Bought a Motorguide W75 T.M. Before I bought it, I did my usual surfing to see other's opinions on it. Came across more than a handful of people saying they would never buy a Motorguide again because they had to keep replacing bent shafts -
Needed a longer shaft on mine, so ordered a 60" to replace my 48". At first I was trying to be careful, thinking I would keep the old column for a spare or something. After using the heck out of a heat gun and a pipe wrench, I forgot about being careful - I could not get that thing to turn off no matter how hot I got it and ended up cracking the composite after literally putting all of my weight on it. So, figured I would just break it off and then clean it off the threads. Laid the column on the floor on a piece of 2 x 4 , grabbed my hammer and whacked the heck out of it - wish i would have taken video of it now. I beat the crap out of that thing and it did crack and split some, but it would not break. Ended up having to get a screwdriver, pound it in some, break some composite, etc....until I could finally break it off.
It did work, tho I have to clean the threads off of that stuff that put on it, man is it hard.
Point of all of this - I am guessing the people who talked about bent shafts have never tried the new composite columns - those things are seriously, seriously strong.
I may still shoot some video of me whacking it with the column i took out -
You may not like a Motorguide for one reason or another, but I can sure vouch for the strength of their composite columns. I was seriously worried I was going to break the motor housing before I could break the column.
Needed a longer shaft on mine, so ordered a 60" to replace my 48". At first I was trying to be careful, thinking I would keep the old column for a spare or something. After using the heck out of a heat gun and a pipe wrench, I forgot about being careful - I could not get that thing to turn off no matter how hot I got it and ended up cracking the composite after literally putting all of my weight on it. So, figured I would just break it off and then clean it off the threads. Laid the column on the floor on a piece of 2 x 4 , grabbed my hammer and whacked the heck out of it - wish i would have taken video of it now. I beat the crap out of that thing and it did crack and split some, but it would not break. Ended up having to get a screwdriver, pound it in some, break some composite, etc....until I could finally break it off.
It did work, tho I have to clean the threads off of that stuff that put on it, man is it hard.
Point of all of this - I am guessing the people who talked about bent shafts have never tried the new composite columns - those things are seriously, seriously strong.
I may still shoot some video of me whacking it with the column i took out -
You may not like a Motorguide for one reason or another, but I can sure vouch for the strength of their composite columns. I was seriously worried I was going to break the motor housing before I could break the column.
