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Inflatable With Electric Motor


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  • I purchased a Seago 230 eco inflatable last year from another boat owner who was upgrading to something bigger and have been toying with the idea of an electric motor for it, was taking to an adjacent berth holder a few weeks ago and it turned out he had a MinnKota 34lb in his garage, only used a few times and complete with a 75ah leisure battery, a deal was struck and last Saturday I rigged it up and went out for a test run. I went from my mooring to Bargate, once round the edge of the broad and out the opposite dyke, then back on the river, past Brooms and back to my mooring, about 3 miles in total. Based on how long the battery took to recharge I reckon I used about 30ah, this included full speed running on the main river. I am without an accurate GPS at the moment so could not check speed, but its certainly quicker than rowing it.

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seago1.jpg

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how long do you think you where running the motor for, was it just yourself onboard.

is there any risk involved with the battery an water splashing, thinking if the grand kids went out alone. i imagine there must be special housings available.

 

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19 minutes ago, Simon said:

how long do you think you where running the motor for, was it just yourself onboard.

is there any risk involved with the battery an water splashing, thinking if the grand kids went out alone. i imagine there must be special housings available.

 

Just me onboard, I was out for around an hour and a half, the motor was running the whole time I spend a fair bit of time nosing around the edges of bargate at low speed, went down the dykes at medium, and full on the river 

 Minnkota sell battery boxes that protect the terminals, what I am thinking of doing is cutting off the spades and fitting the quick release terminals as they are plastic topped so no exposed metal.

I think if you were looking at a  bigger dinghy and/or 2 people you would want a 50lb+ thrust model. Also 2 x golf cart/mobility scooter batteries will be easier to handle than 1 leisure battery. Lithium would be the ultimate as very light but £££

Oh, and I didn't realise until out on the river I hadn't put a lifejacket on, rookie mistake!

 

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2 minutes ago, ZimbiIV said:

Never thought of this before until you mentioned lifejackets but do electric motors have an engine kill cord?

paul

No, if you fall in the boat will trundle off without you

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Its not difficult to retro fit a kill cord to an electric outboard.  At the end of the day all you are doing is exactly what happens on a IC powered boat and killing the power , extremely easy to do and well worth the effort , an electric outboard ( small ones ) might not have the torque to seriously hurt someone in the water but the boat will get away from you , getting it back is a pain ,my is  experience mirror dinghy , windy day , tossed overboard , n swimming after unoccupied boat  ,  all around bargate broad :default_biggrin: n no I wasn't laughing :default_beerchug:

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24 minutes ago, Ricardo said:

Its not difficult to retro fit a kill cord to an electric outboard.  At the end of the day all you are doing is exactly what happens on a IC powered boat and killing the power , extremely easy to do and well worth the effort , an electric outboard ( small ones ) might not have the torque to seriously hurt someone in the water but the boat will get away from you , getting it back is a pain ,my is  experience mirror dinghy , windy day , tossed overboard , n swimming after unoccupied boat  ,  all around bargate broad :default_biggrin: n no I wasn't laughing :default_beerchug:

It is about a 500W motor, agreed it would have to be very unlucky circumstances to seriously injure someone, but it is still enough to hurt a lot though, the other risk is of course is the boat getting away from the driver forcing a swim beyond their endurance distance and drowning. So I think they should have kill cords. 

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1 hour ago, Philosophical said:

It is about a 500W motor, agreed it would have to be very unlucky circumstances to seriously injure someone, but it is still enough to hurt a lot though, the other risk is of course is the boat getting away from the driver forcing a swim beyond their endurance distance and drowning. So I think they should have kill cords. 

Totally agree as I stated n 500w is near enough 3/4 HP n more than enough to hurt anyone , a kill cord stops be it electric or petrol outboard instantly .

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4 minutes ago, dnks34 said:

Is it a regulation that all petrol powered outboards have a kill switch?  I owned a 2nd hand mariner a few years ago that didnt have one so I fitted one for my own piece of mind

Nope not a regulation as far as I'm aware but sure. Is common sense , that said lots of outboards won't start until a tab is I'm place in the kill switch , thing is that doesn't need to be connected to anyone in the boat for it to work , iv seen lots of outboards with kill cord's basically attached to the engine , remember a 4 HP outboard with a plastic prop will cause anyone who gets in it's way serious injuries .

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2 hours ago, psychicsurveyor said:

Hi 40,

I have a electric outboard I use to use,  I am fairly sure it would go to stop if I let go of the twist grip,  could it be the return spring has gone in your grip ?

That would satisfy the requirements of a kill switch, if as you say it worked.

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2 hours ago, Ricardo said:

Nope not a regulation as far as I'm aware but sure. Is common sense , that said lots of outboards won't start until a tab is I'm place in the kill switch , thing is that doesn't need to be connected to anyone in the boat for it to work , iv seen lots of outboards with kill cord's basically attached to the engine , remember a 4 HP outboard with a plastic prop will cause anyone who gets in it's way serious injuries .

I think we have all seen the video of that idiot who fell out of an inflatable somewhere on the broads, he must have done something similar with the kill cord. 

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7 hours ago, psychicsurveyor said:

Hi 40,

I have a electric outboard I use to use,  I am fairly sure it would go to stop if I let go of the twist grip,  could it be the return spring has gone in your grip ?

No, the twist grip clicks round, 5 forward speeds and 3 reverse.

They are designed as trolling motors for fishing, so having to keep hold of the grip would be no good.

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It would be easy enough, to rig a kill cord, by putting an fuse unit in line (attached to side of battery box?) with a kill cord attached  your leg and to the plug in fuse to pull it out if man overboard.

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