I recently purchased the LiftSaver Trolling Motor Mount for my MotorGuide Xi5 and I have it mounted on my 2015 Nitro Z8. To put it simply…JUST BUY IT…You’ll love it.
The story goes: After my first outing with my brand new Xi5 (prior to installing the LiftSaver) I was a little concerned. When I launched my boat the trolling motor mounting actually hit the bow roller as I backed the boat off the trailer. And I mean it hit pretty hard too. I thought, “Well maybe the angle of ramp, water level, backed in too deep” and all the other potential reasons for this to have happened.
So no big deal…right?... Until the next time I launched, different lake, different ramp angle, water level etc. Same exact thing! Wham! Hard enough to actually pop out one of the tabs on the side cover of my brand new MotorGuide Xi5. Obviously, I wasn’t happy! I fished out that day and complained about it with my partner, for the entire day. After much mental engineering, together, my partner and I, had the issue fixed, at least in our minds. “Simply get a different bow roller or modify the trailer” or… there had to be something cheap and easy to fix this…But I was still thinking, I should have just bought the old school trolling motor, that didn’t stick out in front of the bow as far as the Xi5. I had begun to hate my brand new, expensive, trolling motor, despite all the great benefits and features it had.
After getting home from the lake I jumped on Google only to find out that I wasn’t the only fool who had bought this new motor. It appeared as though tons of guys are having the exact same problem I’m having. Eventually, I came across Ron Duran, on YouTube, demonstrating how to install the Liftsaver Mount. At first I thought, “Wow, that is kind of big looking…I wonder how heavy it is? I hate the thought of drilling more holes in my boat.” So I continued to research. After many hours of Internet and Youtube study, I found a mount made by MotorGuide which looked smaller and maybe not so complicated, but it still meant drilling holes etc. So I contacted everyone I could think of and talked to two people that had tried the MotorGuide version. Both of them said they pulled it off and tossed it because it was just too noisy, clunking and banging each time you got on and off the Trolling Motor pedal. One of the guys ended up tossing his Xi5 in the corner of his garage and reinstalling his old trolling motor. The other guy had switched over to the Liftsaver Mount and he was really happy with it.
So I contacted Ron, and asked him a few questions and ordered mine up. Ron went above and beyond in every way to make sure I was totally satisfied. We talked on the phone twice and he made me feel like more than just a customer. All of my concerns complete dissolved as soon as I opened the box. The unit is very clean, not big and bulky like I had first feared. It’s made of aluminum and stainless steel, so it is not very heavy. It has a great powder coated black finish that match the motor perfectly. As far as installation goes, it took me four hours total, over the course of two evenings to completely install and have everything working perfectly. It’s actually very easy to deploy once you have launched and equally as easy to stow, prior to driving back onto you trailer. By the way, I have a tired old back too, but no problem whatsoever.
It is rock solid and totally silent, when operating the trolling motor. There is zero torque snapping or cracking, like so many motor brackets have.
Ron and the Liftsaver have taken me from hating my Xi5 to loving it. I’m still disappointed in MotorGuide’s engineers for building a product which requires this additional expense and modification to work properly. Certainly not the norm I have come accustom to over many years as a MotorGuide customer.
Thank you Ron for the great engineering and fantastic customer service. I’m looking forward to that day on the lake we talked about!
Marty
San Diego, CA
