brushless conversion on "miss vegas" hydroplane

[RYDEFAB]

i'm a newbie to this offshore thing but here i go. i did a brushless conversion on a nitro "miss vegas" hydroplane (i wasn't satisfied with the .18 motor that it came with). i got a aqua craft grim racer prop upgrade for it and it runs great. i just picked up another prop today to try out. it's a octura V 935/3 prop. question is, will this prop work better or worse than the grim racer one? another question is at what level should i run the prop (deeper, shallower, etc.)? my specs on the boat are.................................

aqua craft brushless motor
mamba max esc
5400 3s lipo

i have made the lipo mounts on the front and the rear, so i can run it in either place.

thanks alot in advance. been on this site for only a day and so far it's great .

[Ub Hauled]

Ryde,
a couple of things...
1st, the motor you are using I think would be better with 4 cells.
A V935 prop is a SAW prop, you'll not be able to keep racing laps with it... you need a milder prop if that is the plan, what is the Grim Racer prop you have? If you are going for SAWs then we have a different set of problems.
The ESC NEEDS to be water proofed and so should the hull.
Here is the motor problem, I think it will not be able to handle the heavier hull that the the Ms Vegas is at decent speeds... I use it with a Viper II (24" light hull) on 4 cells and see 40-45mph... if you just want a leisure drive around the pond then you should be fine, but if you wanna go faster then the Nitro motor you had in there then maybe you should re-think the motor.
Those are my thoughts

[RYDEFAB]

Ryde,
a couple of things...
1st, the motor you are using I think would be better with 4 cells.
A V935 prop is a SAW prop, you'll not be able to keep racing laps with it... you need a milder prop if that is the plan, what is the Grim Racer prop you have? If you are going for SAWs then we have a different set of problems.
The ESC NEEDS to be water proofed and so should the hull.
Here is the motor problem, I think it will not be able to handle the heavier hull that the the Ms Vegas is at decent speeds... I use it with a Viper II (24" light hull) on 4 cells and see 40-45mph... if you just want a leisure drive around the pond then you should be fine, but if you wanna go faster then the Nitro motor you had in there then maybe you should re-think the motor.
Those are my thoughts

thanks alot for the input. the mamba max is in a sealed container (the original rx box that the boat came with. i just siliconed around the cover). the grim racer prop i got is aqua craft 36x55 metal prop (the hop-up option for the "miss vegas"). the thing is that i've never saw the boat run fully tuned with the nitro motor it had. the other day i took it out for a test run and it went pretty good. the motor and esc never thermaled. i was running it for about 15-20 minutes straight and the temp was good (i could put my finger on it and touch it for awhile). i sealed up the top canopy to the hull with tape before i made a run. the speed with the 3s lipo was pretty comfortable with me, like you said............"a leisure drive around the pond". i'm okay with it for now. i've been thinking about getting a Pro Boat water cooled esc with a bigger brushless motor later on. also been thinking about getting a supervee 27 (brushless) soon. i just wanted to play around with "miss vegas" for now. i'll probably get the Pro Boat esc next so i can run at least 4s lipos. this is my first boat that i've been "tinkering" with. i have to say, it's pretty fun and relaxing. and seeing the boat in the water going around and around is really relaxing. once again, thanks for all the help so far.

btw...............the motor that i'm running is a aqua craft L36/56 brushless motor.

another question, how's the aqua craft 45a esc? will it handle lipo's and how many? it doesn't say in the specs on the website. thanks.

[RYDEFAB]

btw.............here's some pics of the conversion>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Ub Hauled]

pretty clean setup,
I like how you placed the battery, where is the Center of gravity (CG) right now?
Did you make the motor mount? looks solid.
You still wanna seal the hull, less water inside means less weight and less chances of getting electronics burned... including the battery.
The SV27 ESC is what I use as well on my Viper, it handles my needs just fine... I have the cooling plates, I run 4s1p and an X445 prop, no heat on the ESC at all... the motor stays at 130 or less and the cells under 100.

[RYDEFAB]

thanks Ub for the comps. the lipo is sitting where the fuel tank used to be. i have 2 of those lipo packs and i've wrapped them up with saranwrap (i do the same thing in my scale crawlers when we put them under water). the motor mount is made from scrap aluminum i had laying around from my crawlers and other projects. just used the original mounting holes for the nitro motor. the coupler was modified from the coupler that came on the .18 that was i there originally. i just drilled it out to accept the motor shaft and drilled/tapped a set screw in it. i'll probably pick up a SV27 esc for this boat. are you running a 4s lipo cut off on your's since you're running a 4s lipo? if so, what brand? i know that Novak has for 2s and 3s, do they also make for 4s? thanks again for the help !

