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Hi Cliff. Wish I had a BIG check book to get a few of those $20K thrusters.
Remember Phil saying the 6 horse ones he is using run into the many
thousands.
A while back I was investigating the idea of making my own, based on off
the shelf parts and using magnetic couplings. Although I dropped that idea as
too expensive and time consuming in favor of the $240.00 Minnkota motors, I
still think it should be possible to build a reliable deep water thruster for a
figure closer to $1500 including the mag coupling. It's not too complicated to
machine a housing, motors are pretty easy to get, and for the couplings, some
off the shelf units are available. It should be pretty easy to make your own
couplings too. The Neo-dime (sp?) magnets come in many shapes and as I
remember I saw some that would work quite well if a guy had machining
skills to make the housings to hold them.
I think one of the big advantages to the Minnkotas is the total package
which includes the solid state controller. The Minnkota guys have spent years
and $$$ on developing an efficient thruster package and all we need to do is
make them more waterproof. Not as powerful as a Sea-eye or Technadyne but for
the money a good buy. I paid just $240-motor/$129-controller/$39-prop for
a well engineered and pretty dependable package. I can carry spares and do a
quick change-out in minutes. With 4 equal motors the replacement costs are very
low to carry a couple of spares on a dive expedition.
Still, it would be nice to find some $20K thrusters.
Frank D.
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