gnappi
Well-known member
Today was my first day out on my all electric Lowe 1040 with a second passenger AND my first use of my Kipawa 3 blade prop on my MK 50.
Last year I had a Tracker 1032 and even with one person aboard it was as shaky as a drunk at a roadside sobriety test. I used the Tracker one season and couldn't wait to dump it as I'd never have risked taking it out with two persons aboard.
I replaced it with a Lowe 1040 and with one person I was surprised at how stable it is compared to the Topper. Solo I could easily stand, cast, steer, and move about as needed. WOW! What a treat!
The Lowe specs are way better also, and the proof is in the water.
Topper -- Person load 275 -- Max weight cap. 320 -- Max hp 3 --- Transom height 13.3" -- Beam 46"
Lowe -- Person load 325 -- Max weight cap. 419 -- Max hp 5 --- Transom height 15" -- Beam 56"
Everything about the Lowe is top notch, fit, finish, construction. It even has oar mounts! The one thing I was not able to do with it because I was fitting it out is carry a second passenger. Today I got a chance to spend the day on it with my GF's son.
Together we weigh in at ~320 pounds, and with all of my gear, three 35 Ah batteries, a new dashboard, the TM, (no seats) rods, and tackle, I'm sure we met the 419 pound max weight limit.
The boat handled superbly. We were both able to stand, cast, and drive the boat without a hint of instability on the Lowe. It's less noisy than the Topper too when the wind gave us a ripple chop. The one down side was as I expected a bit of a loss in top speed compared to the narrower topper. Since it's wider than and taller than the topper it lost about .8 mph top speed. I expected it so no biggie.
Overall a BIG thumbs up on the Lowe 1040 with one or two persons aboard.
Oh... it fits in the bed of my Silverado so I can hand launch it anywhere without having to worry about trailer problems.
I bought the Kipawa not because it has some purported speed gain, the main factor was aquatic weeds. For all but the most dense impassible routes the prop chews the weeds like a hungry aquatic dinosaur. No fooling. I bet that if the darn TM shaft didn't clog up and send them downward it would never bog down with weeds.
Today was an especially challenging day for boating in weeds. I chose a seldom used boat ramp, with canals choked with growth from the hot summer days. We went through some of the thickest hydrilla and eel grass I've ever seen. It was so thick the DF saw it as bottom! Still with the motor tilted to just below the waterline the Kipawa chewed it up and spit it out like an industrial paper shredder.
The TM shaft was the biggest source of problems, but by reversing the TM the Kipawa generally sucked the weed down and spit them out. Only a very few times (in 6 full hours on the water) did I have to clear the blades. The first time I got into an unravelling hardball which threw the blades Waaayyy out of balance, another time a huge glop of cement like mud held on to the prop for a ride. A third time some huge alien like vegetative seed pods wrapped around the TM base and choked the prop. No forward/reverse machinations would cut them up.
My GF's son was so impressed with the Kipewa he's buying one for his Tracker 1436 with a 55 pound thrust salt water MK.
I have a L-A-R-G-E 95 Ah AGM battery that is just so big and heavy it is unrealistic to use in my Lowe. I tried balancing its weight and due to the fact I am still wanting to have a second cell as a "Spare tank" (~120 lbs total in just batteries) made for a very heavy boat. So I bought three of the Harbor freight 35Ah AGM solar (multi purpose) which give me more running time than the BIG cell with less weight that's easier to distribute.
To date I've had many hours on them and today I got nearly 6 hours of constant run time in some SERIOUSLY dense weeds from two cells before changing over to my "spare tank" for the last leg of the trip. I only drained them to 12.0 volts which is right around the 50% state of charge the battery gurus recommend not going below for the best cell life.
I've read the mostly positive reviews on these cells and the most negative ones I think I can only attribute them to users draining the cells too hard, and too low for them to survive. I may buy two more so I can take the boat out for two consecutive days and be able to trickle charge the previous day battery and not have to worry if they will charge fully in time for the next day.
