Motorguide xi5 w/ GPS

I feel like a little kid with the excitement to install this trolling motor on my boat next week. I am not linking it to graphs yet. One new thing at a time.

I have a few q’s for you xi5 owners that may seem specific, but in my search to figure out every last thing that motor does I must figure them out

The Remote:
1) What kind of batteries does it take?
2) Are the saved GPS spots/routes saved in the handheld device or in the head of the trolling motor. If I unplug my trolling motor batteries or remote batteries I want to know if I will clear those routes/gps spots.
3) With the 8 saved presets does that mean 8 anchor spots AND 8 routes? Or is it a combo of both up to 8?

The Trolling motor:
1) When using anchor mode, and you go to jog 5′ (or more with multiple presses) does that jog go off the direction of the head unit or the direction your boat is facing? Also, can you only jog left and right? or can you also jog forward and backwards using the “+/-” buttons.
2) Anyone have experience speed trolling (2.5mph-3.5mph) with big motor in gear and using trolling motor to follow a route or stabilize speed? Does that work well or is it just a pipe dream?

Also does anyone use it with a feature/type of fishing that might not be a common or standard way?

Remote is 2 AAA batteries

Jog is left, right, front, back but back sometimes gets confused so when going back it seems best to turn off anchor mode and drift back then anchor again.

There is a keel orientation calibration you have to do after install so when you hit jog it knows how your boat is sitting compared to the orientation of the motor so the boat will move accordingly.

When in anchor mode the boat should be facing directly into the wind/current. If you try using it when its flat calm the results may not be that good or when you have a river current with an opposing wind. The electronics just kinda get confused.
More wind the better. I have held my spot in 20MPH winds sustained. When it is a gusty wind where it could be flat calm and then a big gust it may drift a bit more than if the wind is consistent, but it still works excellent IMO.
I had boats drifting by my because they wouldn’t hold their anchors.

Regarding moving with the remote, the speed button works that when in Cruise Control the speed is defaulted to 1.0MPH when you activate. You increase/decrease .1MPH for each + or – button pressed so if you tap it twice your speed will change .2MPH (up or down). I would think this same functionality would apply to the jog feature meaning you press it 3 times, it would jog over 15 feet though I don’t recall actually trying it.

You will have separate presents for routes and for anchor points. It isn’t a “combined” type thing. I honestly don’t save much anchor spots. That can get a bit hairy. If you happen to bump the wrong button and it will just take off to a stored location nevermind what might be in the way :-).

I have my xi5 connected to my HDS via the gateway so when I want to anchor at a waypoint I tap the screen and then tap “anchor at waypoint” and it will navigate over there and anchor me at that spot.

Thanks CM, And that is a good point about the boat going where it wants without “thinking” whats in the way.

I do fish the river alot and the current and strong wind don’t come from the same direction often. This is when boat control is tough and I was hoping the xi5 would help with that, I think it will but it more than likely won’t be perfect.

CM, if I lock my big motor in at 3.0 with the trolling motor in the water, then try to cruise control straight I will have to hit the plus button 20 times to get it to not try to push me backwards? I was thinking this would be great for trolling routes on pepin as the trolling motor can steer the boat on the motor but not have to be using so much power to try to go 3.0mph.

Anyone ever tried this?

I have seen people spot lock in strong current with big motor in gear and trolling motor just adjusting and making up what the big motor can’t quite hold in idle in gear.

Mine just came yesterday to match the Lowrance I got for Christmas. I can’t wait to get it installed. Hopefully tomorrow !!!

Evan Pheneger wrote:

CM, if I lock my big motor in at 3.0 with the trolling motor in the water, then try to cruise control straight I will have to hit the plus button 20 times to get it to not try to push me backwards? I was thinking this would be great for trolling routes on pepin as the trolling motor can steer the boat on the motor but not have to be using so much power to try to go 3.0mph.

Just trying to make sure I understand what you are asking here. You want to use your outboard to power the boat but use the trolling motor to “steer” it? If that is the case, use the outboard to get desired speed, then use “heading lock” on the xi5. This will steer the boat on its desired heading while using your outboard to keep pace. You will need to play with the speed of the outboard and use some juice from the troller to get it to effectively steer though.
I haven’t tried that specifically, but did that with my old minn kota autopilot and it worked fine. I would expect it to work the same here. Setting the cruise at 3.0 and having the outboard pushing you at say 2.8 or something should work great I would think. It shouldn’t use much juice to keep you at 3.0 at all. Or you could just regulate the speed with the outboard and just use heading lock to steer. Either way would work, but you would need to practice both methods to see which one works best for you.

Rick Janssen wrote:

Mine just came yesterday to match the Lowrance I got for Christmas. I can’t wait to get it installed. Hopefully tomorrow !!!

You will love it!
Absolutely love mine. It also uses far less juice than my minn kota did which means more time on the water and more fish in the boat!

Knock it off, you guys are making me very anxious to try mine that has never touch water either

You can test it out in the garage. I did.

OH, I have, but only the spot lock seems to work, but it holds me on the spot for hours in any wind

Trolling with the main or a kicker and steering with the electric works very well. Depending on boat size, some have added a bigger skeg to the electric to help it steer better.

