Apparition crash carnage

[6sHyper]

Well was trying to do some speed tests with my apparition today after switching from an m440 to an x442 and she was ripping along at an estimated 50+ mph when she had a good wipe out, flipped a couple a times and ended up ripping both battery trays right out and sent one of the batteries up front of the sponson where it lodged itself in there and cracked it wide open, and the boat lay upside down in the lake, i was able to catch her with my first cast with the tennis ball fishing rod trick and real her in, sure glad i had waterproofed up that t-180 and sealed my new 2.4ghz reciever! Heres some pictures of the carnage, i never thought the trays needed to be reinforced as i never read that anywhere, but looks to be the case!! not sure if i'm even gonna bother reinstalling them or just add some fiberglass resin to flatten out the battery area and lay some velcro in there directly on the hull, any opinions?? Also figure putting a chunk of pool noodle foam up front the sponsons will not only act as a flotation device but protect aginst any batteries lodging themselves up there in the future!

Anyways, figure i should use fiberglass resin to seal the crack back up, its not that bad and dont really need much mat, wish i could get some matt behind it but access up there is not possible unless you have 16" long fingers or something crazy!! haha I'm actuall an automotive painter by proffesion and happen to be painting a firneds wakesetter on the side tonight so figure i will try and patch her up real quick and blast some of that paint as its even black on teh fornt, looks like i got lucky and the crack never made it past the black area, should be an easy fix!

[properchopper]

Josh,

Sorry to see the "carnage", but I'm sure it's fixable. AND you've brought up a very good point which needs hearing out, AND I HOPE this is taken as constructive criticism for all to heed, but I got my flame suit on nonetheless.

Going fast, and particularly in the sixty mph (and plus) realm is highly destructive to equipment, particularly to the graphic-intensive, lightly struck out semi-rtr's. Any crash at these speeds will tear off gelcoat & re-arrange unreinforced innards.Yes, we all want to go Faster, Faster; but over-reaching the design and construction capabilities of these boats is a guarantee to duplicate Josh's unfortunate event. ( Not trying to single you out, Bro ; your setup is fairly realistic,) but overpowering these rigs to the outerlimits of practicality will surely gain one membership in the ZSP/WTS (Zoom/Splash/Plop-What's/That/Smell?) club. It doesn't take much to bump up a stable 4S setup to high KV & higher voltages but there's a price to pay.
My personal benchmark is to have all of my boats do 6 laps on the 1/6 mile and survive, as best as possible any crashes by overbuilding them to begin with. I can certainly make them faster, but am no longer willing to pay the price. Believe me, I've done so in the past when bowing to the Faster-Faster God.

Apologies to anyone this offends, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it !

[6sHyper]

No offence takin, and i know where your coming form thats why i gave up on flying planes!! ahaha, but i'm a speed freak and its gonna be a while before i change that, i think this boat is capable of being a high 50's to low 60's boat and still be controllable, i have already started my repair and also used this wipe out to further the build........

For the battery trays i quickly realized that taking them right out and adding a couple layers of matt and resin would not only smooth out the bottom of the hull for being able to attach some velcro to secure the batteries, but it would also add some IMO much needed weight to the boat as this thing was just hovering over the water, who knows i may be out to lunch here, but that was just another reaosn for me to go ahead and smooth out that area for the batteries, LOL any opinions??

heres some pics, i already did a layer on the sponson, sanded it and put another layer of resin over top, i will get it blended in with paint this evening. Is the battery area overkill, stupid, or is this a decent idea on my part guys??? opinions?

[Alexgar]

i just crashed an hour ago in my app i hit some floating debris and broke the nylon screw(great idea ) and snapped my flex im now debating about converting it to .150 x 3/16ths because i have all the parts but thats my only back up flex for 2 other boats

[Diesel6401]

Sorry to hear about the crash,, just a FYI that all these HK or HOTR or other Cheap china hulls should have ALL their trays either re-epoxed or removed. I would dump the trays and just lay them directly into the sponsons.

[ray schrauwen]

Try using Silicone adhesive for your battery tray. It can take flex of fiberglass much better.

[tiqueman]

All great points. These hulls certainly need re-inforcment to handle the crashes that can be acheived above 45 or 50. But no doubt these boats have, IMO, an excellent hull design. Mines doing 70, twin powered (built from scratch by me starting w/ an empty HORT hull) and has a wonderful ride attitude. No extra weight, besides the weight of the components I used which its sitting pretty darn low. So fear not, it will handle some pushing.

Also at anything above 40, Id recommend strapping your batteries in as well as velcro. Velcro on its own will often not hold in a violent tumble.

Best of luck w/ the repair. It doesnt look too bad.

[6sHyper]

well it wasn't too bad. managed to get her patched up last night and painted now she's ready to go back to the lake! gonna stuff some foam up front of the sponsons so the batteries dont have anywhere to go if they come loose, i'm just laying them directly to the floor with velcro as i levelled out that area with some extra matt and resin.

[LarrysDrifter]

Nice job.Looks good.

[6sHyper]

WOW, I took her to the lake in the pouring rain today, and i happened to find a new spot to rip and its a great spot!

The boat ran very well my repair is nearly undetectable, and i think the added weight of the hull reinforcement in the battery area and getting my batteries slightly more forward positioned as well really helped stabalize the boat.

I first ran the m440 prop and did about 6 good length WOT passes and brought her in to check temps and the GPS, temps were great esc was 70 and motor was 120, but sure enough i forgot to start the timer on gps so no reading, lol

quickly taped her lid and threw her back in the drink with the GPS "ON" did about 10 WOT passes and brought her in to check temps and speed, i was shocked to see 58.7MPH top speed!! 70 on esc and 130 on motor, wow low temps on a setup everyone told me was gonna smoke quick

I decided hell lets try an x442 prop since temps are fine, quickly swapped it out and threw back in, did about 5 WOT passes and got her in some weeds somehow that were under the water when i was turning around, luckily i was going very slow, it got stuck, super far away from me but a couple waps on the throttle and she free'd herself up, well kinda, she came back to me pulling a 4ft 1/2" thick weed root (more like a twig!) oops. LOL

She was much more stable in her passes with the x442 back on today than when i tried yesterday and had the blow over, GPS read 59.7MPH, wow and that was on well used batteries!! temps were 70esc 130 motor, batts were 100 and averaging 3.18v per cell, i figured i had 10 mins of run time maybe more, I must say since this is my first RC boat build i am very happy with my results. I'm hooked, i cant wait to get my Red Evo hydroplane setup and in action.

[LarrysDrifter]

Nice speeds.What motor esc/combo are you using?

[6sHyper]

Feigao 10xl, T-180 esc, 6s via 2x2s1p 5000 mah 30c, m440 prop in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSOpyWgVn5E

[LarrysDrifter]

Nice.A friend of mine has a single drive Apparation using an Arc 1680kv,180 esc on 6s with and X442 running 64mph.I wouldnt go any higher on your motor temp.130 degrees would be my limit especially if your running in cold winter water.

[6sHyper]

yes its pretty cold water here right now, its a small lake, and its not freezing out here by any means but i figure helps keep it a few degrees lower than in the summer. It only hit 130 after being run really long though, and didn't seem to change the heat with the switching of the props, so i'm going to get a x445 to try. I already plan on switching the motor out with a castle 1520 probably, just waiting for one to pop up in the swap shop cheap!

[6sHyper]

man i would think with that arc he should be hitting 70mph if he propped it up, which i;m sure that motor could easily handle, That motor looks like a friggin beast!