Does anyone out there have a MinnKota trolling motor with power drive?
I like the idea of the servo motor steering (no cables).
I have heard its not nearly as fast steering as the cable models and can wrap
the power cord around the shaft since it has no stops (minor issue). Any
owners out there care to share an opinion on the dependability and steering of
these?

TIA

Sorry about the double post... good ole AOL didnt show me the first one till
now.

I have a powerdrive 50 that I had mounted on the left stern corner of a Four
Winns 18 ft bowrider. I traded in the boat last summer and kept the trolling
motor, but I haven't yet figured out how to mount it on my new Sea Ray 200
sundeck. The powerdrive worked great for what I needed it for. Being mounted
on the stern corner, it was nearly impossible to push the boat in the usual
forward direction, so I used it to pull the boat backwards while fishing. I
never really used it for trolling; just for working the shorelines and boat
docks and boathouses on the lake where I fish.
There was no good flat spot on the bow upon which to mount the motor on the old
boat and I have sort of the same problem on the new boat. I will probably
mount it the same way on the swim platform of the new boat. However the new
boat is 1000 lbs heavier and I wonder if the 50pd will pull it adequately.
I found the motor's steering response was adequate although a little slow at
times, usually when not paying attn and then needed to push away from a
floating dock or something when fighting a fish. However my motor is
old...about 1996 or 1997. I tried one last year at bass pro shops and it
changed direction much more quickly than my old one. I seem to recall that it
is advertised as such as well. Yes the cord can sometimes wind around the
shaft but that is really never a problem; just wind the other way if it
happens. I would recommend the powerdrive highly as I never had a problem with
mine and it worked great. I also liked the 18 ft cord which would allow me to
control it from anywhere in the boat. I am really interested in the wireless
remote which is available now as well.....it can be retrofitted to my motor as
well as the newer ones. I will probably mount my old motor and see how it
performs on the new boat. If its not good, I might buy a more powerful one but
the strongest powerdrive that runs on 12 volts is 55 pounds of thrust. I will
mount a battery solely dedicated to the trolling motor but I don't want to go
to 24 or 36 volts. Hope this was informative.

Ken

obull (CCred68046) wrote in message ...
Does anyone out there have a MinnKota trolling motor with power drive?
I like the idea of the servo motor steering (no cables).
I have heard its not nearly as fast steering as the cable models and can wrap
the power cord around the shaft since it has no stops (minor issue). Any
owners out there care to share an opinion on the dependability and steering of
these?

TIA

I have a 50 PD on an 18-foot Lund Fisherman. This is the 4th season
for it. I've had no problems so far. I've taken it to Rainy Lake in
Ontario a few times. It has been bashed on a few rocks and still
works fine. I had an older PowerDrive that caused me some problems,
but it had a steel shaft. I broke the steering gears on that one.
The new one has a composite shaft that works very well. I think the
flexibility of the composite shaft helps to protect the steering
mechanism.