Fighter Cat Riversport Catamaran

[keithbradley]

Just got my new Fighter Cat ARTR kit. First thing I have to say is I REALLY LIKE THIS HATCH!:thumbup1: I've gotten so sick of warped hatches that peel off hatch tape when running. I've had so many boats with crappy hatches and I am completely relieved to know that this one wont be a problem at all.

The tunnel has a bit of "oil can" to it. By that I mean its warped a bit and you can pop it in and out. I will be doing a carbon fiber/kevlar inlay on this boat, so when I do it I will brace the tunnel from the bottom so its flat when the carbon fiber sets up. It may not end up perfectly flat, but it should get me pretty close.

Power will be a T-600 outrunner (1400kv), paired up with suppo 200A esc. This is one of the power combos available with the Fighter cat ARTR kit and is intended for 6s use.

While the kit came with almost everything needed, some of it will not get used, like the wood servo mount (it may get used on something else, just not on this boat). I am using a blue/black carbon fiber/kevlar cloth on the hull and I plan on making either some custom machined aluminum or carbon fiber servo/motor mounts. The kit also included a 4mm flex/drive dog/stuffing tube with liner. I have not decided whether or not I will run the included flex or a .187" flex.

Any comments/suggestions welcome and encouraged.
This wont be a fast build be any means...I have all winter to do it. Thanks in advance to those who contribute and follow along.

Here are a few pics:

http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_2077.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_2078.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_2079.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_2080.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_2076.jpg

[LarrysDrifter]

The pearl white sure is pretty.I couldnt make my mind up whether I wanted the white or silver,but ended up getting silver.Ill be watching this build(all winter).
The floor on mine was warped too,but I just glassed over it and called it good.With that motor your running on 6s,Id mod the stinger for a 3/16 stub shaft and use the .187 flex.

[carlcisneros]

IF I run mine with either single or twin set up, it will be 3/16 flex shafts only.

[Brushless55]

looks good budy! :beerchug:

[LarrysDrifter]

looks good budy! :beerchug:

I like your Transmaro in your avatar.

[Brushless55]

I like your Transmaro in your avatar.

I hope they build them or its a 2011 Mustang for me :beerchug:

[RIPFENCE]

paint looks really nice in the pics white and black always looks clean and sporty...like it!!!

[LarrysDrifter]

Heres a word of advise-dont use blue painters masking tape to mask off your hull.It takes the clear with it when you remove the tape.I also re-inforced my hatch.So,like anyone else,I masked off the hatch.I used rc car magazine paper with the blue masking tape.Once it was cured,I could damn near read a Traxxas Summit ad right on top of the cock pit roof.So,use the real masking paper from an auto body paint supply store.And I figured the blue masking tape was the most innocent tape made,but,it ended up being a pain in my a@#.

[FighterCat57]

Cool! Nice Looking Hull! =)

You can go .078 wire if there's any doubt about the 4mm cable holding up. Although the 4mm is a bit bigger than the .150 cables and doesn't have the torque twist since it's 2 pieces so might be able to handle a good bit of load.

BTW- I have the 6mm couplers now if you need them. 6mm - 4mm or 6mm - 078.

[keithbradley]

Thanks for the input guys!
Ben- I will need to get a coupler for her. Im not too experienced with wire drives though...do they have to be close to straight? The stuffing tube is going to have a little bit of bend in it no matter what I do.

[FighterCat57]

Thanks for the input guys!
Ben- I will need to get a coupler for her. Im not too experienced with wire drives though...do they have to be close to straight? The stuffing tube is going to have a little bit of bend in it no matter what I do.

Some would argue, but I've had some pretty good luck running wire drives on the Genesis and Apparition single motor setups. I've only broken 1, but found that the motor angle was misaligned and pinching the wire.

PS- I also have the horizontal aluminum servo mount. :spy:

[keithbradley]

Ok, the holidays are over...I guess I will get SOMETHING done. I did my second and last layer of carbon fiber/kevlar today. It was still wet when I took the pictures so it has a glazed look to it. Its actually a blue/black weave, but the blue doesnt show up that well in the pics.

http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_2118.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_2119.jpg

[LarrysDrifter]

Nice.Get her going.But dont hurry too much since the water is frozen.

