What is this Boat?

CobraJet

10 W
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Feb 9, 2015
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I just bought a battery powered boat. It has no markings or numbers on it anywhere. I've looked all over the hull, under seats, in the motor/battery compartment and can not find the make or model. As a matter of fact, no numbers on it anywhere!

It's powered by 4 - 6V batteries and a brushed motor with a 1/2" motor shaft, 11.5" long and ~5.5" in diameter. This transfers the power through a pair of dual pulleys and dual V-belts to a direct drive prop shaft of ~3/4" diameter X 3' long swinging a small ~7" prop. The person I bought the boat from said she thought that it was a golf cart motor. There is no speed control per se, all power being handled by several solenoids.

On the dash there is a 0-12 mph speedometer, keyed power switch, forward/reverse switch, and a high speed/low speed switch. The gal I bought this from said that it would do a maximum of 7 mph and that is fine with me as we have a 5 mph speed limit on the lake that we'll be using it on.

Can anyone help me out with any information about the boat and/or it's power system?
 

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OK, you have a 12v system with a DC motor (or maybe 24v, if the two groups of 2 series 6v batteries are combined in series). You can tell for sure that each pair of 2 batteries is combined in series for 12V.

DC motors don't need fancy controllers and in fact you can just slam the power on / off with solenoids like in your boat.

It doesn't really matter who made the boat because the technology is universal, common (or it used to be), and very well understood.

The boat should work as-is if the motor, solenoids, wiring, batteries are in good shape. I would think you might have to replace the batteries.

If you do replace the batteries, look into LiFePO4 and LTO as these are types of lithium batteries that are very safe but still outperform lead acid batteries, which is what you have now. Same type as in your car.

You can also get a variable DC motor controller to smoothly control the power instead of using solenoids, probably for very cheap like under $50.

The most important thing is to have a plan for when you run out of juice, because the batteries may not be very reliable or you may misjudge how much energy you actually have left. The electrical equivalent of a "gas gauge" is a power meter and it actually works a lot better than a gas gauge. You just need to wire in a simple device called a shunt and put the display for the meter in the cockpit. Then you run down the batteries to whatever the minimum safe voltage is and see how much energy you used. Then you can expect about that much energy next time.

Don't get stranded out in the water!
 
CobraJet said:
I just bought a battery powered boat. It has no markings or numbers on it anywhere. I've looked all over the hull, under seats, in the motor/battery compartment and can not find the make or model. As a matter of fact, no numbers on it anywhere!
It looks like a completely DIY system. Unless the person that did the conversion created a webpage for it somewhere, or posted it on a forum, and you happen to run across it, then the information on the components themselves is all you get.

You can make yourself a wiring diagram of it, whcih is a good idea in case you need to do repairs at any point.


Can anyone help me out with any information about the boat and/or it's power system?

What specific information are you looking for?
 
Yeah we have dont that befor. Motor to belt to prop tube to prop.. controlled by solonoids. We even have made a low speed / high speed setup, switching solonoids between 12v and 24v. It is a common old skool way of doing electric boats.
 
The batteries are all new golf cart batteries (4/20). They are wired in series as far as I can tell but there are a hell of a lot of wiring connections going to the battery pack,

Some of it looks like a factory wiring harness but there are a few extra wires hacked into that. I will definately be doing a wiring diagram!

My 1st chore before even cleaning things up was to check the state of battery charge. I tried running the onboard 24V battery charger and it started out at 40 amps and within a minute tripped off. Dragging out my trusty volt meter I find the two of the batteries appear to have a full charge, one had 3.4V, and the last had .85V! I connected my auto charger to the weakest one and let it charge for 25 hrs. It appears full now. Now on to the second lowest battery.

While that was charging I figured that it was pretty important to get the bilge pump running. Lifting on the float switch nothing happened. Switching the bilge pump manual switch, nothing happened! :shock: I traced out the wiring and found that part of the problem was hacked and disconnected wiring! (go figure!) I straightened most of that out and got the float switch working and turning on the pump. That was a big relief as I didn't want to come down to the dock and find a sunken toy!

I messed around a bit more but it was getting too damned hot so I came in to cool down. I can see this is going to be one of those puzzling projects that I seem to always find and fix. Sometimes that is the price for too good of a deal!

BTW, I took a few more pics of the motor. I even got my phone down below it taking pictures of the underside. Not a label or ID plate anywhere on it!
 

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flat tire said:
........
You can also get a variable DC motor controller to smoothly control the power instead of using solenoids, probably for very cheap like under $50.
......

