Minn Kota Ulterra 80lb 72-Inch & Riptide 112: A Buyer's Honest Verdict

I'm the person who buys the trolling motors. Not the person who installs them, or catches fish with them — I manage the equipment budget for a 14-boat guide operation on Lake St. Clair, and I've spent the past eight seasons documenting every motor purchase in a cost-tracking spreadsheet that my wife calls "the boring book." Roughly $90,000 in cumulative motor spending, give or take a few hundred — about $18,000 a year in motors and accessories. So when I say the Minn Kota Ulterra 80lb 72-inch keeps earning its slot in our fleet, that's not a brand slogan. It's a line item.

And one quick note before the comments fill up: yes, I mean the trolling motor Ulterra. Not Ulterra Drilling Technologies. That name overlap still sends me a confused energy-sector visitor every month, and I can't help them. My lane is bow-mount motors on bass boats and center consoles, not drilling rigs. Everyone's got a lane. More on that in a bit.

The Opinion: Buy the Ulterra for What It Does, Not for What It Is

Here's my take, stated plainly: the Ulterra 80lb 72-inch is the right motor for maybe 60% of the anglers who ask me about it, and an overpriced feature for the other 40%. That's not me hedging. It's the difference between buying a tool for the job and buying a name for the sticker.

The Ulterra's job is hands-free boat control. Spot Lock, i-Pilot, auto stow and deploy — that's what you're paying for. Not thrust. Not speed. Control. If you fish alone often, fight wind on open water, or run a guide boat where your hands are already busy with rods and nets, the Ulterra earns its keep every single trip. If you fish from a 16-foot aluminum with two buddies in calm water, you will never feel that value. I've told people both things, sometimes in the same weekend.

Argument 1: The "Luxury" Motor Is the Cheapest One We Own

From the outside, the Ulterra looks like the premium option — the one you pick after you've stopped caring about the price tag. The reality is it's the least expensive motor in our fleet when you track total cost of ownership. Let me show you the math, because this is literally my job.

In 2023, I audited every motor-related repair ticket across our boats. The two Ulterras we ran that season cost us $340 in service combined: one depth sensor replacement, one blown fuse. The three manual-stow Terrovas without i-Pilot totaled $1,860 in the same year: two broken stow brackets, one snapped release cable, one lower-unit reseal after a guide ran too shallow. The guides weren't being careless. They were being human — trying to muscle a 70-pound motor up from the bow while the boat rocks. That's the failure point the Ulterra's auto stow removes. I've watched a 22-year-old guide with a bad back bless that button more times than I can count.

So the yearly totals: $340 for two Ulterras versus $1,860 for three Terrovas. Even with the price premium on the Ulterra, the "luxury" motor saved us roughly $1,500 in repair costs in year one alone. Don't hold me to the exact figure — I'd have to pull the service ledger — but it's in that ballpark. Bottom line, sticker price is not cost. Meanwhile, I've watched grown adults drop $200 on Halloween costumes for the dock party and then argue with me about a $90 battery maintainer. Budgets are weird.

Argument 2: The 80lb 72-Inch Spec Matters More Than the Brand Name

People search "minn kota ulterra 80lb 72 inch" and fixate on the 80 pounds. But the 72-inch shaft is half the answer, and it's the half that matters on a deep-V hull. When our 21-foot center consoles run into a chop, a 60-inch shaft loses bite as the bow lifts. The prop comes out of the water, Spot Lock drops, the boat swings — and the guide is back on the foot pedal instead of fishing. The 72-inch shaft keeps the prop buried through the wave cycle. If you've ever watched your Spot Lock fail in a two-foot swell, you know that feeling.

Shaft length isn't a "bigger is better" game, though. That's where the boundaries come in. Steven, the head guide at our sister lodge, is the guy who can identify a bird by its silhouette in bad light and land a musky on 8-pound test. He can also tell you the difference between a hawk and an osprey, which is apparently a real answer. Me? I can't. But ask me how long a shaft should be on a 19-foot bass boat and I'll answer without blinking: 72 inches, and walk away from any salesman pushing a 60 because that's what's in stock.

