I-pilot trolling motors

[TrollnDrift]

My trolling motor literally went up in smoke saturday morning. I have been looking at the i-pilot setups. Does anyone run them on here? Have you used them on the river and did it work well? Is the anchor function as great as it sounds? Will it synch up with my 898 or is it completely self contained? I guess I'm mostly wondering if they are worth the price?

Thanks,Erik

[Esox_Magnum]

Yes worth every penny and then some, yes to all but the HB question dont use them so can answer that one....If my Terrova went down I wouldnt fish untill it was fixed or replaced, nothing else on the market comes close...

[goose89]

What Esox said, and yes to the 'bird question, sort of. The Universal Sonar will "sync up" / display depth from Terrova with your 898 with the right adapter plug / wire. It won't communicate GPS information between each other though.....yet.

Anchor lock....awesome feature! esp. when pandemonium breaks out in the boat (double header, snapped line / rerigging) and only one guy really knows how to handle the boat, esp. in windy conditions. Keeps ya from blowing off 1/4 mile or going in circles. Is it as tight as an anchor?? No, not in windy conditions. Slight breeze it does alright though.

[slurpie]

Agreed it is pretty good the trolling passes are good also if you save it right. The anchor option is really nice when you get on a school of pannies.

[TrollnDrift]

I am considering the 55lb power drive v2 with ipilot right now, i think that should be enough for my 16' alumacraft. Is that going to be enought power on the river going up stream? I am used to a 36lb that i thought was pretty good power wise.

Also the only thing you get extra when you go up to a Terrova is the ability to have both a foot pedal and a hand remote, as opposed the powerdrive being fully hand remote?

[slurpie]

Not totalLy sure but I pilot only available on the terror I thought.

[Brad B]

I pilot comes on both the Terrova and the Power Drive 2 models. I run a Power Drive 2 with the universal sonar and the I pilot on my Alumacraft 16 foot Fisherman Model and it works great on lakes. the only problem I see with using the spot lock anchor feature in a river was it might drain the battery fast and cause extra heat in the motor because of being constantly on.

[TrollnDrift]

- have seen a lot of people using the spot lock on rivers for wingdam fishing and or sunken trees, not for long term anchoring. Luckily the river itself will keep the motor cool. I don't see the motor working too much harder than if you were retracing paths into heavy waves and wind. I am taking the boat back out tonight to see if the motor is really fried or not. I cleaned all the dust and dirt out and all the connections inside. It worked correctly in the driveway last night, but that was not under load. I have been wanting a new bow mount anyway so it might go either way.

Erik

[Kyhl]

I don't get the overheat comment. I have run my 70# PD2 I-Pilot on 10 for a couple of hours at a time with no issues. Just this weekend actually. Trolling pike in 82F water both Saturday and Sunday.

Not sure what difference being in a river would be. I've never heard of a warning that you can't run a tolling motor at a constant WOT.

[jigginjerk]

Buy the Terrova if you can swing it. If you work shoreline and weedlines casting it's nice to have the pedal But definitely go with the I-Pilot either way.

[Brad B]

the comment about over heating and working to hard and draining the battery in a river is based on the fact that even with my motor(55Lb Power Drive 2) on 10 I can only get a speed of 2.3 mphs out of it. now you put it in a river that is moving at a rate of 3 to 5 mph and you see how the spot look will not hold you but would create more of controled drift effect. I could see that with a 70Lbs this might not be a issue becaue of the added thrust and the fact that 70lbs motors run on 24 volts unlike the 55's that are 12 volt. so you would have larger batteries that can handle more constant use. I can also see it being different behind a wing dam because the current is normally slower behind wing dams unless there is high water and the wing dam is well under the surface.

[Mike Wallace]

Rumor on another Muskie HSOforum that Johnson outdoors will announce at iCast that Terrova with iPilot will link to Ethernet ready Humminbirds and will be able to follow info from the Bird

Don't know if that would affect anyone's decision

[1johnb]

I saw that also makes me feel better about buying the 998. Buy the I pilot I wont fish with out it. We were on lake Erie this spring in my 19 foot Ranger and trolled for about 7. hours with an 80 lb terrova. We had moderate wind 10 mph? I set the cruise at 1.6 and set the auto pilot the direction we wanted to go and fished! It's great for walleye fishing when speed is one of the most important parts of your presentation.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Rumor on another Muskie HSOforum that Johnson outdoors will announce at iCast that Terrova with iPilot will link to Ethernet ready Humminbirds and will be able to follow info from the Bird

Don't know if that would affect anyone's decision

You can score on the older model and save some big bucks when the early adopters want to sell theirs to get the new model. Or you could trip all over yourself to get the new one because that would be totally awesome! Good luck in your decision.

