55lb Motor

Brilliant piece of kit and pushers 2 man inflatable at nice steady pace, well made piece of kit

Amazing for fishing

Exactly what I was after. Does what it's supposed to do. Only 1 thing is that the tiller/throttle control feels like it could be built a little sturdier.

I was surprised by the sheer size of this motor when it arrived. I already have 18lb and 28lb motors for my kayak and canoe, and this 55lb thrust from Bison is a LOT bigger. I wouldn't mount it on the side of a canoe! This said, I bought it to power a small dingy (Porta Bote 8) rather than to fit it in a backpack, and it delivers! I will update this review as I use it on various waterways under various conditions, but will list my first impressions now. First, some info I couldn't find anywhere on Google.. power consumption in the different 5 speeds. I'm sure this will vary depending on conditions, what boat is being pushed, etc., but the average values I got were: Speed 1 5 amps Speed 2 11 amps Speed 3 15 amps Speed 4 23 amps Speed 5 49 amps As you can see, there is a big jump from 4th to 5th, in terms of both power consumption and speed delivered. Note speed does NOT double each time you change up! I haven't had a chance to use it on still water yet, but took it 3 miles upstream into a strong current yesterday, then back. I went all the way upstream at speed 5, and it took an hour. On the narrow sections the current was strongest and I was only making probably 1 - 2 mph headway, so the overall 3mph average was pretty good. On the way back I used the lower speeds (mainly 3 and 4) except for a couple of sections where I needed the punch of 5 to retain control past a weir and through a disused sea lock. Unfortunately we stopped to watch some kingfishers and a marsh harrier so I'm not sure about the exact runtime, but it was less than 45 minutes. We flew! The 6 mile round trip more or less flattened my 75 ah battery, but I didn't need to hook up the spare. I will conduct some rather more scientific speed/load/distance tests over the coming weeks and post the results, but for the time being let me say I'm very pleased with this motor!

when I was deciding what outboard electric to get, every one was advising me to go with a more expensive minn kota, and to stay clear of these as reliablity would be an issue. I have had no problems with it and for the money I got a 55lb thrus compared to 35lb from minn kota at same price. I am delighted with this had it 3 years now and keep it well in a garage and everything is still great and had no issues with it. definetly recommend.

Purchased after being asked to leave a very large lake (conservation zone no signs) running a 5hp outboard, (very loud) Grand children amused and embarrassed in equal measure. I approached this with trepidation however it`s a fantastic bit of kit quietly moving a 16ft dingy full of me and the grand children powered by a 100ah battery that powered the boat all day, now if anyone knows of a way of keeping the Grand children quiet !!!!!

Fishing

I've been using this regularly for a month now and it works fine with a 100ah lithium battery on my 15 foot canoe along the river. I took my old satnav with me to test the speed and got about 1 mph in first, 2 in 2nd right up to 3.8 mph at full speed against the current, with the current it was about 4.8 mph. Much more relaxing and peaceful than my old 2 stroke outboard and without the worry of it starting. It weighs a fair bit fitting it on the side of my canoe so I balanced it with an old mud weight on the side!