A little background on my MG experience. I have owned 4 of them and only one has lasted more then a season without many repair's some minor, some major. That was a 50# brute and it broke shortly into its second season with a blown armature. I used to carry a spare tm in my truck at one point because i was having so many failures. i used to carry switches, cables, ropes, and pinion gears because those parts cailed constantly while on the water. I got so good at fixing MG problems that i still to this day fix them for guys in my club, just about every two day tourney we have im fixing a motorguide for one of the same 4 guys after day 1.
When i got my nitro i never even ran the mg that came on it, i swapped it out the first day. I cnever even gave it a chance, i put my 4 year old minnkota on and never looked back. The only thing i have repaired on my minnkota in 6 years is the plastic cover at the top of the motor where the cables come in. I smashed it into a dock and busted it up pretty good but with a little duct tape cureall i was back fishing and left it that way for two months until the end of the season. i am thinking about buying a new one this year because my mount is getting a little loose but after 6 years of abuse i cant complain.
Dan J. Fyi the minkota shaft isnt "plastic" its acompisite material. From what my old man tells me its a carbon fiber/fiberglass composite. He machines that stuff in his shop and he says its tough, it has a higher tensile strength then steel. Breaking one would be very hard to do. I have seen a bussy of mine it his minnkota off every crossmember on his trailer when he was puting his tracker on the trailer with the gas motor with his trolling motor down. It didnt hurt a thing on the motor, dented the trailer. He also took off on plane once with the tm down and once again didnt hurt a thing that minkota is still going strong.
