Need help ugrading my Motley Crew

[RCnerd]

Hello Everyone,

I have been reading a lot of information on this site and it is very informative and overwhelming at the same time!

I have a blast driving my MC but, like most of you guys, i want it faster. I have the following upgrades already:
1-OSE Flex Shaft
2-OSE motor coupler
3-42x55 prop

My driving consist of super glassy water. I would like to drop in a new motor and ESC (with LVC). I need your help!
1- What motor and water jacket would you recommend? Will I be able to bolt it to the existing motor mount?
2- What ESC do you recommend?
3- What will be the best prop?

I really appreciate any help that you guys can give me.

Thanks.

[Doby]

Define "faster".....

[RCnerd]

Define "faster".....

Haha! I would like to get as close to 50 as possible with the same battery setup that i use 4S1P.

What do you think?

[Doby]

I get 47 consistently with mine in stock form...just need to play with struts and props....no other mods required.

[RCnerd]

I get 47 consistently with mine in stock form...just need to play with struts and props....no other mods required.

What Prop are you running ?

[Doby]

I don't like to give out prop specifics as its pushing the stock electronics, but so far for two seasons they have held up... it is an Octura X Series,,,but its severly modded.

[Fluid]

Near 50 mph with the stock electronics is possible but probably not for long run times. I almost hit 50 with an m445 on my stock AQ 1800 with 'stock' AQ ESC and 4S1P - but I don't run for more than ~2 minutes for a race heat. Even on 100*F days nothing comes in over 130*F, mostly less. The boat is running pretty loose to get that performance level. For a "safer" 50 mph I'd go with a Leopard 4074/2000 motor and an ESC with a 120 amp minimum rating. With the m445 that should get you to 50 with more head room to spare. Below is my Motley Crew build:

http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/showthread.php?35849-My-Motley-Crew-Re-Build



.

[RCnerd]

Near 50 mph with the stock electronics is possible but probably not for long run times. I almost hit 50 with an m445 on my stock AQ 1800 with 'stock' AQ ESC and 4S1P - but I don't run for more than ~2 minutes for a race heat. Even on 100*F days nothing comes in over 130*F, mostly less. The boat is running pretty loose to get that performance level. For a "safer" 50 mph I'd go with a Leopard 4074/2000 motor and an ESC with a 120 amp minimum rating. With the m445 that should get you to 50 with more head room to spare. Below is my Motley Crew build:

http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/showthread.php?35849-My-Motley-Crew-Re-Build



.


Wow that is a killer build! Thanks for the information. Do you know if the Leopard motor will mount to the stock motor mount in the motley crew? I am new to FE boats so I am not ready to attempt putting an aftermarket motor mount in the hull just yet.

[siberianhusky]

You can, personally I wouldn't. I bent the stock mount in mine running a Castle 1512 it's shorter than the Leopard.
Installed an aftermarket floor mount, trimmed the stuffing tube shorter so everything lines up nice.
I personally think this puts the motor in a better location for adjusting the cg, it also drops the height of the motor quite a bit thus lowering the cg in the hull.
Epoxied some hardwood rails in the bottom of the tub at the same time, really stiffened things up. The inboard end of the stuffing tube doesn't move anymore when you adjust the strut.
I also installed a SV27 rudder on mine, it has a built in water pickup. I use both inlets, one for the esc the other for the motor.
I can run for a full 3:30 in the 50 ball park with no heat issues at all with the stock setup, Now I usually run a proboat 1800kv motor in it, lower amp draw for the same prop. Might just be a "good" proboat motor. I only have the one so no comparison. I also did some work on the bottom of the hull to improve it, flat sanded and leveled the sponson bottoms, then gave them a scuffing after I painted it.
Had a Leopard 4074 in it, the Castle and the spec stuff, I find the boat to be the most fun with a stock type setup. No sinking feeling and the associated repairs when I blow over at it's intended speeds.
I have an H&M cat that has cartwheeled down the lake at 60mph wiht no damage at all, Last time out in rough water must have crashed it at least 6 times, the Motley would probably self destruct if that happened. The difference in hull quality is remarkable. There is a pretty big price difference to though.

