New to market trolling motors

Lowrance and Garmin are releasing their own trolling motors this year so who is gonna bite? I have seen the design of the LR and it looks uh, new? Any thoughts? Guess motor guide will have more competition...

motor guide isnt even in the game

Not going away from my ultrex anytime soon

for some reason Motor Guide seems content where they are at,

Motorguide has a new one coming out this year too.

Much prefer MotorGuide over Minn Kota

Given the issues early on with the Ultrex (and everything else brand new tech wise) I�d be hesitant to be the guinea pig for anyone. I�d wait a year or two before �investing� in technology. I say this but rarely actually do it! Let someone else work out the bugs. Just me. Oh, but I�m sure they will all be �game changers�!

MotorGuide announced they are bringing a revolutionary new product to the market at iCast on Facebook a couple weeks ago. My guess is they pirated a couple MK engineers due to getting their booties kicked by MK for the past three years.

since they were bought out by mercury they haven't been a factor the only product that was good for bass fishing was the tour line an they changed it to the plastic housings an foot pedal.

Motorguide has been MIA for awhile now, really surprising.

Sad, they used to make the toughest one

My X5i has served me well but if Lowrance's new unit has auto deploy I may have to start saving my lunch money.

If MotorGuide can build one with the same technology with a quieter steering system it will attract all the old MG faithfuls such as myself back. I have owned 25 boats with MG's on them. Three now with MK's. My new Ultrex will go Buh-bye as soon as a quieter MG comes along.

All Motir Guide has to do is put a good spot lock on a Tour model and they will be right back on top.

Motor Guide, not Motir.

Got tired of bent shafts so I went to MK a long time ago and will never go back to a guide.

100%, it would probably be one pricey MF'er but I would buy one to replace my old tour model, I would be happy with an updated tour model without spotlock. I don't consider the X5 a tour update, its was a huge step backwards IMO.

WHY HAS IT TAKEN MOTOR GUIDE SO LONG O UPDATE ? IN THE PROCESS OF BUYING A NEW TROLLING MOTOR AT THE MOMENT ,CANNOT DECIDE ON ULTREX OR ULTERRA . AUTO DEPLOY SOUNDS AWESOME WITH OTHER THE FEATURES.... BUILT IN WIRELESS TRANSDUCER AND SPOT LOCK . BUT WILL THE AUTO DEPLOY GET IN THE WAY AT TIMES AND IF THE AUTO BREAKS ARE YOU SCREWED ? YOUR THOUGHTS ?

Watching the pros on Fork and it appeared it was Ultrex on 100% of the boats. WOW where are you MG?

That seems to be the norm across all the pro circuits.

I replaced a Tour 109 with an Ultrex. My 109 was junky from day one, went to the dealer about it several times when it was new, finally lived with it.

I tend to like market innovators over followers, just my two cents.

There is going to be another company that will be a player in the trolling motor market by the end of the year... ICAST will probably be trolling motor heavy this year

Someone needs to make something lighter and quieter. The Ultrex is obviously superior in features but its so heavy. The only benefit I can see with a motorguide is the massive difference in weight. But having spotlock and power steering are well worth the extra pounds.

Are you suggesting that a new manufacturer jumping into the trolling motor game is coming out with one this year?

I spoke with a electronics dealer yesterday, he sells tons of graphs and trolling motors, he told me he can barely give a motor guide away.

I would pay the extra cost if they would use lighter materials while still maintaining strength in the construction, performance wise, that's a lot of weight on the nose of your boat. How much would a hybrid carbon fiber / titanium one cost?

Yes I am.

Cool. Can't wait to see what ICast has to offer.

The rumor is motor guide, Garmin, Lowrance and power pole are all introducing new trollers.

Power pole! That's who I couldn't figure out.

NO COMPETITION FOR MK .

With existing vendors having a price point of $2500 and anglers lined up to buy it sounds like some smart folks decided they can compete.

What company is coming out with one?

3 new players, Minn kota must have been making a killing

I think you're going to be saying Buh-bye after I-cast, but I don't think it will be a MG. Garmin is the one everyone will kick the ultrex to the curb over.

I hope all the curb kicking will yield some cheap ultrex trolling motors.

Lowrance has been claiming to be making one for a long time disappointing people for years. I can't see what the others could do to top the ultrex other than maybe making it lower profile and a little lighter. GPS is only so accurate and MK spot lock does a dang good job of holding you. Any of the others beat MK in that regard and it will hardly be noticeable. I think what you'll see is each player making their trolling motor integrate with their graphs just like MK did. Power Pole is the most interesting newcomer to me.

