Downsizing surprise.

Recently, I purchased a Suzuki 2.5hp 4 stroke. I broke it in and really am, surprisingly, very pleased with it. I have been using it on my 14' aluminium when I take my dad out. Normally I use an 18hp motor but this is light and trolling with it is very quiet and pleasant. Basically, the motor weighs only 30lbs when full of gas, and is self contained so you don't need a separate fuel tank or so on. In any case, I was most impressed with the performance we have experienced so far. Top speed is only 6mph (GPS) at WOT which is basically hull speed for our boat, but it hits 5mph at 1/3 throttle so there is really no benefit to using more that 1/2 throttle at most for us. At idle it trolls at 1.5 +/- mph depending on wind and waves, and it is very easy to make very slight changes in trolling speed. My most successful speed so far has been 2.4 mph when trolling crankbaits. The amazing part to me is that the last time out, while trolling and various amounts of faster speeds for getting from one area to another, we were able to squeeze 8.5 miles on one tank filling. With one tank being only 1 litre of gas, this gives us well over 30 mpg. I am sure that if all we did was troll, I could have gotten close to ten miles out of that tank. Why I bring this up here is that there are quite a few electric motor options out there now for kayaks but when you start factoring in things like batteries, you start really adding on weight and taking up space. After seeing what this little motor can do, I am starting to contemplate some sort of outrigger with motor mount to try on my kayak. I'm wondering if anyone out there has tinkered around with this yet.

Thanks for the info, I'm not thinking on putting one on a yak but I have a nice little 9 ft inflatable that might like a little motor like that,

Where did you get it?

Cabelas. They don't show it online, but the item number is: JA-02-0111-001. $699 plus shipping.

It definitely has less power than my Nissan 3.5 2-stroke and I would think the Nissan 3.5 4-stroke would have more push to it as well.  the only thing is, as much as I love Tohatsu/Nissan motors, none of mine are very quiet or super smooth at idle. I don't think their engineers focus on that too much. On the other hand, this little Suzuki still has plenty of power to make close quarters trolling into coves and around points possible, which used to be a bit hairy with the Minn Kota. Also, it just purrs at idle and that is exactly what I wanted, I wanted a motor that I could troll with all day long without going nuts from the oars and the net and everything else rattling from resonance. I will say this, prior to this little motor, I used my Minn Kota bow mount with the Maximizer to troll and at the 50% throttle needed to reach troll speeds, I only got a few hours out of the battery and even up front, the Kota didn't have alot of power to make emergency maneuvers if needed.

My next test will be on my inflatable, 10' Storm inflatable floor/keel with hard transom to see what kind of performance I can get with it.

Good luck.

Wow! 30mpg from any boat is fantastic when most planing pb's get about 1mpg average.

Make sure and give us a report after the inflatable tryout.

Thanks

I've tinkered with some prototypes for a transom-mount electric on my T140 (the slide trax make it a perfect candidate). However, the downsides [for me] would be that I'd have to register it w/DMV, could potentially get a kayaking under the influence, and couldn't count any fish towards AOTY. But it sure w/b nice to have the motor option at times.

"Performance" update.

Have not had a chance to get the inflatable out of storage yet, but I did test the little Suzuki out on our little 12' Sea Nymph aluminum. Boat is half the weight of the Klamath, but is narrower and does not have the hard chines in the rear to help lift the hull at speed. In any case, at idle/trolling speed, the GPS showed 1.9-2.0 mph and I was able to get 5mph easily enough at less than 1/4 throttle. The most I got while sitting in back was 6.8 mph, but the bow was riding high and  I could see a lot of wasted thrust and prop wash as the boat would just not pop up on plane. At this point, I tightened the throttle stop and the steering friction control, let go of the motor, and moved from the rear to the middle seat. As suspected, the boat leveled out and the GPS went from 6.5 to 9.5mph right away. This was at approx. 2/3-3/4 throttle, but I think this is about what I can expect from it. I am very curious now what it will do on the inflatable since they sit more on than in the water. In any case, I think if I mount a swivel seat on the middle bench and use an extension handle, this motor might be a good match for the little Sea Nymph. Both are light and easy to trailer. There was a bit more rattle than in the Klamath, but not at idle, and I suspect this was due to the fact that the Sea Nymph is a lot smaller, lighter with alot less structural construction and overall relatively tinny. It may be a few weeks before I can test it out on the inflatable.

 

Thanks for the update, sounds like a great little motor.