Are you happy with your Minn kota trolling motors quality

[vikingmeatwad]

Just bought a refurb Power Drive V55 and will have to see how it holds up over the next few years.

I did drive it into shallow water already and it held up great though :-)

My older autopilot 42# died but it was pretty old. I guess I don't expect these things to last forever but if you take care of them I think they will last quite a long time.

I do believe I will get a cable one on my next boat though as I believe they are the most dependable.

[MIDNIGHT777]

I have had 6 (4 bow 2 transom) Minnkota trolling motors. Mostly good experiences. Only on foot pedal went out on one of the bow mounts within 2 months so that was replaced under warranty. 1 transom mount was fine.

MAJOR PROBLEM..........Vantage 80. Absolute piece of junk. It was on my former boat, which I owned for 2 fising seasons. Now I am not a professional fisherman, but I fish every chance I can get. In the 2 years I had this motor in the shop 4-5 different times(I quit keeping track). Guy at the authorized Minnkota repair shop said he sees many, many Vantages every season. The last time they thought they solved the problem for good. I sold the boat to a buddie this year and it is already not working. Really makes me feel like *bleep* if you know what I mean. I have read on this site and several others and the vast majority of people have had the same experience as me with the Vantage.

I do have to admit that when it was working it was sweet.

Matt

[hhguide]

There are a few problems with vantage's but usually if you bring it in they have the new and updated piece to put in so you dont have to worry about it anymore thats waht we did knock on wood haven't had a problem since then.

[eyepatrol]

I've owned 2 boats each with powerdrives. On both boats, the foot pedal for the bow mount lasted 3 years. My opinion is they just don't seal up those foot pedals enough to keep sand and other debris out, thus wearing down the parts inside.

The biggest issue I have though, which has happened on both powerdrive units I've owned, is the darn bracket mounted on the bow which the motor slides into. You know how when you take the motor and slide it into the bracket the flat metal plate on the motor slides into the grooves of the mounting plate? Well, the grooves on the mounting plate must work their way open somehow because on both units, I've had it where when I use a speed setting higher than about 4, the darn thing bounces and bangs in the grooves of the bracket because it's not snug.

I don't know if that's a result of leaving the motor in the bracket while traveling or what. But there's a whole lot of play/gap in the grooves of the bracket that is mounted to the bow. Only way I know to fix it, which is very temporary (works for a couple hours) is to tear up some carboard boxes and use small pieces of carboard as shims.

The foot pedal failing every 3 years I can pretty much deal with and live with. The loose gap in the grooves of the bracket mounted to the bow is extremely frustrating. All that bouncing noise of the motor cannot be good when trying to fish shallow.

So if anyone has suggestions on an easy fix for that, I'm all ears!

[Badger_55]

bought the powerdrive last year. Never had any problems all year long until this year. Since opener I haven't been able to get it working correctly. First it kept blowing the same fuse as soon as I turned it on. It was draining my batteries way too much and I would have to crank up the speed because it was always dogging. Once that problem seemed to be taken care of for about an hour I all of a sudden couldn't turn on the motor. I could turn the head of the motor but I can't turn the prop on? It makes a clicking noise up in the motor but it never turns on, don't know whats up, any help?