Mainship 390 bow and stern thrusters

I bought a boat that had bow and stern thrusters. I liked using them so much I installed dedicated battery banks and appropriately sized cable.

My thrusters now run at full power for as long as I ask them to. I don't believe they're any more prone to sudden failure than any other system on the boat.

These things use huge amounts of power. I'm convinced that the majority of thruster issues discussed here can be traced back to inadequate battery capacity and/or cabling. It sure sounds like that's the case for the OP.

Jeff F said:

I bought a boat that had bow and stern thrusters. I liked using them so much I installed dedicated battery banks and appropriately sized cable.

My thrusters now run at full power for as long as I ask them to. I don't believe they're any more prone to sudden failure than any other system on the boat.

These things use huge amounts of power. I'm convinced that the majority of thruster issues discussed here can be traced back to inadequate battery capacity and/or cabling. It sure sounds like that's the case for the OP.

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Absolutely, I always go oversize on cables for something like a thruster. And clean connections. I use a copper conductive paste when I make the cables too.

Just wondering, anyone here use hydraulic thrusters. My neighbour installed them, bow and stern and loves them.

According to his experience the benefits are more power, less noise and a virtually continuous run time.

Obviously the down side is cost.

I am Interested to hear whether these claims stack up with other users.

Comodave said:

Everything can fail, you just deal with it when it fails and find a work around.

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Correction, Everything WILL fail!

Andy G said:

Just wondering, anyone here use hydraulic thrusters. My neighbour installed them, bow and stern and loves them.

According to his experience the benefits are more power, less noise and a virtually continuous run time.

Obviously the down side is cost.

I am Interested to hear whether these claims stack up with other users.

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You have to keep revs up on engine for them to work effectivley and if using forward and reverse this can cause issues

Cartouche said:

You have to keep revs up on engine for them to work effectivley and if using forward and reverse this can cause issues

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Interesting point I hadn't thought of. Could make docking more complicated instead of easier.

Cartouche said:

You have to keep revs up on engine for them to work effectivley and if using forward and reverse this can cause issues

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Some transmissions have options to control how much slip is involved with different modes. The Twin Disc in my EB47 have several modes, some are much more gradual at handling gear changes than others.

Nepidae said:

People with thrusters use them all the time and lose the ability to pilot without them. In my mind, bad practice.

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In your mind, and you're entitled to your opinions. Others will disagree.

I prefer to use the ones in my EB47 sparingly, but having them has given me the option to move into a slip that would otherwise be exceedingly tedious to use without them. Saves me $2k/year in slip fees. Can I get in/out of the slip without them, yep, and have done it more than once just to be sure. But should I put on some hairshirt and beat myself up about it? Um, how about no?

Anything that aids safe use of a boat is fine by me. I'm not one to use excuses about modern accessories to basically hide being jealous or to pontificate about skills. Anything that makes the boating more effective for the captain is OK in my book.