Nikko boat twin jet drive conversion

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I was given this Nikko boat a couple years ago as a gift and we all know it's no hobby grade boat. Since then I've acquired 3 hobby grade boats. A few times out I ran into problems when something would go wrong while the boat was out in the middle of the pond and had to wait 2 hours for the wind to blow it back. So I decided to turn this Nikko boat into a recovery boat. I wanted to do something different, not just throw hobby grade stuff in it. So I'm finally getting around to building this up. I am going with 2 Pro Boat jet drives from their decoy retrieval boat, and 2 Traxxas 18t 380 motors. After laying everything out I realized that I would not only have to cut out the bottom of the boat to remove the stuffing tube and surrounding area, I would have to rebuild the transom to bring it to a 90* angle so I could mount the jet drives. Here are the pics that bring me up to tonight.

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The bottom panel is not glued in yet. I need to order my second jet drive and mount it before I make the cutouts for the jets.

[masonis1]

Looking good.. you might wanna convert that to brushless and have a badass

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We'll see how well it works first, building it on the cheap for now since it's being built as a recovery boat. Also, I'm not sure how well those jet drives would handle brushless, they aren't super high quality.

[masonis1]

Oh gotcha. Hah brushless is the stuff

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Brushless is usually the way to go, my other two boats are brushless and are awesome. I also have a Proboat Formula Fastech and a Venom King of Shaves C1

[masonis1]

Venom makes boats too?

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Ya, they have a couple. Some question their quality, haven't had any problems with mine yet.

[masonis1]

Hah kinda like the venom creeper

[Make-a-Wake]

Very cool build here!!!! I have always been fond of that hull...............looks cool!

[masonis1]

Any updates

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Nope, I'm at a stand still until I order another jet, motors and couplers. The couplers are on backorder at the moment so when they come in I'll order everything at once. They were supposed to be in stock mid March. :-/

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Got reminded today why I'm building this boat. Took my Fastech out today and the flex shaft separated from the prop shaft. Had to wait about 30 min for the wind to blow it to the other side of the pond.

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Well I went ahead and ordered my second jet drive and motors. The couplers are on backorder till who knows when. I figured I would order the jet and motors so I could at least finish rebuilding the hull. I have some other couplers in my parts bin but they might be too long, hard to tell without the motor here. So I hope to get going on this again, switching back to the day shift this week too so I hope I'll still get time to work on it.

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Parts are here today. Hope to get back on this this afternoon, got a few free hours after work today.