[RCnerd]

You can, personally I wouldn't. I bent the stock mount in mine running a Castle 1512 it's shorter than the Leopard.
Installed an aftermarket floor mount, trimmed the stuffing tube shorter so everything lines up nice.
I personally think this puts the motor in a better location for adjusting the cg, it also drops the height of the motor quite a bit thus lowering the cg in the hull.
Epoxied some hardwood rails in the bottom of the tub at the same time, really stiffened things up. The inboard end of the stuffing tube doesn't move anymore when you adjust the strut.
I also installed a SV27 rudder on mine, it has a built in water pickup. I use both inlets, one for the esc the other for the motor.
I can run for a full 3:30 in the 50 ball park with no heat issues at all with the stock setup, Now I usually run a proboat 1800kv motor in it, lower amp draw for the same prop. Might just be a "good" proboat motor. I only have the one so no comparison. I also did some work on the bottom of the hull to improve it, flat sanded and leveled the sponson bottoms, then gave them a scuffing after I painted it.
Had a Leopard 4074 in it, the Castle and the spec stuff, I find the boat to be the most fun with a stock type setup. No sinking feeling and the associated repairs when I blow over at it's intended speeds.
I have an H&M cat that has cartwheeled down the lake at 60mph wiht no damage at all, Last time out in rough water must have crashed it at least 6 times, the Motley would probably self destruct if that happened. The difference in hull quality is remarkable. There is a pretty big price difference to though.

Thanks for the information. I will just leave mine stock for now as it is still fun. However, I would like to get an upgraded cat. Which H&M cat do you have and what is your set up (If you don't mind me asking). I really would like an upgraded boat that will fly!

[siberianhusky]

http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=76332&d=1336932553

Here is the inside of mine now with the motor mount, rails and how much I trimmed the stuffing tube.
I believe that moving the motor back allows you to slide the batteries forwards, keeping as much of the mass as possible near the cg. INstead of having the motor forwards and the batteries almost all the way back.
The wood I used for rails is some off cuts from a guitar fingerboard, super hard, dense stiff stuff called padouk added a couple light ply cross members as you can see.

[RCnerd]

http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=76332&d=1336932553

Here is the inside of mine now with the motor mount, rails and how much I trimmed the stuffing tube.
I believe that moving the motor back allows you to slide the batteries forwards, keeping as much of the mass as possible near the cg. INstead of having the motor forwards and the batteries almost all the way back.
The wood I used for rails is some off cuts from a guitar fingerboard, super hard, dense stiff stuff called padouk added a couple light ply cross members as you can see.

Nice work!!!

[siberianhusky]

I have a drifter S 26" long running a UL-1 motor with a swordfish 120 esc.
Most of my stuff is powered by spec motors, I get a big kick out of tinkering and tuning. I get more excited getting an extra mph by tuning and setup than throwing more power at it and getting 10 mph.
I also find the $/fun ratio to be awesome with the spec stuff. I used to run big nitro boats, still can't believe the performance and reliability you can get out of a 30" 350$ boat. 60% nitro fuel and sheets of glow plugs got very expensive after a while. Was about ready to go to gas until I saw a brushless motor and lipos run, 2 weeks later had an electric setup!

[RCnerd]

I have a drifter S 26" long running a UL-1 motor with a swordfish 120 esc.
Most of my stuff is powered by spec motors, I get a big kick out of tinkering and tuning. I get more excited getting an extra mph by tuning and setup than throwing more power at it and getting 10 mph.
I also find the $/fun ratio to be awesome with the spec stuff. I used to run big nitro boats, still can't believe the performance and reliability you can get out of a 30" 350$ boat. 60% nitro fuel and sheets of glow plugs got very expensive after a while. Was about ready to go to gas until I saw a brushless motor and lipos run, 2 weeks later had an electric setup!

As a minimum I would like to upgrade the ESC so I can have LVC. Is there one that you would recommend? There seems to be a lot out there. I would assume I do not need anything over 120 right?

Thanks.

