Z17 Power Pole

[Bill Suter]

Recently purchased a 2018 Nitro Z17, my son wants to have a Power Pole installed. When I went to the dealer today and inquired about the purchase and install they had to reach out to Tracker Marine. Their response
"
Power poles are not an option on the Nitro Z 17, and as such we do not recommend their install. If a customer does decide to install them, it would affect the warranty, meaning, that if the power poles caused any damage, that damage would not be covered under our warranty. The rest of the boat would be covered under the normal warranty, just not this area. "

Also, on a boat as small as the Z 17, there could be performance concerns from the added weight of the power poles.



I hope this helps. If you need any additional clarification, please let me know."

Has anyone installed or had installed a Power Pole or Talon on their Z17. Would a Jack Plate take care of any issues? Any and all information would be helpful.
Thanks,

 

[Bobby Babcock]

I’m curious about the jack plate also? Also, I have seen these boats listed at 17’ and 17.5 feet (mine is a 2016 with a Mercury 115). What do I have??

 

[Larry Williams]

Jack plates have the holes, or can be drilled for the pole mounts, without affecting the boat transom. Consider using the new GPS controlled troll motors that "spot lock". Unless you are fishing very shallow water, I don't think that there is much disadvangage with these troll motors like the Minn Kota Ultrex or Motor Guide brand units. I never could justifly the extreme cost on power poles in spite of the obvious advantage you gain in some areas. On smaller boats, added weight is a more significant factor.

 

[Bobby Babcock]

Jack plates have the holes, or can be drilled for the pole mounts, without affecting the boat transom. Consider using the new GPS controlled troll motors that "spot lock". Unless you are fishing very shallow water, I don't think that there is much disadvangage with these troll motors like the Minn Kota Ultrex or Motor Guide brand units. I never could justifly the extreme cost on power poles in spite of the obvious advantage you gain in some areas. On smaller boats, added weight is a more significant factor.

Uh......will you address Jack Plates specifically, not that they have holes for power poles, ie, what dis/advantages can a Jack plate bring to the table?

 

[Larry Williams]

I'm not the right person to say really since I dont use power poles- I was just noting that attaching the pole hardware to the jack plate eliminates drilling the transom further. There are specific brackets that can be purchase for that purpose. My Atlas Hydarulic Jack plate has some extra holes down the side plate that I expect are used for those mounts.

 

[jerry shack]

A buddy of mine had a 2013 Z17 and we installed a Hyd. jack plate and 2 power poles. He had to purchase the 2 adaptor plates that power pole sells to mount the the poles to the jack plate. We had enough room in the bilge for the pumps. However it did make the boat plane a lot slower. So we made a prop change and that cured that problem.

 

[Larry Williams]

Yeah. the weight isn't that extreme but the location of the weight couldn't be worse- right on the tail end.

 

[Springfieldguy]

Not to poke Nitro Boats and the Power-Pole install on a 17 Nitro Series in the eye, but last week the wife and I hired a Guide on a large Missouri lake and golly-gee!
His boat is a Nitro NX 170 with a 125 Merc. I immediately noticed the appendage on the stern as being a single 8 foot Power-pole.
I just had to get into this subject with him while we were fishing the lake. It worked great.
You see, our 2022 Nitro Z17 is the same length and width as his boat. (or close, for load calculations). Difference in storage compartments on deck, Hull
and the 125HP vs our 115HP Ct.
He noted the boat came with the Power-pole, sandwich mount, when purchased (used) a number of years ago. Noted was the 4 four batteries. (Start, two TM, and Power-pole.) With three people in the boat there was no list to either side. Plane in about 4 seconds. No issues on top of small waves nor trolling, or coming down etc.. He said he never had any issues with it or the set-up or Boat handling. We hardly knew it was lowered.

You see, I ordered a Motor-Guide X3 80LB (not the Xi3) on our boat not thinking in the future. Dang, no GPS Anchor after-market insert is available
for the X3 at all. Zero. The Tour Pro is up there in $$. Never used our Talon anchor on previous boats all that much anyway.
Will wait a bit to change-out the TM. Go figure.