HACKING THE ELECTRIC PADDLE BATTERY PACK

I've been using the Electric Paddle outboard on my Porta Boat dingy for two seasons now. I use it much more than the 35 pound Honda BP2 Four Stroke outboard it replaced. It's light weighing only eight pounds for the motor and eight pounds for the battery pack.  It's well designed and made in the U.S. The company also has great customer service and follow up with customers. As I said the design is well thought out but I thought the battery pack could be modified to make it even easier for me when I use it in my dingy. So I...

 came up with and idea to do this. The battery comes in a soft sided case that floats. There is a loop at the top which allows the battery pack to sit under the motor when you use the security lock and pin as shown in the photo below:

 The trouble was since the loop is soft I sometimes had a hard time inserting the pin through the loop because it tended to close up or  flop over as I tried to put the pin through it.

 I came up with an idea that would keep the loop open and make it easier to insert the pin through the loop. I took a scrap piece of water hose I had on board and cut it to fit the loop width and placed it inside the loop:

This keeps the loop open and allows me to easy route the pin through the loop by running it inside the hose. At first I thought I might glue it into place. But, then tried another idea. I used a cable tie to secure the hose in place and it works just as well without the mess of glue:

This little mod has made installing the battery pack a real easy operation for me now.