them dang germans have turbocharged the trolling motor
 

now you don't have to buy gas anymore or worry about pollution

check out the video of their electric outboard motor from Germany:
and the website: http://www.epowermarine.com/torqeedo.html

I think its a pretty cool idea for inside waters

Dang! And to think of all the money I spent on developing a gas powered trolling motor.

I've had my eye on those for a while! The electric outboard on a small flat for accessing limited access areas on wma's would be awesome!

prices are INSANE tho....

true but they will come down as they get more popular and the money you save on gas "sorta" offsets the price.

the way they goin with epa regulations we might all need to go "gas free" at some point, some reservoirs and lakes are already pretty stupid strick on motor emmissions

also seams IMO it would almost be a necessity to have a very powerful solar battery charger to go with it

Saw these at workboat show las year, awesome looking units

yeah id like to know how long a charge would last with one of those.

it says it on the website in amp hours and estimated distances at a couple different speeds

id like to have that 40hp motor on a 1654

You wouldn't want the battery weight in a 1654. It would take a huge battery to go the distance of 5 gals of gas with a 40 hp.

How about a propane powered outboard
http://golehr.com/lehr-marine/

In that case this is completely useless!

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yep 4 batteries sounds like a lot of weight until you consider that 5 gallon tank of gas you no longer need to carry, weights as much as one of those 4 batteries and most people bring a second "spare" tank of gas equal to that second batteries weight so overall the weight you add isn't that much and the motor itself is a whole lot lighter so overall I bet the weight works out to be the same as a regular 4 stroke with gas tanks.

And im not saying this thing is ready for "prime time" but you have to remember your actual cruising time isn't going to be that much at all when you think about it.

on a 12 hour fishing trip moving 3 or 4 times I barely run the motor more then an hour or so total combined so while I agree its marginally enough, this is all you need for most inshore marsh fishing trips. plus adding a fifth battery will extend the times and distances you can do

and half throttle aint bad either

this must be idling or trolling speed I assume but I don't care how good your motors gas mileage is, that 5 gallons of gas aint never going to let you run for 33 hours non stop like the electric motor does.

im not going out and buy one anytime soon, I don't buy new ideas until someone else makes dang sure all the kinks have been worked out for a few years first.

it looks like given a few more years the batteries and the motors will be better or at least improved to be more efficient so this will be a viable alternative to look at in a few years unless your a brave soul who likes to be the first to try new things.

This thing has been out for several years. It ain't new. It just hasn't caught on. Mostly bc of the price I think. I think if you have to travel long distances to get to your target area( like in the wax,) it wouldn't be good as your primary propulsion source. But, if you could put one on a small flat to drag either behind you or in a larger boat with you, then you could use it to access limited access areas where internal combustion engines are not allowed.

that or anywhere you would fish within 5 miles of the launch

if I had it on a flat id want the 40hp motor to push me at least 35mph... and it would need a range of at least 10-15 miles to make it useful IMO... most trips to BL id probably travel 15 miles total... Especially the days you hadn't been in awhile and you have to find em.

4 batteries at about 50lbs = 200lbs
10 gal. gas at about 6 ppg = 60 lbs
The motor probably weighs alot less than a 4-stroke though.

Less moving parts so less chance of failure. It's an interesting idea.

Electric motors have tons of torque so hole shot should be great.

yep, plus there is no need for any water pump or cooling system other then just sitting in the water so I cant think of any maint. it would ever need

by the way a gallon of liquid has a base given weight of 8 lbs per gallon

plus I think you might be a little heavy on the batteries by about 10 lbs each (they don't feel like 50 lbs) but I never put one on a scale.

the average 40-50 hp 4 stroke weighs in at 240-250 lbs with some of the newest ones like Honda and tohatsu only around 215

I see it much like electric cars, they are great as long as you aren't traveling very far but for long trips gas is still more what I would rely on

Not to split hairs but water weighs 8.33 ppg and gasoline varies something like 5.9 - 6.5 ppg. Oil in general is less dense than water, thats why we get oil slicks.

The battery weight I just pulled off of pepboys or something like that. Those were just $110 batteries, I can;t remember if the super duper optimax type AGM batteries are lighter than lead acid.

Anyone know how much they cost? I know the little torqueedo they had for kayaks was about $1500 so I would take a WAG and say a 40 HP would be in the $8k range

[QUOTE=bmac;680242]Not to split hairs but water weighs 8.33 ppg and gasoline varies something like 5.9 - 6.5 ppg. Oil in general is less dense than water, thats why we get oil slicks.

The battery weight I just pulled off of pepboys or something like that. Those were just $110 batteries, I can;t remember if the super duper optimax type AGM batteries are lighter than lead acid.

Anyone know how much they cost? I know the little torqueedo they had for kayaks was about $1500 so I would take a WAG and say a 40 HP would be in the $8k range QUOTE]

Just to keep it accurate, I looked up the weight in some of my old information from when I worked at a Refinery. Gasoline generally weights about 5 lbs per gallon. Oil runs around 7+ lbs per gallon.

ok, cool

so my teachers were teaching us wrong lol, not surprised to find that out, we had some dumb teachers in school. even had one science teacher who would fail you unless you agreed with her the moon landings were all fake and we never landed on the moon because her "proof" was they were following in someone elses tire tracks when it was shown on tv lol.

they taught us ALL liquids were 8lbs per gallon unless the had solid additives in them.

never too old to learn new stuff and now I know not all liquids weight the same

No worries, I just know it because of my line of work. Gasoline density I just googled and it was about 6ppg. That varies with additives and other hydrocarbons mixed in, so I guess pure gasoline is 5ppg like Gerald said.

The chart that I found did not say what blend of "gasoline" was used to determine that it weighted 5 lb per gallon. I was actually thinking gasoline weighted much more, something like 7+ ppg. It has been a long time since I worked with these numbers.

Battery powered is the downfall. If you had unlimited access to electric power, that would be the ticket. Nothing more disheartening than a weak battery. Plus batteries are very difficult to maintain and get full performance, and life out of. Four-12Volt batteries ain't squat. You would need like 16-20 batteries for any kind of performance, and again they cost alot, and won't last 1/2 of the advertized life span.
Ask them folks w/ 100% battery powered cars....they were/are disappointed. Batteries are THE WEAK LINK !!!!! Want to become a billionaire, figure that one out.

You DO NOT need like 16-20 batteries for any kind of performance, don't be silly. its not an electric car that needs 800 lbs of batteries to power it.

if you had bothered to read the info about it you would see that ALL it needs is four 12 volt 200 AH batteries to power your boat.

if you don't like the idea of battery power that's fine, but don't try to misrepresent the situation. this thing works, and it works quite nicely on just four 12 volt batteries and while im sure its not the fastest thing on the water, it gets pretty good speed comparable to the speeds you get with an outboard.

I have alot of experience with batteries, trust me I read the intro.

With torquedo, their batteries are a major part of their tech. I'm sure that you could use just any battery out of the store but that would most likely hurt performance. Just saying.
I do believe the battery is the week link to electric systems. Cost, weight, and longevity are the major downfalls. Like all of these electric and hybrid cars, wait until they start getting old enough for people to start having to replace and service
those batteries. They are gonna hate it!

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I see alot of obamacare type math and reasoning going on here... I am out of this one.

Just go buy it...you can figure out how far you can go and what weight it will add afterwards. :rolleyes: