I'm planning to use an electric outboard on the West Marine RIB 310 for my trawler.? The dinghy is about 10' long, weighs a little over 100 pounds empty, plus 2-3 "solid sized" adults, plus motor and battery.? Current plan is to experiment with a 48V Hangkai electric outboard, powered by a BTR 48V Ebike battery.

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Question:? What connectors are best for using in the marine environment?

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I have experience with Torqeedos, and they use Anderson Plugs.? Is that the best option for being able to quickly plug between the battery and the motor?

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One thing I want to do is put a small box between the battery and motor.? The box will include a battery switch on the positive leg and a Victron battery monitor on the negative leg.? While the Torqeedo used Anderson type connectors, I believe 120A type - I'll probably go with 50A Anderson connectors for the Hangkai.? This is because both the batteries and the motor use small guage leads - 12GA at most.? This is challenging enough to crimp into the pins of the 50A connector (intended for 8ga wire).? ?I have a crimper that I use for most of the large pins and terminal lugs, but have to resort to using a bench vice to crimp the connectors on the small motor and battery leads.? I'm planning to use 8 ga wire for the longer runs.? ?The motor is rated at 1000W.? ?I'm assuming I shouldn't be running much over 20A peak, probably more like 800W for typical cruising.

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The Hangkai is tiny compared to the Torqeedo 2T.? ?But I'm really curious to see how the Hangkai does, and am REALLY hopeful that it works out.? At $350, it's less than 1/10th the cost of a Torqeedo.? ?The Ebike 48V batteries seem to be much better priced and much more available than 24V lithium batteries.? My hope is that a 50A Ebike battery will get me at least 2 hours of run time at around 800W on the Hangkai - and I'm REALLY hopeful that 800W will be enough to push the dinghy at least to 3-4mph.? ?

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I'm looking forward to being able to put some data together to compare the Torqeedo to the Hangkai.? I understand that the Hangkai has less than half the power of the Torqeedo (and the prop on the Hangkai also seems tiny compared to the Torqeedo prop) - but if it can honestly put out what it claims to do, I think that'll be sufficient for a small dinghy.? Given my battery bank, 800W would be a good burn rate.? I know it'll never get me on plane or win any races.? But if it gets me from the boat to the beach, and lets me toodle around a little from time to time, that'll be just fine.

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John

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