minn kota ipilot

[Chris Barlage]

Looking at getting an ipilot for the boat and wondering which to get. It is a 1750 crestliner fish hawk. Wondering if i need to go up to the terrova 80 lb or will the V2 70 lb be plenty of power. Also looking at a few used ones I noticed that one said gen 1 ipilot. I was not aware that they were on gen 2 already. Unless the link is gen 2. Anything that I should be leary of for the Gen 1's?

[MuskieJunkie]

As always with these threads it's easy to spend other people's money so we're all going to say get the Terrova 80.

70 is plenty of power for that boat but if you fish rivers you'll want more at times. Be careful with people trying to pawn off junk on free online sites. I'd call Terry at Motor Clinic in bloomington to see what he has. He got me a great deal on a terrova 80.

Not sure on the Gen 1/Gen 2 but the original Terrova I pilot remotes are a pain to use.

[Kyhl]

I'd say the 70 is plenty. I have a 70 on an 18' tin boat and although I'd like an 80, the 70 works fine.

[JohnMickish]

I had a 1775 Pro V (very similar boat) with the 70 lb motor on it and it was plenty of motor. Now the last two boats have had Terrovas on them and IMO the Terrova is worth every penny, but it's all bells and wistles. They both do the same thing and thats move your boat around.

[ozzie]

the difference between gen 1 and 2 is the amount of stored paths I believe...gen one 3 and gen 2 can do more. I would go with a 80lb terrova. U will never wish you had less power!!

[Esox_Magnum]

Terrova fan here to, never to much power you can always turn it down, also nice having both options of pedal and remote just in case the remote quits...

[delcecchi]

Also for us old guys, the terrova is much easier to stow and deploy.

[Brad B]

Gen 1 I pilots only have 3 memory spots for spot locks and tracks.

Gen 2 (current regular I pilot) has 6 memory spots.

I Pilot Link could be considered Gen 3. it gives you the addition of following contours when using a compatible humminbird ethernet capable fishfinder and the compatible lake master map chip. the other plus to the I Pilot Link is that I believe you are given 16 memory spots for tracks and a lot more memory spots for spot lock locations. this was made possible because some of the information is now stored in the fish finder and not just the head on the trolling motor. The Power drive is a good motor but the advantage of the Terrova is that you still have the foot pedal if you want it. the foot pedal is eliminated when you put I pilot or I pilot Link on a power drive.

[3andadog]

I'll agree with the Terrova 80 having had a 70 on a 2006 1850 Fisherman. While the 70 did have enough power for my boat I thought that the locking mechanism didn't work very well(not sure if this has been addressed in later years) and the shaft was too short. The Terrova is way smoother and much easier to deploy not to mention I no longer need to haul another anchor around.

[Raider4ever]

I have a '98 1750 Crestliner Fish Hawk. Currently it has a 24v 45lb older wireless Minn Kota. It pushes the boat along just fine. Never needed it above 4 for fishing. Did have it on 10 once to get out of a REALLY WINDY shallow bay. Just picked up a 50lb 12v Powerdrive v-2 with I-Pilot. Paid $350.00 for it but the guy couldn't find the remote so I gotta shell out another $170 (still about 1/2 the current list price). I like the fact that I can now get rid of one battery and an anchor from the front of the boat.

[slick2526]

Gen 1 I pilots only have 3 memory spots for spot locks and tracks.

Gen 2 (current regular I pilot) has 6 memory spots.

I Pilot Link could be considered Gen 3. it gives you the addition of following contours when using a compatible humminbird ethernet capable fishfinder and the compatible lake master map chip. the other plus to the I Pilot Link is that I believe you are given 16 memory spots for tracks and a lot more memory spots for spot lock locations. this was made possible because some of the information is now stored in the fish finder and not just the head on the trolling motor. The Power drive is a good motor but the advantage of the Terrova is that you still have the foot pedal if you want it. the foot pedal is eliminated when you put I pilot or I pilot Link on a power drive.

