The Villain EX is going brushless!

[Make-a-Wake]

Hey guys............i made a complete mod/makeover on my Red 6s Neu 1515 Villain. I got really weary of spinning out graupner flex drives..........tried to repair them and they last for a bit but then spin out.

SO.........i went to straight solid shaft on it, but then had to move the motor all the way to the front to allow a good angle on the shaft. It went absolutely perfect! Cant believe that i nailed it. I can confidently gun it at any given time with no worries. I also added my custom turn fins to it as can be seen in the last pic at the left........turns on a dime now with zero hop!

The entire mod took only 3-4 hours and was well worth it. Its sniffin' at 40mph............

[Jesse J]

sweet! interesting that it wants that kind of angle... vid?

[Jacked1]

Looks gooood! It is more efficient too with a strait shaft. As long as it doesn't run too wet that should be awesome!

I am deff gonna resurrect my villain in the summer. I have an idea on how to pack 5kw into it.

[FighterCat57]

Ok, some updates, put in the new ESC's and did some wiring changes, this time using a BEC and combining the power leads to both ESC's.

Not shooting for record speed, just reliable fun. It's getting there.

Well, I dunno WTF happened, but I blew an ESC. It wasn't hot, didn't seem like any problems and had good water flow... just stopped working...

I think I might just give up on the ole Villain... One of the drive bushings failed too, at the transom, but not on the side the ESC failed...

It WAS fun though!


Maybe I'll get a brand new one and convert it to brushless...

[Make-a-Wake]

sweet! interesting that it wants that kind of angle... vid?

Here ya go!..............high wind today so i didint even go WOT........got close a few times.

Comments or suggestions welcome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAyTdGLOWnI

[Jesse J]

Yep, you slipped it by me. great work, she looks real good! are you using any trim tab? I really like how she looks and I think speeds are good too. Makes me wanna get mine out for a spin.

[Make-a-Wake]

Yep trim tabs..........port side neutral and just a bit of starboard. Thanks for the comments................i'm throwin' an x642 on it Saturday morning (going out EARLY, glass hopefully).................i think i can break the 40 mark..................GPS's her at a hair over 39 a short while back with a 640 which is what im running in the vid, gonna grease her up and let her rip

The obligatory vid will certainly be taken!

[cat samich]

i did this same thing with a pair of vxl systems 41.3 on gps but you have to run x447 props gaupner u drives and upgrade the steering rods with 440 rods including the one that links the two drives. i also used a 200 oz steering servo. i water cooled the vxl motors with aquacraft jackets and added fans to the esc's i also mounted the controllers to the deck not down below but they were car esc's not marines i ran a 16/28 gear combo to get the 41.3 out of it and fried an esc on the run i later went back to the stock gear ratio and it was good for mid 30's all in all it was a fun project but the limits of the hull cant be reached through the stock drives. i also wasted alot of money in the name of a sport boat lol

[FighterCat57]

Well, I dunno WTF happened, but I blew an ESC. It wasn't hot, didn't seem like any problems and had good water flow... just stopped working...

I think I might just give up on the ole Villain... One of the drive bushings failed too, at the transom, but not on the side the ESC failed...

It WAS fun though!


Maybe I'll get a brand new one and convert it to brushless...

Heh, I'm quoting myself again. I found out that my ESC is actually not dead, it was just in some funky mode and mis-firing because of the auto-config and being plugged in at low voltage. Plugged it in with freshly charged batteries and viola. Interesting about the motor shake on these cheap ESC's.

I really like this setup, but the driveline on this one is shot and I'm really tired of replacing things on it... so I think I'm just going to let it go and get a brand new one, drop in the brushless setup and run it at scale speed (about 23mph).

[Make-a-Wake]

I'm kinda proud of how i tweaked this Villain to darn near perfect.........took me a little while since its attaining 3 times stock speed. The whole package.............COG, prop, handling etc..............it all just fits and as i said im really pleased and a bit proud. Thanks for looking!

Short vid, Turn it up!!

[Jesse J]

nice work dude! handles like a dream.

[Make-a-Wake]

Thanks Jesse, i'm running my "winter prop"............x440, motor comes in at 120* max after a hard run.

[FighterCat57]

Thanks Jesse, i'm running my "winter prop"............x440, motor comes in at 120* max after a hard run.

That's an awesome setup!

[Make-a-Wake]

Thanks Fighter.

Went out today with 4 buddies.......had about 15 boats there total, my buddy got a Pursuit 32" mono as a gift and we had a freindly little race............... My Villain, vs his Stock Leopard 4074 mono. Great day, lots of fun overall...............we were both shaking a bit after this heated match...................once again, great fun!

Oh.............I finally broke 40 with her..........my friend radar'd her today at exactly 40 with a quality gun. Anyone heard of a Villain hittin' 40......???

[Jacked1]

Well here is my villian complete overhaul in the making! Everything was taken off that wasn't ABS and even a lot of the ABS! Sliced off the transom and made a new rudder today!
I love spring break!