current wisdom on electric

Discussion in 'Hybrid' started by Anatol, Dec 22, 2015.

  1. Anatol
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    Anatol Senior Member

    that makes sense.

    That is presumptuous and quite wrong. I've been active in alternative energy research for 40 years. I am quite cognizant of the general challenges, and the costs and conversion inefficiencies of electric.

    My goal as originally stated, was to poll the members of the forum, whose experience and opinions I respect, in order to be better informed of the current state of play.

    Thanks to all for very informative responses !
     
  2. Anatol
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    Anatol Senior Member

    Yeah, I recognise that I will need repower soonish. I have a love hate relationship with the A4. As noted, its inefficient, worn out, and primitive - it doesn't even have an oil filter! Ethanol gas is causing carb clogging issues. Since I can't get non ethanol gas in CA, this seems like a problem that will not go away. I'd rather not repower with a diesel, but I could be persuaded if it was a highly efficient drop in replacement. Any suggestions anyone?
     
  3. philSweet
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    philSweet Senior Member

  4. powerabout
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    powerabout Senior Member

    Av gas, if they will let you
    No law says you cant use it on the water.
     
  5. FAST FRED
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    FAST FRED Senior Member

    Ethanol gas is causing carb clogging issues.

    Your gov destroying your future yet again.

    Most carb problems come from decades of gunk in the gas tank being broken loose by the ethanol.

    If the tank can not be cleaned either by polishing or removal and steam cleaning , a 6 gal outboard tank will still have 50 times the range of batteries.

    Sometimes only the ancient rubber fuel hose is the culprit as it dissolves in the bio crap. A real cheap cure.

    When you go to a small airport to pick up more useful fuel , tell them you are breaking in your Ultra Light engine , and they will sell you the fuel to carry off.

    A new modern gas engine might be easy enough to install and will be built to accept bio junk.

    The 12HP Honda air cooled would only require a small duct , and some are built for items with a built in gear box.

    You would not have a reverse function but at 1/10 or less the coat of a marine diesel, one could get used to it , your grandfather had no problems in 1908
     
  6. Anatol
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    Anatol Senior Member

    I've got three filters in line, water and particle, 10 micron and polishing. Whatever is getting into the carb seems to be soluable and them fall out of solution.

    Yeah, it did a number on the sealing gasket of my facet fuel pump.

    That is worth thinking about for sure. And there's lots of small diesels about,
    from gensets, truck fridge egnines, etc. But that is another can of worms, with marnising, gearing, mounts etc.
     
  7. FAST FRED
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    FAST FRED Senior Member

    "truck fridge egnines'

    These are frequently superb , the price is usaually fine and many have a huge cap oil pan , so it can run with no help for 10 days.

    If you need a tranny for Fwd Neutral and Rev , look in the for sale stuff at the bottom of the listings.

    $400 for a tranny , guess $300-400 for a nice running reefer take out and an aluminum plate for mounting with another hundred or two for a machine shop to drill the holes.

    Used heat exchangers are $100 so fresh water cooling with a DC pump is a snap.
     
  8. terhohalme
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    terhohalme BEng Boat Technology

    Electric boat

    Hello my solution was to use old SELVA 6hp outboard, took the 2-Stroke engine out and fit in an electric RC motor TP-100-200, Alien 350 A water cooled ESC controller, 25.6 V 100 Ah LiFePo4 battery, 8 x 255 W solar panels and 2 x 1040 W solar controller. The propeller size is original, because the motor will give the same power (4 kW) with the same rpm (5000). The boat is still under construction, technology is tested and work well, the boat will sail next spring.

    My page is here (sorry, most in Finnish): https://www.facebook.com/tohatsustaelhatsu/
     
  9. terhohalme
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    terhohalme BEng Boat Technology

  10. Anatol
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    Anatol Senior Member

    Nice info, thanks. I imagine I'd try to hook into my existing A4 transmission and V drive - certainly the V drive. This is all OTOH at this point.
     
  11. The Q
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    The Q Senior Member

  12. Ebeneezer
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    Ebeneezer Junior Member

    Check out thunderstruck motors for very reasonably priced sailboat electric kits. A friend replaced his aging atomic bomb years ago with this cheap kit and loves it.
     
  13. cmckesson
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    cmckesson Naval Architect

    Indeed Ebeneezer, those are very nice kits! Makes me want to upgrade once again...lol!
     
  14. Ebeneezer
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    Ebeneezer Junior Member

    These kits are air cooled so I would not want in a tropical climate but otherwise they work fine.
     

  15. cmckesson
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    cmckesson Naval Architect

    Yeah, mine's air cooled too and I did have thermal issues when on the Atlantic seaboard. Here in BC they are much less frequent, but I have encountered them nevertheless. I am installing a bilge-blower cooling fan, plus temperature monitoring on the "dashboard."
     
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