Newport NV-Series Thrust Saltwater Transom Mounted Trolling Electric Trolling Motor w/LED Battery Indicator

Just got the trolling motor yesterday and tried it out today. Works fantastic. As a kicker motor for trolling motor only lakes, it moves my 17' boat easily. Seems very well made, too.

works great. I use it on a 12 ft little fishing boat. cruised around the lake fine and it handled choppy water with no issue.

Good strong trolling motor. Three bladed propeller. Turned head around for bow mount. Had to go online for instructions. Wish clamping bracket was metal but plastic is working fine.

Purchased this 55 Lb. thrust trolling motor to replace a MK brand that was no longer working after many years of service. Was stunned at the current replacement cost of a new MK so ordered this Newport Vessels brand. It is being used on a 12 foot alum. wide-transom canoe with a Group 24 deep cycle battery. Used it 2 times so far. Once on a tidal river and then a lake. (2 passengers). It performed very well and never lacked for speed even when up against head winds and tidal currents. It was used at speeds 2 and 3 for the most part with occasional bursts in 4 and 5. In speeds 1-3 it's a trolling motor, at 4 it's cruising and at 5 it becomes more like an outboard motor! She flies! Fairly quiet, but gets a bit louder as the speeds go up. Motor runs well but not as smooth and refined as the MK did. Seems to use a little more power than the MK, but the MK had slow- start and maximizer circuitry. Battery was down to about 65% after just under 2 hours but that was fighting winds and opposing current about 1/2 the time. Never felt any reduction in speed/power. Don't count on the built-in LED battery indicator as it was still showing 4 out of 5 lights. Overall, a decent motor and a good value. Can't comment on durability/reliability just yet until it sees more use.

I have this on a twelve-foot Lowe's Jon boat. This is my impression after one use - not anything long term.The motor pushed me very easily against the current of the St Johns river, which flows about 3-4 MPH. It has multiple speeds for forward and reverse. I used it on the transom for the one trip. It is a 12V unit, so one deep cycle battery is all that's needed. The motor has a LED readout on the top to monitor the level of the battery. It's useful to see where the battery status is for obvious reasons, but also for keeping the battery healthy by not discharging it too much. The wiring has an inline circuit breaker on the positive lead that can be reset if tripped. The wiring is a little too short in my opinion and should have eyelet ends, not the split/fork style ends. I can fix that by installing extra wire with the right sized battery terminal clamps.My goal is to turn the top/head unit around and use the motor on the bow/front of the Jon boat. I have not done that yet but I have inspected the head and it looks exactly like the one in the Youtube video where the person turned the head around. Why? Because I want bow mount performance at transom mount cost - if that makes sense. The bow mount motors are higher cost due to more hardware, controls, etc. At this price point I have plenty of power where I want it.I would recommend this unit based on my experience so far.

Happy with this motor on our 7.5' Mercury inflatable. Wanted a Torqueedo, but didn't want to part with several thousand dollars. Did some research to check against Minn Kota, the NV55 is a little cheaper than the comparable MK, and although we'll only ever use it in freshwater, the fact that it's saltwater corrosion resistant makes one think it'll last a little longer in fresh water, too. We mainly use it for tendering back and forth to the beach, riding around at the beach, and a little bit in the yacht basin. It's a pretty leisurely ride on anything other that the 5th step, but that's the nature of a trolling motor on a RIB. I got the impression that the NV36 would have basically been like only having the first 4 speeds, no kick-in-the-pants speed. That said, you're still not water skiing with 5th speed, although I will say it doesn't go any slower or faster with one adult or three.We run it off a group 24 deep cycle battery, goes a surprisingly long time between charges, but we're not really running it in a way that I could measure distance or runtime. I do have a meter on it when I recharge, battery takes on 30 to 35 amp hours, which really isn't much out of this particular battery. I put the battery into the "MinnKota Trolling Motor Power Center", which NV also sells, but is exactly the same box for twenty bucks more. The box has been very convenient for moving the battery in and out of the boat, and no sharp corners to puncture or wear on the boat. A group 24 or 27 lithium battery in this box would be awesome, as a lead acid batteries are heavy! Still not quite as convenient as a Torqueedo, but getting closer! Since we pop the RIB up on it's side on the swim platform, we have to install/remove the motor and battery each time. A pain, but a LOT less hassle than the 2.5hp gas motor!I do have one "wish" for the motor design; The handle that is the gear selector is numbered 1 through 5 for forward, 0 for stopped, and 1 through 3 for reverse. Without actually looking at the position of the handle, it's hard to tell if you're on 0. When pulling up to a dock or the swim platform on our big boat, it would be nice to be able to stop the motor, put it to the zero position without looking. Maybe a harder detent at 0? Or having a hard stop at 0 and you need to push the handle in to get it into reverse? I'd hate to have a lockout button for reverse, as it would suck to have reverse be a 2 handed operation... A button on the end of the handle maybe? All of these ideas cost real money to implement, though, and since NV is try to stay just under the cost of Minn Kota, unlikely to see the light of day... It's not the end of the world, but would certainly be more convenient if you didn't have to look...

I’ve had this trolling motor for about two years and it’s very powerful for my little 16 foot aluminum Lowe. Due to my own ignorance I didn’t realize when I bought it that I would need 2 separate 12V batteries instead of one. You can run it off of one 12 V battery, but it will not even reach near the motors capacity. No complaints on its performance. If you have a smaller boat like I have, you may want to consider a 12 V trolling motor so you don’t have to deal with two batteries as weight can be a concern. When fully charged I can get about 2 1/2 mph out of her. Really I bought it as having a back up motor in case I break down but eventually I think I’ll just downgrade to a 12 V.