Testing Bowmount Motor.
Posted: 21 Sep 2017, 10:17
I had a Watersake 54 lb Thrust transom mount.
New one is Watersnake "Combat" 54 lb bow mount.
Boat is Savage 4.1 "Kestral". Aluminium
Firstly the light domed bow on the boat made for problems mounting a bracket as it was too light to weld to. Overcame it by mounting on a series of S/S metal treads using nyloc nuts.
The following is an extract of mail to Steve R and I couldn't be bothered re writing it for here sorry. Just though there may be some here that may find it interesting.
As you would have seen, the motor was good for shaft length and I was nervous because I didn’t know where the water came to on the front of the boat, but it is perfect. The 48” shaft saved me $170 so the calculated risk was worth it! The prop is a good foot under water or more.
It was difficult on the small ramp in the park launching yesterday, as the water was high and I didn’t want to get wet. I was close to needing the back of the car in the water to float the boat off and trying to pull if off with a rope just got the boat sideways on the trailer which meant I couldn’t pull back to try something else. It must have taken 1/2 an hour to get it in the water. I should have put waders on and got in the water but it wasn’t very inviting early on. There was a tree up against the tie off spot so that was awkward too.
The outboard wouldn’t start!! That’s never happened before and I must have flooded it but didn’t muck around as I intended to test the “leccie”. Now the instruction book is prime “Chinglish” with labels for buttons and that but nothing about how to use them, very small print too!
"She’s right I don’t need a stupid instruction manual anyway, I mean how hard could it be?” Yeah right!
When I finally got it (sort of) going forward the motor rode up when I applied power so I tried to crawl out to clearer water, sort that out in a minute type of thing. The channel to the river is narrow and tree lined and believe me I had more than one intimate encounter with tree branches on the way out there. On the way out I found that the support cradle for the motor housing had to be clicked back & that sorted the motor rearing problem out.
I was surprised after so little rain locally, to find the river flowing downstream at about 5 or 6 KPH and still struggling to control things I rocketed down under the bridge barely managing one cast at the pylons. At this stage corrections of the remote quickly need a counter correction. I had tried the foot remote to find it bloody useless so I was relying an a wireless remote on my wrist. Tricky stuff initially!
A couple passes under the bridge had me more comfortable but there was nothing on the sounder at all. 100 metres down there was some interest in worm but it resulted in a 6” bream which soon was back with it’s mates. Anyway it wasn’t about the fishing on this trip. I headed off upstream to try things out and changed up to high gear! Not as fast as the old motor was my impression but then I was bucking a strong flow. Then when I hit top gear there was this annoying noise which I though was the motor about to blow up! If I walked as far as half way up it stopped and was perfectly quiet as befits an electric motor? I sat down the back and touched everything with a landing hook but it continued, and my conclusion is that them mount or motor being on the front has set up a harmonic vibration. Fix: carry a passenger or don’t sit down the back until I can think of a fix.
However I realised that with the wireless remote I wasn’t nailed to the back seat and could walk around stand on the casting deck and that is a major improvement! I ran for a while up towards the Lind Bridge and experimented with control and stopping in a strong flow to cast, not bad and getting better by the moment! A few of the fishos looked puzzled wondering who was driving as I stood up in the middle enjoying my new found freedom
Back down under the bridge a few times and my control is much better now though when I checked the battery state it said recharge!! My 105 AH deep cycle gave me roughly 4 or 5 hours on the stern mount but not much more that 2 hours on the bow mount and then I realised that it was steering using a motor and battery power. That obviously accounts for a lot of battery capacity. Then I was initially controlling more than I usually would, as I was learning how to use it.
I’m going to have to review things as I’m in the habit of only using the electric some days but now I might have to use the outboard to go from place to place and then electric around the fishing zone. Alternatively I may have to run a second deep cycle battery?
I didn’t run the outboard yesterday to check trim after re-siting the deep cycle battery to the front and side to try and balance out my weight, my fat bum, fuel tank, the outboard, a general battery for the sounder and the heavy bow mounted electric. Adding another heavy battery might not be wise?? Need more tests to see where I’m at currently before making further changes.
I have 2 handles at the front of the boat that act as a guide for the anchor rope so the motor is offset to the left a little and I’m not sure how that effects steering buy not being in the centre if the bow, but I noticed that if I stand on the same side as the bow mount and deep cycle, it takes more corrections to steer it. Other side, not so much!
