Self-Righting Hulls

[rayray9]

To use effectively use either an inrunner or outrunner on a Barbwire XL has got me thinking.
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Graupner Midnight Gambler v2.0
30" mono hull with flood chamber
3750kv inrunner w/o counter weight
From the videos she appears to have no problems self-righting, how come?

How could an Atomik Barbwire XL lose this feature?

[fweasel]

The flood chamber is too small in the Barbwire XL. Take the Josway Offshore Infinity for example. Very similar boat, but a much larger flood chamber that extends nearly all the way to the bow and has no cutout for a battery right in the middle of it. That boat flips over on its own without any help form whatever motor you choose to bolt in.

[martin]

As said the flood chamber in the Barbwire XL is to small volume, because of the reasons mentioned. But it is an unusual way they have done the chamber where they use a separate inner container installed inside the hull as the chamber. Most self righters use a simple flood wall inside the hull so the entire section fills with a lot more water.

[martin]

Just a heads up, I don't know what sort of running you do or expect from the Midnight Gambler. It is a stepped Mono1 race boat that is only intended for right hand turns ( clockwise race course ), they don't turn left very good at all & @ high speed left turns they just wipe out.

[rayray9]

I don't own the Midnight Gambler 2.0, was studying the videos & hull photos. I do own the Barb XL and a 26" Deep Vee Impulse from (thebuildrc.com), the Impulse ordered is a bare hull - flood chamber that runs the entire length of the boat. That will be this winter's project.
Martin & fweasel thanks for the input, the Graupner is a very different ARTR just placing the second rudder / turn fin for RH oval racing IMHO is a marketing failure. Just an opinion.

[rol243]

what about a single rudder directly behind the prop not to the side. should turn left easy with this set up.

[NativePaul]

A weighted coupler as a rollover device is a band aid to put on a boat with a design flaw, ie too small a flood chamber, not enough freeboard, too flat a deck, too small a cockpit, not enough torque to be able to offset the weight enough without it flopping on the straight. It works but at a cost to the boats runtime, acceleration, speed, and handling.

The midnight gambler fits the Mono1 rules, but is it is pretty low rent as can be expected from a mass market RTR, it is more commonly seen in a one design class which was fairly common at clubs in mainland Europe. The nearest thing I could compare it too is a SV27, although it was MUCH closer to a mono1 than a SV27 was to a P mono. Graupner have given a bunch of Midnight gamblers away to juniors and young spectators at the big races, and have helped a heck of a lot of people get into the sport, some of whom are now competing at the highest level. I have heard nothing similar of them since Graupner had their hiatus a cpuple of years ago and I would guess that financially they are no longer in a position to be as philanthropic, Neither Midnight Gambler has a second rudder or turn fin, and it would not be needed for oval racing, the mk1 was certainly not a marketing failure, it was one of the most popular race boats in Europe for a few years.

With twin rudders and turn fins, or a central rudder and additional left turn fited it would turn left nearly as well as right (no boat with single prop will turn equally in both directions), but at the expense of not turning right so well. This one is optimised for ovals, but for those that didnt want to do ovals they had other boats like the Sonic Evo, that would accelerate ferociously and turn on a dime in either direction.

[rayray9]

Good info

Graupner marketing does not include that this boat is designed for oval racing and/or SAW. Imagine a R/C boat enthusiast purchasing this ARTR as a second boat, perhaps he has an Aqua Craft Reef Racer (brought me in).
Moot Point, I do not own a Graupner Gambler, for that price nor would I be an owner.
That's why OSE forums is great, find out before you buy.

[NativePaul]

It is an oval boat, not a SAWs boat.

While Monos are not my thing I would have been very happy with a midnight gambler as a second boat, my second boat was an oval race boat too and while there were many years between them, the gambler is much faster around the oval than mine was. While it is not a high end competitive Mono1, I would bet on one being more competitive than a Mono1 built with a top notch carbon race hull, lehner motor etc, costing several times the amount, fitted out by someone whose only experience is a reef racer.

I don't know how the seller you saw it on chooses to market it, but on the Graupner site and sellers here in the UK are pretty explicit about it being a race boat; "Competition Racing Boat Midnight Gambler, Almost Ready to Run (ARTR) The "MIDNIGHT GAMBLER" racing boat is part of the Graupner/SJ "CHAMPIONSHIP-LINE" series. The "CHAMPIONSHIP-LINE" stands for top quality, including for use in competitions." The marketing video embedded in the graupner midnight gambler page shows a bunch of them all running right turns around a course marked with buoys.

You might think it is worse than it really is from what Martin said, they are certainly optimised for right turns, but it is not like they cant turn left at all,you can see in the Graupner video above that some gentle left turns are possible at full speed for course correction, and in the following video they are turning left a lot, just slowing down before turning, whereas if they turned right they wouldn't have to.

[NativePaul]

sorry for the split post, it seems we can only put 1 video in per post now.

[rayray9]

Probably just remove the second rudder / fin if needed. Like I posted, I do not own one - but awaiting PayPal request for a Vac-U-Tug Jr.