Geico 17 drop in brushless upgrade.

[SJFE]

Hey folks.
I have a buddy who is running with his son. His kid has the small atomic brushless boat and is wiping the floor with him. I am looking for a 2s-3s motor esc suggestion to get him on at least equal footing. I'm not talking about any strut ot rudder mods. Just a straight motor esc swap. I am out of the loop too long to even ballpark it.
Thanks in advance.

[RCBoaterGuy]

I have a IM-17 BL project in progress. Been doing a lot research cuz like you don't want to re-engineer the boat - AKA stingers, stringers, struts, offset rudders, yada, yada, yada.

Motor clearance is a big issue, almost nothing between stock cooling coil & bottom of the boat. Diddo for batts, headed to LHS here in a bit to try out 3S packs to see if there's one that will fit under the hood.

#1 mooey importenta consideration is motor mount screw size (2.5mm) & spacing (16mm) - Stock mount won't allow 3mm screws or 19mm spacing - give the mount a good look over and you'll see what I'm talking about. In keeping with the make it easy theme.... pick a motor that has 2.5mm threads on 16mm spacing.

Hardware solutions...
Traxxas 2.5mm x 8mm (TRA3965) socket head screws - used to attach radio box to platform on Stampede's, also small cover on Slash Rx boxes.

Better solution... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stainless-Me...item5d2cd15ca5 - because they're ridiculously low prices, I've been buying lotta my hardware in bulk, slowly converting to SS hardware on my trucks. -- Check they're prices on M3 screws, 100-pcs same cost as 25-pcs

Motors... Been googling & reading as much info as possible.
In this thread (post #7)... http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...pler-questions - the OP pointed out that small boats like ours like lots of RPM & small props. I've also been working on Mini-V, 30mm props causing motors to run hot, finally got my hands on a 27x36, but haven't tested it yet.

Most 28mm motors I've found have M3 screws on 19mm spacing. MiniCat USA uses 20x40 3200Kv motors (2S & 3S) in they're mini boats. I checked out that size, found lots of motors in the 2500~3000~4000Kv range, but after watching vids kinda worried that small of motor won't have enough torque.

High revving 20x40's on 3S (sub 40K RPM range) are fine for a well designed & built fiberglass hydro's you can run at / near WOT through the turns, but lets be honest, MG17 & IM17's just don't fall into that category. NOT BASHING - I'm happy with mine, just pointing out the obvious.

I'm starting to seriously look at 2445's, 2.3mm shaft = stock coupler, 2.5mm screws on 16mm spacing = no prob with stock motor mount, more torque, will fit well with aluminum jacket installed. Think those are some pretty good reasons

All that said & done, here's some of the motors I've been checking out... (All will work well with 35A Seaking)
http://www.valuehobby.com/leopard-24...-inrunner.html 34,020 on 3S

http://www.valuehobby.com/leopard-24...-inrunner.html 28,560 on 2S

http://www.hobbypartz.com/96m268-2445-2900kv-17t.html 36,540 on 3S

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXLWX2&P=7 - little shorter than the others, but certainly within the desired RPM range.

Sorry for the long post - easier to say it all at once than multiple small posts.

Hey folks.
I have a buddy who is running with his son. His kid has the small atomic brushless boat and is wiping the floor with him. I am looking for a 2s-3s motor esc suggestion to get him on at least equal footing. I'm not talking about any strut ot rudder mods. Just a straight motor esc swap. I am out of the loop too long to even ballpark it.
Thanks in advance.

[SJFE]

Thanks for all the great info. I have a direction to go now. I'll keep ya posted.

[knotsofast]

If you haven't already, take a look at the video my 9 year old son shot of his MG17 in the last post of my thread 50mph Miss Geico 17? Yes there is a strut and the rudder was moved, but I'm a newbie at this and I did it with not that much work. I tried all the easy mods and they didn't work. The boat doesn't go anywhere near 50mph, yet, and probably never will, but it is much faster and fun to drive than the original.

[pukpquango]

Been working on modding an IM17 too. I went for the simple approach. Had a Joysway 30 amp ESC at hand in working order and went for an Overlander 2826. Running on 3 cells the performance is acceptable for tooling around the club pond with the original prop. Temperature of the ESC (which is water cooled) is wonderfully low, I've made no real effort to cool the motor, despite which, temperatures are very low. Having a spare coupler at hand for a joysway boat, a buddy mounted it in his lathe and reamed out one end to suit the existing proboat shaft. I have run it with the motor from a Joysway Sea Drifter on two cells, but it wasn't as happy a combination, too much motor for too little boat.


God knows how, but it even seems reliable.