Unboxing my $1,000 ELECTRIC boat from China 

The fact that the company can make the boat, make the cage give you a million life jackets and make a profit is mind blowing.

In the US, it would have been impressive to get the 300 screws, metal frame and plywood that made up the packaging for $1000.

The $1000 was worth the extra quality time with your Dad and all the laughs.

According to the Google camera translation app, the top yellow text is: "Normal Driving". Under that is "Green environmental protection". The bottom text is "Battery Power Indicator". On the right is "Full battery". On the left is "Please Charge".

I bought the same boat. The first thing I did was to adapt a 9.9 Evinrude prop on it. Secondly, I installed a golf cart controller with the foot pedal to control prop speed. It will run about 9-10 mph now...

I think the relationship you have with your Dad is one that every man wishes he had with his. Thank you both for a very enjoyable video

I love the dad and son working together on this, great family fun!

Im so glad you were able to forge these memories with your pops. IYou two laughing together made me really miss my dad. ❤

An approximate translation of the Chinese on the gauge is, as follows: The long white string of characters at the very bottom reads: "Battery charge gauge". Above that, in white: "Eco-friendly" The red characters on the left: "Please charge" The blue/green characters on the right: "Fully charged" The yellow characters at the very top: "Nominal" (These are not literal translations but are what my wife and I arrived at as being most natural - My wife is Chinese and tried to explain the terms she was reading and I provided the more natural English terms)

You are very fortunate. Your Dad appears to love doing anything as long as he is doing it with his son. Priceless!

A boat this cheap would feel weird to complaint on anything else than the floating ability. Thanks for sharing your experience!

Listening to your poppa and yourself laugh an joke on the water was truly priceless to me. I lost my father 7 years ago. Godspeed my brother!

The biggest surprise for me was the inflatable dock. I was expecting that to sag wherever you stepped on it. It looked surprisingly rigid.

Hi, Micah. Here's the translation for the Chinese on the gauge: Top line (red, yellow, green): "Normal behavior electricity" so it is a charge indicator, my guess is green is good, yellow not so good, red bad Middle line (white): "Green" Bottom line (white): "Battery indicator" Taking the top two lines together, I'd say they're trying to tell you that lights on the right side of the dial (the "green" side) = proper power from the battery Throttle: Top line = Forward Middle line (with arrows) = Neutral Bottom line = Backwards You likely figured that out already! Hope this helps

I've got to say I'd spent that money on a small sailing boat any day, but then again, son-dad time with a project like this is priceless so can't say it's a bad decision in the end really

You could put a small waterproof tent on top with air mattress & down sleeping bag and leave it deployed , and on the metal lattice you can build a frame for a BBQ and a rinse rack for pots and pans in the starboard side and on the other side (port) same thing. Build a metal lattice to hold a fridge and a counter. Now you have a kitchen and a bedroom. Take out the front passenger backrest on the chair and run a seti along the side for a bunk and daytime couch. Lastly, drape roll up plastic rolls in the back and either side and roll them down if it rains

This was just lovely. My father died when I was 19. I like to think we could have spent time together like this.

The meter is a 'Battery level indicator', red = 'please charge', yellow = 'normal drive', green = 'fully charged'. Enjoy your video man, great work! Also love your relationship with your dad, he is a cool guy!

Honestly wish I had a dad like this! My dad died as a kid so never go to experience precious goofy moments with my dad like this

That’s a great looking boat; I would personally recommend to get a jet ski engine for it. I would love to see a video with you installing a jet powered motor in it.

I remember these types of boats when I was a child visiting China! They would be dotted across all the major lakes and rivers in major cities, and you could pay a couple of yuan to book them for a few hours. Those were really fun things, practically indestructible and were good childhood memories

