One of my Power Pole Blades stuck down the other day. Worried me for a little while. What is the back-up plan if your pole will not bed? Is there some type of manual override to manually retract it?:

361, I have the 8' blades and they will do the same every now and then. Push and hold UP on your remote for a few seconds. If that doesn't work, put the other one back down and then double-punch the remote to come up.

If that doesn't work, there is a manual bypass at the pump, but I've not yet had to use it. Perhaps someone who has will follow.

mine stick also, but like fouzman said, just push the up button, maybe rock the boat a bit, and it will come up

if mine have been down for a while some times i have to double click or just keep holding the button, it's almost as if they have to "wake -up" everynow and then

Has no one tried to manually raise the poles?

I would like to know how also. thanks for asking the question.

My PP motor failed in the down position last year while on the lake. They have drive off protection built in. I continued to fish until I could get back to ramp and raise it manually. You don�t need to bypass anything or open lines to raise it but to get enough leverage on it I needed to put it on the trailer. After raising it manually I had to tie it off to keep it in the up position. Check their website for some videos on this. When I talked to tech support I did recommend they ad info on this to their manual and FAQ section of webpage.

Good to know.

You can push them up as they will relieve, it just takes quite a bit to get it going up. That is only if it absolutely will not come up. One thing I would suggest is carry the correct size combination wrench for the hydraulic lines. You want a correctly sized combination wrench as a crescent or channel locks will round the fittings making them harder or impossible to tighten/loosen. If you can not get in the water for whatever reason, you can disconnect the lines, open the reservoir, put the blind end hose in the reservoir, and use a rope to pull it up. (I can not stress how important it is to put the blind end hose in the reservoir. You will get oil everywhere if you don't.)

That is a worse case scenario, but it is always a good idea to be prepared. I have pushed mine up by getting in the water and I have pulled one up with a rope (without disconnecting the lines), but like knotacull said, it takes a lot of force. Neither time required me to do so, I just wanted to see what it would take. Knowing your equipment is important!

One trick I have that works though is to get on the trolling motor and start trolling forward then hit your up button. Usually gives it the kick it needs. This helps the most when they get stuck in the silt/mud.

Guys,
No need to disconnect any lines or bypass anything! Put the boat on plane and drive off, this will force the unit up, relieving pressure within the lines. Once you stop the unit will fall back down but can be raised by hand to a height thats much easier to get a rope around the unit.
As for them getting stuck down during normal use, it sounds like the units need some further priming of the hydraulic system. Put the boat in open water and deploy the unit to its max depth and keep the button held down for 10 seconds, put the boat in forward gear and repeat in the up direction. Do this 3 or 4 times and your pump should be fully bled of any air in the system.
Please let me know if you have any further questions!

Thanks for the info, but the one time mine actually DID get stuck, getting on plane wasn't an option. I was in a really, really tight area and facing the wrong direction. The area was so tight I couldn't have even turned around. I did get in the water to try and push them up, but it was a bit to deep and I couldn't enough leverage.

I disconnected the lines and pulled that sucker right up. It may not be necessary in most cases, but like I said, it is always good to be prepared. For what ever reason that day, the port side pole would not go up. It wouldn't even turn on the pump when I hit the button. I immediately took it in for service, but it started working fine again.

I have seen several boats come in with the Poles tied up with rope. This seems to be a common occurance. Is this a problem with the competition MinnKota Talon?

I have had them stick down once or twice, usually just move forward with the trolling motor while pushing the up buttons gets them goin in the right direction.

Sometimes the big mota may be required.

I don't own a pp but it sounds like the pump isn't strong enough to initially over ride the relief to let it retract. Is that right ? Are the pumps not even coming on ? This concern will probably eventually get resolved by engineering. It should already have been addressed. Like I said I don't own one but it sounds like something that would really be an inconvenience to say the least.

I have the Talon and had the clutch snd clutch spring go out which made retracting the unit noisy and would require a couple attempts. Minn Kota made the repairs under warranty and no problems since. The Talon has a manual crank if it goes out in the down position.