minnkota vs. motorguide???

[picksbigwagon]

Ford vs Chevy, clam/otter, marcum/vexilar.....

I know this is a can of worms but in the latest cabelas catalog they had a wireless motorguide series bow mount TM, 24 volt with 75 ft#'s of thrust. is there truely a great difference in trolling motors besides that one is made in Minnesota????? Anyone ever have both and can compare them? thanks

[mnrstrider]

Personally my minnakota has been good to me, autopilot with a co-pilot I could not imagine a better combination, and their customer service alone would be reason enough for me to buy another, second to none in my world. Never had a motoguide, never will (nothing agaist them)

[mnrstrider]

Personally my minnakota has been good to me, autopilot with a co-pilot I could not imagine a better combination, and their customer service alone would be reason enough for me to buy another, second to none in my world. Never had a motoguide, never will (nothing against them)

[PerchJerker]

The only MotorGuides I ever had came on a 1-year old pro-staff boat I bought. The transom-mount MG was ok, the bowmount MG was wireless remote and was a piece of cr*p. The pro-staff guy sent it back to the factory and had it rebuilt once during the season he owned the boat. Over the next couple seasons I sent it back 3 times and had it rebuilt once and replaced with new motors twice. Never lasted for long before it crapped out again. Was never the same problem that killed the motor but there was always something going wrong with it.

I tried to give the thing away but finally ended up throwing it in the trash. There was no way I was going to take money from anyone for that piece of cr*p. I replaced it with a MK and was SOOOOOO glad I did - I just wish I would have done it sooner.

I've owned about half-a-dozen MK motors and have been happy with every one of them. I'm pretty sure I won't be owning any more MGs (although to be fair the transom mount MG was a good motor and a fishing buddy had a non-wireless MG bowmount and never had trouble with it). My opinion is that the MGs were not built solidly enough to handle the bouncing and pounding they took on the bow (never had a problem with the MK on that boat though).

Good luck.

[Murdock]

I have also had both brands. I would lean toward the Minnkotas for durability and customer service. To get technical about things, the owner of the Motor Clinic in Blmgtn showed be the electric brushes that are in each brand and the Minnkota brushes are much larger which means they can handle alot more heat. If a brush gets to hot, the heat must dicipate some where. With the Motor Guides, the heat travels up the shaft into the motor head which leads to overheating of the mother board, resulting in the owner buying an entire new motor.The Minnkota Co-pilot is the way to go if you are looking at wireless capability. Easy to install also. I also like the fact that Minnkota is a Minnesota Company, just a short drive south of the twin cities. Just my .02.

[Whoaru99]

Probably can'r argue much with the odds, but my Motorguide exprience has been very positive.

I picked up wireless remote unit (RF370, RF470??) as a refurb so many years ago I cant remember exactly. Well, anyway, the refurb came with a 90-day warranty. Two or three years later, the unit would not change speeds so I contacted Motorguide about repairs. The long and short of it is that they sent me a new foot pedal at no charge and without any hassle at all. Being the honest guy I am, I told them about the refurb and the purchase dates, etc, but the gal said "no problem" and sent me the pedal.

Have no reason to look elsewhere at this point, the motor still works fine.

[picksbigwagon]

Thanks for the help guys, the main reason I asked this was price. the MG with the wireless foot pad was considerably ($200+) less in price. Haven't made my mind up yet, but I guess I need to save a few more nickels before I buy motor. I won't buy until spring when people get their new toys and are looking to sell their old toys. I am looking for a 24v. system

[92python]

Minnkota for sure. I have both brands on my boat.

I asked the technicians at a local trolling motor repair shop which is the best trolling motor out there and why. I was told to go with Minnkota Maxxum. I was told Minn Kota as they have better brushes and the inner working of the Minnkota is more robust. I have an older Autopilot (Power Drive) that works much better than the old bow mount Motor Guide I used to have.

My transom Motor Guide currently on my boat is about 4 years old and they may have improved but I will be sticking with Minnkota next time I replace one of my trolling motors.

[picksbigwagon]

just bringing this back to the top, anyone have good experiences with their Motorguide trolling motors? I know they are standard on the bass pro boats they sell.........

[Deitz Dittrich]

Picks-There is nothing wrong with motorguide. They are very popular in many of the southern state... Expecially the ones that dont have a lot of weeds. However, each motor seems to have its strength... MG seem to interfeir with eletronics much less, I think Minnkota has addresed this pretty well.