The gauge is the battery level indicator. The bottom reads "battery level indicator". The center is "green and environment friendly". The green part is "battery full". The yellow is literally "normal drive", which means batter level is fine. The red characters are not clear in the video, but it is safe to guess it says battery low. These boats are used in urban parks in China. They are used on lakes crowded with its own kind and row boats, often operated by kids. So they are not supposed to be any quick. Like someone commented, the hull mold might be old. Actually the hull shape looks very much like those when this type of park boats are equipped with foot pedals twenty years ago. A lot of people are kind surprised that a Chinese company can sell such a boat so cheap yet still making profit. Some people even commented saying slave labor, which is very ridiculous. Most people in the US are just not familiar about how people live in China. I am not a economist knowing a lot of theories, but I came from China in the early two thousand. When the living essentials such as food, clothing, transportation, and house rental are so cheap, the labor cost (salary from the worker's point of view) is also very low, which is in turn, also the reason goods and services are cheap. When you convert the Chinese salary to US dollars, the number may seem outrageously low, but the living cost can also be outrageously low. So seriously, for those people saying slave labor, think hard or even better go and investigate yourself, how can a country become the second biggest economy in the world built on slave labor. So in general, the whole country lives in a different economic scale than the US. That's also the reason everything imported from the US or Europe is luxurious in China, and why China sells more good to the US than buying from the US.

Looks like a fun project but that went from a 1000 to a 5000 boat real quick 😂 and all that battery weight must really make it lag on the juice a bit

That thing is sick! I love that you combine quality videos with humble family interactions. & now ur dad has an awesome new boat to fish leisurely in his pond👌

It’s supposed to be a battery gauge. I spent most of my childhood in China and these little boats were everywhere. You can rent a boat like this at your local park for about 10 dollars an hour (and they also have pedal boats for rent at a even lower price). Because the boats can’t go very fast they even let kids to drive them. My favorite childhood memory was going to park and driving boats around with my grandparents. Sometimes my whole family would rent a bigger boat and have for a family picnic. This boat bring me so many memories, and now I want to buy one too 😂

I would install a longer propeller shafter to put that prop under the surface of the water! Or move the whole motor , shaft and prop to the stern to put the prop under water. Oh, thanks to your Dad. Great Dad to spend time with you.

I screen shot the dial on Google translate. It has four words loosely translated, the top says normal behavior,middle says green, right side says full and last in the lower of the dial says battery power indicator. Very interesting and fun watching this, thank you. I vote for Quack Quack, thanks Mom. I hope the low seats don’t fatigue your knees. Be safe and have fun.

A father son memory that will last forever ! Priceless !

Awesome toy. A Cyclone motor (at 3k watts) might expand the uses. I want to see a race between the boat and the ducks;) Your dad is awesome. Loved his reactions to the boat.

That laugh after he said its completely ridiculous was genuine, hes awesome. hope you can upgrade and have fun with your new toy

You should do a "Fixing everything thats wrong with my $1000 boat" video.. That would be really fun to watch! Maybe adding solarpanelos, better motor and prop etc. I would love to see that.

Best part of that endeavor is the dock! Your dad made me laugh.🤣😂🤣

Double up the batteries and go 48/52volt. Go 3000 watt motor. Solar panel and a better prop. You forgot Life Jackets, be safe.

I was, perhaps, particularly happy to see that the Coast Guard sent a plane to make sure you guys were okay! :-)

I’m estranged from my father, your super lucky to have such a good dad. 👍🏻👍🏻 cool boat bro, can’t wait to see the update video.

Cute little boat. I think if you put rubber grommets on the mounting bolts for the motor it will run much quieter. As for the prop you need a much better one to get any speed from it and with that motor it may not do much. Then get new pulleys and arrange them for better prop speed. That should improve Speed performance and noise. Maybe put some ballast in the bottom of the boat to lower it in the water so as not to have the prop sticking out and causing cavitation witch destroys your prop performance. A bigger Rudder will improve your steering performance quite a bit. From an old sea dog.

Seems you and your dad have a awesome relationship. I lost mine last year and I really miss him but watching yall together made me feel so peaceful thank you.

Honestly, I'm most impressed with the dock. I thought that duck was gonna sweep in and capsize you. Your dad's laugh is infectious.

Oh my goodness... This isn't very lady like to admit this to the world but I actually had to pause this and run to the potty... This old lady was laughing so hard I was afraid I wasn't going to get there 😂. This is the cutest thing I've ever seen! The only thing cuter is going to be having it hooked up to the little truck, parked next to the blow up dock 😂😂😂. I'm actually looking to buy some property and I'm hoping to get a little bit of water like this- now I guess I have to buy a damn Chinese boat for the grandkids. 😳🤣 P. S.- Your dad is absolutely adorable.

for the battery meter from left to right: 请充电（need charge) ,正常行驶（normal use）， 电量满（battery full）❤

This seems like it could be a great foundation for a project boat! Mods that you mentioned, such as upgrading the motor (along with a variable throttle), upgrade the prop and rudder, solar panels, storage... With sufficient battery capacity, you could put lighting on it, such as SUV/off-road lights, and running lights. I'd also look at filling much of the empty voids with buoyant expanding foam, as a safety measure! And the tubular steel cage it comes in, I'd bet it could be used to modify pretty much any basic frame trailer to properly carry the boat!

