aquacraft ul - 1 help please.

[ruffdawg]

Just got my aquacraft UL-1 , looking to race this with the local club and do some IMPBA racing which i joined. Any of you guys have much experience with this boat that would mind helping me out with set up stuff ? So far i have the 40-80 c lipos and the OSE upgraded flex cable... Im wondering which prop to get ? would need 1 for flat and calm (other than other boat wakes) and 1 for somewhat choppy conditions...Also is the turn fin upgrade needed ? how about the upgraded connector to the moter for the flex cable ? any other upgrades you guys are doing to these ? Any info would really help as im coming from 1/8 late model and sprint dirt oval to the water and its a whole new deal over here...I would like to have ALL the upgrades everyone else is running and that way the driving should be the only thing i need to work on..also ? i saw some people are sanding the bottoms lightly ? how would i do that and what grit would i use.

[m4a1usr]

Start with an Octura X442 or the Grim 42x55. Both good starts. The rest of your questions should go to the guys who race. I own a modded UL-1 but dont race.

John

[dana]

Grim L40/57/3 prop. Best one so far. Upgrade to 5.5mm bullets. All hardware ok... Make sure your prop is sharpened and balanced by someone who has a clue if you use the one I mentioned, otherwise it's not gonna work so well.

[ruffdawg]

thanks guys, really gool to help me out with the info...

[h2o 1]

Darin Jordan did a racers prep on the ul1 in the Aquacraft section.It has alot of helpful info!I dont know if ur willing to go the lengths these racing guys go,but it will give you a good idea of whats being done to that hull for top performance.

[ruffdawg]

i dont seem to be able to find the Daron Jordan article- how did you get to it on here ? thanks.. Im used to hull and prop work , I was a factory sponsored jet ski racer in the 90s,held 2 top ten finishes at the world finals , im just trying to see how other guys are making these little boats stick to the water, and these little props are different in design than the Impellers we used on the skis,once i get the basic knowledge of the rc vs the jet ski i think i will be ok. U guys are really great on here for helping out a neew guy... thanks so much.

[rc2266]

M445 with stock electronics gets me in the 50's all day, best mod I did was put batts sideways into sponsons

[dana]

M445 with stock electronics gets me in the 50's all day, best mod I did was put batts sideways into sponsons
i cut the holes yesterday to mount the batteries. was kinda a pita getting thru the wood inside. cant wait to test it tho.

[ruffdawg]

Found Darrins article,WOW ,i stand corrected- im an idiot... definately wont do all that work, hoping since i just got this this week that Aquacraft has the issues worked out with the weak mounting of the fin,since i have a credit and 20.00 in coupons at tower Hobbies im going to order the grimracer 40-80c lipos from them,im thinking that getting 2 props would be the best.Probably go with the M-445 and the grimL40-57 to get started, got a nice prop balancer and will just balance them both and do some sharpening for 1st test run,.any advise on best balancing and sharpening techniques is helpfull as im kinda intimidated by these little props... u guys are great man ! coming from the 1/8 dirt oval to boats i can tell you that so far the boat guys seem a lot more helpfull as far as info to help a new guy...

[dana]

if you dont want to do all that cutting stuff up, running the batteries all the way up like this can help. also i put an air dam on there to disrupt the flow of air underneath the hull causing lift. added a dedicated cooling line behind the prop. i made my own turn fin…. uhm. i changed my motor mount and shapened the leading edges of my rudder and turn fin. wear a mask while doing copper props. copper is extremely hazerdous to breath.7481774818

[ruffdawg]

THANKS !!! i noticed your turn fin is straight and the stock one is curved in, now being new at this will the curved fin help with stability in corners or should i upgrade to the straight one or will that straight design make the boat more twitchy and unstable

[dana]

The str8 fin I made myself cause can't find them anywhere. I have since, put one slight bend in it. In the straightaways the str8 fin was nice, but it needed to hook a little more in the turns. I put a slight bend, less than stock, and it's good to go. The more bend, the more lift, which you don't want, so I'm in between stock and totally str8.

[ruffdawg]

I owe u for all this info Man ! If you ever come thru richmond virginia let me know as lunch at outback is on me... 2 things, ordered the balanced and sharpened L40-57/3 prop from OSE, also got 10 pairs of 5.5 bullet connectors so i could do all the conections-motor-batteries. any suggestions on a turn fin i could buy that would be better than stock ? something similar to the one u made ? or can i just slighly straighten mine a bit, want the hook up in the corners but Definately dont want the xtra lift on the straights, moving the lipos sideways to the front will definately help but is that enough with the stock turn fin ?... Also how about the OSE cooling jacket upgrade ? is this needed ? no one has said anything about it so i didnt get one...

[egneg]

I raced the UL-1 in D12 in 2010 with ODMBA. I used the M445 S/B and slightly cupped. I added a cap bank to the stock controller and also used the upgraded cooling jacket. I added 7oz of lead in the front and found that the stock fin worked great but the hull has to be strengthened IMO.

[ruffdawg]

thanks man, i want to get one of the m-445 props too but the balanced and sharpened version on the OSE site was sold out so im on the list, having never done one i didnt want to risk to much vibration on the other components by not doing it right..iread that recently aquacraft had improved the design on the UL-1 so they were not having turn fin problems ? have u heard that or should i be looking into strengthening the hull... whats a cap bank and how does that work..

[egneg]

Here is an example of a cap bank ... http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/proddetail.php?prod=etti-e035-lv. These are needed to save the esc from ripple current.

The hull needs to be strengthened as I trashed 2 that year in crashes even though the area with the turn fin was fortified, the FG is very thin and any thing you do will help (the hull will be stronger and heavier which is a big plus).

The M445 I used was modded from what is available from OSE but it's a good start. The award on the right is for the UL-1 (20-rigger).

74889

[rc2266]

i cut the holes yesterday to mount the batteries. was kinda a pita getting thru the wood inside. cant wait to test it tho.
What were you using? I used dremel tool with cutoff wheel, was easy and fast, cut it for my 3s, so 2s fitts great in both sides.

[dana]

I used a dremel but it was a little tight getting the dremel in there to cut thru the stringers on the inside

[rc2266]

I took my airdam off after this mod, runs on rails

[ruffdawg]

so i took my Ul-1 out today,1st day as i was taking a lot of u guys advise and doing some stuff to it and heres what i learned-20mph wind and chop- NOT GOOD FOR UL-1...lol lets see..U guys should get a kick out of this and some of you probably remember your early days... boat ran good- not great but good- seemed to be not turning as controllable as i wanted it to and pushing the nose so i dropped the turn fin just a tad-figured i would do that 1st and then move the rudder in towards the hull just a tad if that didnt work.. welllll... seems no one told the stick floating in the chop that i DIDNT SEE that little boats are not made for sticks--- sticks-1... Vic 0... 1 prop down(crappy stock prop) ... so after limping back to shore i decided to wait till this afternoon to go back out, this time with tools ? stupid me was so exited the 1st go round i left the tool box on the porch...EXECELLENT 2nd TRIP .. flat water and no wind... new prop was really good (OSE SHARPENED AND BALANCED),dropped the turn fin a little more and turned up the steering servo rate and it was really resposive...played around with the batteries untill i had just the right amount of lift to get it wobbling but not so much it wanted to come over... and just really had a blast ! sure wish the batteries lasted longer though but all in all a great 1st day.