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fweasel
06-02-2019, 09:48 PM
Had a nasty flip today and the boat landed ass end first with a good sideways cartwheel. Broke a rear motor mount, sheered a wire drive and bent a strut. I had some spare struts in the parts box, but was hoping to not have to remove the small hardware deep inside the hull. Spent a little time with some basic tools and was able to break the struts down into their individual components and swapped over only what I needed. Some of the threaded cups unscrewed quite easily and others were soaked in thread lock during assembly and required heat. I learned the hard way what was just enough heat and what was too much. I cooked one set of the plastic cups in my trial and error process. Breaking these down might also make it easier to punch out the worn stock bushings and replace them new with lead teflon bushings. Got everything swapped over and readjusted. Now to fix that motor mount...

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Aquaman92
02-05-2020, 11:34 PM
Hey me again! lol!

Did you put new struts on your zelos after this? if so what kind? ive seen different sized "stinger struts" here on OSE's shop but im not exactly sure what the point of them is - a better hold on the shaft so the prop doesnt wobble as much?

Revolt Flash
02-06-2020, 05:10 AM
Nice job Ryan. The strut disassembly can be quite intense on the Zelos sometimes. I have hurt a couple of them myself.

fweasel
02-06-2020, 10:17 AM
Nice job Ryan. The strut disassembly can be quite intense on the Zelos sometimes. I have hurt a couple of them myself.
Thanks!


Hey me again! lol!

Did you put new struts on your zelos after this? if so what kind? ive seen different sized "stinger struts" here on OSE's shop but im not exactly sure what the point of them is - a better hold on the shaft so the prop doesnt wobble as much?
This particular boat is on the workbench now getting a set of MBP smart drives installed along with a set of custom extension mounts off the transom and a new rudder system. Longer drives/struts kinda of fool the boat into behaving like a longer hull, providing a little more stability at speed, which can help keep the boat on the water. This is especially helpful with the Zelos, which because of it's wide tunnel, is better suited for turning than all out straight line speed in comparison to a long, narrow SAW hull. The longer struts also have flat surfaces on the bottom, which can create additional lift at the transom.

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Another advantage of the longer drives is that they're supported closer to the end of the assembly with a rigid connection to the hull. The stock struts, and even some similar style TFL struts, have a pivot adjustment very close to the transom mounting surface which creates a lot of leverage in a crash (or even just hard acceleration) and can easily take them out of trim adjustment. I drilled out the stock adjustment bolt so that I could use larger 4mm hardware. It gave me more clamping force and let me use a larger, more secure hex bit when adjusting them. The new Geico Twin redesign addresses some of these issues with the new, longer style strut. They are a significant upgrade to the original design, but are still limited in the amount of support that can offer the entire assembly due to the short overhang of the Zelos hull. Regardless, I would run the Geico Twin struts instead of the original Zelos struts if you're looking for an upgrade with less custom work/parts involved.

EddieM41
02-06-2020, 02:01 PM
Quick question...who made the blocks that are bolted to the top of the rear mount on the smart drives?

fweasel
02-06-2020, 05:47 PM
Quick question...who made the blocks that are bolted to the top of the rear mount on the smart drives?

Gabe Clegg at Stump Fabrication in GA.