[FighterCat57]

Wow, that looks nice! :thumbup1:

[keithbradley]

Some more progress...
Going with a Leopard 3674-1300kv motor and scorpion 120A esc with water cooling added. The scorpion escs are really nice, loaded with features (like over current shutoff, ect) and they are programmed with a card via infared signal. The suppo escs are a great deal, but since this is going to be my main "sportboat", I decided to go with something a little more fun.

Ive got the rudder/strut mounted. I drilled the bushing in the strut for .187" flex and used a proboat flex from OSE.
Stuffing tube (1/4") and motor mount are also mounted.
Here are some pics:

http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_2178.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_2180.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_2177.jpg

[JPriami]

looking good.

[rchuntlsl]

I just found these fighter cats the other day. Man they are good looking hulls, I am very impressed. I wish their carbon fiber ones were available.

[keithbradley]

Not a whole lot happening lately. I've been torn between two builds. I got the esc for the riversport in, which is now a Fightercat suppo HV esc. I intend on making an aluminum mounting pad for it and running aluminum cooling lines to the esc and motor.
Plans are now to run on 8s1p. I will have to trim the sides (under the hatch) a little to get my 4s/5000mah packs in there but they should fit.

[keithbradley]

http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_2277-1.jpg http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_2279.jpg

[LarrysDrifter]

8s on this guy?Thats alot of voltage.I hope you post a video.

[keithbradley]

Yeah if I had a lower kv (little) motor I would use it, but this is the lowest I have besides motors that are too big for the hull. I'll just be turning a smaller prop, probably start out with a m440. Hopefully it does ok with that small of prop. Ive ran that kind of RPM with a larger prop, but it was on a larger ESC as well.
Part of the reason I am adding an aluminum mounting plate is to protect my carbon fiber if something goes wrong!:ohmy:
It should give me pretty good run time with the higher voltage if nothing else :popcorn2:

[keithbradley]

Come to think of it, I ran my Triton with a Leopard 4082/ 1300kv on 8s and a x442 and it did quite well. I dont remember the exact amperage but I remember it being surprisingly acceptable.

[LarrysDrifter]

Sweet.Cant wait to see this one move.:thumbup1:

[FighterCat57]

FYI- the 440 & 442 are excellent high RPM props for this hull. I ran the 1512 2650 on 4s with 440 and it ripped at nearly 60mph. Had a nice fluctuating "sweet spot" and didn't have any wind up slippage from a dead stop.

[JPriami]

Looks nice, Looking forward to it finished with a video

[keithbradley]

Looks nice, Looking forward to it finished with a video

Thanks. Vid will be a little bit. We are still covered in snow here in Michigan at the moment.

Build is coming along well though. My 1.5y/o daughter must have gotten a hold of my camera, it doesnt work right now...thats why I havent updated with pics lately. My wife has a camera I can use though when I need to post. As of now, I have the esc in, most of the cooling lines ran, and I made some cuts under the hatch so I can get my batteries in. It wasn't even close before I started cutting.

I just received my order of 2 "bling rockets" (25" Fightercat mono hull) yesterday. My son and I are doing side by side builds of these, its his first build of any kind. Naturally he is chomping at the bit every moment to get these going so Im working on those at the time. When he goes to sleep, if I get a chance, I work on the riversport and my 50" mono I am in the middle of building. Nothing like building 4 boats at once!!!

[keithbradley]

Getting close...I mounted the servo, ran most of the cooling lines, and cut enough out to get the batteries in. I still need to clean up the area I cut a little (there is one spot that I cut a little much w/the cut off wheel...I'll have to poke a little glass in there and smooth it out). Also have to make a water exit line to come off of the motor (not using the mount to cool) and I still want to make a aluminum pad to mount the esc on. 80A will be the lowest current rated esc I've ran to date in aftermarket applications, and if it cant handle it I dont want it to destroy the hull and carbon fiber.
There is some fiberglass dust in the hull still. I sprayed it with the air hose but there are spots (like on the front motor mount, behind the coupler) where you can see the dust. It's just dust and will wipe off.

http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_4534.jpg http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_4535.jpg

[keithbradley]

I finished the water lines and outlet. I mounted the outlet where it would be out of the way and I wouldnt have any lines running across/under/over the batteries. It will spray up rather than out, but I think its far enough away from the prop that I will still be able to tell if a steady flow of water is coming out...
This is pretty much the finished product, other than I still plan on making an aluminum plate for the esc to sit on, but you wont really see that much anyway.

