[Zman]

Three years ago I replaced my 15 year old bow mount trolling motor on my old tub of a Lund boat with a Minnkota Terrova with I-pilot/spot lock...even though Minnkota's version of spot lock left a bit to be desired since it often took 30 to 45 seconds to find its location and spot lock.

Last year I replaced my 12 year old fish finder with a Lowrance touch screen version that had the Insight Genesis mapping capability to go with my Dr Depth list of maps since like real estate fishing is about location location location.

From fishing with Bernie I noticed how his Motorguide was far more responsive than my Terrova when it came to spot lock and other functions...I also saw the 2 companies claims of the lowrance fish finder and the Motorguide being able to talk to each other...that is control the bow mount from the fish finder...so I sold my Terrova and bought the Motorguide...and yes the Motorguide is far more responsive than my old Terrova...the only feature that was better with the Terrova was the remote in that it had a screen with a digital readout so you could see that the motor was on and what other settings were turned on...the motorguide also had a wireless foot pedal...but I use the remote.

This past week I week I bought the gateway network cable to make the Motorguide and the Lowrance talk to each other...it went together seamlessly with no software upgrades

Sunday I got to use it on Atown which is electric only...launched at the ramp and move the cursor to a mid lake way point and said go to way point the fish finder asked me Engage Auto Pilot in Nav Mode?...I touched Yes and we were off...you can set the speed you wish to go at...at the end of the day we were way in the big bay on the east side so I put the cursor on the boat ramp and said go to cursor and off we went...this will make casting a shoreline in the dark so easy or following a roadbed and it has options for using an S path or zig zag path and a bunch of other options...all I know is I am going to spend a lot less time on boat control and more time fishing...here is a 3 minute video illustrating what I said above...and if u are buying a new bow mount you should consider motorguide...no I dont work for them...but I have owned both...

 

[Bronco]

Now we get to hear from the Terrova owners how happy and great they are so they can feel better about dropping $1000 on a inferior bow mount.

 

[Ninja]

Good stuff Z. Glad to see you got a chance to squeeze in some time to fish. All work and no play.....

 

[Zman]

Know we get to hear from the Terrova owners how happy and great they are so they can feel better about dropping $1000 on a inferior bow mount.

I was happy with my Terrova except for spot lock and that 30 or 45 second lapse to lock in so if it was windy and you were going to drift you kind of went up wind and hit spot lock so the spot lock would engage in the spot you really wanted or you put the nose of the boat into the wind and treaded water to hold your spot until spot lock took effect...my friends had the same gripe that had them...

My Motorguide I can be cruising along at 3 to 3.5 mph and run across a perch "haystack" in deep water and hit spot lock and the motor will jam on the brakes immediately turn around and go back...my Terrova didnt do that...

I believe Minnkota and Hummingbird have the same link type of link to link the units...

 

[Zman]

Good stuff Z. Glad to see you got a chance to squeeze in some time to fish. All work and no play.....

Yeah Chris work has been bad...I went 37 days without getting my boat out at one point...the weekend we talked that you had 4 days off I got out for 3 hours in someone elses boat...glad too you and Mikey got out...

 

[Oyey]

Very cool information! I own the Terrova and while it's the best feature on my boat, the issues you describe are there. I'm not ready to upgrade but man is it good to know...I also use Lowrance so that's another bonus. My boat has been out for 3 hours since June 10th...SHAMEFUL SHIIIIIT

 

[fischer]

 

[mrwigglestheworm]

Interesting. I'll be keeping an eye on this to see how you like it after a year or so.

 

[slayerfish]

Know we get to hear from the Terrova owners how happy and great they are so they can feel better about dropping $1000 on a inferior bow mount.

Which unit do you have, Tommy?

 

[Zman]

Did you just ask him about his unit? No wonder you go to Wyoming!

 

[slayerfish]

Did you just ask him about his unit? No wonder you go to Wyoming!

Bwahahaha-

Just throwin you guys a bone-:embarassed:

 

[Bionic Man]

Oh great. The guy that sells me on how great the iPilot is now says something is better. I see how you are......

 

[slayerfish]

Oh great. The guy that sells me on how great the iPilot is now says something is better. I see how you are......

The Ipilot is fine. Its the Spotlock that aint so hot.

 

[Oyey]

I gotta add... spot lock on my Terrova is not nearly as poor as Z describes...but it's not perfect. There is some lag but man, I love that motor. I swear, I will never own a boat without a trolling motor with these capabilities... I could give up tons of horsepower, I can deal with a small boat, but man... gotta have ipilot/spot lock (or whatever it's called by other companies).

 

[walleye seeker]

it seems like they have upgraded the new terrova, I have only used my new one one day and had no issue in the wind and it was blowing hard, hard enough to drain my batteries in 6 hours. it went up to the 7 speed setting to hold the spot. the hole we were fishing was only a bit bigger than my boat. when the wind shifted we had to watch out for brush and did have to relocate due to a wind change of about 60 degrease the bow was ok but the stern was over the brush

 

[Bobco]

I have heard the motor guides are good, I would miss the screen on the remote, nice to set trolling speed to 1.7 mph on screen. I also use my foot pedal allot, heard the wireless eats allot of batterys, with that said the spot lock on the terrova is painfully slow sometime and it sure would be nice to have instant response.

 

[jkaboom]

Good thread zman, I was wondering how that was going to work out for you. I sure did want to get your terrova but damn, boat **** is $$$ even when offered at a good price.

 

[Oyey]

I have heard the motor guides are good, I would miss the screen on the remote, nice to set trolling speed to 1.7 mph on screen. I also use my foot pedal allot, heard the wireless eats allot of batterys, with that said the spot lock on the terrova is painfully slow sometime and it sure would be nice to have instant response.

Valid points! I'm glad to see someone spells worse than me too!!! Hopefully the two companies get feedback like this and improve the shortcomings!

 

[mrwigglestheworm]

Non-Ipilot owner here; I've used many on the boats of friends with them. The one thing I notice about people is they forget about inertia. You can't go barreling into a spot, hit spot lock and actually expect the boat stop on a dime and stay right there. Most of the slow response complaints are from that.

I've used a similar MotorGuide trolling motor (Thanks Goldie), with the remote foot pedal. It worked just fine, but the foot pedal battery does die kinda fast. I've not used the MG autopilot, but if I'm not mistaken, it's fairly new. I'd be curious to see how it performs after a couple of years. I had an 80# thrust MG, with the contour lock (or whatever it was called. the one that was made for walleye tournament guys), it was a massive POS. I ended up GIVING it to a friend, that turned it into a transom mount, and the only way he could get it to work was with an old MinnKota control board and head.

Anyway, no hate, I really do think the unit you're using seems sick , Z. I'm still more of a MK guy. I will be curious to get your opinion of the MG setup after a couple of seasons.

 

[slayerfish]

Z is aways the coolest guy at the dock!