Minn-Kota Auto Pilot

[wallyH]

Hi all. I purchased my first boat this past spring and got a Minn-Kota motor with the auto-pilot. For the most part I love it and couldn't imagine having a trolling motor that didn't have the auto-pilot. However, from the time I got it every now and then it would do a 360 degree spin. My best guess is that the autopilot "smarts" figures out that it needs to turn 2 degrees to the left, but instead it turns 358 degrees to the right. This behavior has been pretty sporadic until last night. At times it was doing this constantly and I finally had to turn off the auto-pilot.

Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a simple solution? Is anyone familiar with minnkota waranties?

Thanks for any help,
Wally H

[Valv]

I would definitely let teh warranty take care of it, but if in a bind, try to keep speed lower than Max, approx 8 or 9 on pedal.

[Surface Tension]

I believe they have a one year warranty. Bring in your receipt to a authorized service center and you shouldn't have any problem getting it repaired.

[fisherdog19]

The Minn Kota's have a two year warranty and they will fix it no problems asked. I had some of the same problems on mine and it was fixed. The wire inside the sheath that was connected to the autopilot mechanism frayed open. I thing it was because my shaft was to short (54") and I had it all the way down which put stress on the cables. Two other possibilities could exist. 1- if you have any metal objects within a foot of the unit head, it will throw the internal magnetic compass off and couse the erratic turning. 2- if you were using it during high wind/chop periods that bounce your boat up and down quite a bit, this make it hard for the unit to keep a compass heading because it is constantly moving. I don't know if these 2 things apply to you, but if they don't, I would get it in asap so you can have it fixed.

Fisherdog

[wallyH]

Thanks for the replies.

Fisherdog, it was windy the other night and I did notice it alot more when I was nose into the wind. However, it wasn't really choppy. It was constantly trying to compensate though.

It's mounted on the front of my boat, nothing else up there. At one point I did pull the shaft up some to try that, don't think it helped any.

I'll call the dealer this week. I'm going on vacation for a week so hopefully they can get it done while I'm gone and I don't have any down time. =)

Wally H

[Cheers]

I have the same problem . Motor in the shop since May parts on back order. Minn Kotta had problems and sent out a wack of defective junk and now no parts to fix them. Problems with the callibration and compass boards.