50" Dragon Hobby Mono

[Make-a-Wake]

Nice!!....................prop???

[keithbradley]

Nice!!....................prop???

That's a s240 on it. I'm not sure what I am going to start with. I have an x457 here too, one of those should be pretty close. I'll probably do a shakedown run with it on low cell count first (like 5s), that should give me an idea of how its going to act.

[keithbradley]

Will something like this work

That looks like a nice mount! Is it yours? I would be a little concerned if the mounts on the side have rubber bushings though...

[Make-a-Wake]

That's a s240 on it. I'm not sure what I am going to start with. I have an x457 here too, one of those should be pretty close. I'll probably do a shakedown run with it on low cell count first (like 5s), that should give me an idea of how its going to act.

A prather never really crossed my mind, but the s240 may be a real good choice for you!

[keithbradley]

A prather never really crossed my mind, but the s240 may be a real good choice for you!

Thanks. I got 73 out of it in my 40" mono with that s240 This one wont be quite that fast though It may like the x457 or even a x460better...I dont really know how this hull is going to run yet. I haven't had a boat this big and heavy till now.

I just weighed it with (4) 4s lipos, the 5692 w/jacket, and sf240HV esc. Came in between 15-16lbs. Still have to add servo, small rx pack, motor mount, plug some holes, and maybe a sub hatch (havent made my mind up there but if I make a s/h it wont weight much). I'm thinking she's going to be around 18lbs. when its all said and done.

[madgadget]

mount

That mount came with a large gas conversion bundle I bought this winter, cabin fever, late night made me do it. I've considered putting alum inserts inplace of the rubbers although harder rubbers might work too. I'm actually more concerned about the opposite end not having any support. I may have to contact Peter Z or call in a favor from one of my heli buds with a cnc. This has been a learning experience for me and I just wanted to say thanks for sharing. Mike

[keithbradley]

That mount came with a large gas conversion bundle I bought this winter, cabin fever, late night made me do it. I've considered putting alum inserts inplace of the rubbers although harder rubbers might work too. I'm actually more concerned about the opposite end not having any support. I may have to contact Peter Z or call in a favor from one of my heli buds with a cnc. This has been a learning experience for me and I just wanted to say thanks for sharing. Mike

Thanks for your input!

I like the mount. I think it looks nice and the bolt in aspect of it is cool. Even if you put aluminum bushing where the rubbers are its still a pivot point with the single bolts. It seems like you need the same style mount on the back of the motor as well.
Do you weld? You could possibly add on to that bracket so it bolts in the rear too...just a thought

[keithbradley]

Got a few not-so-fun things done. There were a lot of holes to seal in this boat. In fron tof the windsheild they cut out some triangles as if they were carving eyes on a pumpkin and put screen behind them. There were holes in the hatch with screen as well.
I didnt know how I wanted to seal the front triangle holes, but my first worry was blowing out whatever I put in there if it gets stuffed into a wave at high speed. I ended up taping over the outside and putting a layer of carbon fiber over the holes and a good inch + around the edges. Then I made carbon fiber panels for the outside and epoxied them in. Finally I applied a layer of clear epoxy over the outside to seal them to the hull. I still have some tape lines there to sand, but it doesnt look to bad.
For the holes in the hatch, I left the screen in, taped behind them, and just filled them with thick epoxy. I also filled a kill switch hole, antenna tube, exhaust outlet, and three holes on the transom from the water pickup I removed.

Not much to look at, but here are a couple pics:

[Make-a-Wake]

Lookin' good Keith!!

[keithbradley]

Got the motor mounted, and servo/steering sorted out. I got a billet aluminum cased servo from HK that seems to have lots of torque and should move the big rudder quite well.
I put a small strip of CF at the base of the motor mount to help hold it in place and keep it from wearing the bottom of the hull. Im not going to get too carried away with Carbon in this build, its pretty strong and doing the whole boat would add a lot of weight and cost a lot of $$. The rx battery and rx are just thrown in there for function, they will be mounted later.

After mocking everything up for a COG point of 30%, I now know what I want to do with the esc. It looks like I will be making a simple aluminum piece to bolt to the rails then go over top of the motor and hold the esc in place about where it is in the pictures. This will work well in consideration of motor to esc wiring, battery to esc wiring, and (least importantly) esc to rx wiring.

I am planning on making pads that hold the pairs of batteries for each side.

[madgadget]

This is coming along nicely

[keithbradley]

Anyone have any thoughts on this?....
I was considering a subhatch, but now that I have everything sealed up I am thinking about just taping this hatch. Its not super easy to tape down, but I think it will work. I used red tape so you could see it in the pics.

[Make-a-Wake]

Lookin' great!! Getting close to a maiden????

[keithbradley]

Lookin' great!! Getting close to a maiden????

We have a month before we get "marginal" boating days, and 2 months before we start getting nice weather where you have days that you can go run boats and actually enjoy it.
There isnt really a whole lot left to do though. I will be taking the hardware off of the transom today and siliconing the bolt holes...I would bath test it but I dont think my tub is big enough

Otherwise I can make the esc mount in about 5 minutes, and I'll probably just throw some velcro down for batteries until I run it. I dont want to take the time to do battery mounts that may end up being in the wrong place.

I'm getting the itch to run soon. I have this boat to maiden, a 8s powered 32" Fightercat that I just finished, and a 26" 4s powered fighter cat mono waiting to get wet. Maybe out of the three one of them will run well
I have been told in other threads that the 5692 wont have the power to push these larger monos very fast...Well, we will find out soon enough

*FYI- The setup pictured is actually 9s2p, and it weighed in at 16.6LBS. With everything (esc mount, cooling, ect.) I should be right around 17lbs. Its considerably heavier than my 40" mono, but more notably, there is A LOT more surface area that I am going to be pushing. Im hoping for the best but really don't know what to expect out of this hull until I run it.

[Brushless55]

Oh man!