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Hi Simon.
1.My Sea Doo VS supercharged has been factory
tested to 115 ft. It is rated to 100 ft. It is the deepest diving one made by
Sea Doo and their top of their line.
2. The run time on my scooter is 90 minutes with a
12 volt 12 amp hour battery. You don't have to worry about tipping the batteries
over either. They are not lead acid.
3. They will pull a diver from 2 miles per hour on
cruise, to 3 miles per hour on turbo. True, they do not produce as much thrust
as
a powerful minnkota like my 74lb thrust minnkota,
but with two of them it might just be the perfect ticket for my two man wet sub
since
I don't plan on going below 100ft most of the time
anyway.
4. Yes they are rather expensive. My Sea Doo cost
me $360.00 on e bay. The seller paid the shipping. I got a good deal.
Most cost that much plus $30.00 or more for shipping. I have seen websites where
the VS supercharged
went for $800.00 so e bay is a good place to shop
for them. And remember, that includes the battery
and charger and I don't have to worry about
constructing a battery pod. I don't have to worry about equalizing that battery
pod.
I also don't have to worry about equalizing
the motor. I haven't strapped my Sea Doo onto the
sub yet, but I will and test it out to see how she does.
I paid $225.00 I believe just for my new minnkota
motor without any controls and the steering shaft cost me $35.00 That is without
a battery or battery pod and without equalization. The Sea Scooter has all that
included.
Although there is no doubt that the minnkota has
more power than the scooter, it also has a lot more work involved. Building the
battery pod and equalizing it with valves and regulators, buying batteries and
hooking them up with solenoids, hydrocaps and hydrogen
issues, equalizing the motor, strapping the pod and
motor onto the sub with all the weight and water drag of the pod too. All that
work is worth something and I believe would wind up costing more than two sea
doo VS supercharged scooters.
Lets look at costs I have so far. 74lb thrust
minnkota = $225.00 steering shaft = $35.00, 2X 12 inch
diameter pipes = free from a friend, one permanent end cap, one female threaded
end cap and male plug = $229.00 (the large pvc fittings cost a lot!)
That is $489.00 just so far. That is without buying
any valves, batteries, wires, hydrocaps, or the rest of the stuff to make it all
work. That is also not counting any labor. So you can see why I think the sea
scooter idea might be better than
the stuff I already went out and bought. Plus I
don't have to build much. Just figure out a way that I can attach the sea doo
and quick detach it from my wetsub. That's nothing compared to the other work I
was looking at.
If the scooter pulls me along in the wetsub as fast
as a normal diver can swim rapidly, then I will be happy. If it works but is a
bit slow, I will just buy another scooter and have dual scooters. Think about
it. Two scooters costing $360.00 each
(about what you can get one on e bay for if you
shop) will cost $720.00 plus you may have some shipping since not all sellers
pay the shipping. That usually runs $30.00 per scooter. So now you have two
scooters for a total of $780.00
You save on the tax is you buy a sea doo VS
supercharged from someone out of your state.
No batteries to buy, no pod to build, no hydrocaps,
no nothing! Just strap them on, figure out a way to actuate the triggers from
the cockpit, and you are good to go.
This might be perfect for my wetsub and the depths
I plan to go (as long as it is powerful enough), but it would not be for a sub
that plans to regularly go below 100 ft. I'll let you know how it works out for
me as soon as I figure out
how to attach it to the sub, rig up my trigger
control from the cockpit and test it.
I would like to warn anyone thinking of doing this
with a scooter to stay away from the non sea doo brands on e bay. They are cheap
knock off chinese copies of the sea doo and several people I spoke with who
bought them said they are junk.
You can get the cheap non sea doo ones for about
half what a sea doo costs. But what good are they if they are junk? If you get a
scooter make sure it is the Sea Doo VS supercharged model. Sea doo makes several
models. Just a heads up fellas.
Kindest Regards,
Bill Akins.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2005 3:24
PM
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Dive scooter
as propulsion unit for wetsub.
I considered this a while ago, but then some further
investigation
showed up a couple of things:
1 : alot of diver
propulsion vehicles are only rated for about 20
metres depth (roughly 55
feet), which for a submersible, isn't really
deep at all.
