Hey guys, I went ahead and bought that Motorguide Bulldog bow mount trolling motor with the foot pedal. I'm confused by something happening though.

When I mounted it on the bow I initially had the head pointing back into the boat, meaning the cables came straight back into the boat. That did not allow the prop and directional arrow to rotate equal amounts left or right when using the foot pedal. I quickly learned that moving the head such that the cable bundle pointed to the left provided the proper range of motion and the middle postion of the foot pedal pointed the prop in the right direction to move the boat forward. Full toe down rotated it to the right 180 degrees, full heel down rotated it to the left 180 degrees.

Unfortunately, due to the small size of my boat, it will work out best for me if the head is rotated such that the cable bundle points to the right. This is because I have a very small boat and doing so positions the pedal right where I want it without the stiff cable pushing it out of the way. Buit when I rotate the head and direct the cable to the right I no longer have the right range of motion with the foot pedal. I think it forces the foot pedal to go toe down just to have the direction arrow point forward, and going heel down spins it to the left way too much. I hope this makes sense.

My Motorguide manual doesn't describe how to deal with this situation. In fact it doesn't mention anything about proper orientation of the head and direction arrow. I checked over the unit and don't see any obvious ways to adjust it. Any ideas?

I had a similar situation with my Minnkota.  I wound up screwing the foot control to the deck of the duckboat and putting the head and cable where it needed to be for best motion range.  Screwing it down prevented the cable from moving the foot control

With the Min kota you can take the screws out of the head and you will see the cables going to a pulley. Use electric tape or ty wrap to hold cables on pulley, back off cable tension on foot petal so you can remove pulley.

Now you can postion the foot petal anywhere and turn your motor to any location and slid pulley back on gear.

The cable tension is best done on the water so tighten until close then do final adjust.

I'm sure the Moto guide can adjusted the same way.

Garnet

wasabi_VA, call me at 434-242-1116 and I'll describe how to do it or I will do it for you. It is real easy with that type of steering cable. You have a single push/pull cable with rack and pinion.

Wayne, I'll call. Thanks!

I just called Motorguide for a little help, primarily just to make sure it was actually working right. Lets just say I learned why they are lagging way behind Minnkota in the trolling motor industry. Jeez, what an ignorant bunch. Never again, never again. I'll probably just return this motor to BPS out of principle and go get a minnkota. Man I'm ticked.

Wayne, I'll call. Thanks!

I just called Motorguide for a little help, primarily just to make sure it was actually working right. Lets just say I learned why they are lagging way behind Minnkota in the trolling motor industry. Jeez, what an ignorant bunch. Never again, never again. I'll probably just return this motor to BPS out of principle and go get a minnkota. Man I'm ticked.

I did that years ago and have not looked back. Let Motorguide build their clocks as far as I'm concerned.

Good luck.

Fortunately for me, and fortunately for Motorguide, Wayne came came and quickly resolved my delimma.

Thanks again Wayne!