I recently bought a Terrova and had to wait about 2 months before I got to try it out. There was nothing wrong with my old trolling motor but I wanted the spotlock. After buying, I began reading posts about the Terrova and started second guessing my decision. My first real trial run was on Fork. Here is what my feelings on it in regards to some of the things that I read.

1. It is noisy and may spook fish
I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as noisy as the posts made it seem. The motor does make a little humming noise when turning but I make more noise than it in the boat while fishing.

2. Not good in stumps/reacts slower than cable TM.
I spent a good portion of the day in stump fields. Using the foot controls was pretty clumsy and would take some time to get used to but I stopped even bothering and just hung the remote around my neck. I thought it worked as well, if not better than my cable control did in stumps. I was maneuvering through them while walking to the rear of my boat and doing other things with no issues. I only hit one stump all day and that was because I accidentally hit a button while digging in the rod locker.

3.Spotlock doesn't work that great.
It didn't work as great as I had hoped. In fairly calm conditions, it was a little slow getting you back on the spot and you definitely weren't going to hover in that exact spot for vertical jigging. In winds and waves is where I thought it shined. It was much more efficient at keeping you on the spot. It did it pretty smoothly. So smooth that I began doubting that it was holding until I threw out a marker buoy. Really made changing lures and doing other things less stressful. After a little experience, I felt comfortable in using it in a stump field once I knew about how much room I needed for it to operate.

4. Hard to deploy/retrieve.
The release lever took a little getting used to. I have enough shaft to leave the head up a bit so I was never reaching to far to grab it and it was pretty well balance both lowering and raising. I had originally considered was to attach a cord below the head to pull it out of the water easily but found that I don't need to.

5. Need a ram mount or other devise to stow it so it can't deploy by accident in rough water.
I was going to buy one but found the collar on the shaft does the same job. It takes a couple of seconds to loosen, slide and tighten but after thinking about it, it would take a couple of seconds to attach to ram mount.

Sometimes, I get into too shallow of water and would grab the cord, lift the old TM enough that it wouldn't strike bottom and work the foot pedal to get me out. The result was the TM bouncing around and limited control of it. I found that with the Terrova, I could raise it by holding the head, turn to the appropriate speed and maneuver out while in good control of the TM.

I enjoyed having the ability to point it in the direction that I wanted to go and let it hold the course for me. Hitting the rabbit button and having instant access to full power then hitting it again to go back to the original setting was a nice feature.

Battery life (12v system) was great. Before I could sparingly use my TM all day if I kept it on lower to mid speeds. I never used it to hold me in position in open water on windy days because I have a small boat and it just gets pushed around too much and would drain the battery. I used the Terrova for 8 hours, some runs at full speed when I was too lazy to run the big motor, using spot lock most of the day and all the other driving and it only used half as much juice as my old TM. Now I don't have to figure out where to fit another battery.

Overall I am very pleased with the decision to purchase it. It made fishing much more enjoyable. I spent more time fishing instead of working the foot control. In fact, I am going to remove the foot control and free up valuable deck space. I love the remote and am really shocked at the distance that it will still operate the boat. I got brave and spot locked it at the ramp and was able to operate it from my truck in the parking lot. If I have one regret in purchasing it, it would be that I didn't buy the Ulterra instead. I fish mainly fish solo and that would have been great for launching at the ramp.

The biggest negative that I have is that it does sit out pretty far in front of the boat. I must have spent 2 hours measuring, adjusting and trying to mount on either side of the boat to come up with the best positioning at a traditional angle so as to not take up deck space when it us in the up position. It works as well as can be expected. It doesn't rub loading or unloading on the trailer. I do have to choose to tie off at the dock on only one side so it will not hit the front of the frame if the boat shifts. That can be a pain sometimes but I am willing to deal with it for all of the other features. Buying one of the sliding brackets just isn't worth the cost for me.

Only time will tell how the electronics will hold up. If it has a good lifespan then my next boat will have the Ulterra.

I know that my experience is different than others due to differences in boats, setups and expectations. What works for me might not work for you. If you are debating on getting one, I highly suggest you find someone who has one and give it a try to see if it works for you or not.

