Expidia
Commander
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2006
- Messages
- 2,368
Re-post of lost thread. Everything went well on sat for my initial run with the MK ipilot 55. My only issue was the choice of the Minn Kota MKA 21 quick release bracket (which I'll start another thread for tips on installation of the MKA 21). It's fine if you are mounting on a flat deck. But if th deck has carpet like my casting deck does this MK is a bad design. Once you bolt down the puck part to the deck, it's now lower than the base that attaches to the troller base and you can't line up the holes to slide the handle into. Then the directions say just drill the holes bigger. Ya right. who has a drill long enough and then it's almost impossible to drill the hole straight while its mounted. S o I ran the drill out the back of the puck and ruined it! MK support is sending me out a free puck!
I've installed the MKA 16 5 years ago on my daughters MK Powerdrive V2 unit. Its great. Only like $39 all aluminum and securly lockable. Now that I recently had a new MK Ipilot 55 delivered, I ruled out using the MK 16 because I have a very tight fitting custom made trailerable cover. So the MKA is composite not metal (no rattles) and is twice the price around $68. There are many reviews on sites like Amazon positive and negative. I wanted to note in this thread that there are two glaring negatives with this unit but there are also work arounds that can make it meet your needs.
The positive and why I can only use this style is the part that attaches to the boat is a composite plastic style puck only like 4 x 6 inches and is of a very low profile. The metal MKA 16 style profile is probably 12 x 8 inches and has metal edges that could wear through a tight cover (I think MK makes a plastic cover to avoid this or they should).
The two negatives are: .1 if you are mounting on a smooth surface (not carpeted) you are good to go. But if it's carpeted like my casting deck is then when you bolt the permanent puck to the deck the holes for the locking pins which slide through both pieces,the holes won't line up anymore. So MK's solution is to take a certain size drill (which also has to be long enough to go through the unit sideways) and make the holes larger. Well once the holes are larger this could add some extra play or slop from the trollers torque while you are using it. It moves around all jerky and looks like Elaine dancing on that episode of Seinfeld.
True I did not have the correct size drill. I used what I had as it was taking me two hours to install just the puck part. Its only 4 holes, but I had to re-locate my Sirius and Humminbird GPS antennas. Plus since the troller has to overhang at least 1.5 inches away from the rub rail to deploy without hitting the boat . . . at least one of my forward bolt holes had to be drilled through the metal rub rail. So I had to pull like 20 bolts off of the deck and remove it in order to bolt the puck on and allow for large fender washers to give the deck extra support
Ill probably in the end have to pull the deck yet again after I make up like a 1/4 inch aluminum backing plate to replace the fender washers and add better support due to the trollers torque, which will eventually weaken the deck. After getting the whole project mounted and because the puck squishes down the rug, the holes in the part that attaches to the bottom of the troller of course are going to be off by an 8th or a 1/4 of a inch because of the rug. Then they expect you to drill right through both pieces (7 inches) while everything is mounted on the rig. Well, in doing so on the back hole, i drilled at a slight angle which brought the drill too high and also out the back of the puck weakening the whole bracket.
Damn it . . . we as consumers of their products should not have to go through these drilling issues. well I called MK and I said clearly they should have included a black plastic spacer sheet or two even one a 1/4 and another an 1/8th. He said they used too years ago. I love the way companies try and cut costs by pennies only to make the installation awful for the end user.
He is sending me another puck for free. This time I'll go to Lowes or HD and get some plastic sheets for spaces. I think they include some plastic fender washers, but I don't know if those came with the ipliot or the MK bracket. Either way a plastic spacer "sheet" the size of the puck is going to make the unit more stable from slop. Since he was sending me a free puck I asked it he could give me a break on the price of the other piece because I drilled the holes too big. I said I paid $68, so he split the difference and charged me $39 plus $10 shipping. MK is a division of Johnson who made my Lund, Humminbird and Ipilot and my experience with their products is they are of good quality but they nickel and dime you to death on any accessory or replacement part. So $50 with shipping at least saved me like $18.
I should have gone out and bought a 7 inch drill of the correct size but I probably still would have screwed up the angle and it would have been sloppy or extra play from bigger holes that the locking handle goes through. The plastic spacer under the puck is a better solution and no hole drilling for the handle to pass through. But I still will have to pull the deck again for re-installation of the new puck depending on if the first spacer sheet aligns the holes. If not, I'll have to add the 2nd sheet. I'll try to make up an aluminum backing plate now before the new MKA 21 arrives, so I don't have to pull the deck again to reach the front bolt that goes through the rub rail.
2. The locking handle. What an awful design. It has two long pins that pass through the front and back of the whole unit. Get this . . . in the middle of the handle there is a hole where a large pin passes through then you hook a padlock through it. Well that part in the middle is PLASTIC. This means the whole locking thing for security purposes is MOOT because all one has to do is smack it with a hammer and a $1200 troller is gone in less than 30 secs.
Or they could take a big screwdriver and break that handle in seconds. Look, I know if a thief wants it, he's going to get it. Thats why I have insurance. And a battery operated Sawsall would go through the handle like butter. Of course, I don't let it out of my sight. Especially like in a restaurant parking lot. I don't leave it on the rig in my rented garage either and I take it into my house and store it in the front hall. But this handle being plastic, I could be docked at a restaurant and like I said it could be gone in 30 secs like while I went to the bathroom.
So like I said both negative issues can be corrected to get a great quick release system. An all metal lockable handle can be made up at a metal shop which is what I'm going to do. I'll post pictures to go along with the above installation issues to save others time since I already invested so much of my time on what I thought would be pop 4 holes and I'm done haha.
