electric trolling motor

[ian parkes]

Iam thinking of buying one for fishing
2 reasons really , my boat isn't really big enough for a small petrol motor
the electric motor is very quiet and cheap to buy .

what i can't find out is what size i need , they are all rated in pounds thrust which means nothing to me . i only want it move me along the shore as i plug for bass or troll feathers .

anyone used one on a small 4-4.5 m rib

and how long will a battery last going steady ? I can work out from the power of the motor , but on slow ie is a larger motor going to draw less than a small one going half speed .

[uncle al]

seventeen pounds of thrust is = 1hp approx
for safety reasons I would not use on the sea,only rivers,canals and lakes.
how long on a battery? it depends on what size the motor is, what condition the batterry is, is it in a ie fully chargd , half charged condition.

[ian parkes]

thanks for that , sounds like a smaller one will do the trick .

daft of me to ask about battery life without stating size of battery , i was presuming the use of a medium leisure battery i guess 55ah ish I can do the maths on that , but i expect the reality will be quite different .

Don't worry the 50 will still be on the back to get me home , i wasn't intending to use the electric as a sole engine .

[Turbodiesel]

We use one on our SIB up and down the river. Have found that 17ib of thrust in reality is not 1 hp. We bought the biggest Mercury one we could get which in theory should be 3.5hp. its nothing like it!. The 2hp outboard we have will run rings around it. My advice would be buy the biggest one you can!! or buy a small petrol engine!

[hadd]

Originally Posted by ian parkes

Iam thinking of buying one for fishing
2 reasons really , my boat isn't really big enough for a small petrol motor
the electric motor is very quiet and cheap to buy .

what i can't find out is what size i need , they are all rated in pounds thrust which means nothing to me . i only want it move me along the shore as i plug for bass or troll feathers .

anyone used one on a small 4-4.5 m rib

and how long will a battery last going steady ? I can work out from the power of the motor , but on slow ie is a larger motor going to draw less than a small one going half speed .

Don't bother buying a electric motor for that size of rib, i had one on a 4.3 rib & if you had a bit of wind it went backwards

[Jorgos]

some basics.
12volt trawling motors are useless. to weak to push anything else except a very light craft, ot the most can keep your boat still on a spot ( in windy contitions)

24 volt are stronger but they need volts and electricity.
check the watts of the motor.
lets say a motor is 500W ....... a 55 amp battery is 55 x 12 = 660. but you cannot burn more than 40% of the capacity of a lead battery. so at full speed a 12volt motor will work about 40 minutes. If you empty the lead battery 4-5 times will die for ever. So you need deep cycle battery, to last and they cost a lot more. If the motor is 24 volt then is X times two!
The more complex electronic motor the more is likely to stop .