Hi Vance,
Believe it or not, my setup in the K boat is so basic I
haven't even got a current meter. I can tell you, though, that from the
seat-of-the-pants perspective I cannot tell any difference. Each thruster has a
distinctive sound, and that sound to my surprise didn't change a bit when I
filled them. Nor of course did the thrust. It is entirely logical the
motors should be pulling more current, since they appear to run at exactly the
same speed. But I'm not sure how much.
Sub-conn has a "high power series" that includes a
4-conductor penetrator good for 50 amps per conductor. That happens to
be just right for most trolling motors, so long as you're running 24V or
36V. I run the K boat stern thruster on one of these, and have another
installed on the project boat which is still far from getting
wet.
This brings up something I'd like to ask you about. What
did you do about penetrators when your K-250 was "standard"? The side thruster
penetrators are the one thing I'm unhappy about with mine. The
challenge is that those thrusters are shaft-mounted, and if you want to put the
penetrator on the inboard end of the shaft, space is tight. I used some
Seacon rubber molded series penetrators that I had lying around. By
machining down the plastic body of the penetrators, they can be screwed
into the thruster shaft and then pushed through the through-hull. It's
not a legit installation, the penetrators are under reverse pressure and I
sealed the threads, whereas they were designed to seal with a (now
machined off) o-ring instead. They do seal fine, but the problem is they have
low amp contacts, which heat up if I run the thrusters continually for too
long. I'm very interested to hear what you or others came up with for this
particular problem. Kittredge, if I remember correctly, just had a
drilled rubber stopper cable squeeze arrangement. If I weren't building a new
sub, I'd be redoing these penetrators to try something else.
thanks,
Alec
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Alec,
What amperage difference did you see, if any, after
filling the 101s with oil? The factory says 60 amp breakers, but my local guy is
using 40s for the motors, plus the rest of a flats skiff's electrical system. Is
that going to be enough? I'm about ready to plunk down for some penetrators,
too. The motors use 10 gauge wire, and I'm going to contact Impulse to see
what's what price wise. Any suggestions?
I'll be running four fixed
thrusters, two aft on either side of the fairwater tank, vectored at
30 degrees toward each other, and two more just forward of the conning tower at
forty-five degrees for vertical and lateral. It works for Phil, so I'm
hoping it will for me, too. I'll let you know. Any suggestions on
the penetrators? I've been out of that market for awhile, so having some
idea of current pricing will help. If you did it cheaper, then count me
in.
Thanks and Best Regards,
Vance