ProBoat HyperSport 48 Gas Mono - Prep for Racing

[Darin Jordan]

I know this isn't FE, but I thought maybe a person or two out there might be interesting in seeing someone attempt to race-prep the ProBoat HyperSport 48.

I plan on racing this this season, either in G1-Mono or Offshore, if District 8 offers these, or in the Open class, which I know they do.

I'm NOT figuring on this being a front-running, competitive package, but I want to get some stick time with a Gas boat, and I want to see just how far something like this can be pushed. It's also always fun to prove people wrong who enter these endevours with certain biases and tell you that it "can't be done"... or that it'll "never work"....

Hang onto your shirts guys! This will be a longer term project, but by the time I'm done with this, it'll have a moded Zen or RCMK motor in it, and we'll find out just how hard you can push this hull!

First step, get it unpackaged!

Boat comes nicely packaged in a BIG box! Includes a decent stand that needs to be glued together if you don't want it to be coming apart all the time.

Also comes complete with a DX3S Spektrum system and MR3000 RX. BING-BING!! Won't be needing this TX for now, so I'll leave it package up.

[Darin Jordan]

Here are a few more initial shots....

Hull quality is pretty nice, especially for a RTR hull. Layout is nice as well. Some features include a metal geared heavy steering servo with aluminum arm, a drop-in sealed radio box, and really decent quality hardware. Hardware is very heavy-duty on this one. An easily accessible Zen G260PUM motor motivates this package. Cannister muffler and side exist exhaust are questionable to me, but we'll give it a whirl before we likely swap that stuff out with a tuned pipe, rear-exit setup.

[Darin Jordan]

Having run the Production Sample of this boat during the 2009 NAMBA Nationals, one thing I noticed, that hasn't been changed for Production, was the rather whimpy steering rod. If you don't have precise steering, then you can't drive precisely, so this is the first upgrade.

I cut a piece of 4-40 steering rod to length and soldered on a second threaded end. Just for good measure, I epoxied a piece of carbon fiber rod over the outside. This thing isn't flexing again! Keep in mind, that any give you take out of something, means the loads that thing was absorbing will be transfered upstream. In this case, the servo will take the extra load, as will it's mount. I need to look up the specs, but I believe this is only a 50 or 60 oz-in servo in there. This will get replaced with a new, MUCH higher oz-in servo as soon as I get one here. It's a big, heavy boat, and there is no use in taking chances or waiting for a lighter component to fail.

I decided to use some Duratrax heavy duty ball-style rode ends for this linkage, so I drilled and tapped the aluminum steering arms for 4-40 threads so I can bolt on the new linkage.

Also found a new use for my old Tamiya T-Wrench! Fits the stock little nuts on the linkage mounting perfectly...

(Also just noticed that in the last picture, the rod-end is mounted to the bottom of the servo arm, rather than on top... Umph! :D )

[Jeepers]

Cool! Darin,

I would give that exhaust a whirl as well...... right into the trash can!

[Darin Jordan]

Cool! Darin,

I would give that exhaust a whirl as well...... right into the trash can!

Ha-Ha... Yah.. I'm already looking into a tuned pipe and header assembly... Need to save up the $200.00 or so it'll take to get it here.

I'm working on mounting some trim-tabs and turn fins now. I'll have an update with pics shortly.

[Rumdog]

Why is it that the gassers use that nice cone with a set screw in front of the strut to keep from losing a shft but we FE'ers do not? I understand that the flex winds up under acc. This is why we leave a gap between the drive dog and strut, soooo how is it that gassers do not have the same problem????

[Bill-SOCAL]

There are two kinds of flex drives, one that uses a collet and what is called a "square drive". FE uses mostly the collet type where you tighten down on a collet at the motor to retain the shaft.

In a square drive the font of the cable is square and floats in a square fitting at the motor end. It can move fore and aft a bit, hence no worries about wind up. At the rear there is a short shaft with the prop and a fitting in front of the skeg with the cone you see. The flex is soldered into the forward end of the cone and the set screws tighten on the prop soft. You undo the set screws to release the flex from the shaft and to remove the flex to lube it.

Some guys swear by the square drive others by the collet. Both work fine when properly installed.

[Rumdog]

ahhhh, thank you sir! I have zero experience with gassers but I would like to do one in the future. I like the looks of this guy for a big "play" boat.

[Darin Jordan]

The odd thing about the ProBoat setup, and they do this on their smaller FE boats as well, is that the motor has a standard coupler on it that tightens down on the flex. The cable ends at the cone in front of the strut. The code attaches to the stub shaft via a set screw.

I'll take a breakdown picture of this to post here. It's a silly system, because you have to remove the strut itself to get the cable out to lube it... losing your strut settings.

I may update this to a more standard system later, but we'll see how this one holds up first. I have already made adapters to adapt standards 1/4" ID props to the 5mm stub shaft...

For future offerings, I'm working to convince ProBoat that it would be better for the US market to use 3/16" and 1/4" stub-shaft sizes... We'll have to see if I'm getting through.

[Bill-SOCAL]

That is weird!!

[Darin Jordan]

HyperSport 48 Strut Assembly

That is weird!!

Here is what the strut looks like broken down....

[Darin Jordan]

In prepping to fit the trim tabs, I located them on the hull and marked the holes. On the right side, I had to trim the tab bracket to clear the rudder mount. The made it necessary to locate a new hole on the bracket as well.

The transom on the HS48 ihas a THICK plywood backing, which is great, but it doesn't extend quite far enough to mount the outter trim tab holes, so I will need to make a filler piece to glue into the hull. We'll be plugging the drain hole in the process. Turkey basters work just fine for getting any water out...

[Darin Jordan]

To make the filler pieces for the transom, I made a template using aluminum foil pressed into the area to get the outline. I then made plywood pieces to match. Fit turned out pretty good. I epoxied them in place with a generous amount of thick epoxy and let dry. Once they were firmly in place, I finished drilling up the transom with 1/4" holes to hold the 8-32" T-Nuts.

[Darin Jordan]

Trim Tabs fully mounted with 8-32 Stainless hardware. I angle cut the inside of each to provide a little more clearance in front of the prop. They are solid and ready to go to work.

Also seen here is the new steering linkage mounted. Much more solid than the stock setup. I have a new Spektrum digital steering servo on the way that has 270+ oz/in of torque (Spektrum A6030), which should help maintain control of this big craft.

Next step will be to figure out how to mount a set of turn fins... at least on the right side. Hmmmmm.....

[Jeepers]

Looks Good!!!