Boating Newbie with UL-1 Problem

[evhunter007]

Hey Guys & Gals~

I've been a lurker for awhile now, but I've finally gotten up the nerve to join a boating forum and ask some questions. I'm always hesitant about joining forums because there always seems to be a couple people who just "know it all" and make sure they tell you how much "you don't know". Everything I've seen here seems to be the opposite of that, so here we are.

I've been pretty active in the RC hobby on the surface side for about three years now. I've wrote for an RC website, owned and sold more vehicles than some local hobby shops have in stock, and feel like I'm at least kind of knowledgeable when it comes to bashing cars and trucks.

This summer I got my first boat (an Aquacraft Minimono). Don't know why I waited so long to get a boat when my parents have two ponds on the property, but let me tell you, I had an absolute blast. Ran into a couple issues with the Minimono (taking on water and poor performance due to the stock prop) but lurking in this forum got me the prop I need, and the ideas I needed to get the water leak up the brass tub (prop shaft tube maybe? See, a newbie!) stopped.

So, I moved up and purchased a UL-1 for my Dad and I in September from Tower Hobbies. He loves the hydro look, and he was stoked to get it. With the boat, I ordered two 5000MAH Gens Ace 2S 40C hard case lipos, and the recommended AquaCraft GrimRacer L40x57 3-Bld Copper-Beryllium Prop (Part # AQUB9760). I soldered some Deans on my lipos, installed the prop, taped things down and headed to the lake.

The boat would not plane (I believe that's the word). I watched some videos, etc. before I took it out, so I knew that I'd have to maybe rock the boat a bit because the front would sort of dive when you first hit the throttle. I tried that. The boat would just snowplow, for lack of a better word. No matter what we tried, it wouldn't go. Dad was discouraged, as was I, but I went back to the drawing board.

Now here is where my real boat newbie comes out. I tried to adjust the prop depth (not sure the technical term) and moved the prop down, significantly. Again, I should have read the manual more, or tried more subtle adjustments maybe, but I was impatient and wanted to just run. We took the boat back out after lowering the prop significantly, and the boat would still mostly snowplow. Only twice did we get it to actually come up out of the water and go. When it did, HOLY SMOKES DID IT FLY! However, it really didn't want to turn right or left (I know they turn better one way then the other, I think right). It was impossible to really drive the boat unless it was just being hammered on, and even then, we only got it to come up twice.

So, to summarize, I've done something wrong, or don't have something setup right, or have too much battery weight, or a crap prop, or something... And I'm not sure once. It's almost December in Indiana, so I'm not sure I will be able to test much, but I at least wanted to get some feedback. Spending $300+ and not being able to go at all was just...heartbreaking. Especially on Dad's birthday. Hopefully, with your help, we can figure it out.

Thank you in advance!

[G-UNIT]

Maybe I can help, first is that 3 blade prop sharpened and balanced? it takes alot of work to get that prop right.
next the octura m445 prop works great and should get you close to 50mph.
your doing ok by goosing the throttle and let the nose rise up and then hit the throttle this gets it on plane faster, also some folks toss it in the pond and hit the throttle.
as far as turning reposition the control rod to the center position on the servo bell crank and check your steering trim setting on your tx.
also check the UL-1 section on this site.
I hope this helps, I have had the same boat and went through the same things you are going thru.
good luck and have fun, its a great boat.
also set your boat on a flat surface so the turn fin hangs off the edge and set your strut to about 1" with about 2 degrees of neg angle so the prop is facing down away from the surface of the water, this will help keep the bow down and not go air born so easly.

[siberianhusky]

There is great setup advice in the first post of this section, the one by 10guage, lots of info about strut settings etc.
The recommended prop is the m445 for this boat, one of the guys I run with has a UL, took a bit of tuning the get it dialed in but now it runs very nice.
He has also run the 2 blade grimracer lifter prop with good success, not sure of the dimensions, would either be the L44x66 or L45x68.
Different props will usually require a minor strut adjustment to get the best out of them.
The other thing to make sure of is the CG. Not sure what the suggested setting is but I'd guess at 1.5-2.5" behind the end of the sponsons. Unusual to have the CG to far forward in a sport hydro usually ends up being to far back.
And yep right turns only, going left the turn fin kinda lifts the sponson, it unhooks, boat gets weird then tries to hook up again when it levels out. The prop also tries to pull the boat into a right turn, so going left you're also fighting that.

[egneg]

I would get the Octura M445 balanced and sharpened. Next set the strut at 15/16" to 1" and neutral. batteries should be fine as the hardcase will add the weight towards the front which is badly needed in this boat.

[evhunter007]

So my first confession is that I have not ever tried to balance a prop... As I said, I'm a totally newbie. I realize that isn't an excuse to be lazy, but I was. Without completely spinning off into a different topic, if either of you could recommend a good prop balancer set, I'd pick one up and try to learn :) If you have a couple really recommended files/tools, that might be helpful too.

