I'm looking at which trolling motor I want for my new boat and was pretty much set on the Maxxum Pro. Then RollOnTwo told me to look into the Powerdrive. I really hadn't considered the powerdrive because a friend had it and said that he didn't get instant response when hitting the pedal. RollOnTwo said he pretty much uses the remote and has no problems with the response. I did look on the Minn Kota site and was a little confused about the auto pilot and copilot and what the differences are. I'm looking for any of you who have bought a Minn Kota in the past 12 months, which model you bought and the good & the bad of the unit you bought. Which Minn Kota model is the best. I will be putting the trolling motor on a 18' single console Lund, Alumacraft or Crestliner deep v boat.

I bought the maxx pro this spring replacing the motor guide that was on the boat. I previously owned an auto pilot on a different boat and chose the cable control over the powerdrive due to the response time needed for turning. The reason for this, is that where I fish, I may need to make some quick changes in directions with my trolling motor. The cable controls of the maxxum allow for this, the electric motor of the powerdrive/auto pilot do not. If your style of fishing does not require quick changes in navigation to avoid rocks or other hazards then I might recommend the auto pilot style. There are times that I miss the auto pilot for shooting straight down a long bank, but if you want to work in and out of the docks and other tight areas, you would be better served with the cable foot contol. IMO

You might do a search on this topic under "minn kota"  There was more discussion on this earlier this year.

I agree with sodak.  The power drives are great if you're always fishing open water and never have to worry about making fast, emergency turns.  The flat foot pedal is great too.  I had one for around 6 or 7 years,  the nice thing was all the removable TM mounts they had available for them. That came in handy when I converted the boat over to family skiing and tubing fun.  Other than that I'd never own one again.  Turning response time was way too slow. I often found myself reaching down and having to manually turn the thing in emergency situations.  

Wow that is strange to hear. Mine is super fast. It is only a few month old maybe they changed that for this years model. If I barley hit mine it goes in small steps but if you hold it down it goes really fast. I dont wast to doubt you all though. I think I will look into seeing if they changed anything with this years model.

You're definition of super fast isn't as fast as what a standard cable control motor can do. By pushing down hard I can change TM direction 180 degrees in a second, a power drive can't do that.  I remember seeing a power drive type Motorguide at the boat show a number of years ago.  It was about a year or so after I had bought my MK power drive.  They had it set up in a test tank and I was shocked at how fast the head unit could turn.  The thing is I don't recall the motor ever going into production.  That may have been a prototype and had so many problems they scraped it I don't know but I do know it is possible to build a power drive head capable of very fast speed.

I have a Power Drive with Auto Pilot and Co Pilot with the remote it seems to react faster then the foot peadal why I don't know. I don't use the foot pedal because I found it to be a triping hazard on night trips and with a 17' Deep V the front deck is not as big as a Bass boats front deck of the same size. I have no problem fishing docks with it. I do keep the foot peadal on board as back up.

Chow

The Pa Angler

I am with you Pa Angler. I never use the foot control. I just keep it incase something happened to the remote unit.