Electric Engines

I know they're not really used for sea angling over here, but I was looking at a Rhino VX 55lb thrust one for my small lake boat. Has anyone had any experiences with this or any other electric engine?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Cheers

Matt

Hi Matt,

I don't have one but here's something you need to consider if you do get one.
While you can operate them using a car (starter) battery you really should use a deep cell battery. Car batteries are designed to supply a lot of current in a short burst, car batteries should never be fully discharged, each time a car battery is fully discharged it looses some of it's ability to hold charge and they eventually fail, so not suitable for this type of application as they won't last as long as they should.
Deep cell batteries are designed to supply a gradual amount of current over a long period of time and can be completly discharged. Deep cell batteries are used for lighting (Boats and caravans etc) they tend to be more expensive that car batteries as they're not as common.
Auto factors don't tend to stock deep cell batteries but they can order them for you, price around as I reckon the price will vary a lot, compare auto factors, ships chandlers and camping shops for pricing.

As adrian says the engine is only half the battle. Depending on boat size the battery will set you back about €75 - €100 yo yo's. A friend has the Rhino I think it might be the 55lb version, but I'm not 100% I have a 19ft lake boat at we have pushed the boat around the lake for about 4 hours before the charge light came up on the battery. We were fly fishing so we were motoring at full thrust for quite a bit. If your trolling you shout get about 6 hours with a 90ha battery on a calm day.

Kev

Hi Guys.

Thanks for the advice. I think I might wait a while longer, and save up for a second hand petrol engine. It alls seems a bit confusing what with deep cell batteries etc. :)

Cheers

Matt

Dillon,

Are you going to use it in fresh water or the sea?

Kev

Hi Dillon

its not confusing at all, just pick up a marine battery from any fishing shop that sells them, Paul in Anglers world navan sells them and they do the job fine. After that all you will need is a charger, quite cheap, and you are sorted.

I have a rhino 35 for my small lake boat (9 feet long) and its perfect, no worring about fuel and they are more reliable than petrol engines in my opinion. I can get about six hours constant trolling on it from one charge (more if its slow trolling)

I recommend them

Adam

just pick up a marine battery

Careful here, a normal boat (One with an inboard engine) still needs a starter battery for starting and ideally a deep cell battery for lights, fridge etc. the term marine battery could be misleading as yopu often need both types. A deep cell battery certainly shouldn't be used for starting a petrol or diesel engine, I don't think it would be able to supply the required burst of current anyway.
If you ask for a deep cell battery they should know what you are looking for, watch out that you don't get fobbed off with a normal starter battery which will be fine for a while but money badly spent in the long run, think of it like this, if the load under normal use is going to run down the battery until it's completly flat then you should be using a "deep cell battery". Ideally a starter battery (car battery) should never be run down until it's completly flat, this shortens it's life span.