Electric motor option??

G

Geewest

Guest
Most of the time we are under 5 mph but would never want to loose the ability to romp down and fly across the lake with the speed and power of a V8. But For the times when your "just in gear" going under 5 mph it wold be cool to be able to shut off your gas motor and have these drop into the water and push you along. Almost silent operation. Pontoon boats offer lots of storage ( battery's ) to power the electric motors when the gas motor is off and when the gas motor is running it charges your battery's. Myself included have the ability for shore power so charging up is no problem. More advantages would be! Not putting hrs on your gas motor. I could easy see cutting the operation of my gas motor in 1/2 or even more. The electric motors are

small enough that they could swing up under the swim platform when not in use. And then swing down when they are needed. Another cool option would be a Remote or wireless control of the motors. Imagine being able to sit anywhere in the boat and be able to drive it with a small hand held remote.

Sent from my iPad
 
I have been looking around @ these electric

Motors. They are not cheep. Example one of the Torqueedo" electric motors thats on the back of the boat in the video cost $3800 each. Then you need a battery bank.

Depending on how big if a battery bank you choose a battery bank is another $3k. Then your going to need a high quality high current smart charger. And that can set you back $1000 to 3k depending how fast you want to recharge.

Then there is stearing and throttle and you can look to spend another $1000. So to be safe your looking at around 10k for a single electric motor fully set up. And a bit under 20k for twinn electrics. I hate to say this but " you can buy alot of gas for $20k " If i had to guess I would say that we spend $300 on gas a month durning summer time to power our 2275 RL i/o 350 Mag. Now check my math. Lets say our boating season is 6 months long. Thats $1,800 in gas a year, So it would take the better part of 11 years to spend that much in gas. All things equal, if you went the gas route you would have nothing to show for your spending, apposed to the electric route where you would have a fully payed for electric system. Batterys are lasting quite a bit longer these days but im pretty sure the 11 year old batters might need replacing. This being said I still like the Idea of a electric set up. Their are some places that you can ONLY use a electric boat so these motors could open up more option for boaters on water ways where gas motors are not a option.
 
That is way too expensive to justify the benefits IMHO.
 
Spinzone; I agree. But if you bought a O/B version of a pontoon boat and didnt get a motor from

The dealer/factory im guessing you would be into the electric motors and batterys, for about the same cost as a quality OB.
 
But to spend 20K on an electric motor compared to $20k on a 300hp Verado? That one electric motor would need to do something really special! Same principle with electric vehicles that I cannot get used to. The wait time between fill ups is what is hindering the ability to overtake combustible engines in the majority of the US.
 
All will be different when gasoline is $10/gal. I fully expect it during my boating lifetime (I'm 56 and plan to boat up to the day I die).

But to spend 20K on an electric motor compared to $20k on a 300hp Verado? That one electric motor would need to do something really special! Same principle with electric vehicles that I cannot get used to. The wait time between fill ups is what is hindering the ability to overtake combustible engines in the majority of the US.
 
But to spend 20K on an electric motor compared to $20k on a 300hp Verado?
You're assuming the $20,000 guesstimate is accurate.
 
The numbers i came up with were from prices from west marine

2 cruise 2.0 motors $3000 each = $6000

2 battery banks, "1 for each 2.0 cruise" $3000 each =$6000

2 sets of throttles = $600

Instalation $1000- to $2000

Stearing set up $1000-$2000

Battery charger $600 to ????

So you could cut the cost in 1/2 by only going with one motor and Also futther your cost cutting by building your own battery bank. The cost of $3000 for 1 battery bank was for the Factory Tourqueedo battey bank. You could simply throw a few $200 agm batterys and be ok. You would only have 1 hr of run time but "it would work"
 
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