My bowthruster doesn't thrust my bow...

[Greenheart]

How about Vetus, Goddess of Shove?

Wouldn't Venus themselves be the people to ask, about failures of their equipment? Vetus, I mean.

 

[Oscarpop]

Just a social Observation...

In all the years I have read this forum, I have never ever heard you all so meek and happy to help this young lady ( although It is good to hear all the sensible suggestions).

I do wonder whether gender has played apart in your responses? I am utterly sure that if it were some young chap telling you that he had problems with his BT, he would have been savaged in a way that only a Christian facing lions would have been circa 100AD.

There would have been countless lectures about BT's being " the work of the devil" and how years ago " we just used straw/leather/wax to turn the boat". Very amusing and enlightening to see that my opinion of abject sexism in a male dominated sport is still well and truly upheld.

Keep up the good work and I hope you fix the bowthruster.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Sorry - that isn't my view at all - anything that makes boat handling easier is a good thing - there are times on my smaller boat where I would love a bow thruster.

I didn't think others would rise to this bait

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Back to the OP.

A friend had a Vetus bow thruster fitted by the only approved Vetus installer on the south coast and he fitted an 8 square mm charging cable when he should have fitted an 8 mm diameter cable. The correct cable size was verified by Nigel Calder in a reader's letter in PBO. The result was that the battery - next to the bow thruster - never got enough charge from the alternator. When he tried to use it there were not enough volts from the battery so the solenoid switched off as the load from the bow thruster drops the voltage. Then the solenoid opens and the voltage rises enough to close the solenoid, and then the voltage drops again and..........finally solenoid chatter burnt out the contacts.

So if your contacts are burnt out in 3 or 4 years this could be the reason.

I mention "Bow Thruster" three times in 5 lines so it definitely needs a shorter name, but I'm not playing that game.

Surely the battery charge would have benefitted from the greater cross section of cable in the charging circuit.

The circuit including the solenoid and BT motor, need larger cables, very large if going from a stern battery down to the other end of the boat.
To stick a dedicated battery in the bows can lead to less large cabling being required therefore costing less, and then running longer control/switching circuit cables.
Even for the control circuit it may be worth while to keep the cabling up a size from normal if it's a long run, to avoid the volt drop.


My bow thruster is powered by the domestic batteries at present and there is little space for a dedicated battery for'ard. No point in changing it... 'if it's not broke'.
Advise you don't run the BT without the engine running though, the BT does draw a fair few amps so it's best the batteries are backed up with the engines alternator.

It's not advisable to run the BT when the boats out of the water for more than a second or two. When in the water the bearings are cooled.

 

[prv]

I do wonder whether gender has played apart in your responses? I am utterly sure that if it were some young chap telling you that he had problems with his BT, he would have been savaged in a way that only a Christian facing lions would have been circa 100AD.

It's not exclusively gender, there is also the fact that Ellie is a known face around here rather than a stranger.

Pete

 

[GrahamM376]

So previous owner installed a bowthruster, a new Vetus 75kgf, around 2007.

What's wrong with it? A couple of people have said the solenoids; likely? How can I fix it? (My dad will help - he's good with electrics and mechanical stuff.)

As others have said, it's likely to be the solenoid. Before stripping it, the easiest way to test is by shorting the terminals with an old srewdriver or similar or, take the live feed off and touch it to the up/down large terminals. If the thruster works, then the solenoid or wiring to it is faulty.

 

[William_H]

As others have said, it's likely to be the solenoid. Before stripping it, the easiest way to test is by shorting the terminals with an old srewdriver or similar or, take the live feed off and touch it to the up/down large terminals. If the thruster works, then the solenoid or wiring to it is faulty.

I don't know the wiring of this thruster. Your suggestion of short the terminals together is OK if the motor has 2 field windings one for up and one for down so just one make contact solenoid for up and one for down
However if it is a motor that requires the supply to be reversed for the other direction you need 2 changeover contact type solenoids or 4 make contact solenoids. And you need 2 sets of contacts made to get power to the motor. So just shorting contact screws like a starter motor may not work. Be careful olewill

 

[PCUK]

Bow thrusters are definitely for girlies! So I hope you get it fixed soon.

(Runs for the door)