Electric TS 2 plowing in the corners

[Stinger9D9]

Hey all,

I've never really been happy with the handling of the Top Speed 2 brushless conversion I finished a couple years ago. It's plenty fast in a straight line, but it just plain dives and hooks in the turns. Sometimes it even submarines in the turns when it digs in under power. When I try to reduce the steering rate on my Tactic radio, I either get not enough steering, or WAY too much.

The arrangement in the hull is with the servo and ESC are at the back (to reduce esc to motor wire length) and the lipos are up in the front of the hull. With this setup, the CoG is 10 3/8" from the stern (the hull is 30" long overall). I also have the recovery pads on the hull to try and keep the front end up.

Do I need to get the CoG farther back? I'm thinking it will be necessary to relocate the servo to the front and lipos in the back to keep the nose up?

Here's a short video to show what I mean:

[srislash]

Geez! I always thought that was a goal with a tunnel,to get the nose to drop and dig into the corner but that excessive.Haven't built a tunnel yet so I'm of no help.

[Fluid]

You have several problems. First, the CG is 'way too far forward. Most run the CG between 27% and 29%, you are at almost 35%. Move it back to around 8.5 to 9 inches. Second, these boats turn best at or near full throttle. Backing off the throttle a lot when you enter a turn drops the bow and can cause hooking. Third, your lower end skeg may be too small, this causes hooking too. Try the first two above and see it they help, if not then try a larger skeg.



.

[Stinger9D9]

You have several problems. First, the CG is 'way too far forward. Most run the CG between 27% and 29%, you are at almost 35%. Move it back to around 8.5 to 9 inches. Second, these boats turn best at or near full throttle. Backing off the throttle a lot when you enter a turn drops the bow and can cause hooking. Third, your lower end skeg may be too small, this causes hooking too. Try the first two above and see it they help, if not then try a larger skeg.

Yeah, I had a feeling the CoG was too far forward. I've never had any success turning at or near full throttle (hooks, and upside down she goes). The skeg is an unmodified REK lower. First things first - time to rearrange the interior and get the CoG back where it belongs.

[eboat]

I had one of these also with the REK leg on it
I had the servo at the front so I could put the lipo at the back
It ran really well that way
Steering these things around a corner took a little getting used to
I always kept on the throttel but it seemed once you got the boat to start to turn you would have to let off on the steering a little or it would get into the death spiral and sometimes it would go right under
If you think about it the prop and the skeg really do not move when you steer cause the leg on the boat just wants to go straight but you are just turning the hull in front of the leg
I always thought maybe the servo was not good enough as that is alot of leaverage against it and if you are moving at any speed at all that would just make it worst and over power the servo and go into a full turn if you wanted to or not

[HTVboats]

Your are not going to like what I have to say. There is a reason you see more TS-2's 4 sale at a nitro race for $25-50 than you see actually racing. They are a difficult Nitro boat that didn't perform very well. So putting a FE power plant on just is not going to cure an ill handling hull. Yes you can spend all kinds of time on setup and try many props but you will end up just like the guy who cannot sell it for $25. They were only $99 new. Too many guys set up FE OB's on hulls that are collecting dust on a shelf for a reason. Crap in crap out. Do yourself a favor and get a Lynx, Vision, TS-3 or Cobra and you will have a great running hull.
Mic

[Stinger9D9]

I had one of these also with the REK leg on it
I had the servo at the front so I could put the lipo at the back
It ran really well that way
Steering these things around a corner took a little getting used to
I always kept on the throttel but it seemed once you got the boat to start to turn you would have to let off on the steering a little or it would get into the death spiral and sometimes it would go right under
If you think about it the prop and the skeg really do not move when you steer cause the leg on the boat just wants to go straight but you are just turning the hull in front of the leg
I always thought maybe the servo was not good enough as that is alot of leaverage against it and if you are moving at any speed at all that would just make it worst and over power the servo and go into a full turn if you wanted to or not

And that's another thing. Should I put in a high torque servo to help keep the skeg under control? Is the (stock Hitec) servo being pushed around - not moving enough for small adjustments, then getting slammed into a full turn when in the corners?

