At 08:35 PM 6/01/2010, you wrote:
>Hello, Arthur from Portugal here!!
>Interesting that you mentioned the electric ed …
>I'm looking at it my self, to retrofit in a 24
>ft sailboat, and I received an email from glen-L
>at the same time I received your post.
>I am convinced that the overall concept is good
>and probably will be much more economic to build
>than the commercial proposals available for the same purpose.
>I couldn't still understand what kind of seal
>does the through hull tube uses ….or if it does at all….
>This is epoxied/glassed in and could be taken
>higher than water line in order to prevent
>accidental water intake, working as a kind of a
>"well"… which I think is interesting from the
>Safety point of view…
>As for the rest, the 3hp cart motor they use,
>would have to be replaced by something with more "power", but it might work.
>I am curious myself …. Anyway out there used this design already?
G'day Arthur, All
I have put a 4kW/48V ex-forklift hydraulic pump
motor on top of a 15hp leg with success, but not
put it through a hull, as I needed it to be an
outboard. Going by the revs achieved (about
3800RPM vs the ICE 4500RPM) I'm guessing my 4kW
is performing equivalent to about 10hp.
However, what I did included closing off the
bottom end, so this may give some insight.
At the join between the gearbox and the bottom of
the leg is where the water pump sits (and is
often the problem in a 'cast off' outboard).
Depending on how far you want to go, you could
fill the water galleries with epoxy, or TIG weld
them closed (I went with TIG welding, as I
started with a cracked gearbox so was welding
anyway). I also closed off the exhaust port, by
inserting an aluminium block and epoxying it into
place (I also filled the bottom of the port with
epoxy). Have to be careful where you weld, as you
don't want to distort the housing, and get the seals out first.
Once you have the ports blocked off - and they
need to be securely blocked, (I'd favour welding
over epoxy) you could bolt the gearbox to a
mounting plate (of whatever material suits) that
becomes the hull fitting (no steering here).
You'll need a good seal between the gearbox and
the hull (Sikaflex comes to mind). The existing
gearbox seals will be fine on the drive shaft,
you'll need to support the top end of the drive
shaft anyway, so now it comes to bulding the
motor mount and drive shaft coupling, that will
vary depending on the layout you need.
I locked the gearbox 'forwards', reversing on the
electric (seems to be the easier way to go, since
I lost the gearchange pivot when the ICE came
out). Nicer to use electric reverse, too.
If you want to steer the leg, that brings up a
whole bunch of other issues, but the
simplest/best way is probably to bolt the gearbox
leg to a round plate /seal/bearing assy,
depending on what you can 'find', as this would
give full rotation (if needed, but don't wind up
the cables). 3-wheel reach-truck forklifts do this, steer with the drive wheel.
Hope this helps
Regards
[Technik] James
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