When you said “looks like a quality propeller” I heard Pops give a laugh giggle 😂

It would be fun to experiment with different pulley sizes to see if you could get a little more power!

Two trolling motors in the rear with two toggle switches both having temporary forward off and temporary reverse would give you total control of the boat. Rented a mini pontoon boat with this set up 25 years ago. Lot of fun

Having built an electric boat, I would say you have to get that prop fully under the water. Also try a bigger prop. Torqueedo makes some very nice efficient props. Then try a different controller with speed control.

If you're thinking of doing a motor swap, I wonder if you'd be better off just mounting a large trolling motor in place of the rudder. This would use the built in steering, allow you to adjust the depth of your motor, give you a better prop and probably be a lot quieter. You'd also get better steering in both forward and reverse. You could sell the motor and speed controller to recover part of the cost or save it for a future project.

I have a suggestion for the name from the Hawaiian Islands……. “lilikoi”. In case you don’t know, Lilikoi is a wonderful fruit from the passion vine …. Passion fruit. The outside of the fruit is the yellow of the seats of the boat.

Love his dad’s response! So cute ☺️

Before upgrade the engine, better to try to add two more set of batteries, the controller supports 24V-48V. It should run faster with 4 sets of batteries and 48V voltage.

Love when your dad cracks up about how ridiculous it is 😂 really cool seeing father and son getting to hang

For a cheap pondboat its quite cute. And i see lots of potentials to upgrade it, other stronger engine, and a stereo. Fixing those inner pillar surfaces maybe put some leds there to. 😀👍

I honestly like these videos that are more on other things electric than an all bike play list 😊

The gauge is a 电瓶电量指示 （Battery Level Indicator). Red reads 请充电 （Please Recharge), yellow reads 正常行驶 （Normal Driving/Operation, and the green reads 电量满 （Battery Level Full). I would love to see if that prop can be replaced with something off the shelf, that wasn't made by a 12 year old on his first day doing stick welding. Upgrading the motor and controller sounds great as well, I can't wait to see you tear into that boat and redoing the wiring. Based solely on looks and my previous experiences with Chinese wiring, I suspect the actual gauge of the wire (inside the insulating jacket) is on the higher side, meaning it could be closer to 16AWG instead of 12AWG. So before you upgrade the motor and controller, I suggest taking a close look at the wiring loom and upgrade as necessary.

Call it the Solar Duckling, which with the solar power would be a nice name, plus it is a nice little duckling. Solar panels will mean never needing to actually charge it, and you can also use the charge port to connect it to the truck, so that the larger panels can charge the truck at the same time. I would say that the plywood and steel in that frame is actually most of the price, seeing as you now can use it to make a whole lot of smaller projects, like a small shed to shelter the truck under, or a nice table or three in the garage.

I bought a similar Eska boat which only seats 2 people back in 1978. It did not have a motor, so I used a 3 hp outboard to power it.

On the gauge, the top 3 lights say "normal sailing", the right side 2 lights say battery full charged, the left 2 lights say "please charge" 😁

Ha ha ! The Pond Barge !!😆 I can’t wait for Micah to explain (demonstrate 😉) how he turns the boat prop from a air fan into a actual submerged propeller 😁 Nice inflatable dock too. Looking forward to boat upgrade videos 👍🏻

On the motor controller there should be a thin blue wire that loops back to the controller with a connector block on it, if you disconnect it this will remove the 750w limit.

@20:00 yes, this is a standard single-phase CEE (IEC 60309) socket, typically used for industrial applications, stage lighting/audio and campers all around the world. Those usually have at least an IP44 rating. As for balance and the propeller sticking out above the water: I guess the boat was probably designed for lead batteries, which would be significantly more weight than you LiFePOs.

Consider installing a couple of solar panels on the canopy and run the charge controller and an inverter and double your batteries and you might be able to really use the boat for a great time.

