Vetus Bow Thruster

[johnmurray]

I have had two issues with my Vetus bow thruster that may be of interest.
A few weeks after I took delivery of my Albin30FC and transited back to Canada, the bow thruster became intermittent. When the joy stick control was pushed to the left, sometimes it engaged and sometimes it did not. The boat was under warranty and by telephone the Vetus company diagnosed a faulty joystick and sent me a replacement. I replaced the joystck (that takes only a couple of minutes) but it made no difference.
The selling dealer then authorized a local technician to do a more thorough diagnosis. After some quite extensive investgation, he discovered that the control wiring harness that fits in at the bottom of the thruster motor had been improperly assembled and one of the connecting pins had not been properly seated in the harness. When the harness was connected, the pin pushed back rather than connecting solidly. He had to remove the thruster motor to find this out, but then it was very simple to fix. You have to be pretty agile however to get the motor out!
More recently, I broke the shear pin that protects the propellor in the bow thruster. That was an unavoidable accident, probably caused by a piece of debris being sucked into the thruster channel. Replacing the shear pin is technically simple (provided you have a spare pin) but it is very awkward job because the thruster motor has to be completely removed, unwired, and placed on a table to get at the pin location at the base of the motor.
One thing that surprised me was that after the pin was broken, the propellor on the bow thruster would still engage intermittently. The technician explained that a boken pin can still sometimes side back and forth within its slot and sometimes catches, often leading the boatowner to suspect something other than a broken shear pin.

[Denis]

Last year when I took delivery of my 28' Albin, the Captain that deliveder the boat to me said the Vetus bow thruster quit the day before on his two day trip to my marina. I decided to see for myself what could be the cause. I took the motor out which was pretty easy and brought it to a good electric motor repair shop I had used in the past. That was the first time they had seen one of those motors but I trusted them and they were willing to try. He called the next day and asked me to come in. He found that the wires that feed the brushes were bent out and would not allow the bruches to drop down as they wore down. Plus one of the permanent magnets was broken and needed to be epoxied. The repair was $40 I think plus I got to see what makes it tick. He said that the motor was very well made and should last a good long time. But he warned me to go easy because it generated a lot of heat and there was no cooling to speak of so I don't let it run for long. Glad you found your problem and having a bow thruster sure makes life easier.

[jcollins]

I'm glad someone started this thread.
When you guys say "don't let it run long"...what's long?
30 seconds, 1 minute, etc. ?

[chiefrcd]

My Ablin 28 came with a Imtra Side Power thruster. After about 2 months of ownership it stopped working. We pulled it off and the marina determined that the motor had just given out. It seems that I had a bad battery and that the low voltage caused the motor to burn out. I contacted Imtra and they shipped me a new entire bow thruster and wiring harness at a 50% discount. I thought that was great since it was a few months over 5 years old. Regarding run time...I run my bow thruster in shorts spirts of maybe 5 seconds tops. I rarely use it except to get back into my slip. It is a current hog as I have a 50 watt Halogen light as my rear deck light and it will cause that to almost dim out....even with new batteries and a full charge on the boat.

[Mariner]

I'm glad someone started this thread.
When you guys say "don't let it run long"...what's long?
30 seconds, 1 minute, etc. ?

If you still have your manual, there should be instructions that will tell you the appropriate use cycle. It is dependent upon what model it is, what size wire you have running to it, and how long that wire is.

If you can't find the manual, I believe the information is on their website.

[Elizabeth Ann]

Surprisingly to me, the vetus website

http://www.vetus.com/thrusters/bow_thrusters_points.cfm

(look under electrical motor)


states that the motors can be run at maximum rpm for several minutes. At least that's how I understand it anyway. So my 10-20 second blasts should be OK.

[Mariner]

I think an important factor in this is how well ventilated the compartement in which the motor is located is. Ours is in a large, empty compartment under the forward berth. There is lots of air for the heat to dissipate into. Were it in a more craped compartment, I would be more concerned.

[DougSea]

I've been told that running it for up to a couple of minutes is fine. My surveyor mentioned that it's a handy tool if you run aground.

If you're moving ahead slow and bottom out on the skeg you can use the thruster to pivot 180 degrees and head back out the way you came in. It takes a bit over a minute to complete the pivot. By doing this you avoid the downward thrust of the prop digging you in and the spewing of bottom mud into your raw water intake.

(He's right - I'll explain how I know this works another time )

Doug