Hey everyone,
I’m considering buying a Foil Drive kit and wanted to hear from folks who already have the HP motor paired with the HP Max battery. I know runtime varies a lot depending on how you use it, but I’m curious:
• How long are your typical sessions?
• What kind of run time are you seeing on a single charge?
Thanks in advance for any insights!
It really depends on conditions, your weight and front wing size.
I have the HP motor but just regular max batteries. On a light onshore wind day where I’m riding upwind and pumping downwind on the bumps I can get just over an hour using the Axis Fireball 1350.
But, as the wind picks up and my front foil size decreases that time can drop to 35-40 mins. Wind and chop really suck the battery life. I always aim to hit the beach with about 25% remaining.
This could be a good comparison for you Foillord:
I’ve had a FD about 6 weeks after a long and challenging struggle with prone foiling, which I haven’t given up on, as a 62 yo.
I got the HP max battery and max 3 blade prop/motor combo for longest possible run time. A mate bought the standard max battery and standard 3 blade motor at the same time. We use the same boards: 36 litre Kruzers. I way a few kg more than him @75kg. He has a takuma front wing 1095cm sq and I use a lift 150 HAX = 970 cm sq. I have Lift 32" mast (81cm) and he has 75cm.
At this point in our journey I see about 50 minutes - say 10 minutes more than my comrade.
We aren’t really putting ourselves in situations where the swell is such that we’re riding waves non stop (apart from going out again to link up another) meaning it’s pretty small swell, and we don’t always get another decent wave back towards shore - we can still be on motor whilst doing that. So we’d both expect to see the run times increase as we improve and put ourselves in more consistent / slightly bigger and consistent swell conditions.
I probably tend to generally motor a little more efficiently than my buddy. He has his mast position right back but still fights the lift of his wing under motor ie keeping the board level… so whilst you could assume his larger wing would increase the run time of his kit vs mine, meaning the gap would be bigger, if I was on the same wing as him, there is that factor to consider but hard to know what exactly it means for run times.
All that said - it is good to milk the extra 10 minutes or so from the session and I’m glad I got the best FD combo for run time!! I generally finish with about 6-8% charge left and he’s the low side of 5%
If anyone has info on mast positioning for that balance between FD motoring and free foil - we’d both appreciate advice! I’m leaning back to free foil and okay/ balanced under motor, but know my front foot is still a little forward of the yellow dot when up on foil, tho it’s fine there under motor. And in saying that - the solution probably lies in lack of footwork?
I wam early-ish in my FD journey having done +/- 25 sessions. I am getting 50-55mn of time on foil (waterspeed planing/foiling time) with 5-10% battery remaining on the remote. Add taxiing in and out, some chatting with friends and the full 1 battery session is about 1h15mn. I have a Max battery/Max motor/3 blade prop, weigh 76kg and use an 1190/1100 foil. Initially was on a 58l board and now using a 32l. The sessions are not significantly shorter w the smaller board but I need to choose more selectively where I take off and increase boost/power settings (friends advised me to max out settings the for a quick no takeoff no fussing around). Most people I FD with are more talented but are also using smaller foils in the 800cm2 range (and 35l boards). Their foil time appears to be about 10-15m more than mine. Their overall time is not much different as they are ripping the entire session whereas I would like to believe I am mildly ripping between my numerous crashes. Conditions obviously play a part. I am on the Atlantic always hoping it stays in the 1m range but we do get bigger non breaking bombs sneaking up on us which is fun and admittedly a little scary at times.