No biggie, I'm going to call Minn Kota tomorrow and ask them if it will void the warranty if I cut the cord ahead of the foot pedal, and just wire the power cord there, of if they have some way of taking it off I can buy.

Of course, that's IF I can get through to customer service. Definitely won't be the first time I've been on hold with them for hours, and/or not gotten a return call when I left my number. Their customer service lacks much to be desired. But, I like their products.

Have you got it on the water yet??

Nope. Still waiting on MSO for motor. Spoke to TPWD today, and they told me I could go ahead and get it out on the water, as long as I had copies of the boat MSO. Dealer got the boats and motors in before the received the MSO, and Yamaha is draggng it's feet.

LOL, I figured there'd be a rooster tail flying from behind that thing about thirty minutes after that phone call!!

Nice rig

Nice!

Taking it to the Brazos tomorrow, to hit the sand bass run.

Finally got the boat out yesterday. Absolutely love it, fast, smooth dry ride, even in the 20 mph head wind we encountered in some parts of the river. Hate the trolling motor. Electronic steering is the worst idea ever. Give me a cable any day. It also seems to me that it has almost no power at all. Even with a tail wind, it would barely break 1 mph. The 12V 55lb thrust on my pontoon felt like it had way more guts than this Ultrex. And of course, it's so massive I broke one of the plastic shaft support brackets off first day out, when my pants leg got caught on it, and about threw me off the bow of the boat. Naturally, you have to just about disassemble the entire motor to change out one piece of plastic. Doesn't affect the performance, but looks like garbage.

Guess I also found one of the drawbacks of having the biggest motor you can have, put on. About as slow as it will pull the boat idling is 3 mph. I was hoping I could get at least 2 mph out of that Ultrex, but no way Jose.

Congrats Z! Glad you got the maiden voyage out of the way. How was the Sand Bass run?

The electric steer takes some getting used to, for sure. Especially if your a used to cable. I don't remember the size TM you have, but guessing it's a 24v/80lb. I'm surprised it wouldn't pull closer to at least 1.5. I get 1.5 out of mine. What's the dry weight on that thing?

Z, I'm surprised that you're not getting more thrust out of that Ultrex. Mine is a 36V/112lb and it flies. I know mine has more thrust but I've got a 20' fiberglass bass boat that's super heavy. The power steering took some time to get used to. I really don't like the noise that it makes and there's no control over the speed of the steering. Sometimes I just want to make a slight adjustment and it seems like it turns 90 degrees in a split second. I think I would prefer a cable if they could engineer some type of spring assist for it. With the cable steering you almost have to be standing to be able to turn it easily.

My biggest gripe with the Ultrex is the spot lock. If there's a little wind it has no problem locking onto a spot and staying locked on, but if there's no wind you can forget it. It'll wander all over the place for a few minutes and every single time it'll spin all the way around and kick off. Maybe I don't have something set right, I don't know. It is better than what I had so, there's that!

Glad you got it out though. Like Tim said, how were the sandies? I caught a few of them last week in the river above Grapevine but I don't think they're in full swing yet.

The boat is light, it only weighs 1300 lbs. I've seen these units on video, and the steering flies on the ones on video. Mine is extremely slow, and the delay with the remote makes it even worse. I got 1.7 with zero wind out of a 12volt Powerdrive, 55 lb thrust on my pontoon, and it weighed almost 400 lbs more than this boat. And yes, it's a 24/80

All of the ones I've watched on video, are really loud, and spin fast when you steer. Mine is dead quiet, and slow to steer. Almost like it's running on 12 volts, but it won't even come on if the voltage is less than 22, according to Minn Kota. Plus, I know it's wired right. Jumper from one battery positive to the other battery negative, and the trolling motor hooked one battery positive, and the other battery negative

Sandies for us were tough. I threw everything I had in the boat at them and only managed two big females and two dink males. I think part of the issue for us was the inability to troll at the right speed. it was either 1.1 mph with the trolling motor or 3.2 with the big motor. Guess I need a trolling plate on the big motor.

Slow for us bud, managed two big females, and two dink males. We were marking them, and trolling through them, but they didn't like anything I threw. All of them except one came on a 3/8 red eye shad rattletrap, the other came on a silver spoon. Like I mentioned earlier, I think part of our issue was inability to troll at the right speed.

Man, there's gotta be something wrong with that thing. As light as your rig is, you should be able to really move. If it's slow to steer there must be something not right somewhere. I wish I was close to you and we could do some testing with a Fluke. It's quite possible there's some kind of wiring defect or something. You should take it in a get it tested. After everything you've done and spent you definitely have the right to be satisfied. I hope you get something figured out. I know what it's like to be in your shoes. It's like getting a pizza delivered and finding that they forgot to put cheese on it. but on a much bigger scale! Like after you've been stranded on a deserted island for two years....