anyone have a Minn Kota co-pilot? I’m thinking about getting one for my 55lb power drive trolling motor. i’d just like to know what they are like and how they work and if it is really worth the money?
2 quick questions on the co-pilot…i’ve got the quick release bracket, will it fit on the side w/ the bracket? and what side does the co-pilot mount on?
Thanks!
‘Morning nhiwe02!
Yesterday morning I had a 55 Auto Pilot on my 17 foot boat. Last night I had a 74 auto with a co – pilot. Another satisfied customer from Wade at Jolly Ann.
The Co Pilot comes with 2 longer screws. You take out the screws that hold the cover on…on the drivers side, place the CP on then use the longer screws to attach it.
I’ve only used mine in the drive way (and at the neighbors house…to check the range) so I can’t tell you yet if it’s worth it. I think it will be…just in the fact that when there’s more than just me in the boat the cords not in the way. Seldom could I ever get the cord to lay perfectly flat and it’s a tripping hazzard….unless I tuck it along the sides of the boat. I’ve never taken the time to do that.
I can’t tell you for sure if it’s going to be in the way of the quick release bracket…but I would think it would work. The CP isn’t as long as the foot print of the trolling motor, but it extends the side..maybe an inch.
I was about 150 feet away from my boat with a van in between me and the boat. Still worked…Although I’m not sure how that would come in handy unless one fell out of the boat while trolling…. 
Guess that’s all I can tell you until I use it myself…
I have the CP and the AP on my 65. They both are great! At the lake, I like to put the kids in the front, with me in the back. I use the CP, and really like the performance. I don’t do much trolling yet, but when I do, I use the trolling motor. The cp works well for this application as well. I must say though, it’s only a matter of time before the controller goes overboard. When I’m jigging at the river, I don’t use the cp. I like to work 2 croix’s at once (I feel more balanced, I guess). The cp is a hinderance in this application.
I’ve got the CP with a 65AP/UV. Use it all the time and love it. Its great when you have two or three people in the boat. You always have control no matter where you are in the boat. The only drawback to the CP that I could find is that when the AP is on, you can’t override it with the CP. It would be great to be able to set the AP with the remote, but the CP is definitely worth the money in my opinion. And it fits with the release bracket with no problem and it mounts on the right side of the unit (depending on how you’re looking at it 
) or the side where the locking screw goes into the quick release bracket.
Buddy of mine has it……….
It is great for trolling the back channel or dragging jigs……
He has it mounted to his spinning rods (he can switch it over to any of them with the little bracket). Or he sits in the drivers seat and controls the little remote there, while slow trolling………
Great investment…………so easy and simple……….
I bought one this summer, but unfortunately have very little on the water experience with it.
As for installation, it’s a snap. Literally a 5 minute job.
I think this thing is the cat’s meow from a functionality standpoint. I’m hitting the lake tonight, I’ll let you know if I find anything that concerns me about it.
I can count on one hand the number of things that I can say, “I cant believe I ever fished without this..” and Co-pilot is at the top of that list. It may be more valuable to me then most because I use a large center console and move around the boat quite a bit.
One little thing I don’t like is that the Co-Pilot wont turn off the AutoPilot. For instance, I will be headed parallel to shore with Autopilot and want to turn around, If I turn the boat with CoPilot, Autopilot will attempt to “correct” the course change and I have to walk up to the bow and kick the Autopilot off manually. Perhaps other people think this is a good thing but before I got used to it, it drove me a bit nuts.
Dave
Just installed mine yesterday and headed for the croix in the morning!
Thanks for all the responses, it’s great to hear all of you like it. I don’t have auto pilot on my trolling motor so it won’t screw w/ the CP.
I’ll probably be picking up the CP today or this weekend sometime and i’ll let you guys know how it goes.
Thanks again guys 
Oh…I thought you guys might like to see my “new” used boat I just purchased a few weeks ago. It’s an ’82 Lund Pike, 70 HP Merc. As stated in an earlier post I can’t stay at full throttle and it bogs down. Anyway here she is…
nhowe02,
I got to use one this weekend at the RCL, the boater I was paired with had the 74 co-pilot with the Universal Sonar. I ran this unit all day long and it was awesome, very eazy to use. When I am ready for a new trolling motor this will be the one I buy.
I just bought one for my 55 this year and really like and I would recommend it.
Dave M?
