I've been looking at these for a while now and I've decided on going with a Minn Kota terrova instead. The Garmin cannot spot lock you in place and cannot change from forward to reverse. The Minn Kota has very little swing also. Perfect for stopping on a pile of rocks offshore or use as an anchor while sturgeon or salmon fishing without all the hassle of dealing with an anchor.
If you only need the power and range of a electric motor that should work great. If your trolling for salmon at 3mph all day the Minkota really isn't a option. But it would be cool for mooching holding you over a certain spot.
Mine was professionally installed. And it was nothing but a pain in the neck replaced every module on the system and and it would keep failing. Trust me when your at the back of the boat netting a fish and the steering control decides to take a dump and you start doing a crazy ivan. It is no longer on my boat wasted a whole summer trying to get it to work
Do you see any reason it wouldn't work with remote controls? I see in the manual it says tiller only. I was shocked to see a tiller on this big boat, but it does make me think the remote control version wouldn't work
Always been interested in these. 2 question, how fast will it troll you? And how many gph is that kicker burning at say 5 or 6 mph? If it can go that fast....
9.9 high thrusts generally go 5 to 6 mph. Whether on a 16 footer or 26 not much speed difference. Wide open probably burn 1 gph. General rule is outboards burn 1gph/10hp at wide open.
On the Suzuki kicker, were you able to keep the stock throttle control and also connect the AP throttle linkage at the same time. My installer wasn't able to install the AP throttle on my 2019 Suzuki 9.9 EFI. We called Garmin and ordered the special Suzuki throttle kit but it still didn't provide enough play for the AP throttle. We ended up with keeping the stick Suzuki manual control and not having the AP throttle via the remote.
This one is a old carbed 9.9 and the throttle linkage we custom made. The new efi 9.9s work with the Suzuki connection kit. Not sure why yours does not.
Not compatible with honda 8-9.9, although it shows ok on garmin website, no steering tube, watch out. I tried to order steering kit from honda- discontinued.
Hello. How is it installed on the trolling engine? It looks like it is not connected with the main engine. Could one solution be a tie bar between the engines so that you also have the same feature on both engines? Would love to learn more about the setup.
It has a electric accuator steering the kicker pretty simple. And if it was my personal boat I would have a regular hydraulic steering auto pilot that would steer the main engine which is connected to my kicker with a tie bar. The kicker only auto pilots are stupid expensive for only steering the kicker. They do throttle it also though. but you can do various remote throttle types for the kicker and steer it with the main engine AP.
I am a tech and installed and tested it so its not mine. But I believe the owner is happy with it. I think these should hold up in saltwater better than the older tr1 gold. The pump and electrical connections on those turn into a corroded mess in salt water. They were really expensive and would have problems in a year or 2. So far the new electric steer new system seems good.
