Vantage 80# troller

Looking to buy one of these units. Does anybody have good/bad things to say about them? Are they reliable?
I’m looking at the 80# version

I run one without any major issues so far… The only bad thing I heard about them are the drive that raises and lowers can fail from time to time from a tech at Fishlektronics. I did have the seals in the lower unit replaced because water would seep in and create a chugging response. Probably my fault from having it mounted too low on the transom and on plane it would make slight contact with the water and the prop would spin slightly? Over all I really like how it performs! Good luck to ya

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The only bad thing I heard about them are the drive that raises and lowers can fail from time to time

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X2 or 3
Heard same thing from a couple guys that had it

I know a guide in the Brainerd area who has used one for the last few years. He likes the motor but told me they are very high maintenance. I believe they have someone in the Brainerd area that will fix them either overnight or very quickly for them. That information coming from someone who uses it daily has kept me from purchasing one.

They had issues with the Vantage the first few years, but now seem to have the bugs worked out…they’ve been rock solid for about the last 5 yrs. I know several guys that put a lot of hours on them each season and haven’t had any hiccups…. I’ve run mine for 2 yrs now trouble free.

I have a 2003 Vantage on my Lund Pro Angler. I use it at least 50 times a year and I have not had a single problem with it! Wonderful tool for back trolling.

I also have had one for 4 years and other than a switch replacement, I love it , no more climbing up and down to deploy or remove….

I’ve had mine 3 years now and think it’s great. Expensive but what isn’t these days. Saves me breaking my back to rasie and lower it all the time. 2 things that I can think of. It’s a 24V so if a battery goes dead, it won’t deploy. I think 1 of mine was shorted so it wasn’t putting out any juice at all. 2. I put a sticker on my big motor to remind me to raise it before taking off. I haven’t done it but have heard the stories of people that forgot, took off and the thing ended up at the bottom of the lake. Works great for back trolling. Good luck!

LundgEYE,
Sent you a PM. I have one I would consider selling.

Haleysgold, the deploy motor works off 12 volts only. You should have the deploy motor wires going to your main cranking battery and the thrust motor wires going to 2 dedicated trolling motor batteries. Don’t ever run more than 12 volts to the deploy motor – stuff starts to smoke and it costs about 3 bennies to fix what was was smoking

I love my Vantage, all my buddies love their Vantages….When they work. They can be finicky.

Thanks everybody for the comments, you have given me a very good insight to what these motors are all about. I too, have gotten to hate lifting and lowering the conventional transom motors. This should solve that problem.

Critical – The deploy may work off 12V but if the battery is shot, it won’t deploy even tho you have 2 batteries hooked to it. That could have been the problem as the first battery in the series was driving the deploy but since that battery was fried, it didn’t deploy.
It was an issue I had that took me a bit to figure out wth was going on.