Rickshaw Motor Offer

Mark W

Mark W

Well-known member
With the recent discussion on homemade mud motors, emails have been exchanged with Rickshaw Motors. I asked if he could offer a group buy price and he did offer to waive the shipping charges if 3 people order his motor. I think this came to about a $70 savings. If anyone is interested let me know. I'm thinking that one can be made for significantly less.

http://www.rickshaw-motors.com/

Mark W
 
I have no connection to Rickshaw motors (in fact I would have never approved such a stupid name), but I think it would be tough to DUPLICATE their motor (make something similar-yes, make something to duplicate it-no). I applaud them for making a commercial version of the homemade weed whacker motor that has bantered about for several years on the online forums.

Looks like they solved a couple of the biggest problems facing weed whacker conversions, namely how to mount the motor on the boat (looks like a very good design), and how to add a clutch/gear system and kill switch. These would be the most difficult pieces to fabricate and what would make the Rickshaw a good item to have.

Of course almost ANYTHING can be copied, but the time, expense, and challenge of trying to piece together all of the correct parts to make a reasonbly good duplicate would probably be pretty tough. Given the exhorbitant price of new outboards and mud motors, I don't think the price for the Rickshaw looks outta line. My biggest concern would be performance. All longtails suffer from performance problems, and a 1.5hp motor is gonna be horribly slow.

Still, for a boat without a transom like a Carstens Pintail I would think this might the cats meow.
 
Couldn't agree more. This is the resaon for the discussion I had with Rickshaw. Either buy a real nice commercial motor, or duplicate what Shawn H. and others have done using a 2 smoke weed whacker motor. Will it be as nice as the Rickshaw - no. Will it be done cheaper - yes. Only because I can get the motor for free and the other stuff is Home Depot type of stuff + a prop.

I can only imagine what Rickshaw has into his project. Making molds that he has obviously done, is not cheap. I just don't think I want to spend $890 to see if his product will push my small boat the way I want my small boat to be pushed. 4-5 mph is fine with me, I just want to make sure it has enough "umph" to get me through some shallow water, slow currents, and minor weeds.

One thing I don't know, what rpm does a typical mud motor run?

Mark W
 
I looked at the site and on the front page it says somethingto the effect of " not a high powered motor that will walk on mud. designed to take you where you would normally paddle". So I viewed a few videos and here is my question , for the amount of power , noise , and length ,what are you gaining over a high thrust trolling motor ?
I have a 35lb thrust ,camo version on mine. It looks as if mine is about twice as fast in the same conditions the videos are in ( still ,open water, no major weeds ) and silent.

Would it be easier to fabricate a removeable transom to accomidate a trolling mtr


So what would be the advantage of the rickshaw ? ( not looking to pick a fight , just curious )
 
typical MM rpms -
for a 25hp kohler w/ no gear reduction max rpms is around 4400 rpm at load. This is close to the specs i have read from most 4 stroke, 2 cylinder engines.
 
A few things things that I can see.

1. It is lighter than a trolling motor and battery.
2. The battery only gets me so far in the winter.
3. Here is the biggie - the trolling motor does not work in real shallow water. There are many places that I hunt (small streams etc...) where I have to lift the trolling motor, get out of the boat and walk to where it gets deeper, put the trolling motor back into the water and repeat many times during a typical day up and down some small streams.

#3 is why I am looking for alternatives. If a regular gas motor would work, I would spend my money there. If I thought I could put 70lb on the back of the Hoefgen, I would buy a small 6 hp Scavenger or other mud motor.

This is why it may be good to do he homemade verion and see how this works.

Make sense? Can you think of another alternative as I would sure appreciate hearing about them. You know how you get to a point and your mind gets stuck on one solution - this is where I am at with small mud motors.

If I really wanted the ultimate rig, I would own a Fatboy with a 6 hp mud motor. I like the Hoefgen and want to see if I can make this boat work somehow.

Mark W
 
Mark,

With the new restrictions going into effect on the Upper Miss Refuge, will you be planning to hunt some of the areas that won't allow gas-powered motors?

I'm thinking of getting an Optima battery and trolling motor for that reason. Otherwise, I'd look more seriously at the mini mud motors.

Rick
 
What about converting an electric trolling motor to a straight shaft that pivots? Wouldn't that do what you want if you aren't thinking mud and weeds? Still have the weight of the battery and the limited run time but for that kind of moohla..couldn't you buy a couple of those REALLY good batteries?
 
Pony for Pony the Rickshaw is to expensive. But start-up cost are a bear when you can't get quanity pricing and purchasing prototype molds out of pocket can kill a good project quickly. I appluade them for bring the motor to the market and hope they have great success.