2 : the
batteries last approximately 40 minutes.
3 : they don't produce a hell
of a lot of thrust.
4 : Comparing the cost to a modified Minn Kota or
similar, they're
pretty expensive.
On Apr 2, 2005 2:22 PM,
Akins <lakins1@tampabay.rr.com>
wrote:
>
> Hi everyone.
>
> Just
got my dive scooter in the mail today. It is a Sea Doo VS
supercharged.
> It has two speeds and will pull a diver thru the water
on low speed at 2
> miles per hour and
>
> on
turbo speed at 3 miles per hour. It has an adjustable buoyancy chamber
>
that you can leave empty if you want the unit to float for snorkeling or
add
> weight to it for diving.
>
> It has lots
of other neat features that I won't bore you with right now. I
> just
read the manual and ran it and am going to totally discharge the
>
factory precharged battery so that
>
> I know it is
totally drained and then will recharge it.
>
> I
plan to attach the Sea Doo VS supercharged to the rear of my 12 ft two
>
person fiberglass wet sub. By using a stainless control cable line that
was
> used to turn a outboard motor, I plan to be able to
>
> remotely access the two triggers on the Sea Doo
from my dashboard. It will
> probably be a bit slower than I would like
because it is designed to pull a
> person, not a wetsub with two people
thru the water.
>
> But if it works well enough to
push the sub as fast as a diver can normally
> swim I will be happy. If
this experiment works I plan to buy another one and
> have dual
propulsion to increase
>
> my speed. I forget who
suggested this some time ago to me on this forum, but
> someone did and
it makes good sense. By using the Sea Doo VS supercharged
> scooter it
is already rated
>
> for 30 meters (100 ft.), does
not need to be pressure compensated, and has a
> nice streamline shape
and requires no battery pod or battery pod
> equalization. Run time is
an hour and a half. I was susposed to use the
> scooter
>
> tomorrow on our search for a sunken sub off
Egmont key that I mentioned
> earlier, but the weather is not
cooperating. Heavy winds and high seas
> predicted. So we are
rescheduling for hopefully
>
> tuesday when the
weather is susposed to be better. This german sub we are
> looking for
is not susposed to be there. All the experts say it can't be
> there. I
just don't know, but I am going to go look. Can't hurt!
>
> The fellow I am going with swears he dove on it in 1970. He was one
of Mel's
> divers on the Atochia. If it is there it might be covered by
silt by now. We
> will see. The way I look at it, there is no such thing
as a bad dive
>
> as long as everyone is ok when it
is over. If we find something, fine. If
> not? That's ok too. For me
it's not finding the treasure that's the
> adventure. It's the adventure
that's the treasure!
>
> If the scooter works well
and I get another one and that solves all my
> propulsion and speed
problems, I will have a brand new, 74 lbs thrust
> minnkota trolling
motor with an 11 inch weedless wedge
>
> prop
available to sale. I also have two about 5 ft long 12 inch (yes 12
>
inch!) diameter 1/4 inch thick pvc pipes. I also have the permanent end
cap
> and the threaded female fitting for the other end along
>
> with the male plug for that female fitting.
Nothing is glued or drilled yet.
> Everything you need plus an extra
pipe for a battery pod and strong motor. I
> want to make sure my
scooter ideas work for the sub first before I sell off
> my other
>
> parts though. If the scooters work out then I
will let you all know in case
> anyone here might want to purchase a
motor and pod parts for their sub
> project. If my first single scooter
doesn't work like I want for the sub,
>
> and I have
to scratch the scooter/sub idea and go back to my minnkota with
>
battery pod, that is ok. I wanted a scooter for diving anyway. Plus if
they
> work on the sub, I plan to make them easily detachable from the
>
> sub so I can use them for diving without the
sub. Which brings me back to
> what someone mentioned here a while back
when they told me to just strap
> several scooters onto the sub and be
able to detach them and have them
>
> serve dual
duty as both sub propulsion and as dive scooters. Who was it that
>
mentioned that to me? If you are reading this remind me will you? I need
to
> know who to thank for the idea.
>
>
Kindest Regards,
>
> Bill
Akins.
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