Has anyone tried to use a gulf cart motor as aux. power on a sailboat? Will they work? what are the problems?
DC aux. power
- Thread starter jphillips48
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Never tired it but any electric motor is going to have the same issues driving a boat. Golf carts work intermittently and have low resistance compared to pushing a boat through the water. Pushing a boat is a constant heavy load. A 1 HP electric motor may be fine for a GC. Consider how effective a 1 HP outboard would be a driving a boat. Basiclly if you only want to go very slow electric can be made to work. If you want to go hull speed for any length of time then electric is going to work but only on the order of minutes. The electric motor is not the problem BTW the batteries just cant store enough energy to do much useful work. An AH at 12.6 volts is 0.0126 kWH. a 400 AH bank is only 5.04 kWH. If you limit yourself to 50% discharge you get 2.52 kWH or enough to drive an 8000 watt electric oven about the time it takes to bake a pizza.
and you don't have ANY backup except your sails
and you don't have ANY backup except your sails
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