I've been thinking about selling my trusty Autopilot 120 and modified Malone kayak trailer, so I took a ride up to Dugout Bait and Tackle today to look at ordering a new trailer from them and take a look at some potential new kayaks. In particular, I wanted to look at the XTR, the Native Titan, and the Native Hammer. Seeing them up close and personal is a heck of a lot better than seeing photos and videos online.

The Native kayaks were great, but the XTR is a might beast. Holy cow! My AP120 is 12 feet long and 37" wide, but the XTR is 12' 7" long and 40.5" wide. That may not seem like a big difference, but it's HUGE. There's plenty of room to stand in front of the seat and on the bow. This thing is definitely not going to fit properly on my current trailer.

The folks at Dugout talked me out of buying the trailer that I wanted because of build time and delivery issues and I didn't like the Yakima trailer they suggested. So now I'm off to find a trailer that meets my needs. Once I get that, it will be time to buy and build the XTR.

I plan to equip it with the Garmin Force Current stern mount trolling motor. This will give me spot lock and allow me to use my Garmin graphs and Active Captain to plot courses via waypoints to I can navigate fishing down banks - or anywhere - hands free. I thought about a less expensive bow mount, but it would not integrate with my Garmins. I also thought about a Torqeedo or Newport stern mount for more speed, but again no integrations and they don't have spot lock. Still, with a 24V battery it will be faster than my current AP120.

The build price with the motor, custom wiring, lights, batteries, and trailer? Don't ask. It's making me choke. But to soften the blow I'm going to sell my AP, trailer, some electronics, batteries, and some nice upgrades. The goal is to have the new kayak in the water by the end of the year.

3 hours ago, Kayak Koz said:

I've been thinking about selling my trusty Autopilot 120 and modified Malone kayak trailer, so I took a ride up to Dugout Bait and Tackle today to look at ordering a new trailer from them and take a look at some potential new kayaks. In particular, I wanted to look at the XTR, the Native Titan, and the Native Hammer. Seeing them up close and personal is a heck of a lot better than seeing photos and videos online.

The Native kayaks were great, but the XTR is a might beast. Holy cow! My AP120 is 12 feet long and 37" wide, but the XTR is 12' 7" long and 40.5" wide. That may not seem like a big difference, but it's HUGE. There's plenty of room to stand in front of the seat and on the bow. This thing is definitely not going to fit properly on my current trailer.

The folks at Dugout talked me out of buying the trailer that I wanted because of build time and delivery issues and I didn't like the Yakima trailer they suggested. So now I'm off to find a trailer that meets my needs. Once I get that, it will be time to buy and build the XTR.

I plan to equip it with the Garmin Force Current stern mount trolling motor. This will give me spot lock and allow me to use my Garmin graphs and Active Captain to plot courses via waypoints to I can navigate fishing down banks - or anywhere - hands free. I thought about a less expensive bow mount, but it would not integrate with my Garmins. I also thought about a Torqeedo or Newport stern mount for more speed, but again no integrations and they don't have spot lock. Still, with a 24V battery it will be faster than my current AP120.

The build price with the motor, custom wiring, lights, batteries, and trailer? Don't ask. It's making me choke. But to soften the blow I'm going to sell my AP, trailer, some electronics, batteries, and some nice upgrades. The goal is to have the new kayak in the water by the end of the year.

Just to cloud the water look at the Nucanoe Ultimate.