TheSamba.com :: View topic - Anyone have experience with electric boat motors?

Fri Jan 29, 2021 2:57 pm

xoo00oox wrote: Big Bull Shooter wrote: xoo00oox wrote: Big Bull Shooter wrote: xoo00oox wrote: Big Bull Shooter wrote: I use an 85# thrust Minn Kota to push my 19.5' freighter canoe on a large lake in the Rockies and will go on 2 to 4 day camping trips. Friends with deeper pockets are using the Torquedos and run at about 20 km/h.

How heavy is your boat? How fast sill it go? What batteries do you use?

My boat itself is about 300 pounds. With 2 or 3 people, 6 or 8 deep cycle, batteries and camping gear, it probably gets close to 1500 pounds. My top speed fully loaded with the 85# Minn Kota is about 6.5 km/h. I just use 27 series deep cycle batteries from Walmart. My friends that use Torquedos are using AGM batteries, and pushing much larger canoes like the 24 foot Hudson Bay freighters. The Torquedos are fantastic if you are willing to spend the money - they even make a 80 hp model!

Interesting, thanks for your information. About how long are you able to run this?
My motor is 24V. If I go full throttle, I can kill 2 batteries in 90 minutes. If I just troll, I can go for days. Now that I see the boat that you plan to build, I would suggest a Torquedo, but I'm not familiar with any other brands other than Minn Kota, which are extremely reliable. As for solar charging, I wouldn't bother putting panels on that beautiful boat, because you won't recover enough power while cruising around. Maybe consider a solar charger set up for where you store your boat. I made my freighter canoe 30 years ago out of cedar, and it is still going strong, but I do work on it almost every year.

This is good to hear, I'd be happy if I could go about 7mph top speed for a bit, then cut back to about 3 for a few hours. Some guys on YouTube have some very impressive electric Kayaks, I saw a few are using the Minn Kota motors, sometimes two of them.
Your canoe sounds nice to be able to hold that weight, do you have any pictures of it?
I've experimented with two Minn Kota motors - my conclusion - burns up twice the battery power with no change in speed.
Here's a pic from last summer. I had just done some major repairs and didn't finish varnishing the bow prior to the trip.

Here's a pic from a few years ago 50 kms from the dock. I needed to run a 9.9 hp on it to make it up a river that joins the 2 lakes.

Fri Jan 29, 2021 5:24 pm

Nice canoe!!

Ours is 22' but not a square sterner. Ugly as sin too not pretty like yours!

Fri Jan 29, 2021 6:35 pm

Nice tow vehicle!

Fri Jan 29, 2021 6:52 pm

Big Bull Shooter wrote: xoo00oox wrote: Big Bull Shooter wrote: xoo00oox wrote: Big Bull Shooter wrote: xoo00oox wrote: Big Bull Shooter wrote: I use an 85# thrust Minn Kota to push my 19.5' freighter canoe on a large lake in the Rockies and will go on 2 to 4 day camping trips. Friends with deeper pockets are using the Torquedos and run at about 20 km/h.

How heavy is your boat? How fast sill it go? What batteries do you use?

My boat itself is about 300 pounds. With 2 or 3 people, 6 or 8 deep cycle, batteries and camping gear, it probably gets close to 1500 pounds. My top speed fully loaded with the 85# Minn Kota is about 6.5 km/h. I just use 27 series deep cycle batteries from Walmart. My friends that use Torquedos are using AGM batteries, and pushing much larger canoes like the 24 foot Hudson Bay freighters. The Torquedos are fantastic if you are willing to spend the money - they even make a 80 hp model!

Interesting, thanks for your information. About how long are you able to run this?
My motor is 24V. If I go full throttle, I can kill 2 batteries in 90 minutes. If I just troll, I can go for days. Now that I see the boat that you plan to build, I would suggest a Torquedo, but I'm not familiar with any other brands other than Minn Kota, which are extremely reliable. As for solar charging, I wouldn't bother putting panels on that beautiful boat, because you won't recover enough power while cruising around. Maybe consider a solar charger set up for where you store your boat. I made my freighter canoe 30 years ago out of cedar, and it is still going strong, but I do work on it almost every year.