[siberianhusky]

Pretty sure the stock esc has a lvc, it's a pretty good unit I've put spikes of over 100 amps through one and averages for short runs of 80.
I time my runs and don't rely on the lvc in any esc.
SOme people don't like them but I've had great luck with swordfish 120 escs just have to give them some water proofing. A lot cheaper than buying a new stock esc although they do come up on the swap quite often when people decide to upgrade.
IMO I don't really think it's worth upgrading a RTR boat too much, they are manufactured to a price point and the quality only goes that far. If they are run as intended they will last for a long time and give tons of fun. Once somebody decides to step up the speeds I've found it actually cheaper in the long run to build something out of higher quality components that can handle the eventual crashes at high speeds.
The MC is a great design and I know it can run great at some pretty impressive speeds, to only problems is the hull and hatch just needs to be a little stronger. I'd love to have a vacuum bagged epoxy carbon fiber version! If is only existed.....

[RCnerd]

You can, personally I wouldn't. I bent the stock mount in mine running a Castle 1512 it's shorter than the Leopard.
Installed an aftermarket floor mount, trimmed the stuffing tube shorter so everything lines up nice.
I personally think this puts the motor in a better location for adjusting the cg, it also drops the height of the motor quite a bit thus lowering the cg in the hull.
Epoxied some hardwood rails in the bottom of the tub at the same time, really stiffened things up. The inboard end of the stuffing tube doesn't move anymore when you adjust the strut.
I also installed a SV27 rudder on mine, it has a built in water pickup. I use both inlets, one for the esc the other for the motor.
I can run for a full 3:30 in the 50 ball park with no heat issues at all with the stock setup, Now I usually run a proboat 1800kv motor in it, lower amp draw for the same prop. Might just be a "good" proboat motor. I only have the one so no comparison. I also did some work on the bottom of the hull to improve it, flat sanded and leveled the sponson bottoms, then gave them a scuffing after I painted it.
Had a Leopard 4074 in it, the Castle and the spec stuff, I find the boat to be the most fun with a stock type setup. No sinking feeling and the associated repairs when I blow over at it's intended speeds.
I have an H&M cat that has cartwheeled down the lake at 60mph wiht no damage at all, Last time out in rough water must have crashed it at least 6 times, the Motley would probably self destruct if that happened. The difference in hull quality is remarkable. There is a pretty big price difference to though.

I think that I am going to try and install a motor mount in my MC. Do you mind if I ask you what Motor mount you would recommend (for Leopard 4074) and what epoxy is best for mounting it? And any other tips you can give me. Thanks!

[xlandguy]

West marine epoxy is the best, 2nd is Zpoxy. In my opinion.

[siberianhusky]

Check out the store here and kinetec, just a plain old 540 mount from china, I really like the Etti mount to though.
I don't use the watercooling in the mount, would rather have a non cooled version but they were out of stock when I did the re-build. I don't think they do much on the shaft end of the motor.
I've been using JB Weld to install mounts for a while, never had one come loose. A good number of us are using it for that now.

[xlandguy]

JB Weld, is it waterweld? or regular. It's good stuff, I have some. But may I ask why use it instead of epoxy? what is the advantage to JB Weld over epoxy?

[siberianhusky]

I think it's stronger than regular epoxy. Just standard JBWeld, Great for stuffing tubes as well. Also stays where you put it, just flows enough to smooth the joint.
I've never added extra glass or carbon to hold a mount in with JB, always used to reinforce epoxy.

[Basstronics]

JB Weld is way stronger than Epoxy.

[tlandauer]

JB Weld is way stronger than Epoxy.:iagree:
I tested them by peeling off left overs from mixing board and you can't break it, almost like metal, WestMarine and Zpoxy are great stuff, however, epoxy is more brittle. It cures extremely hard, but if you twist a thin piece by itself, it will break. I use epoxy to reinforce hulls with FG cloth or mix it with heavy filler. JBWELD can be used alone to secure stuffing tube.
So to me they have different purposes.
just my .02

[xlandguy]

I believe you, I did something like that, put some on a piece of aluminum, stuck to it like mad and was hard as a rock, like metal really. I notice on the package though, JB Weld says 900psi and the Epoxy says 2,000 psi, so obviously these numbers can be manipulated by the companies or something.

[Mjpcarbon]

Gents if one wanted to only upgrade the prop on a MC what prop would be the best choice ?
Although the lure of motor/esc upgrades are attractive I would like to just get the best performance from it in stock form which I think is pretty good from what I have been reading.
I do however plan to use 4s in parallel
I hope there are some carbon fiber trinkets to make for these boats
Thank you

[turbomania]

Grim 42-55 works good, or a X442 Octura... Always keep an eye on temps when changing props...