I love this thing. If I had to make one suggestion it would be to loose the rope for the release and make a two way lever. Something that could be mounted to the motor but more importantly that actuates in both directions.
<p>Purchased Easy Troller from Ironwood Pacific at best price and great ship time. Easily installed Easy Troller on 200hp Johnson on 20ft bass boat. With Easy Troller plate in up position had GPS speed of 3.2 mph in idle speed @ 800 rpm, with plate down had GPS idle speed of 1.7 mph trimmed fully up and 1.3 mph trimmed fully down. Learned best way to lower plate is with engine off and motor trimmed out of water. You can hear it clank in place. Trim motor back down and shift into gear and confirm plate is down with GPS speed. To raise the plate is easiest with prop in neutral, pull release rope , shift into forward gear and slowly increase speed while releasing rope. Confirm up postion idle speed with GPS speed before getting on plane. In up position Easy Troller with hydrofoil fins helps boat get on plane faster. Easy Troller has made it easy to slow my bass boat down to trolling speeds that have produced better trolling results than before it was installed. Works as advertised if used correctly.</p>
This is a great Trolling plate, works excellent. The plate was shipped without the fins so it was a little bit of an inconvenience because we were eager to use the product. But customer service was very helpful and prompt to ship the fins out right away. Would purchase from this company again.
The EasyTroller was easy to install. I have it on a 150hp Yamaha and it reduced my trolling speed by just over 1 mile per hour when idling. It allows me to keep my deep water trolling baits down and has improved the fishing tremendously.
Ironwood service is prompt and the product second to none.
This trolling plate may be worthy of a five star rating but I've only been on the water with it twice so far. Overall, I'm impressed with the product, especially the quality of the materials and heavy gauge of the aluminum. This is my third trolling plate in 25 years. The first eventually broke and was not repairable due the material although one was spring loaded and raised and lowered automatically which was nice and remained on the boat when I sold it. This plate went on a new boat and deployment of this plate is easy but you do have to release it when finished trolling. I like the fact that the bottom portion is spring loaded to prevent damage. I also added the hydrofoil option.
<p>We put this troll plate on a Mercury 200 optimax for trolling stripped bass and crappies. Worked great. The mounting bracket could of been a 1/4 inch wider to allow for mounting below fins on motor. I called ironwood and they told me how to turn mounting arms over.</p>
I Love this product! Performs as advertised, But actually performs BETTER than advertised.... Bolted right up to my Merc Bravo 3 without issue.... I had to take extra care to route the release cord at the right angle through my swim deck ... my first try I didn't get enough "pull" going the right way, but that was on me, not the product. Now for a couple C notes, I can troll at my favorite speed, 1.9 mph with a 5.7 V8 bravo 3 on a 24' Bayliner Ciera...
This is a great product. It was easy to install, easy to operate and works great. My Hurricane deck boat has a 115hp Mercury outboard that would only troll down to 2.7 mph. Once the plate was installed the boat trolls as slow as 1.2 mph. If I adjust the trim I can get it to go 1.5. The hydro foil fins on the plate also really help the boat get up on plane.
The boat gets on plane super fast and doesn't porpoise as much. The trolling plate works good as well. I don't see any issues except where to tie off the rope for the trolling plate. For now, I have it attached to my tubing ring that circles the motor. This seems to work okay for now. Overall this seems to be a product that delivers what it claims. I am not sure about speed gain or loss. It's to close to call.