An interesting day and I’m sure it will only get better as I use it more.
New one is Watersnake "Combat" 54 lb bow mount.
Boat is Savage 4.1 "Kestral". Aluminium
Firstly the light domed bow on the boat made for problems mounting a bracket as it was too light to weld to. Overcame it by mounting on a series of S/S metal treads using nyloc nuts.
The following is an extract of mail to Steve R and I couldn't be bothered re writing it for here sorry. Just though there may be some here that may find it interesting.
As you would have seen, the motor was good for shaft length and I was nervous because I didn’t know where the water came to on the front of the boat, but it is perfect. The 48” shaft saved me $170 so the calculated risk was worth it! The prop is a good foot under water or more.
It was difficult on the small ramp in the park launching yesterday, as the water was high and I didn’t want to get wet. I was close to needing the back of the car in the water to float the boat off and trying to pull if off with a rope just got the boat sideways on the trailer which meant I couldn’t pull back to try something else. It must have taken 1/2 an hour to get it in the water. I should have put waders on and got in the water but it wasn’t very inviting early on. There was a tree up against the tie off spot so that was awkward too.
The outboard wouldn’t start!! That’s never happened before and I must have flooded it but didn’t muck around as I intended to test the “leccie”. Now the instruction book is prime “Chinglish” with labels for buttons and that but nothing about how to use them, very small print too!
"She’s right I don’t need a stupid instruction manual anyway, I mean how hard could it be?” Yeah right!
When I finally got it (sort of) going forward the motor rode up when I applied power so I tried to crawl out to clearer water, sort that out in a minute type of thing. The channel to the river is narrow and tree lined and believe me I had more than one intimate encounter with tree branches on the way out there. On the way out I found that the support cradle for the motor housing had to be clicked back & that sorted the motor rearing problem out.
I was surprised after so little rain locally, to find the river flowing downstream at about 5 or 6 KPH and still struggling to control things I rocketed down under the bridge barely managing one cast at the pylons. At this stage corrections of the remote quickly need a counter correction. I had tried the foot remote to find it bloody useless so I was relying an a wireless remote on my wrist. Tricky stuff initially!
A couple passes under the bridge had me more comfortable but there was nothing on the sounder at all. 100 metres down there was some interest in worm but it resulted in a 6” bream which soon was back with it’s mates. Anyway it wasn’t about the fishing on this trip. I headed off upstream to try things out and changed up to high gear! Not as fast as the old motor was my impression but then I was bucking a strong flow. Then when I hit top gear there was this annoying noise which I though was the motor about to blow up! If I walked as far as half way up it stopped and was perfectly quiet as befits an electric motor? I sat down the back and touched everything with a landing hook but it continued, and my conclusion is that them mount or motor being on the front has set up a harmonic vibration. Fix: carry a passenger or don’t sit down the back until I can think of a fix.
However I realised that with the wireless remote I wasn’t nailed to the back seat and could walk around stand on the casting deck and that is a major improvement! I ran for a while up towards the Lind Bridge and experimented with control and stopping in a strong flow to cast, not bad and getting better by the moment! A few of the fishos looked puzzled wondering who was driving as I stood up in the middle enjoying my new found freedom
Back down under the bridge a few times and my control is much better now though when I checked the battery state it said recharge!! My 105 AH deep cycle gave me roughly 4 or 5 hours on the stern mount but not much more that 2 hours on the bow mount and then I realised that it was steering using a motor and battery power. That obviously accounts for a lot of battery capacity. Then I was initially controlling more than I usually would, as I was learning how to use it.
I’m going to have to review things as I’m in the habit of only using the electric some days but now I might have to use the outboard to go from place to place and then electric around the fishing zone. Alternatively I may have to run a second deep cycle battery?
I didn’t run the outboard yesterday to check trim after re-siting the deep cycle battery to the front and side to try and balance out my weight, my fat bum, fuel tank, the outboard, a general battery for the sounder and the heavy bow mounted electric. Adding another heavy battery might not be wise?? Need more tests to see where I’m at currently before making further changes.
I have 2 handles at the front of the boat that act as a guide for the anchor rope so the motor is offset to the left a little and I’m not sure how that effects steering buy not being in the centre if the bow, but I noticed that if I stand on the same side as the bow mount and deep cycle, it takes more corrections to steer it. Other side, not so much!
An interesting day and I’m sure it will only get better as I use it more.