Somebody might make a brushless one, me not knowing [censored] about electric motors I don't know what improvements you see from that. People seem to be excited about it though.

As long as the new motors work well the market should force minn-kota to adjust their prices which is good for those who always wanted an Ultrex but couldn't drop the cash for them. Right?

I do not think anybody is going to come in with a better trolling motor then MK and it be much cheaper, I am going to wait and see what Lowrance comes out with before I order my new MK since I have HDS graphs, IMO MK has been by far the best trolling motor for awhile now, will be interesting to see what others come out with.

who is it I need a new one?

Competition and choice is good. Been a whirlwind of changes since I last owned my boat. Been fun to watch but also seems expensive to keep up with as well.

don't bet on the prices going down as long the demand is strong don't bet on a price reduction.

BBG Marine

I've been running an Ulterra for over a year without any issues. The only time you get into issues with the auto stow and deploy is if your batteries run dead and they have a work around in the owners manual on how to get it stowed until you can recharge the batteries. I mounted mine on a quick release bracket just in case but no issues. As with anything if something breaks you out of luck, what if a cable breaks your still screwed.

All I know is we had a MotorGuide on a '97 Stratos 201.. Original owners, and sold the boat in 2016. From '97 to the day we sold it, that MotorGuide has NEVER, EVER, EVER given any issues whatsoever.. Any time you clicked the button, it was spinning. And let me tell you, that thing has through some HELL.

New boat has a Minn Kota. Never again. If there's one thing on this boat I've had constant problems with, it's the piece of [censored] on the front. I've had to repair it so many times now that at this point it's held together by duct tape and zip ties. Biggest POS I've ever seen.

I'll be throwing a MotorGuide XI5 on the front before too long.

Well I had the opposite experience. The Motorguide that I had was always breaking. Had to replace parts over and over until I finally got to a part that they didn't make anymore. Got an Ultrex, had it for over a year now and I'm absolutely thrilled with it. Never going back.

Yeah my shaft broke twice on my MG so I moved to MK. I went with a power drive with spot lock since I was use to the remote and able to control it anywhere from the boat. Only difference I can tell is the electric hum on the MK is way louder but the fish don't seem to care so meh.

I like the fact that MK has managed to produce something so revolutionary that it has spurred other companies into trying to create something better. Competition sometimes yields cool stuff. I'm not sure how many more practical application features can be added to a TM though. Maybe object avoidance like an alarm before you hit a stump or auto height adjustment when running in shallow water, but I suspect spotlock was checkmate.

I agree. I just wish they could make a NMEA compliant interface to make all GPS TMs compatible with all GPS fish finders. I can program a Sony universal BT remote to work my Ultrex, and can�t figure out how to make my BT Carbons control it. Lol.

For that reason alone, I will buy the Lowrance ASAP, if it is even in the same ballpark as my
Ultrex.

Minn Kota could have probably avoided this by making certain features available for Lowrance and Garmin.

Lowrance better step up their customer service, if they want to be a player in the trolling motor business. Because of the past experience with Lowrance. I will not even give them a thought on their trolling motor.

If someone builds one quieter than the Ultrex that will hold the boat as accurately I will be all over it.

Brushless motors are what seems to make a lot of sense, due to the lower weight and lower amperage draw... At least from what I understand about them.

All I would like to see is some direct competiton with all having spot-lock feature in order to drive the ridiculous price down.

Highly unlikely.

Probably going to cut the price in half since I just purchased one, that's my luck.

I would over to change over to the Lowrance IF it is quiter and holds just as great as my Ultrex. I have visibly seen the noise from turning my ULTREX spook fish in green lights while night fishing 20 yards away from them.

Yep ,i am still using a paddle!!!!


Yep i am stilll using a paddle !! Just waiting on the best t//m to be made,

The only problem with an Ultrex is this ^^^^^^

Please let me reply to this, thank you. I located some bait and bass on a hump at Lake Welch. Hump came up to 14 ft. on top. Using my Garmin 93sv and hitting stop lock on my Ultrex I camped out right on top of the hump and using a drop shot rig caught bass after bass for over an hour. They finally quit biting I'm assuming because the bait left. Came back a couple of hours later and repeated the same process. This was last January. I told another on here the exact location and technique used but never heard back how he did. I have no proof that my Ultrex spooks fish. I did the same exact thing in the mouth of Glade Creek on Fork only the depth was 21 ft. Ya'll need to come up with a different excuse.

I want to ride your back seat to test the Ultrex before I buy.

