2017 Minnkota vs Motor Guide video

Video done by MinnKota ? —- So this might be fake news.

Possibly. I’ve talked to two people that have run the new MinnKota Spot Locks and the Motor Guide. This follows what they were saying.

Since they literally could have sold me on either, I lean toward creditable news.

PS I call fake news “lies” unless is presented in a humorous form. Then it’s entertainment.

Ps I’m going to bet a quarter that within the next 3 to 6 months Motor Guide will leap frog over the MinnKota just because in fishing and most electronics anything that’s six months old is obsolete.

Almost looks like they spot locked the Motorguide off the target.

I should do a video of my ulterra displaying its precision spot lock sitting in the back of my truck on the way to warranty repair for the 4th time in the last year. Currently in route to Minnkota headquarters. It’s been in the back of the truck more than on the boat. Hearing “tt must be your batteries” gets really old. Especially when you have new batteries and they test out the same.

Yes, I’ve heard the pre 2017 models have problems. In fact both folks I spoke with said they would have gone with Motor Guide had I asked them last year.

Hope you get some resolution Pete!

I have used my Motorguide now all of last season. I LOVE IT. I don’t know the “scale” on the video, but from my use, I don’t think I move that far off my spot lock location???

It looks like different boats / different hulls. Are the trolling motors the same thrust?

Tuma wrote:

Are the trolling motors the same thrust?

Good point Tuma! I would want it to hold on MY boat.

Tuma wrote:

It looks like different boats / different hulls. Are the trolling motors the same thrust?

I’d also like to see the boats switch buoys, because you know science stuff and those pesky variables.

Looks like a neat marketing video. All you need to know about marketing is that it is the second oldest profession. Probably only a few minutes younger than the oldest profession.

One difference is the weight distribution. The guys with the motorguide were position to the back of the boat allowing the bow to bounce around more. The minnkota guys were placed in the bow reducing the wind effects on the bow.

We also don’t “know” the exact boat locations when the buttons were pressed.

PS, I run a Terrova with Ipilot.

I have an xi5, and I would say mine seems more accurate than that. Although as the video went on, neither boat moved really much, once the motors had decided to kick in. Both were at the outer edge of their respective circles, but they both only moved a few feet. You could just bump the Motorguide up once or twice to get locked onto that buoy. Although I do really like the idea of the video, assuming the motors/boats are comparable. I’ll also say that from a practical standpoint, neither unit’s performance would bother me. Rarely do I need to be locked onto a 5-10′ spot for more than few minutes, if I’m jigging I’m usually bouncing around with the directional buttons, just keeping the line vertical, and if I really don’t want to move and plan to camp on a spot, I just anchor up anyway. But like I said, cool video.

sticker wrote:

Almost looks like they spot locked the Motorguide off the target.

x2, both boats barely moved once locked. Good idea for a marketing video.

Its better than those info-mercials.

If it were an info-mercial for Minn-kota it would show a confused guy pushing the wrong button (since MGs don’t have screens on the remote) and the trolling motor thrusting the guy off the boat into the water.
Reversely
A MG commercial would show some drunk guy fumbling around the boat and the heavy Minn-kota remote swimming and knocking him in the gonads then he would fall overboard as well.

I have watched too much late night TV ha.

Both hulls look like a ranger 619 to me…

I think the minn kota and motorguide are not the smae thrust so a better comparison might be voltage… Are they both 24 or 36 volt, but I think they are trying to show that the Minn Kota programming/Logic are more accurate and the power may not matter in the moderate conditions that seem to be shown.

I may stand with only a few, but I love my Terrova. No the spot lock isn’t as good as I’d like, but that’s the point… the bar has been raised. I still like it better than an anchor and all that hassle – so if this new one is that much better, I’ll be in the market for one this summer once more reviews come out.

Chuck Melcher wrote:

I may stand with only a few, but I love my Terrova. No the spot lock isn’t as good as I’d like, but that’s the point… the bar has been raised. I still like it better than an anchor and all that hassle – so if this new one is that much better, I’ll be in the market for one this summer once more reviews come out.

Here’s the problem I have with Minnkota. It seems that many with older terrova owners are happy with their spot lock. And many that have owned both the older and newer terova claim the older ones were much better.

It almost seems as though they went backwards. Why? To boost sales on the new models. Turnover. Automakers do it, maybe never go backwards, but they hold onto new and better features for future models to boost sales. This is fact.

Back to Minnkota. Maybe they didn’t intend to go backwards but they almost certainly had the capability of putting a MUCH better product out there but chose not to. Even when the product failed to work as advertised, they ignored the problem and “solved” it in a way that forced us to buy new units. Well, that doesn’t seem like a problem at all for Minnkota, that sounds like an opportunity.

It’ll be a very long time before I ever consider buying another Minnkota product. Couple that with a glaring manufacturing defect on my motor housing (fixed under warranty), a remote that only works with an open line of sight within 10′, and a battery charger that failed and wrecked a 1 year old battery (charger replaced under warranty, battery was my responsibility).

Minnkota

I also want to point out the price points for each product.