[Diegoboy]

Your are not going to like what I have to say. There is a reason you see more TS-2's 4 sale at a nitro race for $25-50 than you see actually racing. They are a difficult Nitro boat that didn't perform very well. So putting a FE power plant on just is not going to cure an ill handling hull. Yes you can spend all kinds of time on setup and try many props but you will end up just like the guy who cannot sell it for $25. They were only $99 new. Too many guys set up FE OB's on hulls that are collecting dust on a shelf for a reason. Crap in crap out. Do yourself a favor and get a Lynx, Vision, TS-3 or Cobra and you will have a great running hull.
Mic

I didn't see anywhere in his OP where he was asking for opinions about his hull...

Hey all,

I've never really been happy with the handling of the Top Speed 2 brushless conversion I finished a couple years ago. It's plenty fast in a straight line, but it just plain dives and hooks in the turns. Sometimes it even submarines in the turns when it digs in under power. When I try to reduce the steering rate on my Tactic radio, I either get not enough steering, or WAY too much.

The arrangement in the hull is with the servo and ESC are at the back (to reduce esc to motor wire length) and the lipos are up in the front of the hull. With this setup, the CoG is 10 3/8" from the stern (the hull is 30" long overall). I also have the recovery pads on the hull to try and keep the front end up.

Do I need to get the CoG farther back? I'm thinking it will be necessary to relocate the servo to the front and lipos in the back to keep the nose up?

Does your boat have the recovery pads?

[Stinger9D9]

I didn't see anywhere in his OP where he was asking for opinions about his hull...



Does your boat have the recovery pads?

I don't mind the dig on the hull. I had a feeling it wasn't the best choice. I may go with a TS-3 or VS1 later on (over the winter), but I'd like to get the most I can out of this hull to try and salvage some fun from it this summer.

I do have the recovery pads on the hull, but like Flid said, the CoG is most likely just too far ahead.

[longballlumber]

Where is the centerline of the stub shaft in releation to the ride pads of the boat? moving the CG won't fix all of your problems. As other have also mentioned, you probably need to lower your lower unit too.

Later,
Mike

[Stinger9D9]

Where is the centerline of the stub shaft in releation to the ride pads of the boat? moving the CG won't fix all of your problems. As other have also mentioned, you probably need to lower your lower unit too.

Later,
Mike

The bottom of the stub shaft is even with the bottom of the hull, but the lower unit is angled up about 2 degrees. I imagine once I get the weight moved backward I can lessen or eliminate the angle and still get the nose up out of the water.

[carlcisneros]

I do have to agree with HTV boats.
They were great in a straight line, BUT when it came time to turn,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,:-P
I gave mine away to one of the club members and he ran it around the lake for about 1/2 year and he gave it away as well.

don't flog a dead horse................... JMO folks.

[Stinger9D9]

Well, I tore out and moved the servo mount to the front of the hull, extended the steering rods, cooling lines, rearranged everything inside the hull, put the packs at the back and managed to get the CoG back to 8 inches from the transom. I couldn't really move it any farther forward, but I thought that much of a change would at least stop the hooking. I also flattened out the trim to just about level. The center of the drive shaft was about 0.2" above the bottom of the sponsons.

Now the boat almost flips over backward from a standstill, is a pretty scary in a straight line too, enough so that it sure doesn't inspire enough confidence to corner at or near full speed. When I do let off a bit in the turns, the front end hops up and down throughout the turn, then if you have the nerve to punch it on the way out of the turn, again, it just jumps out of the water.

Another thing I never noticed is that overly long nose on the center section and how low it hangs. The tip of it is almost below, or just even with the bottom of the sponson tips. When the boat bobs up and down through a turn, the tip of the center section inevitably goes low enough to touch the water, then the boat nose dives and spins out in the turn.

So now it's unruly in a straight line, but it dives less in the corners. It's still no fun at all.

I'm pretty sure there is no joy to be had with this combination. Back on the shelf with this one (where it's been for the last 4 years). I'm afraid you guys were right about this hull.

I may try again with a TS3 or VS1, or just cop out and buy a Stiletto, but for the time being there will be no tunnel hull fun this year when I go up north. Kinda sucks too - it's the one week a year I have a cottage on the lakefront and I can run anything and everything all day long (there will be limited room in the car to haul up a poor running hull). All is not lost - I have my UL-1 and Motley Crew to keep me occupied.