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Thruster specs
VETUS RD160 RIMDRIVE: specs, price and the boats it fits
The RD160 RIMDRIVE is VETUS’s most unusual thruster: the motor drives the blades from a ring around the edge of the tube, so no motor housing sits in the water flow. It gives 353 lb of push on 48 V with proportional joystick control, and VETUS lists its run time as unlimited.
Not sold in the US right now. No US store or distributor lists the VETUS RD160 RIMDRIVE: we checked Defender, Fisheries Supply and Citimarine on October 15, 2026. Its specs and parts stay here for owners of boats built or bought abroad. For one to buy here, see the models on the VETUS thruster review that have a US price.
VETUS publishes no price; dealers quote it. A Tollycraft owner contracted for a pair of RIMDRIVE units in 2018, with their own 48 V banks, chargers and dual controls, and the whole job ran to tens of thousands of dollars. Around the unit you’ll need a tube, a control panel, a main switch and fuses, about $635 to $1,634. Check the full parts list.
It runs from four batteries wired in series, and the yard sets the tube well down in the bow, as its manual asks. It’s ignition protected, so it can go in a gasoline boat. VETUS prints no boat length for it, so check the fit section against your boat.
The full spec sheet for a yard sits lower down, and the VETUS thruster review covers VETUS’s whole range.
Where this summary comes from (5 sources, read 12 October 2026)
- VETUS webshop, RD160
- VETUS RIMDRIVE installation manual 020574.03 (RD125, RD160)
- Trawler Forum, "Considering a bow thruster: best choices", 2018 (Tollycraft 53 RIMDRIVE pair)
- VETUS Maintenance and Warranty Manual for thrusters, 020901.02
- VETUS warranty policy (three years since 2011, claimed through the dealer)
Key facts
- DIY level 2 of 5 Wiring prep only
- Thrust 353 lb 160 kgf, VETUS's rating
- Boat length Not published See our sizing below
- Price No US price None is published, so there is no fitted cost to work out
- Fitted by a yard No total No price to build on
- Voltage 48 V As sold
- Mounts Tunnel Fixed mount, bow or stern
- To fit it Haul-out The boat comes out of the water
- Run limit Not published Ask the maker before long use
Every figure here is the maker’s or a dealer’s. No US price is published, so there is no fitted cost to estimate. The full spec sheet is further down.
How much of the install is yours
DIY levels
- Level 5: Owner install. No yard, no electrician.
- Level 4: You fit it, electrician connects. You mount and wire it; a marine electrician makes the final connections.
- Level 3: Split with the yard. The yard does the below-waterline part; you do the wiring.
- Level 2: Wiring prep only. The yard fits the unit and does the hull work; you do the wiring prep.
- Level 1: Yard job. A qualified professional does all of it.
You Yard Electrician. The bar is labor hours; a haul-out is a note.
How we rate DIYYou: 4 to 16 h Yard: 32 to 70 h Electrician: 2 to 4 h Plus a haul-out.
- Cut, bond and fair the tunnel; fit the gear leg, motor and propeller Yard 32 to 70 h The low end is two crew over two days, the job as owners describe it on the forums. The high end rises with boat length between two real billed figures: 32 hours at 35 ft, and the largest invoice we hold, 70 hours at 47 ft.
- Mount the battery box, switch and fuse holder; run and secure the cables You 4 to 16 h Our estimate. No maker times this step, and a first-time owner is slower than a yard, so the range is wide.
- Final connections at the battery and the motor, load test Electrician 2 to 4 h Our estimate. Nobody publishes a time for the final connections and test on their own.
Your part needs:Heavy battery cableCrimping big lugs
A qualified marine electrician should make the final connections and test them before first use. Hours are labor only.
Is it right for your boat?
Our figure is the longest boat one unit can steer in a 15 knot wind. It is a range because each kind of boat catches the wind differently. Here a houseboat gets full thrust to 47 ft, and a catamaran to 72 ft.
The table below tries the VETUS RD160 RIMDRIVE on each kind of boat, at every length that kind of boat is built in. The wind is 15 knots and the rules are the finder’s own. A length counts as a fit when the unit gives the thrust that boat needs at the bow. VETUS publishes no boat length, so thrust alone decides.
