Minn kota talon or power pole

[ckinchen]

Originally Posted by meathauler

I have a friend that bought a talon this year. He was fishing in BL and put his talon down. Went to leave and it would not come up. Had to dismantle the whole thing off his boat to be able to leave. He said that a role pin had come out and he was

Did he have a socket with him? There is a bolt at the top of the unit that you can manually pull up with a wrench so he should not have to take the entire unit off. The owners manual recommends you keep one in your boat just in case the unit looses power. I had that problem myself and backed up just a little then the unit came up. With my old PP when it would stick I would usually just rock the boat and it would then come up.

[cmdrost]

I just purchased 8 ft Power Pole for my boat. You lose about a foot of it with mounting height & sticking pole in mud, so like said.....really only holds you in about 6.5 ft of water or less.

Also, I decided to go with the foot switch up front by trolling motor vs. the remotes. Too many people say the remotes sucked and I'll get more use with the foot switch anyway.

[meaux fishing]

Originally Posted by Ray

You can install the Talon yourself, no matter how mechanically inclined you are.
You can install it to the transom, drill thru the transom, or get a bracket that mounts to your motor mount/jack plate.
The easy thing is the Talon has a 3 wire hook up. 2 wires are the 12 volt supply, third optional wire is hooked to the ignition switch. If you use the wire to the ignition switch, it will alarm if you start up and still have the Talon down.

The Power Pole is a little more involved, it has a hydraulic system that needs to be installed under the deck. Most of the time, this is a mutha to do, so getting a professional to install makes it easier, but more expensive. But if Jsmoke can do it, I know I can... LOL

My opinion, if you get either installed when you buy the boat, you have more bargining power on the price of the boat. When they give you a price, you can haggle over the total price while getting options included in this price.
If you have to buy the Powerpole or Talon after you buy the boat, you pay full price for either and have to install it or pay to install it.

I installed the power pole myself... Wasn't bad at all. I even have the bracket that mounts to the engine. I had to use an engine hoist to hold the motor for that. The whole thing took less than 3 hrs

[meathauler]

I wasnt with him but he said all he had was a few tools and it was getting dark. No telling with him though. He did say that he liked it the few times he used it before that. Anything mechanical will break though and you will have lemons also.