Minnkota ulterra 112 ipilot $2279 retail
http://www.cabelas.com/product/MINN-KOTA-ULTERRA-US-W-I-PILOT/1920752.uts?productVariantId=4039841&WT.tsrc=PPC&WT.mc_id=GoogleProductAds&WT.z_mc_id1=04053714&rid=20&gclid=CjwKEAjwzKPGBRCS55Oe46q9hCkSJAAMvVuM3mxkfKwJp_EJk7AyyZFa8YGEtsMZNlrJNHz5YX41xhoCFR_w_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Motorguide xi5 105 pinpoint $1699 retail
http://www.cabelas.com/product/MOTORGUIDE-XI-W-PINPOINT-GPS-BOW-MOUNT/1701906.uts

The motorguide is still less than my terrova I bought 3.5 years ago and comes with lower blood pressure.

sticker wrote:

Almost looks like they spot locked the Motorguide off the target.

Had the same thought.

I think either way you get a good product. Honestly if you run lowrance get the Motorguide if you run humminbird run the MinnKota.

What do you run if you have Garmin :). I had the first generation terrova and it was much better than the 2nd. The only thing I didn’t like about the first was the remote had issues with the buttons breaking. They had a replacement piece to fix that and all was good. New boat new terrova. Kind of a piece of dung. Another new boat a new terrova and same as the last one. Sold it on Craigslist and bought an XI5. Very happy with it. I don’t like the remote with not being able to see what level the motor is at, but aside from that it is good. The spot lock for me seems much better than what the video shows. Minn Kota must have switched a supplier for them the regress so far from the first ones. Hopefully the 2017’s are better.

Here is a guy that has done videos in both windy and calm conditions of the Minnkota. He also mentions upgrades available for old ipilots that I have not heard about.

Old updates are not available. I think that’s simply a misunderstanding. If you go to Minnkota website it had a Bluetooth enabled compass that’s intended to read boat heading and help with gps position. Available for 2017 models only.

They also do not sell the new ipilot systems for installation on any existing unit.

One thing that seems kind of odd to me is you can clearly see the red buoy have slight drift movements from the wind/waves which is to be expected. When you look at the yellow (minnkota) buoy, it is not moving at all from the wind/waves which is unrealistic… You can clearly see this when they speed it up at 1:22-2:10 in the video. Seems kind of fishy to me.

It appears that the Motorguide head is moving a lot more than the Minnkota, especially at the beginning, I’ve have yet to use a spot lock of any kind so I can’t speak from experience, but I would think small corrections would be better than quick, drastic corrections. Sure it’s a marketing video so take it for what it’s worth, but interesting to see nonetheless. I agree with Black TransAm that it seems that deciding between the two motors is more dependent on what sonars you’re running rather than who’s spot lock is better.

Chuck Melcher wrote:

I may stand with only a few, but I love my Terrova. No the spot lock isn’t as good as I’d like, but that’s the point… the bar has been raised. I still like it better than an anchor and all that hassle – so if this new one is that much better, I’ll be in the market for one this summer once more reviews come out.

Chuck,

I would have to agree with you, I took a leap of faith when I bought my boat in 2013 and have one of the very first Terrovas with I Link and it has been flawless for me, yes the spot lock could be a bit more precise but generally speaking I stay within about 15′, and I actually really like the big rechargeable remote, but I have seen the poor performance and terrible remotes on other terrovas and it will definitely make me think twice when it comes to my next motor, and not buy based on brand but on what I think is the best product for my use/need and value.

On the other hand my Minn Kota battery chargers like to say good-buy about once a year and It is a big pain but I now can basically change out the 3 bank charger in my boat in about an hour. I really have to watch the charger as when it works it work fine, but when it goes bad it will eat up batteries fast. The best thing about my charge is that it has a good warranty and I have not paid for a new one yet.

blank wrote:

I agree with Black TransAm that it seems that deciding between the two motors is more dependent on what sonars you’re running rather than who’s spot lock is better.

Well that depends. If a person doesn’t get I-Link that connects the bird to the MinnKota there isn’t any reason why a person couldn’t mix brands.

CB, I’ve had a 10 amp 3 bank in my Lund for over 10 years. It’s running all year when my boat isn’t on the water. I ‘spose like anything else there are some bad ones. Guess I was lucky.

Yeah, I suppose that’s true BK.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>blank wrote:</div>
I agree with Black TransAm that it seems that deciding between the two motors is more dependent on what sonars you’re running rather than who’s spot lock is better.

Well that depends. If a person doesn’t get I-Link that connects the bird to the MinnKota there isn’t any reason why a person couldn’t mix brands.

Or get the Pinpoint Gateway from Motorguide to control the Xi5 from the Lowrance unit.
You can surely use either trolling motor with either Sonar just fine, but if you plan to interface to your GPS unit you have a decision to make.
I already had Lowrance electronics (with thousands of dollars already invested) and needed to upgrade my trolling motor so I opted for the xi5 because I wanted to interface the trolling motor with my Lowrance Unit.

I would expect that in the near future you will be able to interface the xi5 with other GPS units (Garmin) besides MG simply because Motorguide isn’t owned by the same company unlike HBird/Minn Kota.

I’m calling BS. I’ve owned both, and hands down the motorguide is tighter positioned lock and a way faster head response, even wide open the head speed is way faster. Auto deploy is pretty cool..

Brian Klawitter wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>blank wrote:</div>

CB, I’ve had a 10 amp 3 bank in my Lund for over 10 years. It’s running all year when my boat isn’t on the water. I ‘spose like anything else there are some bad ones. Guess I was lucky.

The first one that was pulled out by the dealer was a Lund branded unit and they replaced it with a Minn Kota, I just think they are not made as well as they once were and the road miles are tough on them.