Bill, I had 16 100 watt noncrystalline 12v solar panels mounted on an aluminum frame on top of my pontoon.
These panels were configured in two circuits of 8 panels each, each driving a 24v 80# thrust Minn-Kota Taxxis Motor with a 10X4 LH Pusher Prop from APC Props.
I could push the 24 foot pontoon at 5.1 mph top speed at about 1100 watts applied to both motors.
I could cruise all day at 3.5 mph burning about 300 watts per motor and tune power use to power production using in-line amp meters and power output data from the MPPT Charge Controller.
My main mistake with this configuration was mounting the battery array too far forward on the pontoon with 480 pounds of lead reducing the craft's ability to bound up over waves/wakes. Any wave/wake over 12" resulted in deck wash, not a problem for most pontoons, but not good when flooding a battery compartment full of electronics. (Solution, move the battery array a bit back from amidship or get lighter batteries)
Otherwise, it was great fun scooting around our 300' wide river with half a dozen friends.
Thanks,
Ken Cooke
Ken,
Nice pontoon setup. I like the idea of turning one motor off for tight quarters. Did you have solar panels pn your pontoon? I could get maybe 400 watts of solar on my boat as it's currently set up.
In my Redwing, I've decided to fabricate a mount for dual 24v 80lb motors controlled by a tiller. The Traxxis motors that I'm using are pretty nice and have a wig wag potentiometer throttle which I can integrate in the tiller. It turns out I'm not as big a fan of my remote steering wheel as I thought I would be. A small boat sailor at heart.
I've got my proof of concept system built and have been measuring no load states. Unfortunately it's winter now so I won't be able to launch for quite awhile. With all this time, perhaps I'll commit and remove my ICE.
Bill
_._,_._,_
Groups.io Links:
You receive all messages sent to this group.
View/Reply Online (#30852) | Reply To Group | Reply To Sender | Mute This Topic | New Topic
Your Subscription | Contact Group Owner | Unsubscribe [newarmyguitar24@gmail.com]
_._,_._,_
No comments:
Post a Comment