Yes, your Dad laughing made the video enjoyable. I think your Dad named the boat already. “This is ‘Absolutely Ridiculous’”

Thanks for taking us on this journey. It's fun to see all this stuff that I didn't even know existed, and yet now I want for myself. Please post more videos of this boat out in open water.

it's been a long time since i had a in-board single prop boat, but it seems to me that every time you try to reverse, the stern would go clock wise. this i believe is due to the thrust/torque of the prop and the fact that the boat has a small rudder.. it takes a lot of practice and learning how your boat moves, it's ability to drift with current and wind. seeing that when you want to stop a boat the usual thing to do is put in reverse. so, when you are docking approach, bow first, so that the dock is on the port (left) side . when you go into reverse to stop it will pull the stern in toward the dock. if you wanted a bit more speed and control you might try replacing the the prop with an electric water jet drive. they are made to run at just below the waterline. have fun with it.

23:33 I'm thinking a Predator 670 would be a worthy upgrade. Drop that anemic 3/4hp DC motor for a 16hp V-Twin ICE with a clutch. You may not be able to keep reverse but that thing'll perform a hell of a lot better.

I love seeing you and your dad together. I miss my dad so much. Spend time together as much as you can!

I love to watch these Chinese Imports, equally love watching you & your Dad trying them out together.

The inscription on that motor shows: if the input voltage is 24v, its power is 500w, if the input voltage is 48v, it is 1000w

While your maiden voyage was very low key the Field of Dreams vibes between you and your pop were chill! Crazy what 1000 bucks will buy you! 😊❤

Your Dads laugh is worth more than what you spend the boat with. Happy memories 😊.

Listening to your dad finally laughing is infectious - I was in tears!

love the light hearted tone of this video. and that you were brave enough to buy and test this 'cheap' boat. Well you saved me money on trying same buy. thanks!!!

19:43 you probably know by now but 电瓶电量指示 is the battery power indicator and The top ones are for electricity, if it’s clear/normal. And the green one is supposed to show you how full the battery is but since you put in really big ones idk if it’s gonna pick that up ^^

The most impressive thing in this video is the quality and stability of that inflatable dock! Yeah, as others have said you need to get that prop both replaced and located completely underwater, as you are losing so much propulsion and steering control the way it currently is with the prop just cavitating halfway out of the water. With the correct propeller type & location and appropriate gearing, you could easily double if not triple the current speed of that boat (and attain effective steering control), making it safe for river use. And the way that the drive-belt system is set up you can easily alter the gearing by simply swapping-out the drive pulleys for different sized ones to optimize the motor's output to the size & pitch of the new propeller you install. Looking forward to seeing the finished result.

Micah, Here are some idea to gain boat speed which probably already know (1) Change the pulley ratio from motor to drive shaft. (2) Better propeller design. (3) Stronger motor and faster reving motor (3) Better drag coefficient of the boat. You need to install an additional bunks mounting brackets to secure the front bunks for safety. On the video, the boat is rocking, front and back. I'm surprised you guys did not cut the shipping container top brackets from the bottom base and lift the complete bracket off and away from the boat. It could have eliminated the pushing and shoving effort. You could have adapted the shipping container base to the trailer as your bunks. For new $4280 E-boat with future mods option, I think good price. For the name? CHARGE-ME- UP or AMPED- UP

The fact that u spend a great day with your father 😍 make everything else worth it

definitely change out motor and they got bigger esc controllers and that is what is going to give you more power and one more thing is the discharge of the battery . best way to describe this is for you to learn about rc boats that will explain a lot better on ESC Controllers and Batteries discharge punch rate to controller and motor . good luck im looking into this as well for a optional boat on a lake front homestead in Scottsdale Az it would be cool

Loved your video, love the electric setup and the upgrade thoughts from comments here. My hobby is electric planes and jets so I appreciate what you are doing here for the sake of electric (non-fossil fuel) power and the practicality of it. Of course, for the cost of the boat and shipping, you could have had a pretty nice used boat and motor but that would have defeated your goals. Keep up the good work...subscribed!

Lots of fun hearing all that you did to accomplish your journey. Very nice looking boat! You and your father are enjoying each other which is the greatest part of your story. I look forward to following you, I really enjoyed it..

