Hi Folks,
Im looking for advice on electric outboard motor thrust [/B](28,34,44 etc). I fish the western Irish loughs.its to be used only as a back up to trim long drifts on rocky shores.i have a 10hp motor for the long journeys to the fishing sites. Would appreciate all advice.p/s some advice as to brands also. Thanks, Jemo

The buy right / buy once solution is Minn Kota. Dependable, reliable, and spare parts are widely available if you need them.

My thinking is to buy as much thrust as you can afford. I have a Minn Kota bow mount on a 16 foot Lund aluminum v-hull and like you I have a petrol engine for open water running. I can tell you that on a windy day, even my 42 pound thrust can struggle to make headway against the wind, with 2 guys it gets pretty slow using the electric to run up to the top of a drift if it's gusting above 15.

I doubt anyone will ever regret having too much power, but I think you'd regret having too little. The cost to move up the line is minimal compared to the cost of buying another unit if you discover you need more power. Since you guys over in Ireland tend to run loch-style boats which look to me to weigh a fair bit, I'd say yet one more point for buying as much thrust as possible.

Don't forget, the battery matters as much as the outboard. You're going to need a deep cycle marine battery, a standard car battery will not be adequate for an electric outboard. Personally, I wouldn't buy anything less than a 110 Amp Hour battery for marine use. You'll also need to invest in a good battery charger if you don't already have one.

Grouse

Thanks Grouse for d gen.My boat is a 19ft fiberglass lough boat, not as heavy as a larch built.Thanks again, Jemo

Hi jemo,

I too have been thinking about getting an electric engine. Check out the post below and the link to ebay. It seems decent enough, however after buying a battery and a charger it becomes an expensive enough purchase.
Can you let me know if you source a battery which would be suitable...

Cheers
JJ



I've got the 54lb thrust version of this but TBH the 34lb thrust would have been enough as the 54 eats batteries:

SHAKESPEARE SKP ELECTRIC OUTBOARD MOTOR 34 FT LB on eBay (end time 14-Apr-10 14:09:50 BST)

They're pretty much bomb proof but when things do go wrong you will have Shakeys excellent after sales to fall back on and parts are readily available.

If you want the best then go for a Minn Kota (?sp) but I've been using my shakey for the last 5 years without any problems.

FJ

That's still going to be plenty heavy, keep in mind you'll be adding 50-70 pounds worth of battery to run this thing as well. I'd go with 40+ pounds if you have the budget for it, I think you'd be asking for problems down at the 28 pound end as I doubt that model would be sufficient for your boat in anything but glass calm conditions.

Minn Kotas are much easier on batteries because they have better quality motors and some models have a technology that pulses the motor on and off very rapidly to increase battery life.

I wish someone could confirm if there is a link between the US brand Motorguide and the motors that are sold in the UK as Shakespeare. The Shakespeare brand was sold here some years ago, but they were cheap junk sold at discount stores and they seem to have disappeared about 3 or so years ago.

Currently, the UK Shakespeare brand looks like a re-badged Motorguide. If and ONLY IF that were proved to be the case, they might be worth looking at IMO. The problem these days is that Chinese contract manufacturers have become very good at making lookalikes to encourage people to think that they are getting the same as a branded original for half the price. Anyone can make an electric outboard, the trick is to make one that doesn't drain the battery in an hour and doesn't pack it in after 20 uses.

Grouse

PM sent to you Jemo!

Another vote for the Minn Kota. I've been using mine for 10 years now, for the purpose you describe - as a drift controller on the western loughs. It's a 36 lb thrust with a 75 a/h battery, plenty adequate for an Anglers's Fancy or a Sheelin boat

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THANKS GUYS FOR D SOUND ADVICE