Can an Electric Outboard REALLY Replace a Gas Motor?

So ever since I got my inflatable 16-foot skiff, I've been looking for a motor option that's easy for me to handle by myself. But it wasn't easy to find something that has the power of an outboard gas motor without the weight and the bulk of it. Alright guys, I've been excited to try this. It's the Lightime Argo Seeker electric motor. It's an almost six horsepower equivalent. I got the biggest battery they made for it. You can go with smaller batteries. Let's get this out a little more. So the heaviest part of this whole setup is the battery. There we go. Really excited to try this. I've got a Honda 9.9 horsepower gas and it's just so bulky and heavy for me to use. This is going to be a game changer. Alright. So the Argo Seeker just clamps to your transom like a normal motor. Alright, that's on. Sweet. We are just about ready. Here's another big advantage with the Argo Seeker. My Honda's a tiller steer, so I always have to reach behind the boat or reach behind my seat to operate it. Not anymore. Remote control. So before launching, I just had to adjust the depth of the motor so it'd be acclimated to this boat specifically, which with the included tools was really quick and easy to do. Alright, now we should be good. So this is my first time ever using this motor, so I'm really curious to find out what it can and can't do. Alright, should be deep enough. Let's see. I've never used a joystick operated motor before, but once you get used to the sensitive controls, it's really easy. Oh wow, this is awesome. Let's see. See how tight of a circle we can go. One of the first things I tested was the sharp turning. I just wanted to make sure that if you turn the motor as sharp as it would turn, that it wouldn't put you in a precarious situation or make the boat unstable. And I was pleasantly surprised. It did a fairly tight turn, but the boat never felt unstable. Now I don't know if you can technically put an inflatable boat on plane, but I wanted to go full speed to see if it would get the bow of the boat raised up and have the keel be the only thing touching the water. Alright, we've got plenty of speed. This motor pushes the boat just about as well as a small outboard would, but the major difference is the sound level. It's way quieter than a gas outboard motor. And as you can see here, it is lifting the bow of the boat up, so the keel is the only thing touching the water. And here I was just spending a little time getting close to structure, checking out the boat's maneuverability, making sure you can get in and out of spots easily. There's supposed to be no chance of rain right now. And like any marine equipment should be, the remote is sealed, so if you get caught in the rain, it's not going to affect anything, as you can see here. Not going to get too far from shore with those storms right there. Let's go to our avionics, and we'll be able to test the speed of this. So Lightime claims that the Argo Seeker can achieve speeds up to seven miles per hour, so I wanted to actually test that and see how accurate that is. Alright, we're at about almost six miles an hour going into the wind. And you can see here, not going against the wind did achieve almost seven miles per hour. Go backwards. You can turn backwards. Once I got used to the joystick, I discovered that you've got almost unlimited maneuverability with this. Oop, there's thunder. Alright, thunder means it's time to go. Breakdown is simple. It's got waterproof ports going from the motor to the battery, and it's got a cap that you put on the motor, so that stays waterproof when you're not using it. Lightime has been making high quality LiPo batteries for years now, but now they're coming onto the scene in the marine motor market, and this is a very impressive first venture. And weighing under 20 pounds makes this easy to load and unload. Motor's so light, carry it with one arm. Alright, I hope you guys enjoyed the review of the Argo Seeker made by Lightime. It's going to really change the way I get to fish. Portability is going to be really easy. That 9.9 Honda horsepower outboard is great when you've got two people to move it, but if you're by yourself, this Lightime Argo Seeker is just so easy to use. So, there'll be videos coming up soon, guys, fishing off of this. Look forward to showing them to you, and I'll see you guys next time.