Last year I had a Tracker 1032 and even with one person aboard it was as shaky as a drunk at a roadside sobriety test. I used the Tracker one season and couldn't wait to dump it as I'd never have risked taking it out with two persons aboard.
I replaced it with a Lowe 1040 and with one person I was surprised at how stable it is compared to the Topper. Solo I could easily stand, cast, steer, and move about as needed. WOW! What a treat!
The Lowe specs are way better also, and the proof is in the water.
Topper -- Person load 275 -- Max weight cap. 320 -- Max hp 3 --- Transom height 13.3" -- Beam 46"
Lowe -- Person load 325 -- Max weight cap. 419 -- Max hp 5 --- Transom height 15" -- Beam 56"
Everything about the Lowe is top notch, fit, finish, construction. It even has oar mounts! The one thing I was not able to do with it because I was fitting it out is carry a second passenger. Today I got a chance to spend the day on it with my GF's son.
Together we weigh in at ~320 pounds, and with all of my gear, three 35 Ah batteries, a new dashboard, the TM, (no seats) rods, and tackle, I'm sure we met the 419 pound max weight limit.
The boat handled superbly. We were both able to stand, cast, and drive the boat without a hint of instability on the Lowe. It's less noisy than the Topper too when the wind gave us a ripple chop. The one down side was as I expected a bit of a loss in top speed compared to the narrower topper. Since it's wider than and taller than the topper it lost about .8 mph top speed. I expected it so no biggie.
Overall a BIG thumbs up on the Lowe 1040 with one or two persons aboard.
Oh... it fits in the bed of my Silverado so I can hand launch it anywhere without having to worry about trailer problems.
I bought the Kipawa not because it has some purported speed gain, the main factor was aquatic weeds. For all but the most dense impassible routes the prop chews the weeds like a hungry aquatic dinosaur. No fooling. I bet that if the darn TM shaft didn't clog up and send them downward it would never bog down with weeds.
Today was an especially challenging day for boating in weeds. I chose a seldom used boat ramp, with canals choked with growth from the hot summer days. We went through some of the thickest hydrilla and eel grass I've ever seen. It was so thick the DF saw it as bottom! Still with the motor tilted to just below the waterline the Kipawa chewed it up and spit it out like an industrial paper shredder.
The TM shaft was the biggest source of problems, but by reversing the TM the Kipawa generally sucked the weed down and spit them out. Only a very few times (in 6 full hours on the water) did I have to clear the blades. The first time I got into an unravelling hardball which threw the blades Waaayyy out of balance, another time a huge glop of cement like mud held on to the prop for a ride. A third time some huge alien like vegetative seed pods wrapped around the TM base and choked the prop. No forward/reverse machinations would cut them up.
My GF's son was so impressed with the Kipewa he's buying one for his Tracker 1436 with a 55 pound thrust salt water MK.
I have a L-A-R-G-E 95 Ah AGM battery that is just so big and heavy it is unrealistic to use in my Lowe. I tried balancing its weight and due to the fact I am still wanting to have a second cell as a "Spare tank" (~120 lbs total in just batteries) made for a very heavy boat. So I bought three of the Harbor freight 35Ah AGM solar (multi purpose) which give me more running time than the BIG cell with less weight that's easier to distribute.
To date I've had many hours on them and today I got nearly 6 hours of constant run time in some SERIOUSLY dense weeds from two cells before changing over to my "spare tank" for the last leg of the trip. I only drained them to 12.0 volts which is right around the 50% state of charge the battery gurus recommend not going below for the best cell life.
I've read the mostly positive reviews on these cells and the most negative ones I think I can only attribute them to users draining the cells too hard, and too low for them to survive. I may buy two more so I can take the boat out for two consecutive days and be able to trickle charge the previous day battery and not have to worry if they will charge fully in time for the next day.
