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Trolling motor

GrandpaSteve

Sustaining Member
Does anyone have experience with electric trolling motors as propulsion for Zodiak-style inflatable dinghys?

Paul
My brothers and I used to put one on anything that would float, and go fishing. I don’t know why it wouldn’t work on a dinghy. Storing the battery and lifting the battery on and off of the boat could be a challenge.
 

sharonov

Member II
Does anyone have experience with electric trolling motors as propulsion for Zodiak-style inflatable dinghys?
Not exactly a trolling motor but I use Torquedo 1003 with my Achilles LSI-260 inflatabe dinghy.

Pros:
Do not have to keep gas on board.
Do not have to worry about gas going bad.
Do not have to worry about carburetor getting clogged.
No oil dripping anywhere. Can store the motor inside in any position.
Very light, 31lb total and even that is split into three separate parts that you can easily pass down into dinghy.
Very quiet.
Always ready to go.
Has built-in GPS that shows SOG and estimated remaining range. I found it to be quite accurate.
There was lower state registration fee advantage to electric motor as I recall.

Cons:
Battery has limited energy. That translates into only 30 minutes at full throttle running at about 4 knots. More realistic scenario is 1/8 to 1/3 throttle resulting in 2 to 2.5 knots for several hours. That is not so bad until you find yourself running against 2-3 knots of current. I believe nowadays you can get a larger battery that doubles the energy.
Recharge time. Can be mitigated by adding a spare battery but see (cost).
Repairability. If an electronic board fries (as it happened to me) you have slim chance of fixing it yourself and will have to take to an authorised repair shop and wait a couple of months. If you Google it you will find that a lot of people are having problems with these motors throwing all sorts of error codes.
Cost - about double compared to conventional motor.
Lastly I suspect 3hp rating is a bit optimistic.
 
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