Question about wire drives

[ezhitz]

I plan on rebuilding my small rigger and was wondering about useing a wire drive?I'm using a .150 flex cable now so i wanted to know if there is a real advantage to using .062 wire drive.My concern would be the shaft length is about 9" with what should be a gentle curve.I will be running a Neu 1506/2D on 2S spinning either a X432 or X632 prop.
Thanks

[Jeff Wohlt]

062 would do nicely. 9" is fine for that. Cables are good too...and easy.

[Dangerous_Toys]

Wire drives need to be straight. You cant put a bend in a straight metal rod to run it. Can you?

[Jeff Wohlt]

They have plenty of flex. No need to be straight. Where did you get that info?

[Dangerous_Toys]

They have plenty of flex. No need to be straight. Where did you get that info?

It was more of a question. Hence the question at the end. Thank you for the info. I have now been enlightened.

[Jeff Wohlt]

Sorry about that. Wires work well with riggers, hydros and monos. Cats can be a bit tougher with the bend but work well in many. It is all about where the bend is and I like a slight J bend coser to the motor end. Most of my motor end up being higher in the rear.

[ezhitz]

Jeff thanks for the info.

[sundog]

I'm just finishing up a Hydro & Marine Micro Drifter that sports a Jeff Wohlt .062 wire drive and mated to an Etti offset strudder. Has bearings in the strut (4mm prop shaft) and a thrust bearing between the Wohlt custom coupling and the motor. I use a teflon liner lubed with light oil. Note the shallow bend in the shaft. I'm experimenting with electrical tape 'windows' to find a suitable look, and am undecided about these.

My thinking is that a straight shaft is most efficient, and a wire drive is best where a slight bend is necessary or future strut adjustment may be needed . A flex shaft is required where a more pronounced bend is required, and a u-joint where a flex shaft won't do. There are more options, but that is my general train of thought.

[Jeff Wohlt]

Looks good. Yes, the hard straight shaft is the most efficient. Just wish it would work in more hulls...LOL.

I did make a couple hard shafts for a guy that then went out to cable the last fe inches to the strut...odd but worked well! Could be on to something???

[sailr]

Jeff,
I have a chinese prototype that goes the opposite way. Wire to within a couple inches of the motor coupler and then flex into the coupler. Seems to run super smooth.

[questtek]

Jeff,

You are going to think this is real crazy. For experimental purposes only I put a 1/8", 3.17mm, titanium wire drive in a yellow German hull cunnard. Here are the pics of the boat in the water. Tony and I tried to get it running yesterday and could not get it set up properly becasue the rear cannard fins kept digging into the water. I may have it too heavy with the motor, batteries, etc. Cannards take a lot to set up but this unique wire drive worked great. Why use 3.17 titanium..............easy, it was given to me! (I origionally had the boat as a twin ducted fan air boat but was not happy with the speeds, but the sound of the turbines whining out at 35K RPM was something!

[sundog]

Does a 3.17mm Titanium wire bend easily? That's sounding more like a shaft! Do you have close up pics of the drive? It's interesting, to be sure.

[properchopper]

I have one of Mr. Wohlt's wire drives in my Miss Vegas and it works great. One benefit has to be less parasitic drag on the shaft versus the higher drag of a comparitively larger flex cable, resulting in less work the motor has to do to maintain terminal RPM. Cooler motor and reduced current consumption.

[questtek]

Does a 3.17mm Titanium wire bend easily? That's sounding more like a shaft! Do you have close up pics of the drive? It's interesting, to be sure.

Yes, you are correct, it is more like a shaft. I use a diamond blade to cut it and to cut in notches to hold the set screws for the prop collar and drive dog. I will post some pics later. In the Cannard the motor is way in the front so the titanium drive shaft is long giving it a very flat angle thus requiring no bend.

[questtek]

I have one of Mr. Wohlt's wire drives in my Miss Vegas and it works great. One benefit has to be less parasitic drag on the shaft versus the higher drag of a comparitively larger flex cable, resulting in less work the motor has to do to maintain terminal RPM. Cooler motor and reduced current consumption.

We sure had a interesting time, Tony, trying to get that thing on the top of the water. Several of Tony's throws were a bit on the down angle and we had a few submarine runs. Lots of fun but this is going totake a bit of brain matter to sort out.