is iPilot all that?
 

Seriously considering getting an iPilot this winter and it looks like they run about 1800 bucks new. Im wondering if they are as cool as they seem to be. the spotlock feature seems huge, plus the idea of running a track seems real nice when you are banging the banks for reds.

For those of you that have gone from a standard TM to iPilot, has it lived up to your expectations?

I love mine. Expect a learning curve.
Spot lock is awesome if you have a constant current or wind.

do you drive it with the remote only? what happens if the batteries die on the remote?

Yeah. Remote only.
Keep spare batteries. If they die you screwed.

I fish close to the motor head. It's pretty easy to quickly turn it to the angle you want with your hand. And yeah, that's probably not the best thing to do for it. But in the beginning old habits die hard.

so it is possible to turn the head of the unit. that's good to know.

It's not good to. It messed it up.
Oh and it only works till you go so far offshore. Won't work more then like 9 miles out. (The anchor function only)

Only used mine twice so far, but the answer to your question is YES!!!!!!

HUH?

Are you sure that you do not have an issue with yours? I only say that because I used mine in NC while trolling for kings about 12miles off shore.

The Ipilot uses GPS to know where it is at, so it should not matter where you are unless there is heavy cloud cover that was effecting the signal.

Anyway... sorry for high jacking the thread.

I love mine, and one thing I would suggest.

When you go to get one, ask the dealer which one he thinks would work on your boat, then go with the next biggest one.

I was told the 80 thrust 60" shaft would be good for my boat and now that I have it, I notice that if there is a strong wind (15mph or higher) that varies then it will work very hard to stay on the spot. I should have gone with the 115 thrust 60" shaft.

Good luck

You will love it after 5 mins or less. Go play with knee on a buddy's boat.

There is a foot-control that plugs in the pigtail and you can run it like a bass boat, IF the remote takes a dump. I have had 4 I-pilots on my last 4 boats and the foot pedal, but never needed it. Did test the foot pedal to make sure it worked properly.

On the I-Pilot, you can set the heading make a ham sandwich, open a beer and not worry while the TM does it's thing, as you slowly putt putt out of an area. Great for working the shoreline as you mentioned. Also, if you have guests, run the TM from the console and let your guests have the front of the boat.

Yes, there is an up charge for that, but I see it as a small premium to pay for that convenience. My 2 cents.

I have the 36v 112# thrust unit.

AND Then Some!!!!!

I like mine and didn't take long to get used to. And the spot lock works anywhere. I used mine 37 miles offshore. I don't really know of any negative reasons not to have one.

It would be hard for me to go back to a regular trolling motor. I don't have the I-link function but didn't see that as something I needed. Very happy with spot look and holding a heading even with wind and currents.

Then it must be mine. Spot lock wouldn't work on mine offshore. It kept making 3 beeps. It was aggravating me.

I watched a guy with 5 folks in his boat hold on spot in the marsh last fall with a 30mph north wind blowing while I was fighting to hold my boat on anchor he was ripping the flounder, it was a good 2 hrs and this fellow never had to look back till he had his limits. I told him he should have filmed it for a IPilot promo, I was very impressed to say the least

I bought the foot pedal just as a backup plan in case the remote battery died. There is a learning curve but I do enjoy mine.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk

Go ahead and buy it, you will not regret the investment. I did not hesitate to put one on our new boat.

Mine did the same thing. It turned out to be a loose fitting in the plug. It would lose power and beep 3 times. Changed plug and problem solved. Might be your problem. I sure aint no ipilot expert.

We did some reseach and contacted minn Kota about the difference between the salt water and fresh water with the foot control. All the gears are the same And he only thing that is different is an anode. Shaft is composit and the gears on the top of the head are mostly composit. So I went with the Terrova because of the foot petal and transducer. Haven't used the transducer but the foot petal is a major plus. Also I love mine.

wish i had one today while i was fishing some rigs , it ould be nice to pull up and not have to throw a rig hook untill you find out if the fish are there or not

I have the auto-pilot version...the older one without the GPS.

I cut about 3 one-inch thick rings from a grey PVC pipe and slit them. I slipped them OVER the upper shaft as a spacer. So, the collar that locks the shaft to the motor cannot engage because of the 3 slip rings.

The whole head can be turned like a hand-control motor, which is done quite often when just moving around a spot. To convert it to a hand-type, I added a swivel trolling motor handle. So, it became a manual motor in this configuration.

While one may think this causes the auto-pilot not to operate because the shaft is not 'locked' into the geared motor, one would be wrong. The WEIGHT of the motor pulling down on the three rings is sufficient enough so that, perhaps 90% of the time, the motor will operate by friction alone and follow it's auto-pilot path and electric turning features. On occasion, it will slip and just not turn.

The rings can be snapped off of the shaft in a few seconds if you want it to be locked.

worth every penny, had mine for 6 months and cant say enough good about it, you can beet that 1800.00 price easily though! interweb!

Absolutely worth every penny. Like others have said I also keep a foot control that I can use just in case of remote failure. I also keep spare remote batteries in case my battery goes out. I have never had to use my foot control. I have a 24 V 80 pound thrust and it works good for my 21 foot center console boat. If I had to do it over again though I would invest the extra money for 36 V 101 pound thrust just give me that extra when it's super windy. Like the others have said being able to control it from the rear of the boat so that your grandkids can fish the front is an added advantage

You have to wait for the GPS to lock (icon on the keypad). That could possibly been your issue.

Ive used mine 20 miles offshore before... and yes its worth it

thanks for all the info guys. looks like I found a used one from another site for a good price. I will test it out and if it runs as expected Ill be mounting it on the boat this weekend. if it sucks I blame you all for forcing me to buy it :)

That's what Ill tell the wife anyway