Carver Owners Forum

Hi folks,

I have seen this topic discussed in other threads but hoping to have a focused discussion on the Sideshift bow thruster specifically.

My previous boat was a 39’ aft cabin with twin diesels, no bow thruster. I found the torque of the diesels allowed me to put the boat anywhere I needed it to go but, on occasion, wished I had a bow thruster during adverse conditions. The boat was a big sail and I’m surrounded by locks. My new to me boat has less area above the waterline but is 47’ LOA. It has 24” props with 496 gasers so thinking there should be enough power to push it around in tight quarters however trying to plan ahead to avoid a premature visit to purgatory with my admiral. For Sideshift owners...was the investment worth it versus traditional tunnel thruster? A bow thruster in my neck of the woods is $15-20k whereas I can install Sideshift for $7k all-in

I appreciate your thoughts.

Had and installed a Sideshift on my previous 32. They work very well however if you are in weed infested water they do not work well at all. Silent and very powerful. For the money they are well worth the expense in comparison to glassing a tunnel.

Come to the US, bet u can have a tunnel put in for about the same price as the side shift. Heard of installers that will do it for about the same price! Then again I could have been getting BS. May be worth the trip south!

Does the 15 to 20 include everything all in ? If you are thinking to install the side shift yourself ,a thought here, maybe you could have them do the proper tunnel and you fit the product you choose, wire etc.
I believe with the tunnel it is very important the fibreglass fairing to be done correctly, not just a hole. At this time of year it is very interesting to wander the boat yards and see so many different versions of these thrusters......big boats with small tunnels, small boats with big tunnels....

mjk1040 wrote:Source of the post Come to the US, bet u can have a tunnel put in for about the same price as the side shift. Heard of installers that will do it for about the same price! Then again I could have been getting BS. May be worth the trip south!

My understanding is a conventional bow thruster installation in the states is at least 10,000 US once all is said and done. That would be around 13,000 CDN. Basically twice the cost. Nice thing about the Sideshift is you can easily remove it to transfer to the next boat if you wanted to. I had the original model and unfortunately they were not perfected yet. After 6 years the seals went which ruined the bearings and motor. I replaced the part only to find out they did redesign it so I must assume they are in for the long run now. Regardless, if I had to do it all over again I would change the seals every 5 years just to be safe, an easy job once the boat is hauled in fall.

I had the dual prop 5hp unit, SS340 to be exact. https://shop.sideshift.com/collections/ ... 1496054883

Here is a great price on a unit that I would consider if I had your boat and was contemplating a conventional installation. Actually I am pretty sure this is what came factory on my boat! The installation cost is going to be the same for a small or large unit so might as well have enough power. If there is one thing I keep hearing is "I wish my thruster was more powerful"! Do not make the mistake of installing too small a unit. https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?name=side-power-se80-185t-dc-thruster-(on-off)&path=-1|2331321|2331333|2331336&id=2277142

Having a Sideshift stern thruster installed . Highly recommended in my area .