TracOutdoors Deckboat 40 AutoDeploy-G3 Electric Anchor Winch - Anchors Up to 40 lb. - Includes 100-feet of Pre-Wound Anchor Rope with Use (69005), Gray

Works well and is fast. Super easy to install and use.

So far this is an awesome add to the pontoon. After understanding what this is capable of and what it is not, should enjoy for many years. I have a 16lb river anchor for a 20' pontoon that I mostly anchor in shallower water and never go boating on windy days. Auto-deploy works flawlessly and horizontal storage is fantastic. You cannot let this thing pull harder than it is designed for or you will just break it. When ready to retrieve anchor, just short pulses on the up button will easily turn your boat to line up the line and then just keep using short duration pulses to draw boat to the anchor. When line is about to be vertical, reach down and pull the line to "unstick" anchor from the muddy bottom then you can winch right up. After a short time with this winch you can hear the amount of grunt it is experiencing and that is telling you that it is about to be overworked, just stay within it's abilities and it is easy, practical and WAY better than anchoring by hand!!

This unit can handle a pretty heavy anchor and is perfect for the front of a pontoon boat. If your deck is a bit flimsy, you will probably want to reinforce the deck with a metal "cut-out" or a piece of plywood shaped like the winch. We had a fab shop cut us a 1/4th" thick piece of aluminum "diamond-back" metal and drilled mounting holes in the metal and plywood deck, which is sturdy. And the wireless remote control is very handy for operating the anchor from the captain's chair, or anywhere else on the boat. It's already almost three years old and still works like a charm.

I installed the Deckboat 35 on my 21' pontoon early this summer. I use a 15 pound vinyl coated river style mushroom anchor with it. I was concerned that it might not have the power to pull it out of our mucky lake bottom, so I emailed Trac. They said not to use it to lift it out of the bottom, use the boat power to pull it free first. Boy, that negates a lot of the need for a powered anchor. So totally ignoring their advice I have been using it to retrieve the anchor from deep muck. The winch slows down as it frees the anchor from the muck, but does not stall. If it overloaded the winch it should blow the fuse, right? I love that I just push the auto anchor button once from the helm and the anchor drops to the bottom and slowly plays out line so as not to tangle it on the drum, until it magically stops with just enough scope to hold the boat. To retrieve it, you must hold the UP button until the anchor is just below the surface, reach down and swish it back and forth to knock off any remaining muck and carefully bring it up the rest of the way to the storage position. Keeping your fingers out of the way, I might add. I go rogue and don't use the safety clasp as then I couldn't drop the anchor from the helm. So far, so good. Oh and it complements nicely my key fob remote for my hydraulic boat hoist.

Only lasted about two years for the price I’m not happy I shouldn’t have wasted my money I should’ve just bought a cheap hand line one. I will never use this brand again.(it just stopped working first the remote then the actual electric anchor stopped) ps I would not recommend this item.!

Installed easily on my 20' Pontoon boat. A few things to note if you are thinking about buying this for yours. Yes, it will get tangled if you simply are not watching where your boat is in relation to the anchor. So, I give the UP button a short press to spin the boat TOWARDS the anchor. Mine is mounted on the front of the boat, so if the line goes under and behind, it will tangle if you simply retrieve the anchor in one press. So, short press to get the boat pointed towards the anchor, then hold the button. Then you have no tangles. It would be nice for them to possible design a guide for the rope that aligns it so that it can't pinch off the side of the V roller.

My wife and I are in our 60's and it was getting harder to pull up the anchors so we purchased two of these electric anchors, I installed one at each end of the boat and mounted the switches by the drivers seat so both can be deployed at the same time, they also come with remotes so they can be operated from any where in the boat. We are very happy with the anchors they have been on the boat and in use for over a year and have had no issues.

You need a battery that can sustain enough amperage and maintain voltage. I used it on a deep cycle battery and it just doesn't have enough lamps to do a full pull up to cradle in 40 ft of water. So I'm going to rig 2 starting batteries in parallel (12v) so I can get enough amps. I don't think this can handle 24v so don't do 2 batteries in series.If you don't need a spot lock trolling motor this is a great option. It's going to make anchoring and pulling anchor in swift water by myself so much easier.Easy to mount. Comes with remote.