It really depends on your fishing style. If you fish mostly walleyes in open water the MG will be fine for you. I had a MG on my boat, I am mostly a bass guy. I made it a couple of weeks and ended up taking it off and going with a Minnkota. In my opinion Minnkota is much much much more weedless, and that was important to me.

[picksbigwagon]

I can't really say I am atune to one specific species, I like bass, northern, walleyes, superior.....did you burn your motor out with the weeds? Do they make more weedless props for the motor guide? I think of the messiest lake I have fished with a trolling motor and I don't think we have ever trolled somewhere I would burn out the motor. we are talking about 300-400 difference here as well

[jerkin'm]

If you don't mind the downtime of a broken motor, and the expense of it once out of warranty, by all means, get a motor guide....Every person I know (including me) has owned ONE motorguide...don't do it...If the response on here isn't enough to prove that you need a Minnkota I don't know what is..

[Deitz Dittrich]

Picks-no I did not burn it out. And people have said that if you get the metal prop for the moter guide and sharpen it. It stay s more weedless.. But I dont want to cut myself or my line.

I would just get dead batteries with my MG becuase the only way I could get through weeds was to run on full power. The minnkota goes through it much easier on 1/2the power. again, this is only my opinion and I am not trying to trash MoterGuide. They do make a great product. Just not one that suits my style of fishing.

[picksbigwagon]

rats, there goes my new H20c gps.......okay, I get it, buy a minnkota........When does cabelas have their big spring tent extravaganza????

[Murdock]

Have you guys seen the newer Minnkota props. They are searated (sp?)and then twisted at the outer edge of each prop flighting. They look like they would cut thru the weeds effortlessly.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Yes I have, they do look pretty sweet.. anybody know if they work on just the new MK moters or can they replace old props?

[blakjack23]

I bought a Maxxum 70 last year and it came with the Weedless Wedge 2 prop. My old 55lb 'kota had the original Weedless Wedge which was great, but this one is even better. I'm pretty sure when I bought mine that they didn't make a WW2 for older motors but I just checked Minnkotas site and now it looks like they make another model WW2 for older trollers.....its definitely worth getting for $25, especially if you don't even have the original weedless wedge.

http://www.minnkotamotors.com/_docs/prop_specs.pdf

[a_cad1]

Not to go off the topic or anything. I was wondering what do you guys prefer when it comes to voltage 12 or 24 volt. I know trolling really depends on what type of batteries you use.

I go to a lake that all you can use is electric. My minnkota (trans mount 55lb) usually lasts 4 hours on speed 3 out of 5.

My other question is woudl it be worth upgrading to a 24 volt system or just keep my 12 volt system and just add another battery.

Brandon

[Whoaru99]

Quote:

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Not to go off the topic or anything. I was wondering what do you guys prefer when it comes to voltage 12 or 24 volt. I know trolling really depends on what type of batteries you use.

I go to a lake that all you can use is electric. My minnkota (trans mount 55lb) usually lasts 4 hours on speed 3 out of 5.

My other question is woudl it be worth upgrading to a 24 volt system or just keep my 12 volt system and just add another battery.

Brandon

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If the motor you have now has enough power to do what you want, then in my opinion changing to a 24 Volt setup would not be worth the cost of the new motor.

A 24 Volt system is slightly more efficient than a 12 Volt system, but that increase alone does not pencil out the cost to change just for that reason alone. At least not in my book, anyway.

I'd just add a 2nd battery in parallel and stay with 12 Volts until you need a new motor and then consider a 24 Volt setup.

Another consideration is battery charging. If you are using a typical portable charger, a 24 volt system will require you to physically move the charger connections from one battery to the other to charge both. With a 12 volt system, you connect to one or the other battery, and being in parallel, both charge albeit in about twice the time as one battery but you don't have to shuffle the connections(or have two chargers).

[Whoaru99]

Old thread, but since it was resurrected by someone else....

My experience with MotorGuide evidently is better than average.

The old RF wireless motor I purchased as a refurb is still running strong and I've had it for years. Some time ago, and well beyond the 90-day refub warranty (like as in one or two years beyond) MotorGuide replaced the pedal assembly with an upgraded model at no charge. I called in to ask about buying a new pedal, was asked to explain the situation, and ended up getting a new wireless pedal at no charge.

[CASTnBLAST]

I've had several MG's with good luck but had always heard the MK's were more weedless but was sceptical. My latest boat came with a MK Maxxum and it is much more capable of going through the slop than I ever could have managed before running Motorguides.