To Otter & other Opti owners

[GregM]

When did you hear about the opti's not being able to be run just engaged?? I bought my 150 opti this past Sept. and that was one of the strongest selling points, it trolls super slow without needing a Kicker.I put a pile of hours on it this fall at that speed. haven't had problems YET, is this something that will sneak up on me???

"I fish cuz the voices in my head tell me to"

[Otter]

My understanding is that the new model Optis will no longer be adjustable to troll down to 450rpm and 1.5mph due to many problems previous Optis had due to starving for gas. My dealer recommended I also not run mine that slow, and since I'm nearing the end of my warranty, I decided I might not want to risk it.
Otter

[Brian_MN]

The newest Optis with Smartgauges only troll down to 550 RPMs. But, according to the Merc tech I talked to, it's not because of starving for gas, and no motors were damaged by idling that low. The problem was that voltage was dropping too low and causing the motors to die. At 550 they don't see this problem, the alternator is generating enough juice to keep everything happy.

[CJHughes@Norstan.com]

The 225 opti that I have has worked great at 450 rpms . I have notice that the voltage does drop some but the engine has never died at that rpm. 1.5 to 1.8 mph is about as slow as it will go . But the best thing about the Opti's is you can troll into the wind , which is hard to do with a kicker . I have had some problems with mine but the troll feature is one thing that has worked right since the start .

[redbone]

The problem was that at 450 rpm's there wasn't enough charge going back into the battery. with these motors they need alot of juice to start them and if the voltage fell below the minimum they wouldn't start. so with the higher rpm's (550) this solved the issue.

bob piette