Can you imagine paying a dealer like $95 an hour to go through all of this. Most bad reviews are on this unit because the holes don't line up and its a bear to pull the locking handle in or out. MK is aware of this, but of course they don't care because its been this way for 10 years! I liked the aluminum MKA 16 model, but it would not fit under my trailerable cover without going back to the canvas shop for them to alter it. The MKA 23 composite is actually a great design as you simply plop the troller onto the puck. The aluminum one takes a little finesse for me to get it into the track while hefting the troller each time!
I've installed the MKA 16 5 years ago on my daughters MK Powerdrive V2 unit. Its great. Only like $39 all aluminum and securly lockable. Now that I recently had a new MK Ipilot 55 delivered, I ruled out using the MK 16 because I have a very tight fitting custom made trailerable cover. So the MKA is composite not metal (no rattles) and is twice the price around $68. There are many reviews on sites like Amazon positive and negative. I wanted to note in this thread that there are two glaring negatives with this unit but there are also work arounds that can make it meet your needs.
The positive and why I can only use this style is the part that attaches to the boat is a composite plastic style puck only like 4 x 6 inches and is of a very low profile. The metal MKA 16 style profile is probably 12 x 8 inches and has metal edges that could wear through a tight cover (I think MK makes a plastic cover to avoid this or they should).
The two negatives are: .1 if you are mounting on a smooth surface (not carpeted) you are good to go. But if it's carpeted like my casting deck is then when you bolt the permanent puck to the deck the holes for the locking pins which slide through both pieces,the holes won't line up anymore. So MK's solution is to take a certain size drill (which also has to be long enough to go through the unit sideways) and make the holes larger. Well once the holes are larger this could add some extra play or slop from the trollers torque while you are using it. It moves around all jerky and looks like Elaine dancing on that episode of Seinfeld.
True I did not have the correct size drill. I used what I had as it was taking me two hours to install just the puck part. Its only 4 holes, but I had to re-locate my Sirius and Humminbird GPS antennas. Plus since the troller has to overhang at least 1.5 inches away from the rub rail to deploy without hitting the boat . . . at least one of my forward bolt holes had to be drilled through the metal rub rail. So I had to pull like 20 bolts off of the deck and remove it in order to bolt the puck on and allow for large fender washers to give the deck extra support
Ill probably in the end have to pull the deck yet again after I make up like a 1/4 inch aluminum backing plate to replace the fender washers and add better support due to the trollers torque, which will eventually weaken the deck. After getting the whole project mounted and because the puck squishes down the rug, the holes in the part that attaches to the bottom of the troller of course are going to be off by an 8th or a 1/4 of a inch because of the rug. Then they expect you to drill right through both pieces (7 inches) while everything is mounted on the rig. Well, in doing so on the back hole, i drilled at a slight angle which brought the drill too high and also out the back of the puck weakening the whole bracket.
Damn it . . . we as consumers of their products should not have to go through these drilling issues. well I called MK and I said clearly they should have included a black plastic spacer sheet or two even one a 1/4 and another an 1/8th. He said they used too years ago. I love the way companies try and cut costs by pennies only to make the installation awful for the end user.
He is sending me another puck for free. This time I'll go to Lowes or HD and get some plastic sheets for spaces. I think they include some plastic fender washers, but I don't know if those came with the ipliot or the MK bracket. Either way a plastic spacer "sheet" the size of the puck is going to make the unit more stable from slop. Since he was sending me a free puck I asked it he could give me a break on the price of the other piece because I drilled the holes too big. I said I paid $68, so he split the difference and charged me $39 plus $10 shipping. MK is a division of Johnson who made my Lund, Humminbird and Ipilot and my experience with their products is they are of good quality but they nickel and dime you to death on any accessory or replacement part. So $50 with shipping at least saved me like $18.
I should have gone out and bought a 7 inch drill of the correct size but I probably still would have screwed up the angle and it would have been sloppy or extra play from bigger holes that the locking handle goes through. The plastic spacer under the puck is a better solution and no hole drilling for the handle to pass through. But I still will have to pull the deck again for re-installation of the new puck depending on if the first spacer sheet aligns the holes. If not, I'll have to add the 2nd sheet. I'll try to make up an aluminum backing plate now before the new MKA 21 arrives, so I don't have to pull the deck again to reach the front bolt that goes through the rub rail.
2. The locking handle. What an awful design. It has two long pins that pass through the front and back of the whole unit. Get this . . . in the middle of the handle there is a hole where a large pin passes through then you hook a padlock through it. Well that part in the middle is PLASTIC. This means the whole locking thing for security purposes is MOOT because all one has to do is smack it with a hammer and a $1200 troller is gone in less than 30 secs.
Or they could take a big screwdriver and break that handle in seconds. Look, I know if a thief wants it, he's going to get it. Thats why I have insurance. And a battery operated Sawsall would go through the handle like butter. Of course, I don't let it out of my sight. Especially like in a restaurant parking lot. I don't leave it on the rig in my rented garage either and I take it into my house and store it in the front hall. But this handle being plastic, I could be docked at a restaurant and like I said it could be gone in 30 secs like while I went to the bathroom.
So like I said both negative issues can be corrected to get a great quick release system. An all metal lockable handle can be made up at a metal shop which is what I'm going to do. I'll post pictures to go along with the above installation issues to save others time since I already invested so much of my time on what I thought would be pop 4 holes and I'm done haha.
Can you imagine paying a dealer like $95 an hour to go through all of this. Most bad reviews are on this unit because the holes don't line up and its a bear to pull the locking handle in or out. MK is aware of this, but of course they don't care because its been this way for 10 years! I liked the aluminum MKA 16 model, but it would not fit under my trailerable cover without going back to the canvas shop for them to alter it. The MKA 23 composite is actually a great design as you simply plop the troller onto the puck. The aluminum one takes a little finesse for me to get it into the track while hefting the troller each time!
Last edited:
.