| Boat | Full thrust at 15 knots | Still a fit, in lighter wind |
|---|---|---|
| Pontoon & tritoon | Not listed. A pontoon has no hull body between the logs to bore a tunnel through, and nobody sells one for these boats. | |
| Sailboat | 53 to 63 ft | 64 to 80 ftfull thrust to about 12 knots at 80 ft |
| Houseboat | 39 to 47 ft | 48 to 70 ftfull thrust to about 10 knots at 70 ft |
| Catamaran | 60 to 72 ft | 73 to 80 ftfull thrust to about 14 knots at 80 ft |
| Trawler | 52 to 62 ft | 63 to 80 ftfull thrust to about 12 knots at 80 ft |
| Motor yacht | 52 to 62 ft | 63 to 80 ftfull thrust to about 12 knots at 80 ft |
| Bass & flats | Not listed. Nobody sells a tunnel kit for these hulls, and a bass boat’s shallow planing bow has almost no depth to hold one. | |
| Wake & ski boats | Not listed. Nobody sells a tunnel kit for these hulls. | |
| Express cruiser | No length. More thrust than the boat needs. | |
| Center console | No length. More thrust than the boat needs. | |
Reading the two length columns. The first column is where one unit gives all the thrust the boat needs in 15 knots. The second is where the finder still lists it: the unit falls short of what the boat needs by no more than 10 percent, and gives the whole figure only in the lighter wind named. On a boat shorter than the first column’s shortest length, the unit is more than the boat needs.
It is sized for five kinds of boat here. For your own boat, the finder gives an answer that also counts your drive and who does the fitting. The compare page sets this unit beside others.
What it costs fitted
No US dollar price is published for the VETUS RD160 RIMDRIVE, so we build no total for it. The yard’s share of the job is on the cost page.
The sizing and the costs on this page are estimates, for guidance only and without warranty. They are no quote, and nobody has inspected your boat. Check them against the maker’s manual and your yard before you rely on them. Terms of use.
What else you buy
What follows comes from VETUS’s BOW55D installation manual 020522.11 r08 and the BOW PRO Boosted manual 020808.04 r09, May 2026 and February 2026, read 30 September 2026.
- In the box
- The unit assembled or in parts, the zinc anode, insulated gaskets, the drill template, the solenoid switches and the 5 A control fuse on the motor. BOW PRO: the thruster fuse in the connection unit.
- Bought separately
- The tunnel, the main switch (BATSW250 or BATSW600), the main fuse (ZE) and holder (ZEHC100), the cable, the control panel and its cable.
- Charging
- Every VETUS manual wants "its own separate battery or batteries" near the thruster, sealed if it shares the motor's compartment. The BOW PRO Boosted units carry a charger (12 V, 80 A) fed from the boat's bank, with a fused feed cable. The other manuals show an alternator and a battery separator on the wiring diagram and say nothing more.
The manual’s words, page 22 of the Boosted manual: “By connecting the 24 Volt battery bank to the MCVB boosted charge connection, the 48 Volt, battery bank is charged. An additional charging facility is not required.”
A yard job adds these parts on top of the unit: $635 to $1,634 for the priced ones below, at Fisheries Supply’s prices on 30 September 2026, plus the batteries, cable and charger.
| Part | What it is | What to ask for | Dealer price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tunnel tube | The fiberglass, aluminum or steel pipe the thruster sits in, bonded through the bow. | BP250G10, BP250G15 (40 in, 60 in) | $307–$831250 mm fiberglass tunnel tubes up to 60 in (1.5 m) long (VETUS, Sleipner Side-Power, Lewmar), at Fisheries Supply, read 16 October 2026. |
| Control panel | The buttons or joystick at the helm. One helm, one panel: a second steering station needs a panel of its own. | BPSE2 push buttons, BPJSTA joystick, BPJE2 or EZDOCK2 | $219–$374Side-Power touch panel and single joystick, VETUS push-button panel, Lewmar single joystick, at Fisheries Supply. |
| Control cable, panel to motor | The thin cable from the helm to the motor. Sold by length. | VETUS panel cable, by length | $29–$173Side-Power control cables, VETUS panel cables, Lewmar Gen 2 connecting cables, at Fisheries Supply. |
| Main fuse | A slow-blow fuse of the ANL type at the battery, in the size the maker prints for the model. | ZE series slow-blow, the rating in the yard table below | $18–$57Side-Power ANL fuses, Blue Sea ANL fuses, at Fisheries Supply, read 16 October 2026. |
| Fuse holder | The block the ANL fuse bolts into, with a cover. | ZEHC100 | $27–$93Egis and Blue Sea ANL fuse blocks, Side-Power ANL fuse holders, at Fisheries Supply, read 16 October 2026. |
| Main battery switch | The switch that cuts the thruster off from its battery when you leave the boat. | BATSW250 (BATSW600 on the bigger units), or BPMAIN12/24 for a remote switch | $35–$107Egis m-Series 300 A, Blue Sea e-Series 350 A and HD-Series 600 A on/off switches, at Fisheries Supply, read 16 October 2026. |
| Battery cable and lugs | The two heavy cables from the battery to the motor, sized to the length of the run. The wiring calculator sizes them. | VETUS names none | In the electrical line |
| Battery bank | A cranking-type bank near the motor, sized by the maker's cold cranking amps. The battery calculator checks it. | VETUS names none | In the electrical line |
| Charger or charge feed | How the thruster bank gets charged: a shore charger of its own, a DC-to-DC charger or charging relay from the boat's system, or a charger built into the unit. | VETUS names none | $146–$305NOCO GEN5X2 shore charger, Victron Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC charger, Blue Sea ML-ACR charging relay, at Fisheries Supply. |
| Glass, resin, filler and sealant | What bonds the tube or housing into the hull and seals the gear leg. | VETUS names none | Not priced |
The cost page has the whole list with what every maker says about each part.