Larger skeg… that is a good idea, it might help overall with everything the motor does and the small expense of a little more drag and the motor bottoming out in shallower water.

Dave, have people just custom fabbed a larger skeg or can you buy some sort of attachable add on?

Generally, they are different versions of homemade fabrications. Some are very simple and some a little more complicated, depending on ones skills.

Here is what I would consider one of the most simple designs that I’ve seen.

The one that I made for my Minn Kota involved sandwiching the existing skeg with a couple pieces of thin aluminum and riveting together. The same SS clamps are used to secure the piece to the motor housing.

Here is a picture of one made by a member of another forum that I belong to with some mad metal skills.

One more.

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Among other things my experience with my i5 has been good. Apparently I got one of the few motors that would get lost, the head would spin around, a total embarrassment when I was fishing with my friends. Seems like it would work great the first day of fishing then the 2nd day go completely insane. Finally Motorguide sent me a software dongle with a connection to the network cable, appears to have fixed everything. One of the nicest aspects is the anchor jog and in Canada I fished a point, casting jigs and moving right 3 jogs, forward, to the left and backwards. There was a slight wind and the jogs were always in reference to the boat pointing into the wind. It really works well and I have included a screen shot of my various positions when anchor/jogging.

One thing that bothers me is that most of my waypoints are based on the position of my point 1 GPS module, in the back of the boat. So when I anchor it shows the boat 20 or so feet from the waypoint. Not that I cannot make the mental adjustment however lately I have changed the GPS source in my Lowrance to either the Motorguide of the GPS in my front HDS 9 unit. I get better visuals and no longer have to guess where my anchor point is vs the real position. I understand it’s just a reference but it’s a quirk of mine.

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David good insight, for now I am not linking but that is a good point to note after linking. When did you buy your xi5 that needed the dongle fix?

Evan,

According to the Motorguide guy at the NW Sportshow there were a few units that got out in the spring of 2015 as my Motorguide came prerigged with my new Ranger which I took delivery of in June of 2015. The problem has been focused on a just a small few and the ones now should be just fine.

Great to hear, thanks!

So I installed my motorguide xi5 the other day. The white on white sure looks pretty on my white/red warrior.

It’s all calibrated and ready to hit the water tonight. The install process was pretty easy but my only gripe is to get it to clear my bumper rail when deployed I had to mount it pretty far off the end of my boat. It looks fine but reaching my arm in and tightening those bolts came with a few “cover your ears words” ha.

I also was only able to spread my bolts about 7-8″ apart which I would have liked more but ran out of room with half of the mount hanging off the end of the boat. This must be a common problem.

Running the motor quick in the garage I was impressed with how quiet it is and how quick the motor rotates. It is also responds instantly to the remote.

Lastly, I (with the help of a coworker) made an awesome ram mount connection to keep the motor head from bouncing. I didn’t really feel like buying a $50-$70 trolling motor ram mount. So I used a scrap ram mount and machined some plastic and came up with this (first pic). I also didn’t want to drill into boat again so I made a nice velcro connection. I think it should hold but we will see.

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And yes I know I am goofy and put the trolling motor on the other side

This is how my old motor was mounted when I got the boat and wanted to cover up the old mount holes and also I don’t seem to have a problem seeing over it when I am blazing across lakes and rivers at a whopping 33 mph

Pretty cool, Evan. I’m either going to get one this summer or next. Keep us posted when you get out and use it.

Not sure how I ever fished without one! Since getting it installed just before ice out, I have yet to lift an anchor, or even think about one. Absolutely love, love, love this motor. As stated, the spot lock works best in a bit of current or wind. I used this while casting shallow for post-spawn eyes on the Mississippi this past week. Multiple presses of the jog directional buttons and it would ramp up and get us to that spot quick. Great when working in and around other boats that were coming and going.

I did have an issue that I spoke with MotorGuide about. They recommend doing the calibrations (both alignment and compass) the initial use after purchase and also if you move a substantial distance away from where the calibration was performed. So performing on the river now, I would do it again if I moved across the state to fish Green Bay. Factory calibration happens in MI, so it makes sense to do it again. I asked about the tournament anglers crisscrossing the country and it is suggested that they do it at each stop to recalibrate the compass heading. So, I haven’t used the heading lock and cruise control feature much at all as I have been casting/pitching as of late. Now that the trolling bite is starting, I will be trying it more.

Next step is to network it with the HDS and learn some new tricks.

ENJOY IT!

David Anderson wrote:

Evan,

According to the Motorguide guy at the NW Sportshow there were a few units that got out in the spring of 2015 as my Motorguide came prerigged with my new Ranger which I took delivery of in June of 2015. The problem has been focused on a just a small few and the ones now should be just fine.

So did the software fix totally fix the issue?I have a occasional problem with mine(purchased March 2015)99% of the time anchor mode is perfect,but in a few spots motor will go into a cord-wrapping tizzy.Move about 500 ft,and all is good.

Great thread! I ordered a X15 yesterday, anxious to get it wet.