Rhodan vs MotorGuide vs MinnKota

[PGolz]

In the market for a 36V, 72” troller for my 2400. What is the best new trolling motor right now?

[jh141]

I own two of the three,

  I have a 36v 60" Rhodan and wish I had gotten the 72".  For Anchoring it is spot on. It holds precisely for hours on end. It is Extremely well built and corrosive resistant. Rhodan's  quick disconnect mount is much better than all others. I have them on both my MotorGuide and the Rhodan,

Rhodan's customer service is exceptional.

My 36v 60" MotorGuide XI5 is very good, The undated GPS and controller boards have been flawless for over year now. The XI5 is my go to for backcountry fishing in ENP. It is quieter and the more precise when making adjustments in manual mode. It is also very good in Anchor Lock and Heading Lock. 

If you are needing Spot Lock for offshore and a very well built TM then Rhodan

If you need precise maneuvering for quietly fishing along the bank and great Anchor Lock and Course Tracking then the  MototrGuide XI5 is my choice.

The other consideration is interface with your electronics,  The MotorGuide interfaces with Lowrance, that comes in very handy with my Carbon.  

Rhodan hinted that it would maybe interface with Lowrance and Simrad in the future but it never happened, (Yet)

Now this is ALL here say, What I have read, no personal experience except for Tiller Steer.

if you have Hummingbird electronics then Minn Kota has the interface. My first Trolling Motor on my Pathfinder was a 36v tiller steer MinnKota Riptide. It worked great and I still have it though I do not use it. I am sure others will respond to the MinnKota and their latest feature is push button deploy and stow and there have been some failures. My understanding is If you have a authorized MinnKota service center close by then the MinnKota as good as any other. 

Please do not beat me up....this my honest experience and Opinion.  LOL

 

[jh141]

Also, You will get more response if you move this to the General thread.

 

[MuddyBottomBluz]

Hey Jeff, have you seen a doctor about this odd trolling motor addiction from which you are suffering? I think they have support groups for people like you, they meet on the water every Friday!

[Headhunter]

Great write up! I just inherited my first motor guide on the 18HPX. The previous owner raved about it for its spot lock and low sound. levels but I was going to swap it out for a Minnkota. Based on this post and the previous owners comments I’ll give it a shot. 

One comment on Minnkota. I switched out the standard 2 blade for a 3 blade Chipawa on the pathfinder and the difference was huge. Sound level dropped in half and all vibration disappeared. I am going to order one for the motor guide as soon as I have time. 

[fin-addict]

1 hour ago, Headhunter said:

Great write up! I just inherited my first motor guide on the 18HPX. The previous owner raved about it for its spot lock and low sound. levels but I was going to swap it out for a Minnkota. Based on this post and the previous owners comments I’ll give it a shot. 

One comment on Minnkota. I switched out the standard 2 blade for a 3 blade Chipawa on the pathfinder and the difference was huge. Sound level dropped in half and all vibration disappeared. I am going to order one for the motor guide as soon as I have time. 

Love the three blade much better than the two. 👍. Yes, move to General.

[jh141]

6 hours ago, MuddyBottomBluz said:

Hey Jeff, have you seen a doctor about this odd trolling motor addiction from which you are suffering? I think they have support groups for people like you, they meet on the water every Friday!

That's the same thing my wife has eluded to more than once....LOL

Truth be told I have owned a MotorGuide XI5 for many years and when I rebuilt it due to normal wear and did what was supposed to be an upgraded the GPS module and the new controller board did not play well together.

During the process of working with MotorGuide to fix my Xi5, and being a S. Florida boy I bought the Rhodan so I could fish. By the way, Their customer support is top notch.

 I have many many hours with both on the water. 

A year or so ago MotorGuide was able to get my XI5 squared away and it has been flawless since. I give their Support Team a 10.

When Covid  hit I decided to hang on to the Rhodan so I would not be without a GPS TM. 

4 hours ago, fin-addict said:

Love the three blade much better than the two. 👍. Yes, move to General.

On the XI5 I use the 3 blade Machete 3. It will run quieter in shallow water than the Two blade power prop. I Have Not tried the Katana prop, but hear people say they like it.

There are NO different props for the Rhodan, but what they have works fine.

 

[FINCHASER]

None are perfect lets get that outta the way right off the rip....Been running motorguide xi5s since they came out.... 10-12 years or so on 2 diff boats.  Overall happy with them but theyve had a few issues.  Paint bubbling up being most common... that appears to be fixed now as my latest models dont show any signs of this at 18 months of use.  Next common failure is dropping out of anchor mode... this never was a thing until they came out with updated boards.  It starts out dropping out infrequently and eventualy progresses to the point its unuseable.  

  On MG a little prevention is needed to protect the board if youre ever out in the rough stuff.  The housing that protects the board is not sealed top or bottom, if you take water to the bow the water can get under the bottom of the housing and get on the board.  I run a bead of silicone at the housings base to stop it.  Also check the grease put on the exposed connections on the board... theyve been sloppy lately not getting good coverage.

 

  Regardless the brand you choose, the real answer is to have 2.... that way you can continue to fish WHEN one breaks down.  This is especially true right now with shortages of stuff....Id hate to have to miss an entire summer season without a troller cause parts are on backorder

 

[makomark]

I have been using the motorguide Xi5 for around 6 months now.  I have paired through the NMEA 2000 cable to my elite fs9 and find that controlling the motor through my fs9 is much more enjoyable than using a hand held remote.  The anchor mode is spot on and holds in strong current and is east to move a few feet if needed.  Their are definately some quirks to the motor when comes to using some of the autopilot features through the fs9. But overall 90% satisfied and its battery usage is very low with the 24V model that I have.

[TerryS]

I will add, bought new in feb 2020 . our xi5 has had some problems,  It started with the gateway  intermittently not Recognized by the Lowrance 12 live , a lot of back and forth between Motorguide and Lowrance each one blame the other for software problems eventually motor guide figured it out and we had to do a dongle update which required a trip to the service center,  while waiting for the service center to be available to take us in. I used the motor without gateway and eventually burned up the motherboard. Apparently motor guide redesigned their GPS modules sometime around 2020 and created compatibility problems with their existing software. With the new board and update everything is working as it should.  I believe they have it figured out now.