What motors for twin jet drive?

[dont slow down]

I'm converting an old Nikko boat into a recovery boat for my other boats and wanted to put a jet drive in it because I thought it would be something different as well as functional. I ordered up the Proboat jet drive from the Duck decoy retriever and well......it's smaller than I thought. So I'm probably going to do two jets instead since they are only 20$. They use a 380 size motor but I want to know what motors and ESC to use. Is there an ESC out there that can run two 380's? Doesn't need to be brushless, just enough to get the boat out there and push another one back in.

[sundog]

You're asking a lot from a 13mm jet drive. Or even two IMO. Remember it would have to push the recovery boat and the DIW boat in. I'd go with a 29mm Graupner or KMB for that job. I'm doing a dual EDF boat with a duck drive for the steering. We'll see how that works out.

[wparsons]

Nikko boats were never that big, so it could be perfectly fine on a pair of the decoy drives.

Since it's a recovery boat, I would just use the stock brushed motors, and run a single ESC to them (wire the motors in parallel). Those motors are mild, so any ESC capable of running a 540 brushed motor should have no issues with two of the 380's.

[sundog]

Nikko boats were never that big, so it could be perfectly fine on a pair of the decoy drives.


Wparsons you may be right, but I'm looking at a pair of them of them now and they don't instill much confidence as a recovery boat powerplant. :olleyes: Of course that depends on what you're recovering! Even two 13mm subsurface props would be more powerful - and that's not a lot of reserve torque. Should be an interesting build anyway. I don't mean to be a Debi Downer, just an observation.

[wparsons]

You could be right, just remember jet drives are very torquey and should pull some weight.

If you watch the video of the proboat decoy it shows it towing stuff around with a single drive. It definitely won't be fast when pulling something, but it will keep you dry!

[sundog]

I just saw the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KghjHeI2SF4 and it mentions bringing in your rc boat, so it looks like you're right on. And two should 'git her done' just fine if that's the case. Wow, they aren't much larger than a keychain.

[dont slow down]

When I ordered them I didn't realize how small they were. The recovery boat is only about 24" long. I think I'll get another one and at leasst build the boat and see what happens. The stock prop and setup barely pushes the boat as it sits now. I think two drives would be pretty cool if I can get it set up and installed right. Thanks for the input on the motors! :banana: