Jim Hawkins
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2013
- Messages
- 499
Well, that was fun.
Took her out for a test drive. I was hoping for a calmer day but got tired of waiting. She did 3.6 mph into a 15 mph wind and 4.6 downwind ( I don't know which way the current was going). I thought it wasn't too bad for a little 2/3 HP electric lawn mower motor. I had 4 Trojan 6V batteries wired to 24 volts and 2 solar panels putting out around 200 watts.
It handled nice and was a good first step using stuff I already had and only spending about $35 for the Jaw Coupling. I ran it back and forth by the Blimp Road boat ramp until I heard funny noises in the motor. A little piece of plastic from inside was hitting the brushes and sending out little black specks. Now, understand this was a salvage motor that was under my house and when Hurricane Irma hit with my island as ground zero and there was three feet of water under my house and this motor was in it. A wonder it runs at all. A little rusty I guess but hey, it's just a test.
So when I got back I took out the brushes, shook the debris from the motor, reassembled and the sucker just won't quit.
So, my next step, before putting money into a new, powerful motor
I want to see just how much I can improve my existing setup. The prop that was on the old 15HP Johnson was a 10" X 10P. Probably way over propped so I want to take it down to a 10" X 7P so the motor can spin faster and not work so hard.
I also want to add a couple hundred more watts of solar so I can see how much I can slow down the battery drain.
View attachment Test.mp4
Took her out for a test drive. I was hoping for a calmer day but got tired of waiting. She did 3.6 mph into a 15 mph wind and 4.6 downwind ( I don't know which way the current was going). I thought it wasn't too bad for a little 2/3 HP electric lawn mower motor. I had 4 Trojan 6V batteries wired to 24 volts and 2 solar panels putting out around 200 watts.
It handled nice and was a good first step using stuff I already had and only spending about $35 for the Jaw Coupling. I ran it back and forth by the Blimp Road boat ramp until I heard funny noises in the motor. A little piece of plastic from inside was hitting the brushes and sending out little black specks. Now, understand this was a salvage motor that was under my house and when Hurricane Irma hit with my island as ground zero and there was three feet of water under my house and this motor was in it. A wonder it runs at all. A little rusty I guess but hey, it's just a test.
So when I got back I took out the brushes, shook the debris from the motor, reassembled and the sucker just won't quit.
So, my next step, before putting money into a new, powerful motor
I want to see just how much I can improve my existing setup. The prop that was on the old 15HP Johnson was a 10" X 10P. Probably way over propped so I want to take it down to a 10" X 7P so the motor can spin faster and not work so hard.I also want to add a couple hundred more watts of solar so I can see how much I can slow down the battery drain.
View attachment Test.mp4
![catroof1[1].jpg](/data/attachments/378/378822-5570dc493a3ba2847ddb7916e39c1976.jpg)
