I've just acquired a used 21' South Bay pontoon equipped with a 48vdc Minn Kota eDrive motor. I'd describe the speed as that of a brisk walk at full tilt but the display on the control says that's only good for about 1.4 hours. 50% throttle will get you about 6 hours and that's an ambling pace.
I'm interested in recreating an 1890s tour next Spring of the Ohio River as described in Afloat on the Ohio by Reuben Gold Thwaites. Mr. Thwaites, a historian from Wisconsin best known for documenting (and demythologizing) the Lewis and Clark expedition, puts it thus: "Afloat on the Ohio, An Historical Pilgrimage, of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, From Redstone [PA] to Cairo [IL]." Of course, I'd make the trip in the pontoon which I have named "S.S. Hole in the Water" after the well-known attribute of hobby boats to make a place in the water into which to throw your money.
While it has been very pleasant to cruise of an afternoon on small lakes in S. Ohio so far, the project is to build a solar awning on the pontoon to provide as much power as practical from the sun for any trip. The awning should raise or lower to keep the boat trailerable and keep it more stable and less top heavy in emergencies such as high winds. At full height, the awning would be as high as a bimini top. At lowest, it would cover the pontoon and furniture like a mooring cover and fit into receiver sockets for possible locking down.
While I'd like to use some sort of jointed leg and winch cable/pulley system (or even a low pressure water hydraulic push ram), my mechanical abilities may end at six linear actuators with a 40" stroke about the longest commonly available (at about 200 lbs. lifting capacity per actuator). I liked the cable arrangements as it would be much easier to keep two winches in sync than six actuators. Also on the 'want' list was the ability to lower one side of the awning to tilt the solar panels toward the sun. I thought to top each actuator column with a trailer hitch ball, so there'd be something like a universal joint for tilting etc.
That's the concept anyway and about as far as I've gotten. I note that the rigid solar panels are pretty heavy at about 50-60 lbs each and an awning of 8' x 20' might accommodate nine of the 79" x 39" size. A light weight 2" aluminum pipe frame would be the framework to attach the panels as well as the uprights. What's called "patio liner" would underlie the panels to make the roof waterproof. A potential cheap source of 2" aluminum tubing could be the flag pole kits both of the non-telescoping and telescoping variety, the latter to be used with the linear actuators. The boat has around a 1550 lbs. load capacity and I'm estimating the awning and panels as using 700 lbs of that.
MPPT Controllers haven't been chosen or sized as I'm unsure exactly what the Minn Kota eDrive actually draws at various speed settings. I did buy a Westinghouse 2200-ish watt inverter generator for emergency recharging 'at sea'. It's been tested once on the lake and has no difficulty with the Minn-Kota MK460D multibank charger electrical load.
Well that's the project. At least with a pontoon, you automatically have two holes in the water to throw money into as befits a solar boat project. Crude drawings under 'S.S. Hole in the Water'.
Byron Winchell
Posted by: bwinch@yahoo.com
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