Posts: 1023
Location: Lafayette, IN | Anyone who knows me at all knows I'm an AutoPilot freak! I operated my 1st one 6 years ago on a rental boat at Muskego Point on Lake Vermilion. About 4 years ago I got ahold of a second hand tri-hull bassboat and had the freedom to "trick it up". I found a used 36#er in the Trader and bought it for $300. It was about 5 years old and I haven't had a single problem with it. Not a scratch on it either! It made that dumpy little bass boat into a real fishing machine. I bought my own boat last fall and it already had a 1994 AP (42#) on it when I bought it. The boat is 19' long, 7 1/2' beam, alum, 125hp, 5 onboard batteries (3 in parallel 12v for trolling motor) and I haven't had any complaints about my boat control from anybody. I would like to step up to at least a 65#er in the future but for now I've fished in 30+ mph winds and whitecaps and managed to keep her where I want and still fish hard. 65 pounds would definately be better though. Keep the batteries charged up and ALWAYS unhook your trolling motor from your batteries when charging. More people cuss their compass and circuit boards because they fried them with a voltage spike when charging. And for the junk ones that will inevitably be made...MinnKota will take good care of you. |
