Do I really need to change my lift motor to install solar battery?

[brettjbyers]

My father has a lift with a 110 motor plugged into a three-prong outlet. It was moved to a new location without easy access to an outlet.

This thread http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=471529 discusses some options on how to setup a solar kit with battery but the piece I am uncertain about is if I can take a motor with a 110 three-prong outlet and use an adapter to plug into a battery (which would be charged via solar). The Marina is saying we need to change the motor since there is now where to plug into the battery. Surely there there is a way to go from three-prong outlet to pigtails to hook into the battery, so is this an issue of converting power which I clearly don't know anything about? Does he really need to switch out his motor for a 12v motor?

If the boat lift motor really would need to be changed, I had one other crazy idea. You know those recharagable batteries you use to jump start your car or inflate water toys? We have a couple with an outline on it. Could the lift be plugged into that over the weekend (up and down a couple times) then re-charge the battery during the week, or would one raise or lower kill that battery? I don't have a sense how much power is needed.

Thanks everyone
Boating (and power) Novice.

 

[Georgesalmon]

Re: Do I really need to change my lift motor to install solar battery?

You can not run a 110 volt alternating current motor on 12 volt direct current unless you get a very large converter that changes DC to AC and might cost more or as much as a DC motor. Size of converter depends on the horsepower/watts of the motor. If you had a 12VDC motor you might be able to get by with a jump starter, depends on how much current you need to raise/lower the boat each time.

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Do I really need to change my lift motor to install solar battery?

Yep, as the post above says, you have to replace the motor. 120v AC motors are substantially different than a 12v DC motor, plugging in your current motor would most likely melt internal parts and release the magic smoke. It would not turn over even once.

Using a jump starter would probably not work well. Those batteries in a jump pack are relatively small, and not meant to be put into actual working duty like you want. They are meant for emergency use. Besides, a jump pack is going to cost you the same or more than a cheap battery at walmart. Yes, it would work, but its not ideal for a couple reasons.

Depending on the boat, why not just install a trolling motor outlet somewhere near the battery, and then put a trolling motor pigtail on the new 12v lift motor? No worries about charging or having a dead battery, and if you do, the boat isn't going to move anywhere anyway, so the lift is the last of your concerns.

Something like this would be perfect...

http://www.iboats.com/Marinco-DC-Co...8771164--session_id.982273387--view_id.391341

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Do I really need to change my lift motor to install solar battery?

Unless the property is under continuous watch, chances are the solar panel would be the target of thieves in a heartbeat. A solar panel large enough to keep the battery charged would be a fairly good size. If the current location is on your property it would likely be cheaper by a long shot to dig in a shore power run to the new location.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Do I really need to change my lift motor to install solar battery?

Whereas I agree with Silvertip on his recommendation. I still think it interesting enough to perform the engineering to see if the battery + inverter idea would work. I think using the boat's second battery is probably the best approach. How many lift motors and what rating do they have? Figure on 4 hours of boating between lowering the baot and raising it, so the boat will have a couple of hours to charge the battery. What is capacity of boat's charging system? Most modern V6 motors can charge 35-40Amps. That will recharge the battery pretty fast. A 1/2 hourpower motor is 375Watts/hour. So if it takes 5 min to lower boat with two motors, that is 35 watts or so, which is nothing to a battery.