Im curious what everyone thinks of this and would love some feedback. I've tried to do some more original things on the boats I am building right now, but I also didnt want to add any unnecessary weight to this one since Im already running 8s in a rather small (32") boat.
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/keithbradley/100_4583.jpg

[JPriami]

looks nice Keith. Interesting with the water pipes laying in there. what rudder are you using?

[JPriami]

i see it now in a pic above

[6sHyper]

I think your build looks very nice, whats the hose covering?? not sure i would trust that esc though........................ should rip on 8s i'll be checking back for a video!

[JackBlack26]

Man, that looks great. The aluminum under the ESC is a great idea. That's what I did in my Gen. That way if it smokes it wont burn the hull.

Also, the outlet facing up should provide a bit of back pressure keeping the water in contact with what it's cooling longer promoting better cooling capabilities. Cant wait to see it run:thumbup1:

[keithbradley]

I think your build looks very nice, whats the hose covering?? not sure i would trust that esc though........................ should rip on 8s i'll be checking back for a video!

I assume you mean the black over the water hoses? It's just black braided loom with shrink tubing on the ends.

What's wrong with the esc? Have you had a bad experience with them?

[keithbradley]

Man, that looks great. The aluminum under the ESC is a great idea. That's what I did in my Gen. That way if it smokes it wont burn the hull.

Also, the outlet facing up should provide a bit of back pressure keeping the water in contact with what it's cooling longer promoting better cooling capabilities. Cant wait to see it run:thumbup1:

Thanks Jackblack. I appreciate the feedback.
Im not sure if the second line in your post is in jest or if you missed that thread :zip-up:but yeah, I mostly did the outlet that way just for something different. Not really a whole lot of function to it, but I thought it looked cleaner than on the side of the hull for some reason, and its pretty easy to get to if the hose needs removed/replaced.

[6sHyper]

I assume you mean the black over the water hoses? It's just black braided loom with shrink tubing on the ends.

What's wrong with the esc? Have you had a bad experience with them?

ah i figured it was the braided loom, cleans things up nicely, i actually always thought putting the water outlet facing up would be cool, especially if there was enough pressure to shoot it out like a seadoo, then you wold really know if you ever lost cooling! lol

No i have never had one of those suppo esc's, i just read a few posts about them being way overrated for what they can actually handle, i swear theres a topic on here about them somewhere.

[keithbradley]

ah i figured it was the braided loom, cleans things up nicely, i actually always thought putting the water outlet facing up would be cool, especially if there was enough pressure to shoot it out like a seadoo, then you wold really know if you ever lost cooling! lol

No i have never had one of those suppo esc's, i just read a few posts about them being way overrated for what they can actually handle, i swear theres a topic on here about them somewhere.

Well I hope this one's not overrated, as its only rated at 80A!
Im a little unsure about how this esc will do, but only because its just an 80A esc. I like to run High voltage/High current ESCs but Im trying something different for this build. Im going to have to run a small prop on it to keep current draw to a minimum. If it works out I should get awesome runtimes out of it.
Wish me luck!

[keithbradley]

Just got back from her maiden.

Speed and acceleration were actually much more than I expected, especially with the little m440 I ran on it. You definitely have to ease into it if you want to keep this boat in the water. Acceleration was overwhelmingly powerful...a surprise with the m440. At full throttle, it held the water very well. This would be a great choice for a SAW hull in my opnion. It turned quite well to boot. Definitely the best handling cat Ive owned to date.

