Bow Thruster

[stillbuilding]

Originally Posted by DSDman

This is good info all, thanks for helping out. I did talk to another thruster installer yesterday...he really thought electric the way to go but price on the hydraulic 13000 dollars! I have a hard time believing that. The pump info is good I will do some research on those types. Like I've said before I have options on how to mount the pump and drive it, in that I do have a 16kw generator or the engine motor.

Sounds like your advisor had another agenda!
With your own labour, sourcing parts on ebay and bit of paid advice should be much less.

The genset may be ok - can either hang the pump off the end or just drive an ac powerpack. Main engine may be better but must be big enough to drive the thruster at low revs. But this could give you a good resource for an hydraulic windlass.

[carstenb]

13 grand - wow he saw you coming! Like I said - check out stone hydraulics
Stone

These guys make hydraulics for the truck market - I can see on the link I gave you here that they have a small unit for dump trucks - that probably something like what you need.

See if they have a distributor near you and try talking to them. This system runs off electrics not a PTO

[Sailmonkey]

If your're going to run off of the generator, I think this is what you may be looking for, but the displacement is only a WAG on my part.

PD060PB04SRS5AC00S100PB00 - Parker

[carstenb]

That's a 60cc pump - turning at say 2000rpm = 12000 cc's or 120 liters per minute. Way too much pump.

Looks like an industrial pump too - this guy needs a mobil pump with a capacity much less.

[stillbuilding]

Originally Posted by carstenb

That's a 60cc pump - turning at say 2000rpm = 12000 cc's or 120 liters per minute. Way too much pump.

Looks like an industrial pump too - this guy needs a mobil pump with a capacity much less.

But pumps like this come available cheaply. And at idle 800 rpm = 48 lpm less losses sounds better. Hanging off the main motor has to be this size does it not? Off the genset could be much smaller of course. I think the Perkins could manage that at idle

[DeepFrz]

Vetus also spec their pumps. Look a little harder. They also spec things like solenoids, motor controls, load sensing devices etc, etc. Looking around their site may give you some idea of what you need to install a safe hydraulic system, and give you some idea of the prices.

I doubt that the engine will handle that load at idle and still be a manageable device. Otherwise companies like Nordhavn would just supply one pump on the main engine. They always supply a 2nd pump on the "get home engine".

[stillbuilding]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

Vetus also spec their pumps. Look a little harder. They also spec things like solenoids, motor controls, load sensing devices etc, etc. Looking around their site may give you some idea of what you need to install a safe hydraulic system, and give you some idea of the prices.

I doubt that the engine will handle that load at idle and still be a manageable device. Otherwise companies like Nordhavn would just supply one pump on the main engine. They always supply a 2nd pump on the "get home engine".

I will defer to you on the Perkins idle load. Got any ideas what might be minimum revs for this size pump. Have to go back to my formulae i guess.

[DeepFrz]

No, I don't have any idea what it will take, but I have read discussions on the Nordhavn Dreamers site about running the get home engine when docking so that the boat can be controlled properly.

There was quite a long discussion about "electric" versus "hydraulic" thrusters. Some of the new electric thrusters have quite a long operating period before they reach over temp.

[Sailmonkey]

having run a thruster off of the main engine.....i'd never intentionally do it if I was plumbing the system. The generator would IMHO be a much better bet, just remember to shed the heavy loads first.