trolling motor issues opinion's needed

Went to Murray yesterday to try and LL and see if any decent fish have moved off the deep brush, dropped TM in water flipped switch on wired remote.... nothing nada, no problem pulled out spare wired remote anain nothing!

no drive, no steering, the AP light won't even come on...After fishing a few brush piles decided to head home.

Pulled center cover, I have 24v to control board.. so i'm pretty sure the board is bad.

I would like to get a 70lb with i-pilot but just bought wife a new car so that's not in the budget!

The boat came with a 40lb PD that pulled the boat kind of ok.

I picked up a older 24 volt 65lb pd with AP last summer it pulled boat much better and AP was a big plus

So my options seem to be

replace board on 65lb

go back to 12 volt and pick up a 55 lb with i-pilot ( those are reasonably priced )

or get a 70lb with just AP , (in my mind I might as well just fix old 65lb)

For reference the boat is a 17.5 ft Skeeter bass boat

Any opinions welcome

repair what you got for now and then when the funds become available then get what you really want. I am waiting on the new minn Kota to come out as I plan on putting one on my boat.

May be best to fix the current 65lb motor and save up for the 70lb ipilot.
I also have a 17.5 ft boat and went from a 55lb 12v to a 70 lb 24v AP and it is much better at moving the boat. It would be hard for me to go back to a 55lb motor from a performance standpoint.

Go and fix the 65.
I had a 45 and fixed then waited and got a 80 ipilot from a cdc member.

Go and fix the 65.
I had a 45 and fixed then waited and got a 80 ipilot from a cdc member.

Hey, I'll buck the crowd! You need to tell the wife she's got to spring for you a new Tm of choice! There! I said it, show this to her and she'll understand where you are coming from. New car verse's cheap new TM LOL !

Don't get into trouble just poking at you! Fix it !

I gotta put my 2 cents in fix the old one and save for the ulterra. Especially if you fish in the winter the auto deploy/stow is worth the money. they are sweet!

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Originally Posted by ScooperDude

I gotta put my 2 cents in fix the old one and save for the ulterra. Especially if you fish in the winter the auto deploy/stow is worth the money. they are sweet!

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that ulterra is sweet.......but that would be kinda like puttin a rolls-royce grill on a vw bug...:biggrin

Fix the 65 and save up the funds. The 55 isn't big enough for that boat IMO (I had a couple 55's and know their limitations). Work a little OT whenever you can to get that 70. Ha! LOL :biggrin

I don't have one but there's more to the TM system than just the board. There has to be some way of testing it before I'd fork out for a board. If you buy one and that's not it, then that's going to really run up the cost of what you're doing.

From an "ole broadcast engineer". "One Test Is Worth A Thousand Opinions, Two Is Even Better"

good luck with the repair.

Gerald's right...you need to get it checked. Actually I believe there's two boards in the unit and you need to make sure which one is bad. Also, if you install it wrong it will blow that board and they are non refundable. Unless youre real keen on these motors and the electronics you might want to get somebody fix it for you. Just what was on my mind.....

Thanks for the input guy's.... I ordered a new control board yesterday, It has two boards but the one on the head is only for the AP, the one in the base controls power to motor. it's simple to swap hot and neg in and out and four color coded control wires.

I wanted to talk myself into getting the 70 with I-pilot, And to be honest if this thing gives me any more trouble Thats exactly what I'm gonna do, but the new board was only 80 bucks....

Got the board in the mail yesterday, took maybe ten minutes to swap out and everything is working again as it should be.

Way cool, it never works like that for me. It's cheaper for me to just step up for new. Even for pets dispensers

You saved A BUNCH! Hope that motor still has many many years of life left. Come to think about it......I aint never throwed a MK motor away because it wouldn't work. Mostly just wanted the upgrades I guess (bigger boat...bigger TM is the way I always explained it to the wifey).:)

Well I'm still Jonsen for the i-pilot... but atleast this will hopefully buy me some time.