[Ub Hauled]

I am ashamed to say that I am not using an LVC...
I should.
Apparently the BJ26 ESC has a cutoff and the same other specs as the
SV27 speedo... chk it out, you may like it.
I kinda know how long I can run with my cells... but it would be wise to use
an LVC. I think "Cell Shield" makes one.
4am, time to sleep...

[RYDEFAB]

well, took out the boat again today. ran 2 lipo's thru it and broke a prop shaft and flipped it over once. had to walk out about 80 feet in waist deep water to get it. next time i won't forget my fish rod and reel. met some guys playing in the pond down on the other side of ala moana park in hawaii. talked to them for awhile and got some good advice. gonna do some major changes to "miss vegas" in the next couple of days. just finished making a motor water cooler for the brushless out of stainless tubing i had left over from my rock crawler's 4 link set up. got to figure out a esc cooler for my mamba until i get a water cooled one. my plans are to get some stirofoam and lay it in all the empty spots in the hull, fill up the voids. also, instead of running just one 3s lipo, i'm going to run 2 of them and run parallel. i'm hoping for alittle more run time out of them (should be 10800Mah out of 2 5400 3s lipos). plus i'm moving the location of the lipos more to the center of the boat instead of in the front. i may also cut the canopy in half and securing the front half to the hull permanently. i'm doing this because that way the front of the boat will be totally sealed and because there will be nothing in the front except foam in there.

i'm just throwing out my ideas on here to see if any of you vets see any problem i may or will encounter. i'm open to all suggestions. thanks.

[Jeepers]

I would remove the radio box for more room in the hull to allow for a better CG adjustment with that lower power system. cutting the front of the hatch off is a big plus easier to tape up ( I did that to mine) dont forget to seal up the huge air scoop in the hatch.

use a small fan to cool your esc, and a water jacket for the motor will be more effective than wrapping tubing around it.

also just so you know the stock flotation was able to float 24cells and all the electronics and the hull full of water with the sponsons sticking straight up out of the water!

If I can find my camera I will snap some pics of mine the Dremel tool has gotten hold of it.

[RYDEFAB]

thanks jeeepers, i'm planning on taking out the stock radio box as soon as i pick up a water proof, water cooled esc. for now i'll stick to the box until i get the esc. i was going to pick up a waterjacket, but my LHS doesn't have one in stock. so instead of ordering one i figured i just make a motor cooler out of tubing. i ditched the stainless tubing one i made for a copper tubing one instead. made it during lunch today (plumber by trade, so copper tubing is pretty easy for me to come by ). i want to keep this build "low budget" for now. so far all i've spent money on was the brushless motor, a prop, and a new prop shaft. just finished making a new prop shaft and working on the stirofoam now.

btw, thanks for the advice on my build so far. all the help is greatly appreciated.

[RYDEFAB]

i bit the bullet and took Jeepers advice. took out the stock radio box and used a Hitec servo box for a esc/rx box. i robbed it from my 5995 servo i had as a spare for my 2.2 crawler. gonna try out a fan too on the mamba, a novak replacement esc fan for the GTB esc's. i also put stirofoam all in the front of the boat , still got to do the back of it. i have to remount the steering servo since there's no mount for it, so i have to fabricate one. i'll post some pics tomorrow..............the wife's getting pissed at me since i've been in the workroom since i came home from work, about 7 hours ago .

[Ub Hauled]

We all know that song...

..............the wife's getting pissed at me since i've been in the workroom since i came home from work, about 7 hours ago .

[Jeepers]

We all know that song...

lets see how does the song start?

Is that all your going to do is work on boats......

OR

Seems like all you ever do is work on boats............

and my personal favorite

Put them !$#@!@#$ boats away for a few days!!!!

my wife cracks me up!

[ReddyWatts]

You're killing me, LOL!

[RYDEFAB]

lets see how does the song start?

Is that all your going to do is work on boats......

OR

Seems like all you ever do is work on boats............

and my personal favorite

Put them !$#@!@#$ boats away for a few days!!!!

my wife cracks me up!

, that's funny right there!!

mine's does this to me the other day..................."what are you going to do now.............BOATS??!!"

other time's it's, "if it's not your rock crawlers, drag cars, on-road cars, or drift cars............then it's something else!!!"

or i'll tell her, "i'm going into the workroom for alittle while, only an hour"......i go down at 6pm and come back up at around midnite .

mine's gives me heat about this, but she supports me on my hobby........she know's that r/c'ing is my "down time" when i come home from work.