54" Bonzi Fountain build

[forescott]

Wont you be limited to prop diameter with the scale drives? If I remember correctly, you were originally looking for some pretty big props!

[ScarabChris]

I have ordered some 55mm props from propshopUK and I think I will be able to use them on the z drives. I'm going to make it a surface running drive just like the MHZ drives would have been. The drives are pretty big and the prop will only be about 12mm closer to the hull compared to the MHZ drives.

[Make-a-Wake]

Here's a pic of the drive with a prop on it, a 45mm is suggested, if the pic is of a 45mm then you may some some issues with a 55........................

http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...?prod=grp-1987

[ScarabChris]

You are right, 55mm props will not fit. I already found some sweet 45mm 3 blade stainless steel counter rotating props.

I have been busy today, I am definitely going to try the scale drives. I found some heavy duty steel universal joints at my LHS and was able to fit them to the input shafts. They work perfect.

And hey, if the Leopard motors tear them up I can always patch the transom up and go back to the MHZ drives.

These scale drives look way too cool not to try.

U-Joint fixed to the input shaft


Dry fit.... Perfect match to the MHZ trim tabs I already had.

[Checkmateguy01]

That is way cool! That's a pretty big hull and those drives look about perfect for scale size, i diggin' this build alot!! I wonder how one of those drives would work on a smaller hull, like in the 35" or so range, and with moderate power like 540xl type motor? Looks good man!

[ScarabChris]

Making some progress. Still have a long way to go. I am still waiting on the ESCs and props and a few other build items.

Today I made the motor mount, battery tray, servo tray and RX battery tray. All these will be epoxied in along with more CF cloth for a nice solid structure.

Servo tray, still working on it....


RX battery tray, pretty much done just needs to be bonded in....


Motor mounts. Funny thing....I went crazy looking for the motor couplers. Even drove Steven crazy. But when I switched to the Z-Drives these massive cup joints were all I needed. Found at my LHS. These along with the u-joints and shafts (pictured in above post) are for a large gas powered RC truck. Its very beefy stuff, it should hold up but we will see...



Dry fit in the hull....pay no attention to that white crap on the transom. That was a sloppy patch job from where the rudder was. I'm going to put another layer of CF on the transom to hide it.

[ScarabChris]

Continued........



Battery and ESC platform.....will be epoxied in with a layer of CF cloth to look like part of the boat...



Home made tie bar, copied right from Mercury...LOL


Thats all for now, I'll get back into it next week. I have a busy weekend on the real boat. Got the Ft Lauderdale Winterfest Boat Parade Saturday night. We make an entire day of it.

[Make-a-Wake]

Nice job! This is gonna be great when finished. Are you only running 1p or are the batts on there for the photo? Those motors will be tough on the batts in 1p config.

[ScarabChris]

I'm going to try it with one pack per motor and see what happens. These are 6s 5000 mAh 45C packs. I purposely made the battery platform huge so I can put more batteries if needed.

[Gerwin Brommer]

Make sure you programm your esc's in "soft start" IF that's possible.
These drives were designed when BL didn't even excist.
If you pull the trigger at once on these drives, the shafts will break.

[ScarabChris]

Make sure you programm your esc's in "soft start" IF that's possible.
These drives were designed when BL didn't even excist.
If you pull the trigger at once on these drives, the shafts will break.

Yeah I was going to do that. But I don't know about shafts breaking, I took these drives apart and the shafts are very thick. Like the EP1 outboards I think the gears would be the weak point.

But even then I was worried about the gears with the BL motors and they hold up just fine. I stab the throttle on the twin outboard and there is so much torque that the boat literally jumps out of the water and the gears are still new looking. I check them after every 1-2 runs.

[blackcat26]

Man, this baby is looking good!

[JEDNJONES]

Just add some thru-hull exhaust and itll look as real as can be. Awesome Fountain build!!

[LarrysDrifter]

Wow.This is sweet.Nice job.You do have some cool ideas you come up with for your builds.

[ScarabChris]

OK I did some epoxy and CF work, getting closer. In fact if I had the ESCs I could already dry test this system out, don't have props yet.

Motor mounts


Battery/ESC platform..



Motors in..



Servo in...works absolutely perfect!!!


RX battery....


With these scale drives I figured they would leak so I put a RAMS auto bilge pump. I did a float test in the pool and not a drop of water. But lets see how those drive shaft boots hold up. They are just Pro Boat large pushrod boots modified and filled with grease.

Just to test the pump I put a quart of water in the boat and it works perfect.


I don't know why my camera makes the CF look so crappy, in real life it looks slick.