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.
Matti
For that kind of weight leisure craft you should really be looking at the Cruise series (Cruise 2.0 or Cruise 4.0) these will allow you to use lead acid batteries or even their amazing but expensive Torqeedo Power.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at some of the Cruise Series here: http://www.g-comm.co.uk/manufacturer/torqeedo.html