Lithium Shuttle (Not good for icefishing)

Check out the video. I hope I can save someone from making the same mistake I made this winter. I bought one this winter and I’m so disappoint after seeing this. I know others have had issues as well.

Informative.

Thanks for posting. It has been three years with a Helix 7 mounted on a lithium shuttle and it was not making it past 5 hours. Will be switching back to the Humminbird shuttle and a LiFePo4 battery for next winter.

Yep, and that is another reason I made my shuttle out of a vex ultra pack. Love how it looks but that is it. I haven’t seen many Helix units mounted to these maybe that is why?

Pretty typical from Marcum, not surprised in the least.

will be interesting to see how much longer Marcum stays in business…

Everybody at Marcum with a title higher than supervisor should be brought up on charges of malfeasance. Their products are low quality, and their customer service is inexcusably lacking. Management has made no changes to improve the shortcomings, and is therefore guilty of malfeasance.

I guess I lucked out with my lx3 and 5. Those things lasted years. My lx6 went up for sale soon after the second time it quit reading bottom. Went back to vexilar. But I bet those 3tci and lx5 are still running strong.
My brother had major issues with both lithium shuttles he bought. So I always just opted for a lithium battery.

Vexilar FL-20 inside a Norsk Brackpack and running a Norsk battery. The greatest thing ever and weighs just over 2 lbs when I have my aqua vu micro inside of it. Fits in a pail. Best thing since sliced bread. Why anyone would buy marcum anything is beyond me.

I still own a LX-6s and love it for hole hopping, keep my fingers crossed everytime I power it up…

Im still old schooling it with an extremely old LX-5. Works fine.

I have a LX7 that is just a year out of warranty (2.5 ice seasons?). It can no longer mark a jig in water under 5fow :(. I want to sell it and swap back to a vex or garmin ice bundle but I can’t bring myself to dump it on another sportsman. And you can’t stop into their place since Covid so the only option is to ship it in. Definitely disappointed. Main motivation to get it was my FIL and fishing buddy both got Marcums and didn’t play well with my OG FL-8.

glue 1/4 of foam to the bottom of the shuttle or keep it off the ice somehow the bat will last much longer. owned an lx7 for several years and liked it but when i seen how good the vex fl 28 was i bought one sold the lx7 and never looked back
now i have a livescope unit but will still never sell the 28! love the livescope as well

KPE wrote:

Vexilar FL-20 inside a Norsk Brackpack and running a Norsk battery. The greatest thing ever and weighs just over 2 lbs when I have my aqua vu micro inside of it. Fits in a pail. Best thing since sliced bread. Why anyone would buy marcum anything is beyond me.

KPE what is a Norsk Brackpack? Got a picture? Couldn’t find it on Norsk website. TIA

The batteries are crude. I own two and SOL on the battery.

My lx6s with shuttle has been great. Battery holds a little less charge but I have still never ran it dry. Longest day last year was 10 hours and no issues. Glad I got lucky!

I remember when James and crew ran these. Most every one here had to be seen with one.
Now it’s the helix. Boy have the times changed.

Had the shuttle since they first came out on my lx7, never had a problem ,fish out side most of the time.

Call norsk and ask them I if they still have any. It’s their shuttle pack that’s a hybrid soft pack with hard sides for structure. Spoke with them at the ice show this past year they said their marketers dropped the ball on it. He mentioned they might still have a truckload of them somewhere.

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I got it in a bundle with one of their batteries maybe 3 seasons ago at Joe’s sporting goods. It was like $110 for the package deal during their ice fishing expo sale. I gave them hell for not pushing this product harder, everyone who uses mine loves it and asks where to get them.

KPE wrote:

Call norsk and ask them I if they still have any. It’s their shuttle pack that’s a hybrid soft pack with hard sides for structure. Spoke with them at the ice show this past year they said their marketers dropped the ball on it. He mentioned they might still have a truckload of them somewhere.

The Norsk Brack Pack has been discontinued and, despite it being a really good product, likely will not be re-released. This is a classic example of how a well-designed product can get lost in the shuffle in the absence of a solid marketing plan. Essentially nobody knew about it and despite some grass-roots love for it by the time sales started to get off the ground the owners were forced to scrap the product.

As for the MarCum shuttle, in its day it was a very good product. There really wasn’t anything commercially available like it that offered a lithium battery with extended runtimes for digital graphs, built in rod holders, USB ports, etc. I think it was introduced back in 2016? To my knowledge it hasn’t been updated in any way and in this day and age a 6 year old product is a dinosaur. To some degree I think MarCum is acknowledging this by offering their line of stand-alone lithium batteries.

Thanks KPE and James. Info is appreciated.

Why not just do a running change on the battery technology for a stouter discharge curve to deliver a solid performance for the customer? Oh wait that would take time and effort. I would much rather make a few less pennies per sale and provide something the customer can get excited about over turning off everyone that knows how bad the product is once they get over the honeymoon phase of the purchase.