made my job easier to stay on the spot.
I installed my terrova 80 w/us-2 w/I-pilot last night on my
Xpress 17pf.
Today, I went to Lake of (WINDY) Pines, TX.. It will be some getting used to. On Spot Lock, the I-pilot, when drift out of the 5' would really power up to get back on target, slow down, wind would blow boat around, then the i-pilot would kick back in to return to target. It was a wild ride.
I do not think it was a good test, wind 15 gusting to 25.
I think if I had a heavier boat with a deeeeeeeep "V". it would really make a difference.
Do you think my wife will buy that.