Thanks flat tire. I have been stuck out in the water before years ago so I make every effort to keep things under my control that way. This boat resides with us on a lake that is only 1/2 long, I can padle home if I need to.

In regards to the $50 motor controller, have you got a link for that?
 
CobraJet said:
Some of it looks like a factory wiring harness but there are a few extra wires hacked into that.
Most likely part of the harness from the forklift the stuff came out of to begin with, as there have been plenty of solenoid switched no-controller models made. (it just switches more or less batteries in series to get more voltage / power).

The motor looks like the typical forklift steering pump motor (the traction motors are pretty large and heavy). Could be the traction motor.

If it is just two wires, it's just a plain series-wound motor, so you don't want to run it without a load. Only run it when it is connected to the drive system. (otherwise it can overspeed and blow the commutator up, metal shards flying out thru the casing, etc).

If it is four wires, it's a sepex (separately excited) motor, which requires a different controller than the series types (which can use any standard brushed controller, as long as it is capable of supplying the necessary current to run the system).

One way to determine the current needed is to run the system in the water at the speeds you want to use it at, and put a clamp-on current meter on the battery wire (either positive or negative, doesn't matter). The controller must be able to handle *at least* that much current; the more it can handle over that, the more reliable it may be.

My 1st chore before even cleaning things up was to check the state of battery charge. I tried running the onboard 24V battery charger and it started out at 40 amps and within a minute tripped off. Dragging out my trusty volt meter I find the two of the batteries appear to have a full charge, one had 3.4V, and the last had .85V! I connected my auto charger to the weakest one and let it charge for 25 hrs. It appears full now. Now on to the second lowest battery.
Any lead battery that's been taht low is toast--sulfated and damaged. There are desulfation methods, but it will never work like it was designed to again.

Most likely all of the batteries were below 5v to start with, and are all damaged. :( If they sag a lot trying to supply current, or discharge rapidly under any load, or self-discharge quickly, then they are damaged.

I'd recommend replacing all the batteries at the same time. Whether with lead again, or using some flavor if lithium, etc., is up to your needs and budget and maintenance time. Lead will need more maintenance, more frequent topping off (you don't want to let them discharge at all when not in use, and must recharge as soon as possible after using them, and not discharge beyond about 50% of capacity, etc). Lithium depends on the specific chemistry; LiTi lithium titanate is probably a good choice as they seem to handle abuse better than most of the others, LiFePO4 might be the next best, but both of those will weigh a lot more than other lithium types for the capacity and power delivered by them--though all of them will weigh a LOT less than lead.
 
Well over the past 2 days I charged each battery separately and they all came up to 6.4V and held overnight. I did take it on a short test run this afternoon. Motor and/or the bearing makes some noise. Looking things over I can tell that they have been under water before and probably need new bearings and brushes in the motor.

The best speed I could get out of it was a whopping 1.3 MPH so I know something isn't happy. I will try checking the amp draw and the voltage across each battery while under load.

BTW, the motor only has two wires going into it. For now the solenoid speeds are OK. I do still need to figure out why reverse isn't working. It's probably a bad connection, bad switch, or bad solenoid. Working on it though!
 
CobraJet said:
Looking things over I can tell that they have been under water before and probably need new bearings and brushes in the motor.
Don't change the brushes unless you ahve to (or change their orientation), or you'll have to re-bed them in on the commutator. Same thing if you clean the commutator, or have to sand it. It can take a while, and you don't want to do it under the full load of being in the water.

I do still need to figure out why reverse isn't working. It's probably a bad connection, bad switch, or bad solenoid.

If stuff was underwater, then switches are first on the list of stuff to fail. Solenoids/relays, if not openframe, can be sealed so if that's the type then they should be ok, but if not they coudl be corroded (and this could even have caused the damage to the pair of dead batteries, by sticking a contact on for the speed that engages those two batteries).
 
