Water pickup drag testing

[Tamelesstgr]

Dam Travis, that Zelos looks so sweet with that green and the graphics applied.

[kfxguy]

Dam Travis, that Zelos looks so sweet with that green and the graphics applied.

Thanks! I'm loving it!


I know I've kinda veered off a little from just the testing by talking about pumps and stuff. Seems like there was a little interest in that too so I'll post my findings on that. I ordered a few different pumps and have tested two so far. I posted results on the the sensidyne and now I got one of those pumps from China. It looked very promising and it wasn't too big. The sensidyne pump is hard to attach hose to. This one isn't. The results were very poor.


11 oz in 2 min 2 sec on 2s
1 min 41 sec 3s
1 minute 22 seconds On 4s. Sad. Lol. I did not get hot on 4s though.

[Mxkid261]

Did you carve out that tear drop shape in the hull in front of the water pickup?

[kfxguy]

Did you carve out that tear drop shape in the hull in front of the water pickup?

Yes I did.

[Mxkid261]

Yes I did.

Does it help pull more water in like that?

[kfxguy]

Yes if it's just a straight hole. The zelos came with pickups that hung out the hull. I thought they would cause some drag but they didn't. Plus I didn't want them snagging anything so I made them flush.

[Hotrods]

Has anyone ever tested the small aluminum bilge pump from Kinetic Racing?
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[dmitry100]

kfxguy: How are those pumps working out for you? Didn't you find a good small diagrahm pump?

[T.S.Davis]

Travis, is the smaller pump actually considered an "air" pump?

[kfxguy]

kfxguy: How are those pumps working out for you? Didn't you find a good small diagrahm pump?

The smaller pump actually works the best. I haven't got around to putting it in the boat just yet.

[kfxguy]

Travis, is the smaller pump actually considered an "air" pump?

I'm not sure.....it pumps water well tho.

[jim82]

I'm one of those kind of people that like to find out things first hand rather than believe everything I read. There's many things I've read and tested for myself to find out what I read simply wasn't true or entirely accurate. So in the quest for more speed I decided to test different water pickup types on a couple different boats I have. One will be my zelos and the other will be my Rivercat. I'm not starting the testing until this weekend as I'd like some feedback on what you guys think and if you think what I have planned will be accurate enough. First one in testing is my zelos with bottom pickups. What I plan is getting a baseline run. One nice long full pass. Then I'll use some ultra thin packing tape to block off the pickups and make another pass. That should tell me the difference don't you think?

Next my Rivercat. Baseline with a rudder pickup. Then block it off. Then I'll try a prop wash pickup. I devised a setup last night that will allow me to add one quickly so I can do it at the lake for more accurate results. What do you guys think?

I tested my mini sprint today with and without water cooling saw no difference in speed.

[kfxguy]

I tested my mini sprint today with and without water cooling saw no difference in speed.

Awesome! What kind of pickup dioes it have?

[jim82]

Late time to answer but it is a rudder supply

[kfxguy]

Well I was working on having a couple rudders made (just like the one on the Rivercat) but with no pickup so I could test that also. Sounds like water pickups in the rudder or the hull add no drag. Interesting.