Same logic applies to thrust. The Ulterra Riptide 112 gets way more recommendations than it deserves, mostly because "saltwater" makes people assume bigger is automatically better. The 112 is a 36-volt motor — a third battery, extra weight, extra wiring, extra install cost. On a 17-to-19-foot boat in sheltered water, it's overkill, pure and simple. Our 24-foot bay boat runs the Riptide 112, and it's rock solid on the lake's rough days. The rest of the fleet runs the 80lb, and nobody has ever complained about power.

Argument 3: The Dealer Is Part of the Purchase

Here's something vendors won't tell you: the first quote is almost never the final number. The hidden costs are in the accessories. We used to accept the package price at face value. The third time a $3,100 Ulterra quote became a $3,750 invoice after "required" mounts, wiring kits, and a prop upgrade, I implemented a line-item comparison policy. Now we get three quotes minimum, and I compare every single line, not just the total.

That's also why we've kept the same dealer for four seasons. They're not the cheapest bid, but their quotes actually include things. When we ordered the Riptide 112 in March 2024, their number included the transducer mount, the quick-release bracket, and free firmware updates. The cheaper quote from a different dealer included none of that — I would've found out at installation. So glad I checked. Almost went with the lower number, which would've cost us about $400 extra and a wasted Saturday.

If you're not a spreadsheet person, at least do this: get every mount, adapter, and cable listed in writing before you hand over money. And because Minn Kota enforces minimum advertised pricing, quotes on the same motor should cluster in the same range. A number way below the pack is a red flag, not a deal.

Now Let Me Answer the Objections I Always Hear

I get the same pushback every season. Here's the honest version of my answers.

"It's too expensive." Compared to what? A manual Terrova with the same shaft is a few hundred dollars cheaper, and the Ulterra's premium is real. But our resale numbers are real, too: the last two used Ulterras we sold moved within ten days at about 60% of what we paid. No other motor in our fleet held value like that.

"The auto stow/deploy is another thing to break." It's the first concern everyone raises, including me when we bought our first one in 2021. Across six Ulterras and eight seasons, we've had exactly one deploy-system issue: a corroded wiring harness from a winterization mistake that was our fault, not the motor's. Keep the terminals clean, run the stow cycle monthly in the off-season, and it's reliable. Reliable isn't bulletproof, though — we carry a manual release tool on every boat, because anyone who promises a motor will never fail is selling you something.

"I don't need another electronic dependency." I have mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, Spot Lock is a game-changer for solo anglers. On the other, I've watched an angler press the anchor button and then stop watching where the boat was going — it held position perfectly, which was the problem, because the boat had been drifting toward a weed bed the whole time. The motor just holds. You still have to be the brain. i-Pilot is a tool, not a babysitter.

The Bottom Line

Buy the Minn Kota Ulterra 80lb 72-inch if you fish solo, fish in wind, guide for a living, or want Spot Lock without foot-pedal gymnastics. It's a no-brainer in those situations. Buy the Ulterra Riptide 112 for a serious saltwater rig or a 22-foot-plus hull — and make the dealer line-item every accessory before you sign.

And don't buy the Ulterra just because it's the flagship. The angler who knows they don't need it and buys a Terrova instead is making the smarter call for their own budget. Any dealer who tells you otherwise is putting their commission ahead of your fishing. Ballpark pricing as of March 2025: the 80lb 72-inch typically lists in the high $2,000s depending on package, and the Riptide 112 goes higher still. Verify current numbers at minnkotamotors.com before you budget.

My bottom line, short version: the Ulterra isn't the best trolling motor ever made. It's the best at a specific job — hands-free boat control — and buying it for any other reason is how budgets get blown. Know the job, pick the tool, and get the quote in writing. If you're still unsure which one fits your boat, find a Steven of your own — the one who actually works on these things for a living.