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OK - so I have an old Eagle FishEasy fish finder that was given to me years ago. The transponder is mounted on my Minn Kota Powerdrive V2 trolling motor. My son & I joke that I think the manufacturers programmed the FishEasy software to throw random fish in the scroll just so you think that's it's working (or possibly I've have had it running in demo mode for these past 10 years haha). We think that it would show fish even if I could deploy the trolling motor in the garage. We decided to pick up our game and my son bought me a Helix 7 Chirp, SI, GPS, G2N. I had heard about the i-Pilot Link and I was interested because there's nothing more aggravating than having to constantly adjust the trolling motor speed & heading to compensate for wind & contour. Unfortunately, after checking, I found that the i-Pilot Link is no longer offered for the Powerdrive V2. I understand this since the Helix & i-Pilot Link set-up would be way more expensive than the Powerdrive so they probably didn't sell very many for that model. So what do I decide to do? Look at new trolling motors. I'm really limited since I have a 12V set-up and I want to tie the Helix into the motor with the i-Pilot Link. I'm limited so much that there seems to be only one trolling motor that will fit this set-up and it is the Minn Kota Terrova. With that said, the Terrova comes with the US2 (2D sonar). I feel like I would be stupid to connect the US2 to my new Helix robbing the Helix of all of the goodies designed in and that they charged for. I also don't like the fact that the best (& really only) place to mount the HD transducer (after the $85 trade-in) is on the transom since I'm seeing where I've been not where I'm going (seems counter intuitive when fishing) but I also realize why I can't/shouldn't mount the transducer to my trolling motor. So I see the scenario where I hook up the Helix, mount the transducer to the transom, mount the receiver to my console, link it to my new Terrova via the i-Pilot Link but then I have the US2 sitting unused. Now for my question: Does anyone have a set-up where they are using the US2 from the trolling motor with a feed to a receiver at the bow but then the better fish finder mounted elsewhere with its transponder mounted to the transom or do you feel like this is an overkill? I am going to get the exact model of my Eagle FishEasy and, if I'm lucky, the US2 may feed into that receiver and I wouldn't have to drop another $199 or $299 on another fish finder just for the receiver to hook to the US2. Anyone with any thoughts about this proposed set-up? Thanks in advance.

I posted a question yesterday with no response. I'm going at it from a slightly different angle. Does anyone have experience mounting a mega imaging transducer on a Terrova trolling motor? When I ran the cable up the channel and siliconed over it, it doesn't seem to want to fit back through the "knuckle". Has anyone found the same? Any ideas? I sure don't want cable flopping around (especially on an expensive unit).

A friend is having problems with a Terrova 101. It's an older motor, about 5 seasons at this point, one I had for 4 years before selling it to him. His boat sat for a quite a while late summer, and he took it out about a week and a half ago...TM sounded awful, but ran OK. He called me today, trying to diagnose the problem...first thing I told him was to get the prop off, make sure there was nothing he's run through that was wrapped 'round the shaft that was giving him grief...and to make sure he hadn't bent the shaft. Both check out OK. Video linked below, any ideas? http://vid189.photobucket.com/albums/z239/groznak/Misc boat stuff/20161001_180649_zpsvnvzundj.mp4

read this thread first to see how this project started out. i would of continued this topic in that thread but it is archived. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/24455-manhattan-boat-project-foldcat/ every time i took this boat out, i would come up with an improvement. some took longer to implement than others. one of the biggest issues was tracking, when going straight the boat would much of the time need to be pointing off 45* in one direction and the motor 45* in the opposite direction, this obviously would not do. i needed something like a fixed rudder to help it track. living in NYC making anything is not easy without access to a proper shop (for most of you a garage or yard) so i would need to find find something and adapt it. came up with the idea of using a skimboard, flat except for the tip, slim and treated for use in water. sawed the tip off, and used an old clamp from a transducer set up to make it attach to the boat, this alone improved performance ten fold. added the transducer and gps on top of each other to increase mapping accuracy. the other addition to help with tracking was a 24v 80# terrova ipilot link. a little much for the boat, but i was draining a single battery with the 12v setup with my 12 hour outings , and if im gonna carry two batteries i might as well go with 24v. speed wise i only gained 1mph, i guess this is where the laws of diminishing returns kick in, the added weight of battery and heavier motor negate most of the added thrust. but the autopilot on the motor is the final nail in the coffin for the tracking issues, this motor takes care of that and more. will also be shortening the shaft by a foot or so when the warranty runs out. another great addition was the mantis umbrella set up, a bit pricey for what it is, but performs exceptionally well with my set up. its there when i need it for rain or sun, and out of the way when i don't. can sit and cast fine and can even stand flip the seat around and extend it and still be covered, and does not hinder casting in the least. can even close half of it if i want to overhand cast. also makes a decent camera mount. was also able to use the seat mount adapter to rig out an aluminum bar that holds the ram mount for the humminbird unit, so it spins with seat. i upgraded the hbird (previous unit didnt have ethernet to communicate with terrova) and moved it off the cooler setup and using a ram mount and a little rigging, attached it to the side of the seat, kind of gives it that whole star trek captains chair feel, and opens up the space for the rods. for the rods i used a bac rac, which helps keep the gear secure, elevated off the boat (lessens boat rash), and easily accessible. now i just need to wait for lakemasters autochart to come out so i can map the lakes i fish, and make full use of the terrova and hbird link combo. next upgrade, a better seat. add a tackle bag and lunchbox, and good to go. note the umbrella in stowed position. just a nice magic hour shot while dismantling.