For the yard and the installer
The full spec sheet, grouped the way a yard reads it. Every figure is the maker’s or a dealer’s, with its source.
| Thrust and motor | |
|---|---|
| Thrust | 353 lb (160 kgf) As printed: 160 kgf |
| Voltage | 48 V |
| Fitting | |
| Type | Tunnel, fixed mount |
| End of the boat | Bow or stern |
| Tunnel diameter | 250 mm |
| What it does to the hull | Tunnel bore below the waterline |
| Haul-out to fit it | Yes |
| Maker’s boat length | Not published |
| The tunnel | |
| Depth below the waterline | The tunnel centerline must be at least 250 mm below the waterline. RIMDRIVE RD125 and RD160 installation instructions, 020574.03 (2017) |
| Price and ordering | |
| Price | No US price published |
| Part number | RD16048 V, 48 V DC |
| Documents | |
| Manual | Installation manual (PDF)on the maker's site |
| Warranty | VETUS gives 3 years, or 1 for professional use, and it transfers to the next owner. Claims go through the dealer only. It is void unless an authorized VETUS dealer does the periodic maintenance, and transport, labor and lifting are excluded. VETUS's warranty policy |
| The site’s review | VETUS thruster review |
Draw, cable, fuse and battery, at each voltage
These are the maker’s own figures, at each voltage it is sold at. The cable is the size for the shortest run in the maker’s table. A longer run may need heavier cable, and the wiring calculator works that out for your own boat.
| Voltage | Draw | Maker’s cable | Fuse | Battery | Run limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 V | 200 Anominal draw | Not published | 200 Ainstallation manual 020574.03, r01, February 2017 | 750 CCA minimum, 2,100 CCA maximumVETUS installation manual 020574.03, r01, February 2017 | Not published |
- At 48 V: size the cable for your run, or check the battery you have.
What holds up and what to weigh
Each point names the fact it rests on.
What holds up
- VETUS sells it for either end, so it can go at the bow or the stern.The maker's listing
What to weigh
- The boat comes out of the water to fit it: it needs a tunnel bore below the waterline.The mounting: a bore through the hull, or a housing recessed into it
- VETUS publishes no boat length for it. The boat table is our sizing alone.The maker's documents, as the database records them
- No US dollar price is published for it, so we can work out no fitted cost.The maker and the dealers the database reads
What the manual and listings say
This is the note we keep on the VETUS RD160 RIMDRIVE, written from the maker’s manual, its product pages and the dealer’s listing.
In the box: The solenoid switches and the 5 A control fuse are on the motor. The panel, its cable, the main fuse and switch are bought.
Our note
A rim motor. The blades are driven from the ring of the tunnel, with no hub motor in the flow. The product page is the only VETUS page that prints run time as "unlimited". It runs at 48 V on four 12 V batteries in series. The manual gives a 200 A main fuse and a 425 A fuse on the controller.
It gives 50 to 70 mm² cable (printed "AWG 0 to AWG 00"), the larger size for a run over 10 m (33 ft) or continuous use over five minutes. The tunnel center sits at least 250 mm below the waterline. IP67 top cover, ISO 8846 ignition compliant, proportional on V-CAN. We found no US dealer listing. VETUS publishes no price.
Videos
One of VETUS’s own videos, from its YouTube channel: how VETUS picks a size, a battery bank and a panel. It is the maker’s pitch. Watch it for what the unit looks like and how it goes in, and take any claim back to the figures above.
Other sizes and close alternatives
These are VETUS’s nearest sizes by thrust, in any of its lines.
- One size down: VETUS Bow Pro Boosted 150, 331 lb, $7,018.
- One size up: VETUS Bow Pro Boosted 180, 397 lb, $7,749.
These are other makers’ units of the same style, for the same end, within a quarter of its published thrust. Each is that maker’s nearest match.
- Sleipner SE130/250T, 352 lb, $5,670.
- Lewmar 250TT GEN 2 Tunnel Thruster, 308 lb, $4,949.
- Max Power CT165, 408 lb, $3,684.
Every model with a page here is listed, maker by maker, on the thruster index.