Insane FE30 build

[MarkF]

You dont sand around the lip of the hatch. You sand the bottom of the cowl itself and around the edges if needed.
With your motor forward your going to need to mount the battery right in front of the motor. It will be easier if you move the motor back and then the battery can go more into the nose of the boat which will make it easier to get the battery in and out without getting in the way of the wires comming out of the motor and controller. Please feel free to do it your way though. This advise comes after building a couple of these and then wishing we had done it differently.
These are good questions guys, keep them comming if you have any.

Mark

[knpc]

Is that 10'' from the transom to the front(shaft end) of the motor?

Any other tips from what you've learned would be great - strut height, cog, ect.

Mine should be here later in the week, it will have a Nue 1515/1y, CC240, 4s1p going in it.

Thanks
Kevin

[MarkF]

I lay my tape inside the boat from the transom forward. I make a mark at 10" and that is were the front endbell of the motor lines up to. Not the end of the shaft.
Strut is 7/8 bellow the bottom of the boat and either strait back or a little possitive in the angle. You will need to play with this according to the prop you use. Cg on my boat is at 2" behind the sponsons but again you can play with this according to your set up. We've had it back as far as 3" which wasn't the best for my set up but might work for P spec. I don't know.
Guys, Jeff built my first boat so he could get some build pics but he asked me were I wanted everything. I came up with my best educated guess and we are now progressing from there. I built my red boat and my motor is at 10 1/2 and I wish I would have put it back to 10 for the reasons I stated above. One thing I have'nt tryed is off setting the motor and putting the rudder on the left side of the boat. These are things I'm sure others will try.

Mark

[Scott T]

My motor position will be OK, if you look at one of the photos early in my thread you can see I've got plenty of room. Different batteries might be a different case though. Battery access should be far easier than my Whiplash, so that's a good thing The large hatch on this boat makes everything very accessible and easy to build, I really like it.

No progress last night, my sister had a baby late Sunday night, so I was visiting my new nephew last night. Might have to take a transmitter with me next time to get him started early

[Flying Scotsman]

I noted the same issue on the forward hatch issues but I am not going to get my knickers in a knot about it...tape is great to take out that minor problem.

Douggie

[Insaniac]

You dont sand around the lip of the hatch. You sand the bottom of the cowl itself and around the edges if needed.
With your motor forward your going to need to mount the battery right in front of the motor. It will be easier if you move the motor back and then the battery can go more into the nose of the boat which will make it easier to get the battery in and out without getting in the way of the wires comming out of the motor and controller. Please feel free to do it your way though. This advise comes after building a couple of these and then wishing we had done it differently.
These are good questions guys, keep them comming if you have any.

Mark

Can you really warp the hatch cover in the front enough to lay flush with a heat gun?

[MarkF]

I heat about the last 1/4 of the cowl and then over bend, hold and let cool. Then I do the same at the opposite end. Fits perfect. It will snap back though over time and need another heat treatment. Keeping it taped up when not in use helps too.

Mark

[andym]

Congrats on the new Nephew Scott, I think you should build him a nice wood hydro to play with !! Hope you get some building done soon as you are a good and experienced builder with a lot of lateral thinking going on. You never know you may just show some smart arses up

[Scott T]

Thanks Andy. I got some building done tonight, and my new hatch arrived! The new hatch is definitely a better fit, so I'm quite happy about that.

Tonight I cut and bent the pushrod, and epoxied the brass sleeve in place. I use the same diameter rod for my DF33, which also pushes to turn right. It works great, so I have no doubts this rod with the sleeve for extra stiffness will also work well. It's a poor photo, but you'll see what I mean. A standard clevis threads on the left side and the 90 degree bend goes through the rudder arm.

Next up I glued in the motor mount & carbon rails. I lined the motor up by putting a drill bit in the coupler and setting a piece of aluminium angle against the strut (that angle will be used to build my JAE one day....) I lined the drill bit up with the angle to get the right alignment.

The whole lot was epoxied to the floor. I layed some strips of glass under the rails where they didn't quite match the hull shape to fill any gaps. I also put some glass near where the battery strap will go for extra security. On went some weights and the whole thing has been set aside to dry until tomorrow night.

[andym]

Nice work! I have braced long push rods in the same way and it works a treat, very common in large hydro's

[Insaniac]

The entire hatch was redesigned from the original so that it would fit better and not warp as much. The hairdryer won't really work though because it's resin not epoxy.

Mine over time fits a little worse than when I got it but it's not a concern to me really since it all fits great once it's taped down.

It's hard to see from my picture here but my cowl has totally different lines compared to everyone elses. Jeff told me he redid the lines and shape to make it hold it's shape better.

My experience with resin and fiberglass is that it shrinks a bit over time as it completely cures and that's probably the cause of the deformation. And if it was epoxy glass it would just end up doing the same thing if it was left out in the sun to heat up.

Would you post a photo of the newer hatch? I might see if Jeff will sell me one...

[v-spec]

Would you post a photo of the newer hatch? I might see if Jeff will sell me one...

You have the newer hatch, I'm the only one with the older hatch pretty much. Your hatch design is much better than mine. I have coremat stuck on the underside of my hatch to hold it's shape a little better.

Jeff changed the hatch design so you wouldn't have to do this and I think he did a great job on the newer hatch you all have. It's a large flat surface it's going to be hard for the fiberglass to hold it's shape that's why on the new hatch he added some lines and the scoops on the side.
The only other way to make it fit better without changing the whole design would probably be to have it molded in plastic.

I don't wanna clog this build thread up with hatch stuff so feel free to PM me if you have any other questions. I don't consider the hatch fit a problem since it gets taped down though. I hope people don't make this into a bigger deal than it really is.

Brent.

[detox]

I have used carbon fiber tubing over steering linkage.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0095p?FVPROFIL=&FVSEARCH=%3CB%3Ecarbon%3C%2FB%3E+%3CB%3Efiber%3C%2FB%3E+tubes

[Scott T]

Detox, carbon tubing was my plan, but the LHS was out of stock. It's a good idea, maybe for the next boat.

[properchopper]

You have the newer hatch, I'm the only one with the older hatch pretty much. Your hatch design is much better than mine. I have coremat stuck on the underside of my hatch to hold it's shape a little better.

Jeff changed the hatch design so you wouldn't have to do this and I think he did a great job on the newer hatch you all have. It's a large flat surface it's going to be hard for the fiberglass to hold it's shape that's why on the new hatch he added some lines and the scoops on the side.
The only other way to make it fit better without changing the whole design would probably be to have it molded in plastic.

I don't wanna clog this build thread up with hatch stuff so feel free to PM me if you have any other questions. I don't consider the hatch fit a problem since it gets taped down though. I hope people don't make this into a bigger deal than it really is.

Brent.

I have the older hatch as well. It fits fine, just a tiny bit out that disappears when taped up.