Back to Shawn's motor. On the cheap remember also the gear reduction on the Rickshaw only provides speed control. There is NO real torque increase that's usable. Torque gained would be in in/ozs not ft/lbs. What he's accomplished is dealing with the stall situation. Now limit the thottle cable movement on Shawns so you only get to the same RPM's of the 2.75:1 reduction on Rickshaws. 7000 rpm divided by 2.75 = 2545 rpm. That's why Shawn stated you can only use 1/2 thottle or so before it stalls. Make sense? I'm going to continue to follow Shawn's example and NOT use an expensive gear reducer but limit the throttle advance so I don't have to worry about getting the rpms so high I stall the engine. I'm going to experiment with the cheap Bolens like Shawn has suggested. In the end though I'm probably going to use a 2 stroke which has a bit more torque and probably in the 47cc to 49cc range.
 
Lee,

I've thought about that a lot. There's even a kayak manufacturer that incorprates a trolling motor into their designs. It's that damn 40lb lead acid battery that I want to get rid of. If there was a 10lb battery with a 6x4x6 footprint that had a rating of 750 amp hours, I'd rather use my 50lb minnekota that I can just about pull a skier with!

Also, I've though about getting an old trolling motor that still has a steel shaft and bending it in a pipe bender to get the effect. Just goes back to the damn battery.
 
Hey Rick -

The pool we hunt has really been cut as to where you can and can't hunt. If I recall correctly, there is no e motor access hunting areas where we used to go. I know that they opened up quite a bit of new hunting ground north or the road that goes between Wabasha and Alma (or whatever town is on the WI side). Unfortuantely these new areas are not all that conducive to hunting.

I'm still looking for the perfect motor for the hoefgen. Lee's idea of making a e straight sahft mud motor may be interesting. Still have the battery issue.

Mark W
 
Mark, Did you catch your pic on the other thread re mud motors. Maybe an ice motor is where we need to start. I wonder about an auger instead of a prop. Maybe I am just getting a cold brain.
 
Ed, I was thinking those new fangled gel type batteries were smaller and lighter.

Mark, the motor part comes off the tube and could be mounted straight with "A" tube of your choice I believe.

2 strokes are usually made to run optimally at a wide open throttle rpm range, I wonder if choking one down to 1/2 of it's operating range would cause long term problems?
 
Tom,

If you look at the Scavenger prop, it's actually a short auger like a grain or ice auger. I did like your photo! I imagine it would be a little sloooooowwww though!

Lee,

I haven't looked at the gel batteries because the only thing I've found on line has a 100 amp hour rating. I did look at the optima batteries that farm and fleet sell. Seemed a little smaller but didn't notice much in weight difference. Life expectancy doesn't warrant $150 price tag.
 
If you folks have read through the "ripped off" posts from Boat Design links you can learn something about gear reduction on these weed eater motors. The Rickshaw motor's gear reduction is too much according to rippedoff/Turn4Fun. The Rickshaw is over compensating for the throttle situation and losing speed in the trade off. Turn4Fun/rippedoff states that he obtains more speed than the Ricksaw with no gear reduction. He also states that he has done the math on these motors and the highest gear reduction they can handle and not loose speed is 2:1. Any more than that and you should just pick up a paddle, it will be faster.

Turn4Fun has dozens of posts on both Cafe Outdoors http://www.cafeoutdoors.com/ubb/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=82831&an=0&page=0&vc=1 posting as lying in wait (at least I think this is the same guy) and on the refuge and the DHC posting as Turn4Fun. http://www.refugeforums.com/refuge/showthread.php?t=172396&page=5 He posts lots of information all over the place, so you have to do some searching and reading to gain the knowledge.
 
I read one of his posts where he had built a small 5 h.p. mud motor. Man that thing is slick and made with readily available materials! I might as well start on one for myself, since we do not have any ducks down here yet. Shawn
 
Lee, If you are thinking of hanging a 15lbs. of electric motor out like a long tail mudmotor, your going to need gas shocks or a counter weight to balance that all out.
 
Well Dave, that would make a 30lb motor then...plus the battery ..put that in the front. What about a bunjy strap to hold it at the depth for running and you could pull up or push down as needed??? I'm just thinking of something to replace a paddle..which is all these others are doing. How about a 12' tube full of D batteries with a little fan on the end??
 
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Shawn,

I saw his post some time back on the conventional MM. I never was able to find out what horse power that motor was. I thought is was a 2.8hp but couldn't find this motor anywhere.

100_1290 (600 x 366).jpg

Now to put things into perspective....and Lou will apprieciate this. Check out the link. I was talking about this to some airplane guys here. I think the Rickshaw is looking more inviting.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXJDJ6&P=0g

Take a look at the price!

Ed
 
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