..The person I bought the boat from said she thought that it was a golf cart motor.
Yes , it looks like a golf kart motor.
If that is the case , you should have no problem finding advice/help/parts etc at the local golf kart mechanic, as most of that stuff is old school common, and well known.
Spped ...electrics may be stuck in low speed mode ?
Neat looking hull by the way ! :bigthumb:
 
My guess is it is a PM (permanent magnet) motor. Maybe a Honeywell or Pacific Scientific, maybe Peerless, doesn't look like an Ohio Electric. So likely ceramic magnet stator, guessing 2-pole, wound rotor. Brushes and commutator prone to overheat on overload or long runs on hot days.
2-speed: either large power resistor in series for low, or 12 to 24 volt switching for low/high speed. For reverse, easy to simply reverse polarity to motor but requires 2 contactors.
Flooded cell batteries so keep frequent eye on electrolyte level. Should have voltmeter and ammeter on board. SOC (State of Charge) meter is nice but fussy and expensive. But try to avoid deep discharge to prolong PbAcid battery life. Nice to monitor each battery voltage to id a stinker. 4-12V digital meters are pretty cheap and wiring easy.
major
 
BTW, if bilge pump runs off 12V, 2 of the 6V batteries, you'll have uneven discharge across the 4 pack. Then issues using a 24V charger. I'd consider getting a Minn Kota 2 by 12V marine charger. It'll at least equalize to 12V. I've never seen a 4 by 6V charger.
major
 
Neither had I, but for grins I googled your phrase, and found this:
https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-G4-Advanced-Battery-Maintainer/dp/B0068EV26I
Is this one? I can't find anything saying each channel is isolated...so my guess is it can't be used without disconnecting all the batteries from each other. :(
 
Looks nice and my guess is it would work with series connected pack. But for reliability, I've used multiple units for many years without a single issue, my money would go to Minn Kota.

Screenshot_20200629-130208.png

major
 
I've been doing lots of searching the past few days. Google has been running hot from all the use I've given it. Anyway, I found out what my boat is. It's made by Electracraft and it's thier Sport Boat that they no longer make. I haven't been able to find a year yet but I'll keep looking.

BTW, I broke out my clampmeter today and checked the draw under full and low speeds. Full = 25amps and low=11 amps, all at 24+V! So we're looking at 0.8 HP input! That all equates to ~1.3 mph according to my speedometer.

Oh, I also found out that the reverse solenoid doesn't seem to be working. I get voltage up at the forward/reverse switch and when I jump the switch, nothing happened. When I went back and jumped the forward solenoid, it works. When I jumped the reverse solenoid, it doesn't work! Too bad that both of these are in one unit!

Here's the picture that I found online.


Mine has a much better interior than the one in the pic though. I'm really happy with it!
 

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Are you sure this was originally a 24v setup ?
Many of those models seem to be advertised with 48v ser ups (12v x 4 , or 8v x 6, batteries) ?
A chat with electacraft should yeild a bit more info .
Even with <1hp, i would expect a little more than 1 mph, !
Have you checked the prop condition ? ...Motor rpm ? ...how clean is the hull bottom ?
 
Hillhater said:
Are you sure this was originally a 24v setup ?
Many of those models seem to be advertised with 48v ser ups (12v x 4 , or 8v x 6, batteries) ?
A chat with electacraft should yeild a bit more info .
Even with <1hp, i would expect a little more than 1 mph, !
Have you checked the prop condition ? ...Motor rpm ? ...how clean is the hull bottom ?

Well it does have a 24V 25amp battery charger installed so I'm thinking yes. Couldn't find any info on this model specifically. I'm thinking that it must have been from last century judging by the hull style. If you have any info on it or a better link that you can share I'd really appreciate that! :D This is all that I've found so far. https://www.electracraft.com/

In regards to the condition of the prop, it needs a removal and at least a good clean off as it has a layer of gunk INCLUDING BARNACLES(maybe 1/8" thick)! Haven't checked the motor RPM yet but it does seem a bit slow. I know that it's not bound up though as I removed the drive belts and spun it by hand. The prop shaft seemed to spin quite freely as well. However with the belts back on and the motor running at either speed there is a distinct sound of a bad bearing, quite loud actually. I'm thinking it is the front flange bearing on the prop shaft as it was obviously resting in a bilge full of water at one time and shows signs of rust.

The bottom is pretty dirty as well. Looks as if it's been sitting in water for awhile. The bottom paint appears very worn. No long hairs hanging off of it but needs a good scubbing to bring back the original efficiency.
 
patsypratt said:
I don't remember the name of this boat exactly, but I know that it will be great for fishing enthusiasts. But to be honest with you, there is no consensus as to which boats are best.

Since I started this thread I've found out that it is an Electracraft Sport Boat that was made in limited quantities quite awile ago. It's been perfect for our lake and keeps the full speed just under the max lake speed of 5 mph. I've since rebuilt the motor with new bearings and cleaned everything up. It's virtually silent now and slips right along quite peacefully through the neighborhood.
 

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