Friday, June 2, 2023

[electricboats] Connectors question for electric outboard

I'm planning to use an electric outboard on the West Marine RIB 310 for my trawler.  The dinghy is about 10' long, weighs a little over 100 pounds empty, plus 2-3 "solid sized" adults, plus motor and battery.  Current plan is to experiment with a 48V Hangkai electric outboard, powered by a BTR 48V Ebike battery.

Question:  What connectors are best for using in the marine environment?

I have experience with Torqeedos, and they use Anderson Plugs.  Is that the best option for being able to quickly plug between the battery and the motor?

One thing I want to do is put a small box between the battery and motor.  The box will include a battery switch on the positive leg and a Victron battery monitor on the negative leg.  While the Torqeedo used Anderson type connectors, I believe 120A type - I'll probably go with 50A Anderson connectors for the Hangkai.  This is because both the batteries and the motor use small guage leads - 12GA at most.  This is challenging enough to crimp into the pins of the 50A connector (intended for 8ga wire).   I have a crimper that I use for most of the large pins and terminal lugs, but have to resort to using a bench vice to crimp the connectors on the small motor and battery leads.  I'm planning to use 8 ga wire for the longer runs.   The motor is rated at 1000W.   I'm assuming I shouldn't be running much over 20A peak, probably more like 800W for typical cruising.

The Hangkai is tiny compared to the Torqeedo 2T.   But I'm really curious to see how the Hangkai does, and am REALLY hopeful that it works out.  At $350, it's less than 1/10th the cost of a Torqeedo.   The Ebike 48V batteries seem to be much better priced and much more available than 24V lithium batteries.  My hope is that a 50A Ebike battery will get me at least 2 hours of run time at around 800W on the Hangkai - and I'm REALLY hopeful that 800W will be enough to push the dinghy at least to 3-4mph.   

I'm looking forward to being able to put some data together to compare the Torqeedo to the Hangkai.  I understand that the Hangkai has less than half the power of the Torqeedo (and the prop on the Hangkai also seems tiny compared to the Torqeedo prop) - but if it can honestly put out what it claims to do, I think that'll be sufficient for a small dinghy.  Given my battery bank, 800W would be a good burn rate.  I know it'll never get me on plane or win any races.  But if it gets me from the boat to the beach, and lets me toodle around a little from time to time, that'll be just fine.

John


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