Spot Lock

[george]

Do you suggest any particular Hummingbird? You're familiar with my boat, do you think I should do a 24v or 36v? ? I'm thinking more about the weight of the batteries than the cost. How do I choose the length of the shaft?

 

[NoFlukenName]

Do you suggest any particular Hummingbird? You're familiar with my boat, do you think I should do a 24v or 36v? ? I'm thinking more about the weight of the batteries than the cost. How do I choose the length of the shaft?

Not directed at me again (lol) but I have the Solix and the sounder is great. Leaps and bounds ahead of Garmin in my opinion. The map features however, a bit primitive compared to Garmin, Raymarine, Simrad, etc.

With the Minn Kota, your Humminbird unit will actually talk to the TM and allow you to set a course if you wish (like for fluke fishing wind against tide). Skinner has a video showing this from earlier in the Spring.

 

[Jack_Daniels]

Do you suggest any particular Hummingbird? You're familiar with my boat, do you think I should do a 24v or 36v? ? I'm thinking more about the weight of the batteries than the cost. How do I choose the length of the shaft?

The # of batteries depends on the amount of thrust your going to need. My boat is 27' long, but very narrow, light and has a shallow deadrise which means it doesn't have a lot of drag in the water. I'd guess a deep v 23' Parker has as much or more drag in the water as my boat. I'd suggest going with the biggest thrust/battery package you can fit on the boat. If you have the room and can support the weight of 3 extra batteries, do it. You're never going to be sitting there on Spot Lock saying you wish you had less power...

They motors have a power trim, that lets you raise or lower the motor, so shaft length isn't that important, as long as it's deep enough into the water. Extra length will just help keep the prop in the water when it's rougher out. I'd say measure from the top of the gunnel to the water line, then add 2' to get about what you need. Then any extra is just gravy.

As for the Humminbirds, I had one on my old boat that had an incredible side scan. I am a fan of Humminbird. I suggest getting the largest screen you can fit/afford. Personally, i don't advocate for touch screens on small CC's because i think they get dirty too quickly, however, they came with my boat and i do like them. You'd need a Humminbird unit to integrate with a Minnkota motor, but honestly, the remote isn't that cumbersome to use instead.

I have Garmin units as you know, and the greatest feature about them is the new G3 Vision Bluecharts, which have all the NOAA High Def multibeam bathymetry at a fraction of the cost of the Strikelines or C-Mor mapping cartography. If you figure in the cost of all the CMor/ Strikelines charts you'd need for the same coverage, you're probably looking at the cost of another head unit, just in cartography.

 

[Capt13]

I have the Minnkota Ulterra 112 on my 27' cc. It's a gave changer for sure. I use the 3 batteries from Costco as well. Not ready to put down the 3G's for lithium batts, but having the ability to charge off the outboard is pretty sweet.

I did have an issue i just had to have fixed with the power trim motor. I've learned that it's a pretty common problem, and it's been recommended that manual deploy is the way to go. I still love the auto deploy feature, especially fishing alone. I was covered under warranty thankfully. It would've been close to a $900 repair otherwise...

A word of advice, Minnkota only has 2 Authorized Service Centers for our area. One in NJ, and the other in CT. Both about 2 hours away. I made the unfortunate mistake of going to the NJ because he was a little closer... he was terrible. Didn't listen to what the issue was, and didn't fix it. I wasted 2 days driving, and 3 weeks waiting for a repair that was never done. On the flip side, after that, i brought the motor to Reynold's Boats in CT, and Jason and Chris were fantastic. They fixed it right the first time and kept in touch with me on the progress all along.

That's good to know Jack, thanks for posting. I know there was a problem with the stow feature getting hung up and think they might have made some changes to the newer version. I used it yesterday for the first time. There are so many features on it that I haven't learned yet. It did hold the boat perfectly on a very small piece that we pulled some sea bass off. Wide open in still water it ran 3.2 -3.4 mph. I used it to make a few passes trolling at 2.0 mph and it was wonderful, except I had to move away from the wheel because I kept trying to steer with it. If it was a little calmer I probably could have used the outboard to steer, but in those conditions it wasn't reacting fast enough for me.

 

[Capt13]

......You need to install the heading sensor to be able to jog around with Spotlock. Did you get that?

Yes, installed and ready but I haven't paired it yet and will need to calibrate it as well.

 

[Jack_Daniels]

Yes, installed and ready but I haven't paired it yet and will need to calibrate it as well.

Pairing just takes a second. ??

 

[cany]

Besides cost weight is a factor, talking 150 lbs for batteries alone.

Must be some big batts

 

[chunkster]

I see this as being a lot on the circuitry. Something is going to overload.
Something is going to fail. Similar to a cruise control on a car. It's con-
stanly adjusting as you're going up and down hill. The wires and transistors
tend to get hot. This for sure is not a good thing.

The gas is the least of concern. That's monitored by the obvious.