****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
When the trolling motor was shipped, it evidently had some pretty rough handling. The box was torn and seams were opened. Luckily the UPS driver found the parts packet on the floor of the van and came back by after work and dropped off the mounting bracket bolts.I have been selling and using both MinnKota and Motorguide trolling motors for over 50+ years. Both motors have their plus and minuses. I went with a hand-controlled motor because the small fishing boat I traded for is much more easily controlled with a handheld trolling motor. I wanted the convenience of the swing up-bracket without a foot controlled motor. There are several advantages to a hand controlled motor over a foot controlled; no steering cables to worry about. 54.78 pounds of thrust is more than enough to pull round the 15-foot aluminium boat and only one battery to keep charged.I mostly panfish now, so I am not trolling up and down banks to fish.I have found this motor to be a fair value for the money. Not all that difficult to install (although I could recommend some improvements and/or design modifications that would make it even better. It works fin, better than needed, on my 13JV Carolina Skiff, which admittedly is not a large boat. It is a little heavy making it a chore to deploy and return to storage position. I would highly recommend this motor.Arrived with one little spot of damage on the box. Opened it up and everything was there. Came with the mount, tiller handle, motor, 3 blade prop, and 4 bolts to mount. Mounting was easy. Also installed a big foot switch with it. One use so far and it works well. Hopefully it holds up like my other motor guide motors have. Great product so far. Pulls my boat along nicely and stows and deploys easily. Frees up space on my smaller deck for fishing without having the big foot control. Only thing I noticed is it seems to be a little louder than my others on low speed.The trolling motor works fantastic. The directions are lacking but if you've got a bit of common sense it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. There aren't enough bolts provided if you want to really secure it to the deck, I had to pick up 4 more from ACE Hardware down the street. I put this trolling motor on a 15 ft Alumacraft flat bottom jon boat and it moves at a solid 5 MPH on max speed which I hardly use. Be aware that on smaller boats you can easily throw your fishing partner off the boat if you don't give them solid warning. :) You won't be disappointed.Used it about 7months and started to squeal, just out of warranty so opened it up. A magnet on the housing had come loose due to not enough solder by or poor quality. Motor somewhat works. Also noticed the gasket on the nose cone was pushed in.This wheel will go nicely on the 1981 Boston Whaler restoration project I'm currently supporting. It comes with two different sized locking nuts. The wheel is of good quality and has two key-way bores for positioning the wheel where you feel it'll look the best. The price of the wheel was better than I found anywhere else. West Marine wanted quite a bit more for the same wheel. I'll "bash" West Marine every chance I get because of their over-inflated prices, years ago when they first started they had competitive prices, but those days are long gone. Perhaps "Greed" took over at some point.Arrived broken the fin was broken but still works looks like it was banged up in transitPackage arrived torn open! Contacted northern marine and motorguide to address the problem! They both were very helpfull and assured me they would stand behind this motor. All parts were in tact and working properly! Have yet to test motor on boat.Never worked right from new..some times it would work and most times it won't. It's in for repair. Apparently it's the speed switch. Hopefully the motor works after repair. Shame to buy something new and have it faulty. How does that leave the factory with any sort of QC department? Also had problems with the mount being very tight and binding. Found the issue by loosening the hinge bolts. Edit: out of warranty repair with a brand new 5 point switch (switch takes 2 weeks to get to the repair shop so no trolling motor the whole time). Motor seemed fine when tested at home. Went out for the first time fishing and no forward propulsion about 2 activations in. Reverse works sporadically. Back in for repair. 5 point switch is 2 weeks away, again. Motorguide wouldn't cover air shipping to the repair shop (thanks guys!) Summer will be over before I get to use this thing. Buyer beware. Piece of junk. You got me this time, but that's it. Never again. Mercury motors included.I like it but ...... The cables are not long enough to reach the back of the boat , extra cost for cable extensions ..... It needs to have an inline circuit breaker to protect the motor , also not included . The description is wrong , there is no foot controller on this model . I contacted Amazon , they took care of me and the website will be updated to reflect this issue . I have not tried it on the water yet but I do expect it to work fine .I needed a little more power but this one for the price works well....died in less then 1 year
