Increasing my range was one of my goals
but also showing up at work the next day with-out sore muscles
I do have an extra battery for each boat so 20 miles is with-in my reach
it still takes time to go that far
but I think a regular kayaking has less range.
I was told by my hobie dealer that hobie and torqeedo would be working jointly on a new product
and I believe we have seen this product here in the forum
http://kayakshed.blogspot.com/2009/07/o ... hobie.htmlthey will be offering a torqeedo motor that will go through the drive hole
and one that is mounted on the rudder
I didn't get a real good look at it
but it seemed that they have the batteries inside the shell
and the cables connect directly to the shell
it looks very sharp
I thought about waiting for the hobie product but decided not to wait
because I really did not want to have the motor through the drive well
I want the option to peddle at any time
I think my decision was correct in that peddling while motoring is a good assist
and extends the range and or the time involved
I mounted my motors the only place I could
the motors can be rigged to work with the rudder for steering
but there is not enough of the mounting bar to fully extend past the rudder
the bracket that allows you to swivel the motor out of the water is only for one side
so I only had one option for mounting the motor
I like the Idea of having the motor built into the rudder because it would improve the turning radius
and when operating forwards would keep the rudder down and most likely improve the steering problems we all complain about
but... this motor will also go backwards at the same speeds and that will put stress on the rudder down mechanism
I have a line that locks the motor in the down position for motoring backward
as I have said previously when sailing faster than 5mph I pull the motor up out of the water
so it doesn't drag
you could not do this with a dedicated rudder/motor
so I am happy with the mounting and general usage of this motor
of course there are drawbacks as well
I have had problems with each piece of this product
and once accused the guy at Torqeedo's service department of becoming my best friend (we spent a-lot of time on the phone)
but they were and are very helpful and except for the time I did not have the product because of repair replacement and transit
I am happy with it
my friend Tom has had 3 heart attacks and could not go with me with out this product.
I could go on about the reliability and supposed waterproofness of this product but maybe I should save that for another time