We might could work that but let me say this about my comment. Ultrex own it's own will not catch fish BUT it will and does make fishing easier. If you've ever fished in a 15-25 mph wind and had to fight the trolling motor and cast at the same time you could appreciate stop lock. I've heard the comments about how noisy they are but I couldn't disagree more. I had a Motorguide before this one and not counting the cable steering the MG made as much or more noise. If fish can hear me working the foot control they have ears I haven't seen. There has not been a day when I regretted spending the money for my Ultrex. Two things have revolutionize the fishing industry in my opinion, 4 stroke outboards, Ultrex and Garmin Livescope. Ok 3 things.

That's the truth.

THE ONLY WAY THESE NEW TROLLING MOTORS ARE GOING TO BE ABLE TO COMPETE IS IF SOMEONE FROM MK LEFT FOR A JOB PROMOTION (MEGA BUCKS ) TO SHARE INFO AND GET THINGS ROLLING. MK HAS FIVE DIFFERENT LEVELS AND PRICE POINTS TO SATISFY EVERY ANGLER . MK HAS THE PLATFORM TO IMPROVE AN ALREADY SUPERIOR PRODUCT . NO ONE IS IN THE GAME AT THIS POINT .

Why are you always yelling?

They are all to expensive.. I'll just be stuck with my crappy 55 minnkota edge

I believe electronics have become way too expensive.
A depth finder under a grand at the bow and another at the console as well as a nice 1400 dollar trolling motor is just about as much as I would want to spend.

In saying that however I have found myself amazed seeing boats sitting over spots without being on the front of the boat.

I use an anchor when it gets rough or head into the wind casting either straight in front of the boat or often casting behind the boat. A spot lock would make it much easier but I'm stubborn or cheap as of now. I'm also waiting till the things get more reliable.

I've seen lots of used depth finders for sale but have never seen a used Ultrex for sale. I think they like'em. Just about everything on my boat can be bought, including the boat, but my Ultrex ain't for sale.

Rhodan makes THE saltwater trolling motor. It is similar to the MK.
I have always wondered if it was a knock off but have not found any references that would lead me to believe it was.

Me too

Did you finally click “post reply”? Haha.

If the think the Ultrex is the beat, you haven’t tried the others. ....and that’s coming from a LONG time Ultrex owner.

Last night, before “first cast”, I spot locked next to a friend with the same boat as mine. He has a Lowrance Ghost, I have an Ultrex. His boat NEVER wiggled but my Ultrex almost bumped my boat into his at least a dozen times. My Ultrex was all over the map compared to his Lowrance. We are only talking a couple feet, but the Ultrex has to constantly hunt for the gps spot and his doesn’t. And mine is noisier too.

But, hey, I had mine the day it came out...so maybe it’s worn out.

Not going to knock the Ultrex, have had two of them, awesome motors, but they ain't no Ghost.

facts

the way they keep moving the ship dates i hope they deliver some before they start on a new ark.

It's not just trolling motors.

I'm still running a minkota maxxum X3 that is 18 years old. If it ain't broke don't fix it by buying the latest and greatest.

Consider that there might be something you’re missing out on though.

I would give up sliced bread for an Ultrex.

Picked up a Garmin a few months ago, best money I've spent on the boat! Now I hope they come out with a smaller one for my tin boat.

Motorguide's new trolling is going to Ultra 4k HD Digital.

Next years will be ultra 4k hd digital gen1 3d super spotlock

AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE!

What is a Motorguide?

It is a contraption invented by the Hershel Clock Company in Starkville, MS back in the early 1970s (if I got the decade correct).. Hershel had a long history building grandfather clocks. The plant was located in the "industrial park" located in the airport area. I used to pass right by it on final if the winds were from the south.

Have a Xi5 and am going to switch to an Ulterra but have been holding out in hopes that Minn Kota will come out with a brushless motor. Looks like they were too busy copying Power Poles instead.

It will be interesting to see. The "new" brushless motors are drawing some negative feedback regarding power output. Makita and Milwaukee engineers figured it out in the industrial and consumer tool world so one would think the fishing world could too.

Garmin is quieter than Ultrex and the wireless pedal is a plus
I’m driven by electronics compatibility so I’ll use whose ever brand of fish finders I’m using.
I’d say that was the intent of the manufacturers anyway

Source for this misinformation?
Lowrance and Garmin's have been out almost a year now and haven't heard a single report of problems with power output.

No way will it beat the Garmin.

LOL check out the Garmin and the Lowrance.

Mine isn't loud either but it is a 24V. I love my Ultrex but if I were in the market for a new trolling motor it would be either the Garmin or the Lowrance Ghost, and I would probably choose the Ghost over the Garmin because I have Lowrance electronics.
Those are the only two that I would even consider. One thing is for sure no matter what brand, I would NEVER own one without spot lock on it.