[TrollnDrift]

Cannot get the gearbox to work correctly on the old motor now so I never made it to the lake. The old gearbox will only work if i leave the screws loose like i found them. I know the screws should not be loose but cant find anything out of place. Looks like ill have to make a decision and go get a new trolling motor. I think ill be going with a 55lb as i am removing a 36 or 38lb motor that i was happy with. Ill probly be going with the terrova just to have the pedal and remote.

[Jarrod32]

You can get the i-Pilot in both the Power Drive V2 and the Terrova models. The Terrova model comes with the universal sonar transducer and a foot pedal; neither of those are available on the Power Drive V2.

I have the PDV2 i-Pilot 55# on my 16' Lund Tiller, and it does the job nicely...and I keep it to a single battery 12 volt system. (Anything over 55# will be a 24 volt system). The spot lock feature is great, and is the one I use the most. Not sure how well it would work on a river with heavy current, though.

[Kyhl]

You can get the i-Pilot in both the Power Drive V2 and the Terrova models. The Terrova model comes with the universal sonar transducer and a foot pedal; neither of those are available on the Power Drive V2.

You can get universal sonar on the PDv2. I have one.

The differences between the Terrova and the PDv2 are

1.) the way it stows and releases, easier on the Terrova.

2.) foot pedel is available on the Terrova with i-pilot. No foot pedel on the PDv2 with i-pilot.

[sunniewally]

"I have the PDV2 i-Pilot 55# on my 16' Lund Tiller, and it does the job nicely...and I keep it to a single battery 12 volt system. (Anything over 55# will be a 24 volt system). The spot lock feature is great, and is the one I use the most. Not sure how well it would work on a river with heavy current, though."

HOW LONG A RUN TIME DO YOU GET WITH THE IPILOT WITH A SINGLE BATTERY?

[Jarrod32]

If I'm running it hard (high motor speed, constant running) I'll get a full afternoon out of a battery...maybe a bit more. Off-and-on use, or just using the spot lock here and there, it will go a couple days pretty easily. I've never run it completely out, but I am also in position where I can charge it each night if I need to.

Makes a difference if you have a group 24, 27, or 31 battery as well.

[Jarrod32]

You can get universal sonar on the PDv2. I have one.

The differences between the Terrova and the PDv2 are

1.) the way it stows and releases, easier on the Terrova.

2.) foot pedel is available on the Terrova with i-pilot. No foot pedel on the PDv2 with i-pilot.

I didn't think the PDv2 i-Pilot had US2...I thought you had to go to the Terrova. I stand corrected. And I forgot to mention the fold/release mechanism; it is indeed easier with the Terrova. I just never think of that as a big deal.

A lot of people don't like the fact that they can't use a foot pedal with the PDv2 i-Pilot units.

[Brad B]

Jarrod32,

the first year the US2 was offered on the power drive v2 with I-pilot was 2011. I upgraded to this when I bought my boat. the only negative thing about getting one the first year was that it was only offered with 3 memory spaces on the I-pilot. the one this year comes with 6 memory spots.

[TrollnDrift]

Just got home with my new terrova. I got the last 55lb motor they had in the entire nationwide system, had to take it off the floor, and it was also $200 off. I will be adding the I-pilot at a later date, i saved myself a bunch of money by buying them seperate in this case because of the sale on the plain terrovas. This one does not have the universal sonar but i didnt care if i got it anyway. I will hopefully mount it up tomorrow after work and then test it out saturday morning.

Erik

[TyGuy02]

I-pilot is slick! I'm on year two with my pd2 55 and I wouldn't be able to fish without it. The other day my new phone was messing with the gps functions, and before I figured that out, I could hardly troll straight since I've been spoiled with the advanced autopilot. The spot lock is awesome, especially once you catch a fish and not have to worry about where you're going. But I like the advanced auto the most because it really does keep you going straight. I would go more powerful if I was fishing a river. I had mine out on a SMALL river and it barely kept up. I have an 18' tiller and WOT is only about 2.8 mph

[TrollnDrift]

Tried out the new trolling motor today. Very quiet and turns much faster than my old one. plenty of power. made 2.6mph into 10-15 mph headwinds. Only complaint is the power dial on the motor speed is too easy to spin, i bumped it atleast 3 times today in my 2 hours all the way to full power while attending to hits on my rod. I am trying to decide between buying the current ipilot or waiting for a new version to come out, any clue when the new version might be announced when is this icast thing happening where they could announce it?

[NAMASafetyDirector]

Love Mine! I have the 80lb Terrova and it keeps my 21-21 Warrior on the spot in light to moderate winds on LOW. You will notice that the boat will drift around a bit more than a conventional anchor but it does a pretty nice job of keeping you on your location. If your looking for pin point accuraccy than your going to be a little dissapointed however for general anchoring it works awesome! I just love the fact of being able to troll around a reef, stop and anchor on a spot, move again, achor up without actually having to go through the ritual or pulling the anchor every time!

[TrollnDrift]

Saw 2.9 mph out of the 55lb terrova yesterday. Now to patiently wait for the I-pilot Link system to become avaialbe, it sounds awesome!