I'll order an Octura m445. I'll assume that prop will also need some balancing, so I'll refer back to my first statement on a good prop balancer.

Moving the control rod shouldn't be an issue. I should be able to handle that.

When you say "set your strut to about 1" with 2 degrees negative angle"... I know I can move the strut up and down. Is that 1" from the bottom of the boat, the top of the strut, etc.? Also, what adjustment changes the angle? That makes sense to me, but I wasn't sure the proper method of changing the angle.

My scale/crawler experience tells me what CG is...or CoG. Since I'm running those large lipo packs, they pretty much take up the entire area of the battery bays (if I can remember right). It feels very very front heavy, so I wasn't sure if that was also part of the issue.

Right turns... Got it. Thanks again for all the help. I read the first post a time or two, but I just get lost and a little intimidated when I'm not sure exactly what each and every word means. I've got a billion other questions (like what is chine walk, setting strut angles, how to actually balance a prop, painting fiberglass boats, etc. etc. etc.), but I'm learning here. So thank you very much.

[dana]

As g unit mentioned, the 40/57 prop needs to be sharpened and balanced by someone who has done props.
Keep the boat pinned, it's a hydro no need to slow down.
Right turn only, left turns with the boat are pointless. It's meant to turn right only.
Try putting the stock prop on and just have some fun until you get used to the boat. Enjoy!

[G-UNIT]

I hear ya, I started the same way and still learning.
1" from bottom of hull to bottom of strut, you can lets say tilt the strut to get a little bit of angle of the prop, it only takes alittle to achive alot.
I use a topflight balancer form a local hobby shop ( LHS ) and do my work by hand with files I got from lowes. alot of people use a 1" belt sander od dremal tool, but use caution when working a metal prop as not to breath in the dust, use a resparator if you use power tools.
chine walking is the bouncing from side to side and can get pretty hairy,just recently some folks like me are putting the batterys out in the sponsons which involves cutting open the sponson. this moves your cg outward and helps the handling alot.
as for learning to balance ect.. look at the different sections of this forum and you will learn alot, grass hopper. ha ha just kidding,
I've been at for three years and still learning, now if i can just stop burning up speed controlers I'll be doing ok.

[evhunter007]

Ah...chine walking. Yeah. My little Minimono does that from time to time. Probably because I slapped the recommended metal prop on without tuning in any way and just hammer around on it like I stole it. "Freakin' noobs"... :)

I will hit the forums hard and try to pick up all I can. Once I get a balancer and stuff I'll go from there. Tons to learn, indeed. I just feel lost on the boat stuff. When it comes to cars and trucks, I'm much more at home.

[photohoward1]

The obvious question....with the deans are you in series or parallel with the batteries? if it is wired in parallel then 2S is not enough voltage.
Shoot a picture of the set-up for us please. Inside and out.

[G-UNIT]

It does take time, get you a magnetic balancer and just go for it, you'll get the hang of it in no time.
good luck a keep us posted how you are doing.
the only dumb question is not asking.

[evhunter007]

The obvious question....with the deans are you in series or parallel with the batteries? if it is wired in parallel then 2S is not enough voltage.
Shoot a picture of the set-up for us please. Inside and out.

I'm a noob to boats... Not to RC in general. They are in series. The boat is at my 'rents place, and I'm about 45 minutes away. At some point, I'll head home and shoot a pic, but I can assure you that voltage isn't it. I did do that once though... Couldn't for the life of me figure out why mini-Revo wouldn't get any faster, but could drive twice as long ;)

[kevinpratt823]

I had the same issue with the 40/57 at first, but after learning a bit about balancing, sharpening, and thinning on here combined with the old fashioned way of experimenting, it works awesome, and planes almost regaurdless of strut setup(I thinned the blades considerably and go it razor sharp). Mind you, I was basically in your shoes 3 mos ago. Joined 4 days after I got my first boat(which is also 3 days after I got my second boat:), and after a few hundred hours on this forum actually have some working knowledge of my boats(which I now have 5 of) Do some searching around, you'll find most of what you need, and a lot more along the way. FYI, Octura props are under $15, and closer to runnable out of the box than a Grim Racer, so experimenting with them is a bit cheaper. I found the M445 to be fast on my UL-1 but it was a bit sketchy as far as handling. An easy prop that I ran with decent results was also the Octura x440/3 blade.

FYI- Maybe you missed it, but 4 threads down from this thread is one about this prop and somebody having the same issues....
http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/showthread.php?37190-40-57-3-blade-prop...-really-How-do-you-get-this-boat-up-to-speed-w-this-prop

[dana]

Kevin is correct. The m445 is fast but makes the boat handle like rubbish.of all the props i tried with this boat (and there were a few) the L40/57/3 is by far the best. Good combo of speed and handling. The ul1 is a decent 50mph hull and a poor 60mph hull. Keep this in mind

[USMC247365]

I'll throw one more thing out there, once you do get it to plane and are off and running check the air dam post it really helped me to keep from racing upside down.
Semper Fi- SSgt Hewitt