Did I just see a HF mult position sawz all in action? I've got one and it is the Boss. Got a Makita and a DeWalt but that swivel head is a great thing. That inflatable boat dock looks like just the thing for my camp on a 400 acre pond. Put it out while there, pull it into the shed for the winter. This boat is so much fun for the money

You can set google translate to "detect language" for the gauges at @19:43 and get a general idea of what they say, the battery power indicator is on the right

Please do another videos upgrading the electric motor to something more powerful to see if it will make it worthy of open waters. It’s clearly underpowered and if you do that including a controllable throttle instead of on/off and maybe replace and lower the prop a little, I think it would make it capable of the open waters and rivers! Can’t wait to see the upgraded version!

I was eyeing this boat for myself as well. Thank you for taking one for the team and posting this, now I don’t have to think it anymore! 😝

It's a really nice boat for what you're using it for right now. It's nice for a backyard pond Big pond. Upgrade to motor and you'll be set. Nice little unit.😊

I can't wait to see an update with some improvements.

Hey guys great video. I think the manufacturer expected people to use lead acid batteries which would have more than doubled the weight in back and fixed the prop out of water issue, however a smaller prop with a higher pitch will work. As far as your unfinished fiberglass you might want to try Bedliner paint. Sounds goofy but we have tested it on docks and it holds up underwater very well and gives you a decent finish for very little money and a whole lot less work that other options . Looking forward to whatever you do with it . 😁👍

I like the name Electric Daisy for the boat. I bet she would be amazing with a jet propusion setup. Looks great for a grand.

Looking forward to seeing what you upgrade on it, and how you do it! If the results are good enough, this may be my next big purchase lol

So true, *The crate looks fantastic.* You can tell the pride of workmanship just by looking at it. WOW ! The packaging alone is worth a couple hundred bucks !

Wow! I really enjoyed this video, you and your dad seemed to be having a good time. I would totally love having a beverage and watching the scenery or dropping a line on this little boat. I think if they were imported and sold complete with a trailer people would buy them. As a woman with very basic mechanical knowledge this is really appealing as something I could handle myself. I’d name it the Lucky Duck 😃

Your dad was cracking up laughing at the boat but honestly for $1000 you can NOT complain! Throw a larger prop on or just change the motor, create some storage, and find a way to charge it (most likely solar) and you will have a really cool machine. It's soo bad that you paid double the rice of the boat for shipping. Even if you could get the whole machine with shipping and batteries for under $3000 you have a hell of a machine! Edit. After watching the rest of the video you mention exactly what I said you should do, lol.

So great to see the relationship between you and your dad. The boat is cool, too!

Wish I had a dad, wish I had a boat, wish I had the property but it is great to see someone enjoying life. Love your videos 😅

Something to consider is using the weight of extra batteries as ballast on top of using lead counter-weights. Along with the solar panels, you'll have basically UnLiMiTeD pOwEr(!!!) and you can run things like MFDs to monitor power storage and output, refrigeration, flood lights and a stereo system. I would honestly go with quadruple the power, double the suggested motor power to 4000 watts, a couple of MFDs and a proper throttle. The added weight will drop your draft so that the screw reaches maximum efficiency and putting it in the bilge will lower your center of weight so it's more stable. An extra 500 lbs with at least 150 of that centered in the aft should do the trick.

Put a wood bracket on the stern. I have a Tomking TK 144FC 4 cycle outboard. With the ignition set back, lighter springs for the centrifugal cluutch, and a hand finish on the prop, it could power all day on 10 ounces of gas an hour. I bought the motor from gomaxind in Fort Lauderdale.

Totally worth it for only $1000! gonna get myself 1 of this

Just a thought about the bare fiberglass: I had a Balboa 20 sloop that matched the yellow/white of your boat and I performed similar modifications to those you anticipate. I found that Pettit EZ Poxy paint easily covered the bare glass and (in 1970s) had colors that blended perfectly with the white and yellow gel coat. Looking forward to your future videos.

I really hope this turns into a short series. I'd love to see you out on the big water ripping that thing around with some power upgrades!

Duck Duck Goose!! One of my favorite Blues bars from Green Bay, WI 40yrs ago!! Lol

I think I'd fill that thing with floatation foam... The white text at the bottom is Battery Level Indicator. The Yellow says normal Operation, The Green says full charge. Red is too blurry to read. The middle translates as "Green Quantity"

It was fun just watching you and your dad enjoying your time together! Priceless. Ty for sharing.