With the I pilot link you can plug the humminbird depth finder into and make your own routes correct? the regular i pilot is only capable of using the gps controller and I assume you can only follow contour lines with it? you cant create your own routes with the regular I pilot can you? Is the I pilot trolling motor upgradable to becoming a i pilot link?

[Brad B]

slick2526,

you don't make your own routes on the bird and then go and run them. you actually have to manually record the track once and the it is stored on the bird (I believe since this is how you get more memory for different tracks) with the I Pilot Link. you do the same with the regular I pilot also. with the regular I pilot if you want to follow a contour line you have to record it as a track and manually steer while recording. I pilot link will follow the contour line by it's self with out a track having to be recorded first. this is the one big advantage of the I pilot Link over the regular I pilot. if you have the regular I pilot on your trolling motor now you can remove it and replace with the I pilot Link but you will need to have a ethernet capable humminbird (788CI HD or higher) and the compatible lake master chip. the follow the contour feature uses the lake master chip when following the contour. you will need to remember to offset the the water level if need. example you drive out to what is shown on the bird as the 10ft coutour line but you are really in only 8.5 ft of water you will have to go into the setting on the bird and off set the water level by 1.5 ft to get the contour line to match up with the actual depth reading. I cuurently have the regular I pilot and will be doing the switch to Link this year if it works out for me, if not then spring of 2014 forsure.

[yaggie]

The early ipilot had a remote that was not friendly to your thumb. It was a rubber coating with hard raised symbols on the buttons. The newer remotes are more of a soft touch button.

[slick2526]

slick2526,

you don't make your own routes on the bird and then go and run them. you actually have to manually record the track once and the it is stored on the bird (I believe since this is how you get more memory for different tracks) with the I Pilot Link. you do the same with the regular I pilot also. with the regular I pilot if you want to follow a contour line you have to record it as a track and manually steer while recording. I pilot link will follow the contour line by it's self with out a track having to be recorded first. this is the one big advantage of the I pilot Link over the regular I pilot. if you have the regular I pilot on your trolling motor now you can remove it and replace with the I pilot Link but you will need to have a ethernet capable humminbird (788CI HD or higher) and the compatible lake master chip. the follow the contour feature uses the lake master chip when following the contour. you will need to remember to offset the the water level if need. example you drive out to what is shown on the bird as the 10ft coutour line but you are really in only 8.5 ft of water you will have to go into the setting on the bird and off set the water level by 1.5 ft to get the contour line to match up with the actual depth reading. I cuurently have the regular I pilot and will be doing the switch to Link this year if it works out for me, if not then spring of 2014 forsure.

I became kind of confused when reading this. But I am sure my questions didnt help the situation. As far as I understand by reading is the I pilot will not follow a contour line unless you are controlling the motor to make it follow the contour line and recording it as a track? then you can follow the track later if you save it but you can't just have the unit automatically follow a depth or contour line without recording it as a track?

I guess I really dont see what the advantage is from the i pilot to the i pilot link. I thought with the i pilot link and if you had your graph hooked up you can pin point a spot with the lake master chip/gps and it automatically brought you to the spot. Along with it would follow a contour line automatically with out having to set it as a track. Thats what I understood from the video I watched but I have no first hand experience. Also What I understood from the video is that the graph had a cursor feature and it showed you were you are at and you could manually draw a track on the graph/gps and the trolling motor would follow the track you just created.

[h8go4s]

The ipilot LINK actually LINKS your Minnkota trolling motor to your Lakemaster map card that is plugged into your Humminbird sonar unit. The standard ipilot has NO LINK to your sonar unit.

[BartmanMN]

Slick, You have it correct. You do not need to pre-record a path with IPilot Link to follow a depth contour. You click on the depth contour that you want it to follow and it will automajically follow it for you. This is the main selling point of the new Link feature.

I'm sure you can still record your own track and re-play it as well like the standard iPilot if you wanted to.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

You can follow a track that you record as before. You can also follow a contour on the gps screen. You can follow right on the contour, or you can offset the contour left, or right by a number of feet you select. You can put a spot on your map and tell it to go there and it will.

Now if the maps were just perfect and gps was never off I would be happier. Still way cool, but out of my budget. Have fun.