Are you saying the once your AP is set and you want to turn around 180…the AP wants to turn you BACK around to the original direction (another 180)?
I haven’t used mine yet, but if this is the case…somethings wrong!
Because it’s wired into the foot pedal wiring, it should work just like the foot pedal…once you set it with your foot or the CP it should stay that course.
The only time I see turning off the AP is when your stowing it…which you have to go up front for anyway…
Did I miss understand your post?
Briank
My CoPilot will temporarily over-ride the Auto Pilot and turn me what ever direction I want. However, after I stop giving commands with my Copilot, the AP tries to go back to the last heading I gave it.
Maybe I misunderstand you about the Autopilot. I point the motor in the direction I want to travel with the Copilot and then manually hit the AP button on top of the motor, turning it on. It keeps that heading until I walk up and hit the button again to turn it off. Im not sure how you leave it on all the time. Is there some “sleep” function I am missing? Maybe I dont use it correctly…
Dave
Well…first off…I haven’t used my co pilot yet….But when I deploy my ol’ 55 AP, I would turn on the AP and it would stay on until I stowed it. It SHOULD hold the direction you point it…lock on that position until you point it in another position. I can’t imagine the co pilot working anyother way….
I would guess that if you turned on the AP, turned your motor 180 degrees, the AP should turn you around and then follow that track. If it does anything else, I would have it looked at….unless the copilot works differantly…in that case…I’m sending mine back! 
Really? My AP holds to wherever I moved it to with the co-pilot, a AP with Co it the Perfect combo IMHO.
Nick how old is your AP, how long have you had it?
It’s a little over three years, used quite a bit, I’d say once a week for sure (softwater season), it’s the “new” style, and to answer your other questions 
I’m very happy with it, I’ve had the “pots” adjusted just once which when out of adjustment the AP seems to just develope a mind of it’s own and turn, once it a blue moon it still does this to me, nothing I can’t handle. The Guy at minnkota said I could glue them in place and not have this problem anymore too. When I went down to Minnkota to pick up a circuit board that failed, they also gave me an newer version of the compass that controls the AP, and said it would work even better for me, Since Mine is still working fine, I have yet to put it in, so I can’t tell you the difference…
It’s unbelieveble the boat control you can have with the AP/CP combo, or just even the AP. I’ve been able to hold in current and slowly slip down stream slowly, amazing I would’ve bet I could hold any spot on river.
The only downside to the AP it on the river, it doesn’t seem to correct quite fast enough for the current pushing you in some cases, but the CP makes up that difference. On the lakes I don’t have this problem.
I’m totally sold on the AP.
Judging by some of these replies, apparently my co-pilot isn’t working quite right. So I contacted Minn Kota and here’s their reply if anyone has the same problem as me:
“The Co-Pilot is a replacement for the foot pedal, and should have exactly the same type of operation as
the foot pedal. I would recommend you unplug the Co-Pilot and plug in the foot pedal directly. If it works the way you state below, then there is something wrong with the Co-Pilot.”.
I had my foot pedal plugged into the co-pilot, but I’ll have to try this. I could swear the instructions said to plug the footpedal into the co-pilot.
Well…just back from three days of running my brand spanking new Jolly Ann Marine (autographed version) 74 AP with the co pilot. My heart almost stopped when it started turning in circles UNTIL I realize my dad was sittling on the co pilot!
Worked wonderful! Wiped the front end of my 17 footer around so fast I got dizzy.
There are two wires coming out of the co pilot…on that connects to the wire where the foot pedal would normally go…this is all you need. If you want to use the foot pedal, you could connect it to the other wire coming out of the CP. Pretty hard to mess up the wiring.
IMHO…the foot pedal is nice…the Co Pilot is better…(dad keeps tripping over the wire)
Quote:
Well…just back from three days of running my brand spanking new Jolly Ann Marine (autographed version) 74 AP with the co pilot. My heart almost stopped when it started turning in circles UNTIL I realize my dad was sittling on the co pilot!
Worked wonderful! Wiped the front end of my 17 footer around so fast I got dizzy.
There are two wires coming out of the co pilot…on that connects to the wire where the foot pedal would normally go…this is all you need. If you want to use the foot pedal, you could connect it to the other wire coming out of the CP. Pretty hard to mess up the wiring.
IMHO…the foot pedal is nice…the Co Pilot is better…(dad keeps tripping over the wire)
It’s good to have a satisfied poster child!
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