Matti,
I've got an 801 for my inflatable dinghy. When I first got it, I was very impressed with the power. I raced off at full throttle, proud of my purchase. It turns out that you can go from 100% to 0% charge in less than 30 minutes, I had to row back to the dock. Now that I've got my head wrapped around that, I manage my speed and charge more closely and the motor delivers all I need for a weekend of shoreboat duty at Catalina Island. The 801s have an external battery adapter and cable set ($200). In fact, they sell a model that doesn't come with their cool LiMA battery, just the adapter.
According to the specs, the 13Ah battery that comes with the 1003 will only last 26 minutes at full thottle. Because of the size of your boat, you might find that half throttle with the 1003 could be less than 2.5kts in perfect, calm conditions. There won't be much reserve when you need it. Even full throttle may not get you past 4kts. On a good day, you should be fine, but if the wind picks up, you might find yourself in a difficult situation.
I don't think that the 1003 is right sized for a 2.4 ton boat. The Torqeedo site suggests up to 1.5 tons for that motor. The Cruise 2.0 seems more appropriate and should have the power reserve to handle a docking situation against the wind. The Cruise 2.0 is set up for remote batteries, so you get to pick the size of the bank to fit your budget and boat. You can always come back later and increase your range if needed.
I bring all of this up, because I've talked to a couple of people that bought Torqeedos for their dinghys and couldn't adjust their expectations and accept the pratical range and power limitations. They returned their motors and bought regular outboards. It's all about the owner's expectations, I've been able to make the conversion. :)
Fair winds,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "MattiB" <matikanpoika@...> wrote:
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> Hi Ed
>
>
> It would be interesting for me, and maybe for others also, if you could share your experience with the Torqeedo 1003 here on the forum? Some real world data would be interesting for me. This summer I "tested" a 1003 in a tank. It seemed ok though i didn't dare to go to full power fearing the tank wall might bend too much and the engine slip from the mountpoint which was a little bit too thick for the engine to fit correctly. The building quality seemed alright, at least superficially. The only negative thing I observed during the maybe 15 minutes I assembled it, tested it and disassembled it (the person who was responsible for Torqeedo products was on vacation so the shop owner said I would have to assemble it myself if I wanted to test it) was that the aluminum which gives the leg a foil shape, was a little bit loose. I don't know if that is a common problem or was only specific to the one motor I had in hands, since it was the only one. The battery had 33% charge when I started and still 30% when I stopped. I was running it for maybe 5 minutes between 50-500 Watts forward and backward. My conclusion was that it actually might be strong enough to push my 28 foot sailboat weighing about 2,4 tons, but that the battery capacity is simply too low for serious motoring at an assumed 3,5 knots and 1000 watts. As I understand Torqeedo does not plan to add a battery adapter for external batteries (which I see as a measure to assure noone is able to use the engine excessively within the waranty time without bying a lot of batteries or modifying the engine). However, if there was a battery adapter, the engine might also be interesting for me since I dont't think I need more than 1000 watts.
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> Matti
>
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