The reason I went with ulterra was the ease of deploy and stow with kids in the boat! We fish a lot of different places, from deep to shallow, swift current and still, bassy type stuff in the Pacific Northwest, walleye, panfish, anything to keep the kids happy! Kids: "Let's go somewhere else!" Reel in, stow, big motor, stop, deploy, spot lock. Fish, restless, repeat! Anybody with kids knows the drill! Using it with a Hummingbird Helix, a super combination that cost way more than the boat! Went with a 3rd hand rough looking but sound boat that helped offset all that fancy stuff. Quite a learning curve for ol' Pa here, kind of went from stone age to space shuttle in one whack. If you can swing it, it's sure sweet!

Billy, Nice video that was informative - thanks!

I had nothing but issues with mine since the about month 1, sometimes it will deploy, sometimes it wont. I had it in to the local repair shop twice, first time they could not reproduce the problem and the second time they replaced the worm gear but it still would lock up from time to time. I have to take the worm gear off and manually deploy it. Now, to the credit of Minn Kota, they said that if I continued to have problems with it, they would let me send it in for repairs but I would have to pay the shipping. Unfortunately I have not been out to fish in 6 months, truck took a dump on me and was not able to reproduce the problem on camera for them so I was never able to send it in for repairs. I know others who have had issues when it is very cold near freezing or slightly below. I would be careful with launching the boat and then dropping the trolling motor, you may end up taking a swim for your boat. What I do is I will deploy the motor to the standing position while the boat is on the trailer. At least at that point I know that all I have to do is trim the motor down to get it in the water and if its deployed, I have no issues. I do run the lake and river with my motor deployed but trimmed up as high as it can go so I dont have to keep taking it apart, though I have become quite good at it. I do think that they may have made a software change because of my problems because it wont deploy and then I stow it and then it will deploy but I cannot confirm it. More testing will be required, perhaps that is something I will do today with the boat on the trailer since I do have to work in the shop today. I do still love my 112lb motor though, I used it every time I am out. I am thinking of upgrading next year to the one with the built in side imaging. I run a Helix 10 SI Mega off the trolling motor already but to have it built in and less wiring running down the trolling motor would be awesome.

Thanks for the video bud! I’m going to buy one.

Interesting stuff !!! Thanks Bill STAY STRONG .

I bought an OLD power drive this past spring and love the anchor feature. I troll for crappie as well and my foot control was really starting to bother my hip and back. I'm sure it won't be very long before upgrading.

And yes on the network, the network feature on the finder is AWESOME! As for the foot pedal, it is required if you are trying to catch bait. Using the remote while trying to catch bait is just not useful. When networked you can deploy and stow from the sonar as well.

I'll be thumbs up #101 Bill. Good review with "on the water video". Thanks for adding your opinion of pros and cons for this motor. Always good to get accurate information about a product you or a friend might purchase. I have a unit with "spot lock" and as you say, it sure is handy. I have tried the foot peddle a couple of times and decided I much prefer the remote. The foot settle has a delay that I do not like. But others may find it to be fine. Good video.

You got a good setup I would use it.

I have the 80lb ulterra and I love it my dad is actually now looking for an ulterra for his boat but hard to come by these days

Hey Billy the foot pedal is awesome on the ulterra, free hands for fishing

Heck yeah! I just need a rich buddy that likes continuously upgrading his equipment and needs a discount purchaser to enable him.👍👍

I know what your saying when you say it's a lazy mans trolling motor. Last year my right leg went numb. I have a hard time self deploying my Minn Kota. So I got the auto stow so I don't have to take that change of loosing my balance while putting the Minn Kota in and out.

I really enjoyed this video Billy good job

Had a Ranger 620 and installed Spot Lock the first year it came out (want to say 2010). It always was great. That was on a Terrova. That Terrova was nice and I see this as an improvement. I just ordered a 2021 Lund Impact 1875....and put an Ulterra on there because of input from your video. Thanks !!! Boat is delivered up here in MN in early April.

I think it is a brilliant trolling motor not lazy at all

Who don’t love this dude.

Spot lock is great. Hoping to get one in the spring.

I have regular trolling motors but probably will be looking at ones with spot lock feature in the near future

Nice job buddy. I am definitely enjoying mine as well. Liked and subscribed.

The issue with the trolling motor twisting itself is because of the wires running down the coiled wires. There isnt enough play in it. Unfortunately with the way you have it setup, it will always be a problem, as it will always be a problem on mine as well. I have a different setup for running wires but the issue is still the same. Take the coiled wires you have and wrap them up closer to the top of the unit, the less wires you have running down the coiled wires, the better off you are.

I just bought one...I had minkota power drive... I am getting on up in years and my knees are bad ed and it was challenging punching fishing salt water with the waves so I bought it manually for safety so the price was really not an issue Well it wasn't issue but it wasn't a factor

I agree with buying cheaper batteries. I have always bought expensive interstate batteries for boats, atvs and utvs. Every year I spend $100s replacing them. My new, over-priced trolling motor battery that I bought 7 months ago is already showing a fault and won’t take a charge. My 3 year old Walmart batteries work like a charm though! I’m done with expensive batteries!

I like my Ulterra but I’ve had problems with it. I used it one week in 2018 then when prepping my boat for 2019, I couldn’t get the motor to connect to remote. Kept getting ‘motor not found’. Contacted Minn Kota support, which wasn’t much help. Because I spent over 30 years working in machine repair at Cat, I thought I could troubleshoot and repair. Tried everything including changing out the motherboard. Finally took it to a authorized Minn Kota repair shop, which they had for three weeks, picked it up and was charged nothing, said it was covered under warranty. Only problem was I took it home and it still didn’t work. I eventually drove it up to their factory service center in Mankato, Minnesota. About 6 1/2 drive one way. They repaired under warranty and shipped back at no charge. Other than that, love my Ulterra.

I purchased my Ulterra new, 80 pounds of thrust however. I own a 2021 Alumacraft competitor 165 and on the trollers highest speed I still hit 2.8 MPH. Incredible in my opinion for a 16’ aluminum deep V-hull boat.

Work Smart not Hard is what I was always told

Hey Fishing with Billy, I think if you added a bluetooth heading sensor to that trolling motor it would correct a lot of the "Losing itself" problems. At least itll always tell you which way the boat is facing so it doesnt have to think on its own.

My ulterra unwinds it's self when storing. It is hooked to a humminbird 999ci

im getting one but i'll get it through walmart with a 4 year protection plan so if anything goes wrong with it they'll repair, replace or reimburse me.

What’s a good price for a used one? I’ve found a used one for $2500, includes 2 deep cycle batteries.

Mine has a built in transducer the extra wire would be a pain

If I tried that with my pos ultera I would be swimming

What is gonna happen when you launched your boat on the water and your remote is not working or not catching the signal, what would you do? Swimming to get your boat back ?

Do you use your main gas motor with the Ulterra in the water when walleye fishing?

Is your motor variable speed ?

How dependable has it been?

The white hockey puc they say that's actually you GPS it's like a compass 🧭that's probably why it wraps up and lose it'd spot for a quick sec

It's chocking itself because you don't have the GPS puck.

funny