Briggs and Stratton E-tek outboard

[dremd]

Originally Posted by bennelson

If anyone is interested, I did a short blog post on what's available out there to make your boat into an electric one.
Electric Boats Blog Entry

A very good Friend of mines inlaws have a Duffy in Virginia, one of my all time favorite boats, few complaints 1) to damn heavy 2) Steering is terrible 3) poor battery management (just very old golf cart battery charger that boils the batteries away). It has been a while since I've been on Duffy, there have been some upgrades (charger) but it is largely maintenance free despite being shipped back to the manufacturer in the past for service (owner does 0 service). We were recently discussing some sort of trolling motor based steering as the rudder is pretty bad. Neat fact, Duffy registers a a Yacht in Virginia. More neatness is that the lake is a byproduct of a Hydro Electric project which likely powers a large portion of the boat.

[dremd]

Crappy quality is due to my phone being in a ziplock bag.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QiTI...ature=youtu.be

[MetroMPG]

Cool - thanks for posting that video!

[dremd]

Took it out for trip #3 today (in salt water this time), had 5 people in the boat, it did very well, 0 issues.

Picked up a 200 Volt / 200 Amp meter from Amazon Amazon.com: Volt Meter/DC Digital LED Amp Volt Meter + Shunt /200V 200A /Blue: Home Improvement Which looks very promising, only issue is that it "runs" on 6-24 volts. Any body have a good idea on ho to get a 6-24 volt low power source out of a 48 volt nominal pack? Normally I'd use a 7812, but max input on those is like 36. Any and ALL cheap skate ideas are welcome, although I'm trying to avoid an extra battery.

[dremd]

Just a few pics from the trip

[MetroMPG]

What the heck? What happened to those boats? Old boats put out to pasture? Neglect? Storms?

[dremd]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

What the heck? What happened to those boats? Old boats put out to pasture? Neglect? Storms?

I would like to know. lots of hurricanes around this part of the world, shifting / declining fisheries could be cause as well, totally don't know.


Few Upgrades.
Transom stiffened so that shaft doesn't press up against the drain plug when under power.
Loosened drag on steering.

Still need legitimate steering.
Still need battery mounts/ good spots for battery's.
I'm starting to want to improve aerodynamics of the boat behind the golf, it knocks mpg down to around 35-40mpg@65mph.

[user removed]

When I was 12 I could plane a jon boat with oars.

regards
Mech

[dremd]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

When I was 12 I could plane a jon boat with oars.

regards
Mech

Much Stronger than I.
I can do 2 mph max with the oars. The 3.5 gasoline doesn't even plane this boat when I hit the rev limiter.

[dremd]

Installed the volt+ amp. meter today.
I added 1.5k ohm resistor to the power feed which drops input voltage from 50 ish down to 15 ish.

Meter appears to work very well for the price.

Lowest speed that the controller will do is about 2.5 amps, max continuous draw out of water is 10 amps, and peak acceleration draw out of water is about 60 amps which I assume will be approximate draw loaded in the water.

I also learned that the state of charge meter does work, you just have to shut the motor off and press the battery button (which is the momentary bit after off). Very nice to have.

Next time out I'll have some decent data.