Minn Kota 12 or 24 Volt?

[FOOLFERFSHN]

I have no experience fishing with any type of power drive unit and would appreciate any advise as to what voltage would be necessary. . Plan on buying Minn Kota's new Ipilot. Boat details: 20', fiberglass hull, closed bow. It would be nice to troll for hours on end as needed, but mostly plan to jig on larger lakes such as Flaming Gorge and Strawberry. Please tell me what works for you.
Thank you,
Jeff
[signature]

[kodipak]

I have only had 24v motors and my boat is a 18.5' Lund. But, for a 20ft. boat, I would think you would only need 24v if you were planning on using it for trolling. My boat can go 3 mph at full throttle w/82# of thrust for an hour or two then it slows a little. With a 12v you wont get as much thrust, but, the possible benefit to a 12v is that you can get twice the batteries in your boat in the same space needed to just to run the 24v and so your run time could be longer if you wired two batteries together. If you have the battery space, personally I would go with 24v though as I want enough ooomph to get me off the water as a third backup in an emergency if my main motor and kicker both die (never say never).

iPilot looks cool though, if that gps anchor feature really works, that would be awesome for staying positioned over macks while jigging, especially in the W.
[signature]

[wiper_junkie]

Jeff,
Go with 24V system for sure, especially on a 20 ft boat. If you can swing it, and have room for the batteries, go with a 36V system. I started with a 24V 65lb thrust motor, then went to 85/24V and now use a 36V 101 Terrova. Having that extra power is great! I would also recommend getting a motor with the I Pilot. It costs a little more, but is a great feature. HTH, Fred K.
[signature]

[wiper_junkie]

HI,
The I Pilot feature is great! I upgraded my Terrova 101 this winter, and that anchor lock feature alone is worth the price. Now I can fish instead of trying to hold the boat over fish while everyone else is fishing [cool] The only issue with it that I've had was that my remote broke one of the buttons internally. I called Minn Kota, and had a replacement in about a week. Other than that, no problems. HTH, Fred K.
[signature]

[PIKEMAN99]

Wiper Junkie is right on the I pilot being the cats meow. Maybe I can upgrade next year. I bought a riptide 36 volt. I changed my batteries to a gel cell. So I had to change my charger to a gel cell charger. So I have a minnekota 4 bank chargers for sale. They sale for $400 I will sell them for $200. The extra bank you can run down to your crank battery. It makes it nice all the way around. PM me if any body is interested in purchasing one of these chargers.
[signature]