The higher RPM/smaller prop combo seemed to work well. Handling is great, speed and acceleration are there, and runtime was awesome. I ran for a good 10 minutes on 5000mah (majority of that time was lighter throttle) and the lipos came back with 3.77v/cell. I will be curious to see what runtimes are when I have flatter water and a rescue boat, so I can be heavier on the throttle.

Temps were...well, irrelevant. I didnt even temp anything, it was all cold to the touch. Two days ago the pond still had a layer of ice all the way across, and there was still a small patch of ice at one end, so the water was so cold nothing got a chance to build any heat. I will know more once things warm up a bit.

[keithbradley]

Just got the first lipo off the charger, it only took 2454mah. Runtime with this setup is giong to be crazy! Oh, and the other battery was 3.77v on every cell as well. 8 cells all exactly the same to the hundreth of a volt...not bad NeuEnergy!

[Brushless55]

sounds awesome man!!
great low temps a sweet runtime :rockon2:

[JPriami]

Congratulations glad it's doing good

[Jacked1]

Whoa! Possible 20min run?:thumbup1:

[keithbradley]

Whoa! Possible 20min run?:thumbup1:

I dont expect 20 minute runtimes full throttle. I got over 10 today with that litttle bit of battery power but the water was pretty choppy and I didnt have a resue boat, not to mention this was my first time out with this boat, so I was quite light on the throttle.

I can definitely see 10 minute plus run times at heavy throttle as a possibility though.:thumbup1:

[GP73]

Did the water outlet worked as expected?

[keithbradley]

Did the water outlet worked as expected?

Yes, it worked well and was easy to see a stream coming out. The ony thing that didnt go as planned is that the rudder/strut assembly seems to shoot a streat of water up too, so I had to look and make sure there was a stream shooting up off the side where the outlet is, not just the middle where the rudder is. I will most likely try to put a piece of tape where the stream is coming from the rudder so it doesnt shoot up.

[FighterCat57]

Yes, it worked well and was easy to see a stream coming out. The ony thing that didnt go as planned is that the rudder/strut assembly seems to shoot a streat of water up too, so I had to look and make sure there was a stream shooting up off the side where the outlet is, not just the middle where the rudder is. I will most likely try to put a piece of tape where the stream is coming from the rudder so it doesnt shoot up.

Curious, I've overlooked that stream of water , but thinking about it now, I wonder if there's a way to eliminate that and reduce the drag that's creating it.

[keithbradley]

Ran again today, on flat water. Ran for 14 minutes straight and ran it as hard as I could while keeping it on its feet. Lipos took 3660mah after the run. We have an official 15 minute runner here. Its freaking fast too. I bet it get 60 out of it on GPS with this setup.

Temps were:

Motor: high 80's

Lipos: 80's

ESC 110-115

ESC caps: 160

I can only guess the caps got so hot from the extended runtime. Everything else is being cooled by 38 degree water. I think splitting it up into 2-7 minute sessions with a short break to cool things would be a good idea.

[keithbradley]

Curious, I've overlooked that stream of water , but thinking about it now, I wonder if there's a way to eliminate that and reduce the drag that's creating it.

Im thinking of filling the gaps in the strut with silicone and sharpening the strut as much as possible.

[FighterCat57]

Im thinking of filling the gaps in the strut with silicone and sharpening the strut as much as possible.

Hmmm. I might incorporate that into the V Bracket since it's already being re-worked for dual pickups. :spy:

[keithbradley]

Hmmm. I might incorporate that into the V Bracket since it's already being re-worked for dual pickups. :spy:

If it were PERFECTLY tight with no gap, you couldnt change the strut angle. There would have to be some gap. You could probably tighten it up though. Some people might like the stream shooting up...kinda like those jets skis.:roflol:

[carlcisneros]

like octura struts/strudders, and the single unit that Ben sells, that is a normal thing to happen.
once you get the boat trimmed properly, then use silicon to seal that area and no more spray up in the air.

I have been doing this for years.
works great.

[Davinsta]

That cat is sweet! Where can you find fightercat hulls etc.

[srislash]

That cat is sweet! Where can you find fightercat hulls etc.Right here man http://fightercatracing.com/

[Davinsta]

Thanks