BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - A garden implement as an Outboard Motor???

wrote in
ups.com:

Ya know, the more I think of this weedwacker motor thing, the better it
sounds. It would be great for very shallow water.

I had reported before seeing two kids in an inflatable dingy buzzing around
our marinas with a Weed Eater outboard. It's the kind with the speedometer
drive cable in a bent aluminum tube, the cheapest one. They had removed
the string trimmer attachment from the bottom, plugged the tubing with
grease and a rubber cap at the bottom and bent the tubing so that it came
out underwater at 90 degrees, not 30 like the weedeater. The prop was a
plastic prop off an electric trolling motor available at WalMart Discount
Boat Centers. Clamped to the tubing below the now-vertical engine, was a
U-clamp that made the tiller handle. The dead-man throttle had been moved
down to the bottom of the tiller handle addition. If the kid driving fell
overboard, they had the throttle set up so it would stall, stopping the
boat. He had to squeeze some throttle to crank it after pumping the primer
bulb.

The engine was mounted to the boat using a Minnkota trolling motor mount,
the one that uses a metal ring with clamp for a thrust bearing on the
Minnkota transom mount. By loosening and sliding the ring on the weedeater
shaft, you could control long-shaft to short-shaft depth, keeping the
whole prop under the boat when the tiller handle was backwards for reverse.
It even had a stern thruster when it was sideways..(c;

I asked the guy how long it lasted. "That's our second one in 4 years.",
he replied. "The kids hit a rock and something snapped in the first one up
in Maine. At $70 and an hour labor, I can hardly go about fixing it.", he
continued. He just drops by Home Depot for another outboard motor if it
croaks and swaps the outboard motor conversion kit to the new WeedEater.

A pint of 16:1 premix gas runs about 2 hours of play. They tilt the
Weedeater over into the boat on the Minnkota mount with the gas tank up,
then pull the Weedeater through the mount to sit it on the seat for
refueling....much easier than my Yamaha 3 with top-mounted tank over-the-
side.

--
Larry

This jerk called my cellphone and was nasty.
Continental Warranty -- MCG Enterprises -- Mepco-
24955 Pacific Coast HWY Suite C303
Malibu California 90265
888-244-0925
Fax: 310-456-8844
Email:
Read about them he
http://www.ripoffreport.com/view.asp...3&view=printer