my new ulterra

["hamma"]

I finally got to test out my new ulterra,  Im posting here cuz some of you here wanted me to let you know how i like it, and i figured it might get missed in another forum. 

 It worked well, but its kinda noisey, the spotlock kept me on a great spot for almost an hour with out any input from me. (nice pre spawn female highway) The auto pilot kept me on a decent drop as well so its got my approval. I didnt get to interact with the helix 9 chartplotter as when i was hooking it up i had to have the battery out of its tray (under the rear deck) after I got it working, I shut it down,cleaned up the boat, and slid the battery back into its tray, i must have pulled a wire when i slid it back, cuz once i got the boat afloat today the helix had no power, so I have to address that., The motor has 80 pd thrust where my older powerdrive had 55,   so the juice was welcomed. Only real issue was, its loud, even when running its louder than my powerdrive, could be i need some more rubber under the mounting,.. I had a quick disconnect bracket on the powerdrive which i re-used to ease installation, I can address that too. The footpad is a lot bigger and has many more options . Im sure once i get used to it  it will be a breeze, the remote may take a bit more. Im going to print out the manual and put it in the 3 ring binder i have my maps in because its alot to remember. I know that theres something im missing,... oh yeah ,... the chick sunbathing on the launches dock was something to behold, Nice bikini,..I knew I missed fishing so bad for some reason,...lol

 All and all? I like it, saved my back and leg issues from acting up and did what i needed it to do.

[gim]

I've heard about this "noise" from the Ulterra from someone else too.  Its an electric-driven bow mount so that's not totally surprising - I think the cable driven models like Fortrex and Maxxum are much quieter.  How's that auto stow and deploy and power trim working?  That commercial of the guy launching a Ranger by himself with it and then having it pick him up at the dock is a good one.

[Nitrofreak]

There's always little bugs to work out with anything new, truly glad to hear that it's going to be beneficial for ya man and I hope it brings you many years of enjoyment !!!

["hamma"]

The auto stow and deploy is what prompted me to get the ulterra to begin with. I have 2 degenerated disc's and a pulled muscle thats swollen and putting pressure on my right legs sciatic nerve, very painful without meds, with meds im ok,... until irritated. my old powerdrive was not exceptable by these injuries and within the first few hours of fishing I would have to head home due to excessive pain,.You see,..,.. I have a deep-v aluminium tracker with about 2 foot bowdeck for the trolling motor to be attached to, having to reach out those two feet to deploy and especially stow the motor is quite a reach for someone with this type of injury.. There is no rope to pull on like a cable steer motor has.,... The ulterra totally relieved this issue with the deploy/stow option, I got to fish as long as I wanted yesterday, and look forward to many more days of fishing without the trolling motor causing me undue pain.

I bought the I pilot-link model which has all the options,..With all the options this motor harbors I recommend printing out the manual and having it with you on the boat If you are thinking of getting one. You can run the motor from the foot pedal, remote, and sonar/chartplotter,. Its going to take a while to get used to all the goodies this motor has, and I look forward to many of them allowing me to fish, instead of concentrating on handling the boat. It was awesome to get to a area and deploy the motor, start trolling, and set the autopilot, before i even got off the seat I drive the gas motor from, via the remote,.pushing those 3 or 4 buttons was exhausting,..lol... And thats not even half of it, the i pilot link options are going to even extend this motors interaction tenfold from what i've been reading in the I pilot links part of the manual, with follow the contour,  go to tracks, waypoints etc.,.. Once I get it all setup with the lakes I fish? a couple prompts on the helix sonar chartplotter, will be all I need to do to fish free from trolling motor handling. I think the only time I touched the footpedal was to change the speed,.. which could be done with the remote, but the pedal was right there so I felt compelled to at least touch it once. 

If I were to own a fiberglass bass boat I would most likely go with a cable steer motor due to the quiet steering for tournies, but definately get a I pilot link model

Thank you minn kota, and humminbird,....my hats off to you

[EllisJuan]

7 hours ago, Keith "Hamma" Hatch said:

I think the only time I touched the footpedal was to change the speed,.. which could be done with the remote, but the pedal was right there so I felt compelled to at least touch it once. 

My Xi5 motorguide interacts the same way with my Lowrance HDS.  I never use my foot pedal.

[Slade House]

im the one who has made all the stink about the ipilots and ulterras being loud.  i know cause i owned an ipilot for a year and a half, sold it and bought the XI5, compared to the ipilot and the ulterra the XI5 is a ninja quiet.  and it does things a lot better too, and it works great linked to my hds 7 gen 3 with 3d structuere scan