Need help ugrading my Motley Crew

[RCnerd]

You can, personally I wouldn't. I bent the stock mount in mine running a Castle 1512 it's shorter than the Leopard.
Installed an aftermarket floor mount, trimmed the stuffing tube shorter so everything lines up nice.
I personally think this puts the motor in a better location for adjusting the cg, it also drops the height of the motor quite a bit thus lowering the cg in the hull.
Epoxied some hardwood rails in the bottom of the tub at the same time, really stiffened things up. The inboard end of the stuffing tube doesn't move anymore when you adjust the strut.
I also installed a SV27 rudder on mine, it has a built in water pickup. I use both inlets, one for the esc the other for the motor.
I can run for a full 3:30 in the 50 ball park with no heat issues at all with the stock setup, Now I usually run a proboat 1800kv motor in it, lower amp draw for the same prop. Might just be a "good" proboat motor. I only have the one so no comparison. I also did some work on the bottom of the hull to improve it, flat sanded and leveled the sponson bottoms, then gave them a scuffing after I painted it.
Had a Leopard 4074 in it, the Castle and the spec stuff, I find the boat to be the most fun with a stock type setup. No sinking feeling and the associated repairs when I blow over at it's intended speeds.
I have an H&M cat that has cartwheeled down the lake at 60mph wiht no damage at all, Last time out in rough water must have crashed it at least 6 times, the Motley would probably self destruct if that happened. The difference in hull quality is remarkable. There is a pretty big price difference to though.

I think that I am going to try and install a motor mount in my MC. Do you mind if I ask you what Motor mount you would recommend (for Leopard 4074) and what epoxy is best for mounting it? And any other tips you can give me. Thanks!

[xlandguy]

West marine epoxy is the best, 2nd is Zpoxy. In my opinion.

[siberianhusky]

Check out the store here and kinetec, just a plain old 540 mount from china, I really like the Etti mount to though.
I don't use the watercooling in the mount, would rather have a non cooled version but they were out of stock when I did the re-build. I don't think they do much on the shaft end of the motor.
I've been using JB Weld to install mounts for a while, never had one come loose. A good number of us are using it for that now.

[xlandguy]

JB Weld, is it waterweld? or regular. It's good stuff, I have some. But may I ask why use it instead of epoxy? what is the advantage to JB Weld over epoxy?

[siberianhusky]

I think it's stronger than regular epoxy. Just standard JBWeld, Great for stuffing tubes as well. Also stays where you put it, just flows enough to smooth the joint.
I've never added extra glass or carbon to hold a mount in with JB, always used to reinforce epoxy.

[Basstronics]

JB Weld is way stronger than Epoxy.

[tlandauer]

JB Weld is way stronger than Epoxy.

I tested them by peeling off left overs from mixing board and you can't break it, almost like metal, WestMarine and Zpoxy are great stuff, however, epoxy is more brittle. It cures extremely hard, but if you twist a thin piece by itself, it will break. I use epoxy to reinforce hulls with FG cloth or mix it with heavy filler. JBWELD can be used alone to secure stuffing tube.
So to me they have different purposes.
just my .02

[xlandguy]

I believe you, I did something like that, put some on a piece of aluminum, stuck to it like mad and was hard as a rock, like metal really. I notice on the package though, JB Weld says 900psi and the Epoxy says 2,000 psi, so obviously these numbers can be manipulated by the companies or something.

[Mjpcarbon]

Gents if one wanted to only upgrade the prop on a MC what prop would be the best choice ?
Although the lure of motor/esc upgrades are attractive I would like to just get the best performance from it in stock form which I think is pretty good from what I have been reading.
I do however plan to use 4s in parallel
I hope there are some carbon fiber trinkets to make for these boats
Thank you

[turbomania]

Grim 42-55 works good, or a X442 Octura... Always keep an eye on temps when changing props...