turn fins on mini rio?

[Jesse J]

If there is a thread on this please help me find it and forgive the duplicate query.

Has anyone experimented with turn fins on this lil guy? as I get mine going faster, it wants to hop around the right turns. I am tempted to try a single rudder and some turn fins. Ponds are frozen now, so has anyone tried this? outcome?

thanks,
J

[Steven Vaccaro]

Sorry I can't help with the Rio.

But I havent seen any sold that are that small. I bought some aluminum from the local hobby shop and cut some tear drop ones for my sons Mini Vee's they helped.

[Jim Bob]

Yes. A turn fin makes a drastic improvement. I just put one on and tested it. It works great. The hop is gone. Mine is 7/8" wide and hangs down below the bottom of the boat 7/8" perpindicular to the ride surface.

[Jim Bob]

Here are a couple of pics of the turn fin I made for mine. It is made of .020 stainless steel.

[wamf]

If there is a thread on this please help me find it and forgive the duplicate query.

Has anyone experimented with turn fins on this lil guy? as I get mine going faster, it wants to hop around the right turns. I am tempted to try a single rudder and some turn fins. Ponds are frozen now, so has anyone tried this? outcome?

thanks,
J
I have been using the ones for the tower hobby turbo v they cost about $5 and work well. They are attached to a trim tab which I cut off.
MikeV

[tth]

What kind of speeds are you guys getting out of your mini's?

[Jesse J]

haven't measured yet. Stock, maybe low teens? see this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iNvaGdrfIQ
Then, with 31mm prop from HobbyKing, I'd say another 10-20%, also it jumps out of the hole, whereas with stock prop it won't. Then, you can put in 2S lipo and then you really need those turn fins.

I haven't modified motor/esc yet, cause we want to race 4 together, so i am just sperimenting with props and batteries. There are others who go all out and look like might get into upper 20s! but that is just toooooo fast for this little hull. At those speeds flips are inevitable.

[Jesse J]

One of the weakest parts on these guys is the rudder brackets. So I traced the hardware onto 1/16" aluminum and cut them out on the bandsaw. I JB welded 1/16" piano wire into the rudders and had to sheath them with 5/32" K&B to get them up to the diameter of the 1/8" K&B I JB welded to the rudder brackets. For the servo horns, I JB welded 1/16" wheel stops to the arms and then traced and drilled the holes on the arms to be sure they were the same as the plastic parts. Materials: $0.50? Time: 2hrs max. probably 1 hr to make 2 sets.

Next step is turn fin. Am tempted to try with one rudder and turn fin, but two are pretty cool looking.

[Jesse J]

Well due to a careless moment, the took a tail dive off the shelf and broke all this stuff off.

Since I have placed a single rudder and 3800 KV brushless OR on 2S with water cooled mount and bl ESC. here are some photos of her cookin along. I have a vid of her in the vid section.