This is good to hear, I'd be happy if I could go about 7mph top speed for a bit, then cut back to about 3 for a few hours. Some guys on YouTube have some very impressive electric Kayaks, I saw a few are using the Minn Kota motors, sometimes two of them.
Your canoe sounds nice to be able to hold that weight, do you have any pictures of it?
I've experimented with two Minn Kota motors - my conclusion - burns up twice the battery power with no change in speed.
Here's a pic from last summer. I had just done some major repairs and didn't finish varnishing the bow prior to the trip.

Here's a pic from a few years ago 50 kms from the dock. I needed to run a 9.9 hp on it to make it up a river that joins the 2 lakes.

Those are some amazing pictures! Nice work building that canoe and then using it as many of us dream of using one. How do you decide when to run gas and when electric?
That will hold 1500lbs? You must have paid attention in wood shop!

Sat Jan 30, 2021 10:00 am

xoo00oox wrote:
Those are some amazing pictures! Nice work building that canoe and then using it as many of us dream of using one. How do you decide when to run gas and when electric?
That will hold 1500lbs? You must have paid attention in wood shop!

I live in a national park, so electric motor or paddling is the only option. I use the gas engine for trips outside of the park. I'm guessing at 1500 pounds, but 3 guys, 8 batteries and glamping gear has got to be close! I never had wood shop in my school, but read the book "Canoecraft" a few times along with some other books. The friend that helped me build it is a wood worker. Also, the West System epoxy is incredibly strong.
I just realized that you are the guy that "Bought the Ghia that sat for 41 years"!
I like how you roll!

Sat Jan 30, 2021 5:38 pm

Big Bull Shooter wrote: xoo00oox wrote:
Those are some amazing pictures! Nice work building that canoe and then using it as many of us dream of using one. How do you decide when to run gas and when electric?
That will hold 1500lbs? You must have paid attention in wood shop!

I live in a national park, so electric motor or paddling is the only option. I use the gas engine for trips outside of the park. I'm guessing at 1500 pounds, but 3 guys, 8 batteries and glamping gear has got to be close! I never had wood shop in my school, but read the book "Canoecraft" a few times along with some other books. The friend that helped me build it is a wood worker. Also, the West System epoxy is incredibly strong.
I just realized that you are the guy that "Bought the Ghia that sat for 41 years"!
I like how you roll!

About how many miles do you get with your batteries ? That boat is something to be proud of !
Yes, I’m that guy. Usually more of a Vanagon guy but I do have a few other cars.
I’ve always loved the look of those old wooden boats with the really long bow. The Ghia body lines would be a perfect match for the ‘50s style boat.

Thu Feb 04, 2021 8:35 am

Abscate wrote: You pay about a 4x premium for the battery version, and 2-3 hours is about the max , discharging the battery heavily. I tried them for shore duty in the Cape but went back to ICE outboards

Abscate, what motor and batteries did you have on what size boat?

Sun Feb 21, 2021 8:34 am

xoo00oox wrote: Big Bull Shooter wrote: xoo00oox wrote:
Those are some amazing pictures! Nice work building that canoe and then using it as many of us dream of using one. How do you decide when to run gas and when electric?
That will hold 1500lbs? You must have paid attention in wood shop!

I live in a national park, so electric motor or paddling is the only option. I use the gas engine for trips outside of the park. I'm guessing at 1500 pounds, but 3 guys, 8 batteries and glamping gear has got to be close! I never had wood shop in my school, but read the book "Canoecraft" a few times along with some other books. The friend that helped me build it is a wood worker. Also, the West System epoxy is incredibly strong.
I just realized that you are the guy that "Bought the Ghia that sat for 41 years"!
I like how you roll!

About how many miles do you get with your batteries ? That boat is something to be proud of !
Yes, I’m that guy. Usually more of a Vanagon guy but I do have a few other cars.
I’ve always loved the look of those old wooden boats with the really long bow. The Ghia body lines would be a perfect match for the ‘50s style boat.
This is where I use my boat most of the time:
https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/jasper/activ/pass...as/Maligne
To go to Coronet Creek and back is about 44 km or 26 miles, plus all of the back and forth trolling. Six good batteries will suffice for that trip over 3 or 4 days, and if there are just 2 of us, I take 8 batteries.

Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:58 am

Thanks for your input. That Maligne Lake is stunning! I wish it were closer than 2200 miles!
Have you considered going with the more modern batteries? I use and am happy with the lead acid ones for my off-grid house but I’m not concerned with the weight and size of them like I will be for my boat. It seems the Lifepo4 batteries are the way to go these days. I need to educate myself more on them.

