Minn Kota-Auto Pilot & COPILOT-Questions? HELP

[455 Racing]

Thinking about changing from my Minn Kota Edge foot controled bow mount to the AUTO-PILOT along with the COPILOT. Wondering if any one has one of these and are you happy with it? Who has the best price on these? Thanks in advance.

Phil

www.fastpistons.com

[cart7t]

Unless you spend the bulk of your time fishing in open water, away from shore and don't venture into shallow water often to fish I wouldn't buy any power drive Minn Kota.  As has been discussed on this board several times by many past and present owners of the power drive TM's,  the head turning speed is way too slow.  Have to move in shallow to retrieve a snagged lure becomes a chore trying to steer away from shallow water, especially if the wind is blowing.  Most of the time you wind up manually turning the head because it just turns to slowly.  OTOH, if you spend most of your time fishing off the bank then the motor is just fine.

[455 Racing]

cart7- thanks for your response. MOST of my time is in the shallow water going around Long Lake in Walhalla, MI. Don't like how hard it is to steer the boat when the speed in on either 4 or 5. I AM NOW OPEN TO ANY BRAND OF ELECTRIC TROLLING MOTOR. I thought I would stay with the original equipment mounts that are on my boat.

What do you or anyone else think of the remote or the copilot? How well does a "micro-touch" foot pedal work?

I went back several pages and I could not find any discussions about this and I could not find. If anyone finds any discussion pages, please e-mail me a link at 455@i2k.com I am a buyer and want to do this one time. I plan on taking my old trolling set up and install on another boat so I can fish locally as I want to leave my main boat at the cottage.

I appreciate your help in this. I check this board twice a day and I am now checking this site (lures, poles, boats and general) As often as any my other love, drag racing. I am still a rookie, but BASS FISHING is as much fun as anything!

Phil

[cart7t]

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1161771875

Here's one for starters.  

[Pa Angler]

I use the auto-pilot and co-pilot. I disconnected the foot control because it became a tripping hazard on a short front deck especially at night on a 17' Deep V I do keep it on board as a backup though. I use the auto-pilot when fishing along the shoreline I really like that option it's almost like set it and forget it but you do have to make some course corrections on occasion. I have no problems fishing shallow water with it so I don't know why others say there's an issue with it but then it's the only trolling motor I have ever had so I can't compare it to anything else. If you can find someone that has one ask to use it on their boat and make your own judgement from there.

Chow

[cart7t]

cart7- thanks for your response.  MOST of my time is in the shallow water going around Long Lake in Walhalla, MI. Don't like how hard it is to steer the boat when the speed in on either 4 or 5.  I AM NOW OPEN TO ANY BRAND OF ELECTRIC TROLLING MOTOR.  I thought I would stay with the original equipment mounts that are on my boat.  

What do you or anyone else think of the remote or the copilot?  How well does a "micro-touch" foot pedal work?

I went back several pages and I could not find any discussions about this and I could not find.  If anyone finds any discussion pages, please e-mail me a link at  455@i2k.com  I am a buyer and want to do this one time.  I plan on taking my old trolling set up and install on another boat so I can fish locally as I want to leave my main boat at the cottage.

I appreciate your help in this.  I check this board twice a day and I am now checking this site (lures, poles, boats and general) As often as any my other love, drag racing.  I am still a rookie, but BASS FISHING is as much fun as anything!

Phil

If you're fishing a lot of TM only lakes than a power drive would probably be a better bet since you're not having to manually steer the thing the whole time while making a long distance run.  That would certainly offset the slow head turning speed issues.  I owned one for around 6 years, the only reason was at the time the power drive MK's were the only TM's that had removable mounts.  I needed that feature because we used my Bassboat for family camping in the summer with the kids and clearing the TM off the front deck made more sense.  I didn't care for the motor the first time I had to move into the bank to unsnag a hung lure and had to make an emergency turn to keep from running the TM aground.  

Another thing.  I remember seeing a motorguide power drive type motor at the boat show around 4-5 years ago.  It had a much faster head turning speed than the power drives but I don't ever remember the motors ever making it to market.  I'm guessing that may have been a prototype and perhaps they had too many problems with them.  I still thing the concept is a good one if they could get the head turning speed up.  I also like the MK Genesis motors that had the electric deploy/stow system.  Very pricey TM's but the thought of shutting the big motor down, pushing a button of the dash and the TM being in the water by the time you got to the front deck seemed pretty  8-) to me.

[Pintail55]

I love mine on my nitro. I was hesitant after what everyone said but I wouldn't go back to cable agian. It might be a little slower but it hasn't been slow enough for me not to make my way through a mine field of timber. Plus the auto pilot is about the best thing since sliced bread. You want to work a shore line just set and fish AWSOME.

[455 Racing]

THANKS for the responses.  I just found this..

http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=30315&hvarDept=200&hvarEvent=&hvarClassCode=2&hvarSubCode=1&hvarTarget=browse#reviews

I am looking for all the input I can get.  

Phil

[WCCT]

I had a powerdrive for a couple of years, and I could not stand it from day one  It steers way too slowly, and since it is using power to turn, it drains your batteries faster.  It also is a pain in the butt to stow and deploy compared to other models.  I had the 70lb thrust model and would not recommend it to anyone.  JMO