Minn Kota has raised the bar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5ejwRj9t1Q

That would be pretty sick.

I saw that a few years ago at Eufaula. Someone tourney guy had it. It went just like that commercial.

Cool!

I sold my I-Pilot to be ready for that one when the saltwater version come out. The I-Pilot is a pain to deploy and retrieve.

spike said:

I sold my I-Pilot to be ready for that one when the saltwater version come out. The I-Pilot is a pain to deploy and retrieve.

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I agree with this. My BIL has it on his Mako. We just leave it sticking straight up when we move to a new spot. Hated the foot pedal also. Finally, went to a hand remote.

spike said:

I sold my I-Pilot to be ready for that one when the saltwater version come out. The I-Pilot is a pain to deploy and retrieve.

Click to expand...

I've had the Terrova for 3 years with the iPilot. I don't see the hassle for retrieve and deploy. Pop my foot on the lever and flip it down.

I can just me launching in a high wind or current and dang thing NOT working right and my boat drifting off....

I'll stick to my manual deployment system, at least I'm in the boat when it goes in the water.

Nice toy if you have the money.

I-pilot

I don't like being 5 miles offshore, in 2 ft seas, standing on the very front on the boat, bending over, pushing it in the water or pulling it up. I don't know how many times I almost have gone overboard. Regular motor, you can stand up straight and use a rope to put it in or take out. If your inshore in calm water all the time, not a big deal. But, rough water is another story. I love fishing with a ipilot, I've had 2 of them, but I'm moving on to the auto-deploy.

Ipilot

barefoot said:

I can just me launching in a high wind or current and dang thing NOT working right and my boat drifting off....

I'll stick to my manual deployment system, at least I'm in the boat when it goes in the water.

Nice toy if you have the money.

Click to expand...

Yep, even when I get one I'm not going to be using it to launch my boat. Sooner or later it will fail.

spike said:

I don't like being 5 miles offshore, in 2 ft seas, standing on the very front on the boat, bending over, pushing it in the water or pulling it up. I don't know how many times I almost have gone overboard. Regular motor, you can stand up straight and use a rope to put it in or take out. If your inshore in calm water all the time, not a big deal. But, rough water is another story. I love fishing with a ipilot, I've had 2 of them, but I'm moving on to the auto-deploy.

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Yes, in that situation it can be rather precarious. I too would never launch my boat like that commercial. Too many things to go wrong. My only concern with auto deploy is just one other thing to go wrong. Considering I just had to have the directional drive motor replaced on mine, I'd hate to thing what it would cost on this one.

These are very nice motors, but I'll stick to my Maxxum for now. All the new technology is nice, but that just means more things to fail. It's not like they are THAT heavy anyways, but mines only an 80lb, haven't messed with the bigger ones. I'll probably check them out again in a year or so.