I contacted the the Elco electric boat motor place through their website and a rep got right back to me in minutes. We went back and forth with a couple emails, turns out he happens to live only about an hour away from me. I told him what I’m building and what my expectations were and he said he’d put together a plan for me and get back to me. A week later I heard nothing do I sent another email to him, 2 weeks later I’ve still heard nothing. So I went back on their website and filled out their online thing to tell them my boat size and weight and what I wanted to do with it and they never replied to that either.
So next I filled out their online form to become a dealer thinking maybe I could get their attention that way, still no response.
-Elco, I’m looking to probably be spending over $4k, it’s February- you’re not overly busy selling boat motors, your sales rep guy is an hour away- just stop in and take my money!

Sun Feb 21, 2021 7:28 pm

I would love to get newer tech batteries, but I don't fish as much as I used to, and can't justify the cost at the moment. It's also very difficult to reserve campsites on Maligne Lake now. You basically have to be online the moment the reservation system opens for the season, just to get one booking. In a few years I'll be looking at upgrading my motor and batteries.
It's unfortunate that Elco has ghosted you. It sucks when companies make it hard to be a customer. I hope they reach out to you soon.

Mon Feb 22, 2021 4:52 am

Where exactly are you gonna mount the giant wind-turbine to charge the batteries? :lol:

You want something completely wind powered = a sailboat.

Mon Mar 29, 2021 2:16 pm

I decided to go with the Epropulsion Navy 6.0. Anyone considering the Elco I'd urge you to watch as many videos you can on them, I may be wrong but it seems to me that they don't seem to be able to perform anything like the "comparable HP" gas motors do. I can find plenty of videos showing small boats going over 20mph with a 10hp gas motor and I am not finding that of the "9.9 hp" Elco or even going 10mph.

this boat will only go 5.8 mph according to this video...

I have very little boating experience so I'm basing it on what I'm seeing on Youtube, but wouldn't you expect a 20hp to go faster than this?

Wed Apr 07, 2021 3:15 pm

I picked this up the other day, one thing I have found interesting about it is that the hand control can be used with no wire between it and the motor. It has it's own solar panel on it and uses bluetooth. Drive-by-wire was a little scary when it first came out, drive-by-bluetooth? Seems very strange but I am looking forward to getting it out on a lake once my boat is done.

Fri May 28, 2021 4:44 pm

Getting there!

Fri May 28, 2021 5:05 pm

Woooo....., sexy! 8)

Is that a routed inlay on the plywood?

Fri May 28, 2021 5:13 pm

busdaddy wrote: Woooo....., sexy! 8)

Is that a routed inlay on the plywood?

Thanks! No, I masked off the area to stay natural color and stained the dark parts then masked off the lines and used white paint then two coats of epoxy sanding each one and one coat of Pettit Captain’s varnish. There will be many more coats of varnish before I’m done with it.

Fri May 28, 2021 5:19 pm

xoo00oox wrote: busdaddy wrote: Woooo....., sexy! 8)

Is that a routed inlay on the plywood?

Thanks! No, I masked off the area to stay natural color and stained the dark parts then masked off the lines and used white paint then two coats of epoxy sanding each one and one coat of Pettit Captain’s varnish. There will be many more coats of varnish before I’m done with it.
Looks great!, a few more sandings and coats and it'll be like a mirror, nice!

Were the plans and parts list thorough enough?, any surprises so far?

Fri May 28, 2021 5:47 pm

I was totally green going in. I didn’t start woodworking until last year and I’ve never even had a boat before other than kayaks and a couple jetskis.
The plans are pretty easy to use. Watching some of the YouTube channels really helps to get an idea of what your getting into. There is a guy named Joshua Burks that has over 50 videos showing his progress building a very similar boat (Glen-L Zip). I suggest watching every one of them if your considering building a small boat like this.
The parts list pretty clear. I probably have about $700-$800 into building this right now not including the motor and batteries.
It’s been a very enjoyable project. You’re seeing results with each step.

Fri May 28, 2021 6:34 pm

Cool!
I've got 40 years in aircraft woodwork, so boat stuff can't be all that challenging, I might just have to give it a try. :D

Sat May 29, 2021 7:58 am

Do it! If you’re interested in building this boat, Let me know, I ordered two copies of the plans when I got mine. They let you order a second at a reduced price. I could sell a set along with the two booklets that they send out with the plans.