Nitro Elam conversion

[Heaving Earth]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1367545570.620561.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1367545642.462254.jpg
Well I'm going for the right side rudder. We will see how it works out

[Heaving Earth]

I grabbed a aq 1800kv motor for this. I wanted a motor that could do the job without being a complete power hog. I'm hoping to get some decent runtimes given the fact that it's gonna hafta be 1p configuration, given the limited space for batteries.

[monojeff]

I have a build thread I started on my FE version of this boat. Fun boats to run and enjoy that not to many people have them or run them.
It ran well with the top UL hulls in our club no problem won a few races last season with it.

Hit 50mph with a AQ2200 motor requires some extra weight in the sponson tips to keep things down and still pretty flighty at these speeds with the strange double break they have going on the hull and large scoop on the cowl. I am working on a low profile version of the cowl I will finish one of these days. After 2 hard seasons of running the bottom has started to break on the sponson running surfaces even after I laid down some thin ply to fix the rid pads I recommend strengthening as much as you can these RTR boats dont last long when run hard.

I also used a air damn made out of plastic straws that I would tape on there for windy days.

Another guy in our club has a nitro conversion and he would run the batteries in the sponsons his boat also runs pretty good.
Have fun looking good so far.

[Heaving Earth]

thanks jeff. my plans are you make some sort of subhatch so i can remove the plastic in the scoop. seems like an area that will just make alot of drag, so im hoping i can make the air flow go thru that and out the turbine.
as far as strenthening, the only area i can really lay down carbon is the floor mostly, so i have a bunch of clear vinyl rock chip guard used for the fronts of cars. its pretty durable, so the areas i cant reinforce, i will lay that on the outside. it wont add any rigidity, but it will keep things from cracking or breaking. in the event of a catastrophic accident, the vinyl should keep the fiberglass together, or at least if it does crack, to prevent sinking.
i will probably try running it with no weight in the front first. i anticipate with the new strut there should be a good amount of lift in the rear, maybe enough to keep the nose down, maybe not. well see.
i thought about using ziplock bags and filling them with water or sand as balast for the sponsons if i need to. seems like a good way to get weight in them without committing to anything.

[Darin Jordan]

Looks good thus far! You took it further than I ever did, which is great to see. Will be watching and enjoying your build. Keep up the good work.

[Darin Jordan]

OH, just a quick note... I saw your comment about running it with no weight up front...

I can tell you from personal experience that you will probably have to add a considerable amount to the nose. Less if you can get it really far forward (sponson tips)...

What might help is if you want to try to tackle getting the entry to the tunnel... the first 2" or so of entry angle, smoothed out to match the rest of the tunnel. That shart 10+degree entry causes a lot of lift to concentrate at the front of the tunnel, and I believe is partially responsible for the nasty "sponson walk" that seems to occur in all of these around 45mph...

[Heaving Earth]

thanks for looking darin. i think my fav part of rc boating is restoring or building them and testing -)
be nice if i can make a significant difference here, but either way it will be cool to have a nice scale looking hydro.
if i can get mid to high 40's and stable ill be more than happy

[srislash]

thanks jeff. my plans are you make some sort of subhatch so i can remove the plastic in the scoop. seems like an area that will just make alot of drag, so im hoping i can make the air flow go thru that and out the turbine.

This is exactly what I was thinking of doing on the Miss Bud. I have two of them. The first was too cheap to pass up so figured I would experiment with it.Unfortunately,the sponsons are full of Great Stuff.It is currently running,but really flutters down the straight.
Signing up on this and willing to participate in mods sir...hehe


Oh, and I do have vid of it.

[Heaving Earth]

Awesome Sean! I have an interesting idea for the subhatch. They're only ideas at this point, but I really think they could work. I think the hardest part of these hulls is getting them water tight. Even the bl version was a nightmare and always filled with water.

[Heaving Earth]

OH, just a quick note... I saw your comment about running it with no weight up front...

I can tell you from personal experience that you will probably have to add a considerable amount to the nose. Less if you can get it really far forward (sponson tips)...

What might help is if you want to try to tackle getting the entry to the tunnel... the first 2" or so of entry angle, smoothed out to match the rest of the tunnel. That shart 10+degree entry causes a lot of lift to concentrate at the front of the tunnel, and I believe is partially responsible for the nasty "sponson walk" that seems to occur in all of these around 45mph...

my immediate idea for getting weight in the sponson tips is to drop small fishing weights in the sponsons, then with it standing up nose down, mixing epoxy, then using a turkey baster with a tube attached, sucking up some epoxy and feeding the tube all the way to the sponson tips, then just squeezing out the epoxy to glue all the weights together and to the hull.

[Heaving Earth]

i also figure, instead of just dropping a bunch of loose weights in there, i could actually tie them together with the fishing line first. that way its more like one weight.

[Heaving Earth]

any aproximate guess as to how much weight is needed up front?

[srislash]

any aproximate guess as to how much weight is needed up front?

And that was going to be my Question.
BTW my current setup has the CG 4.5" behind the sponson edge. That is my first measure,WAAAYYY off.

[Heaving Earth]

And that was going to be my Question.
BTW my current setup has the CG 4.5" behind the sponson edge. That is my first measure,WAAAYYY off.

you arent running the battery in the nose?

[srislash]

My motor is in the cockpit and the batts are on the sides pushed up as far forward as they can go.I am thinking I can get some batteries in the sponsons this way if I can dig that foam out.