Garmin Force Trolling Motor 57" 010-02025-00

Still getting it installed.

Lakeside Marine was a real pleasure to deal with.

I haven't spent this much money on my last three daily driver commuter cars- combined.

That being said, if somebody offered me $4K for my motor right now, I'd turn them down. If you're looking for a trolling motor in the $2K price range, don't hesitate to upgrade to this one that's 3K. Buy it.

It was a big jump in technology for me, having not ever owned a GPS enabled trolling motor ever before, maybe that's part of it. I'll try to keep this short, but it's going to be hard.

First of all, lakeside marine was great. Asked for a $100 deposit to order, refundable up to the day it was shipped. Shipped and arrived when they said it would, polite friendly phone service. I'd buy from again for sure.

I've owned 3 cable steer trolling motors in the past, and two hand steer. I read over and over that there is a lag with the foot pedal or something, and also, you can't tell where the head is by the position of your foot. In my experience, neither is true that I can detect. No lag, and very easy to use with my foot, anywhere in the boat, since there's no wires.

I do a lot of guiding, not professionally, but, with kids. Which I would argue is even harder, because some little kids have zero fishing experience. This is an awesome guiding motor.

I can put one kid on the front casting deck, and another on the back. I can drive the boat from the middle, while helping the really little kids. The gesture steer is what makes it possible. If the kid on the front blocks tour view of the motor head, it doesn't matter. Point the remote where you want to go.

Everybody has either used or heard of Minn Kota's spot lock, the famous game changing feature, I don't need to describe what it is, but, this one called "anchor lock" works flawlessly.

I have this wirelessly connected to two Garmin uhd 93sv chart plotters, which are synced to a tablet running active captain. I figured out the other day that if you go into your fishing chart, you can dot the shoreline where it meets the water like a connect the dots picture with waypoints. Then set an offset number, either starboard forward, port forward, or backwards, all respective options.

Depending on your circumstances, what this allows you to do, is have your boat follow the shoreline however many feet away you set it. I set mine to about 75 feet, casting distance. You can set the speed as an actual mph speed, or a motor power number. Press engage, and away you go like a Disney ride. I spent most of the 2 mile trip untangling fishing poles, and tying on new lures, and baiting hooks. If someone got a bite, anchor lock. If it's a big one, chase it down with gesture steer, net fish, anchor lock, pictures, release fish, resume course, and untangling fishing reels. When you arrive at the end, anchor lock automatically engages. You want to repeat, change offset to the opposite of what you had, engage, off you go.

If you like to troll for hours for Lakers or salmon, you can. Set your course highlighting a depth contour range on tour chart, then dotting it with waypoints like I did with the shoreline. No offset this time. Start your gas motor or kicker, and set that to whatever speed you want to troll at, with your steering wheel straight. Engage your trolling motor to follow the course, and it will do all of the steering for you, while using very little battery, since the kicker is doing the heavy moving. Or, set up your kicker to charge the trolling motor batteries.

Software updates over the air via active captain, and automatic product registration for warrantee purposes as soon as you do.

I do suggest taking the time to do all of the recommended upgrades to support the motor during installation. I replaced my 8awg factory wiring with the recommended 2awg for the 20 feet I ran it. I calibrated the remote, calibrated the motor itself, updated the software, and set the bow offset all in the settings. I would bet money that people who have complaints with this unit, have not done one or more of these things. The bow offset one was overlooked by me for a bit, and for whatever reason, that was throwing it off of following it's course accurately. I set it, and it tracks perfectly.

It seems to be very efficient on battery power. Puts my old 12v setups in parallel to shame. I am currently running it on 24v on a 21' Triton fish and ski, and it's all of the speed and power I'll ever need. Really more so. I'd save the weight of a third battery, and just run it on 2.

Sorry for the terribly long review, but, this motor has changed how easy it is to fish forever.