I have a love & hate relationship with mine. The turning motor gets noisier over time, or at least mine has.

I agree on your review.

I have not get used to the foot pedal i still have problems with it and prefer the remote lol

on which boat do you have the trolling motor mounted?

I have it on an old 15' glasstream

Bobby...regarding your item nuber 4...deploy and stow...with mine, I bought a two pack of the UTC/ATV handle/grab bars from Cabelas (also available from Quadboss.com for $19.99 for pair of two) and they velcro attach around the upper shaft and holds real well. It allowed me to grasp the rubber handle and easily lower and lift the head with zero issues...instead of grabbing the head unit or shaft which sometimes is difficult at best if leaning over to reach it. Check out the ATV/UTV handle at Quad Boss for about $20 and you get two...it is a bargain and worth the cost to easily deploy or stow the unit.

I will look at it. Even with the shorter shaft, I don't need it down very deep so the head is pretty easy to grab and because of the backward motion to raise instead of the traditional up then back it is no issue for me. That said, I can see if I were in rough water, I might need it to drop further down and then it would be more of an issue. It is something that I will have to wait til I try. With the size of my boat, there is a definite limit as to how rough of water I will try to be sitting in spotlocked.

Bobby, I also concur with your entire review. The Terrova took some getting used to, but after a half dozen days on the lake, mine has more than lived up to my preliminary expectations....

I didn't like how far my Terrova stuck out over the bow of my Skeeter, so I added a Slide Max (slidemaxx.com). The mount allows you to slide the TM back 7" to 8" while boat is on the trailer. Now I don't have to worry about damaging the bracket or breaking the prop off when I launch on steep ramps....

I love my Terrova for all the reasons listed, but I too hated the foot peddle until I started using the constant mode with the autopilot on. This allows you to use the left/right buttons at the bottom of the peddle when you encounter an obstacle. I do however do not like the mounting position for my particular boat '03 Skeeter ZX250. I'm going to check out the Slide Max that GTrigg mentioned though, sounds like it might be the solution.

I've had my Terrova for about 4 years and still never use the foot control, but keep it in the boat at all times. My remote battery went during a tournament and had to use the foot control.@#$&!*. I now have 2 spare batteries at all times!
I know that you say your new one is quiet and mine was too when it was new. Now when it turns it makes so much noise I know it has to be loud under the water. I had a fellow tournament fisherman tell me that they could hear my trolling motor 300+ yards away on one quite morning. I'm still searching for a way to fix this or at least dull the noise. I cringe any time I have to turn it or when it's positioning on spot lock. Other than the noise it's been a great asset and I couldn't imagine not having one.

I have no idea where I even put my foot control after I took it out of the box. Never used and never needed it. hopefully never have to

do you think the turning noise affect your fishing if pitching plastic to close targets???

I don't see how they couldn't, every fish in the lake can hear it turning. If I had the money, I would buy 2 motors. One for open water lakes and a foot pedal for lakes with tons of trees.

I really use foot petals to turn--it leaves my hands free----remote for anchoring

I also agree with most all the comments here. I think if the reason you are buying an I-Pilot is for the spot lock, you may be dissapointed. It doesnt always hold as tight as they say it does. However the Autopilot feature is what really shines. Being able to stay on one heading is great. In fact in high winds, i find that you can maintain a better "spot" position by heading it into the wind and then adjusting the speed to maintain your location. Spot lock goes back and forth too much. But, that said the spot lock is great when you want to hold a rough position while tying on lures or doing other tasks where you don't want to drift off.

I am also very disappointed in the toe-heel foot pedal. I do use the right and left toe buttons a lot and find they work well. I also use the remote a lot.

I got the sliding mount which helps a lot for moving the head back so it doesn't hit docks or trailer as bad as it does when it is sticking out front.

I also really like the follow the contour feature if you have a HB sonar/map.

Over all I like mine. As was said above it takes a lot of the work out of fishing and lets you fish more instead of navigating.

Stan

what about the "noise" output from turning??? don't be concerned???