** New Zelos 48 Brushless Large Scale Cat From Pro Boat**

[IRON-PAWW]

Ok - well I never ended up running 6S. Was damn hot here 40C (104 Farenheit) on the day I planned that run so the club meet was canned. In the meantime I got a few extra 4S batts allowing me to run 8S.

Boat ran pretty well and I got a Max of 80.2 Km/h (49.8 Mph). I got a fair bit of bounce though which I think slowed me a bit. That was with 2 x 4S 5000mah batts each side. Batts on each side hooked up in series then each bank hooked in parallel to make 8S overall. Batts pushed as far forward on the battery trays as I could get them. Water was pretty glassy for that run - this pic is in a different location.

Not all that happy with the water throughput on the under-hull pickup. Although temps were good (no temp gun sorry) I think I'd like to get a little better flow before I start pushing the boat more.

Ran it with a Cnc 4814 prop.

[Rafael_Lopez]

Something is off if you only got 48 on 8s. Drop your strut as low as it will go and try and add some negative angle to lift the transom and calm the bounce. I've never seen speeds that low on 8s. The slowest I've got on 8s was 53 with some very weak packs.

[IRON-PAWW]

Thanks Rafael. Trust me to be the slowest on the planet.

I'll do some adjustments and see where I end up. Wish I had a video, but it did seem unsettled with any real speed. Mainly the bounce issue though. No real heat in any of the components or wiring so I'm pretty happy with that for now. I might just teardrop the under-hull pickup some - just to see if I can get a little more water flow there as well.

It is my first boat of this size and first cat hull boat to speak of. Zonda 41inch just never ran well - noob issues I'm sure. So I will check some vids of the boat running and get myself tuned in to how they run and appear in the water etc etc. If I can settle it and push a bit more of a straight line run I should do better.

got that Octura 646/3 and another Cnc 46mm 3 blade prop that I could try too.

Will look at the strut adjustment as well.

[Rafael_Lopez]

In regards to the under hull pick up, you can get a bit more water through the line if you take a hobby knife and clean the paint off the water inlet. Tear drop the leading edge so the water channels up the inlet easier.

[IRON-PAWW]

Ok well I was able to drop the strut down around 5mm. Seemed it was all the way up. Will test and report back.

But something I noticed. Look at pic 3 - you will see the driveline actually sits lower than the strut itself. Will that have any effect?

And then - what angle should that strut be? Horizontal with the hull I assume? Pic is a bit deceiving, but I got it pretty much horizontal again.

Water pickup: I did clean a little paint out of there - but there wasn't a heck of a lot to clean out. Roger that on the tear drop channel - will do that next.


Before



After


Driveline


Under Hull Pickup

[IRON-PAWW]

So - with the above changes and a sharpened rudder I got 86.1km/h (53.5 mph)........ At least I reached Rafael's 'weak lipo' mark. lol.

Breeze was a tad stiff - and I did the speed runs *with* the wind. But not completely ideal conditions. Nonetheless - the boat wasn't bothered by the chop seemingly at all.

I did feel that with an extra 25-30m of run space I might have tagged a better speed - but I was heading for the rocks as it was.

The bounce the boat had in the first run was gone with the strut adjustments. It was a *Lot* more settled on the water at speed, making me feel better about pushing the speed runs as much as I could.

This is with a cnc 4814 prop and Newish lipos still being run in. All temps just warm after about 5 minutes. So there's headroom yet.

Might try the stock prop next or the 646/3.

[Rafael_Lopez]

Iron Paw, is that how your stuffing tube came out of the box? That's a real nasty bend. The tube is supposed to have a gradual bend in it. I've never seen one like that before. That's not how the vendor bends the tubes.

[IRON-PAWW]

Yes Rafael. That's how it came out of the box. I haven't touched it at all. Can you show me how it's meant to be?

Do you think that is fixable - or needs replacing?

[Rafael_Lopez]

[Rafael_Lopez]

Let me reach out to the vendor and show them your stuffing tube and see what happened there. I can't imagine how that's possible, but I'll do some digging.

[IRON-PAWW]

Yeesh...... Ok I see what you mean. I think we found the 'something off'.

Let me know if you need some more pictures - am happy to post them up or email to you if needed.

Really appreciate your help. Thanks man.

[Rafael_Lopez]

Yes, I knew something didn't sound right with your boat. That bend will definitely kill performance. Did you buy from local hobby shop? If so, head back or reach out to them and tell them your boat has a defect. Show them my picture to prove how it should be. Unfortunately because you are out of the country there is little I can do from my end, but I know the distributor and they are very helpful. Please keep me posted via private message.

[Xtremespeed]

Rafael. Something's not quite right with mine also. I've only ran it twice. The first time I ran it, when I opened the hatch there was what seemed like a little steam inside the hull. There were some drops of water so I figured that's where the steam came from. Ran it the second time and there was a lot of steam this time. Turns out it wasn't steam at all. The teflon liner disintegrated and the flex cable was grimding the edge of the stuffing tube and discolored the sealant around the tube some. Obviously it got real hot. I'm not sure what could have caused this. My only guess is the motor wasn't aligned properly, but with the teflon liner sticking out of the stuffing tube slightly it seems like it would be difficult to tell. It was easy to see after because the liner wasn't there to keep the flex cable centered in the stuffing tube. I greased the flex cable both times and my stuffing tube doesn't look to be bent wrong like IRON-PAWW's. Do I replace the teflon liner, make sure the motor is centered properly and try again, or is there something else at play here I should be looking for? Will the ground edge of the stuffing tube cause further problems? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

[IRON-PAWW]

It might be you have a bad collet. Connect the flex into it and tighten some. Slowly spin the prop with your hand. As you spin, watch the flex very closely right where it exits the collet. There should be *zero* wobble - or sideways movement there. If you do have wobble there then it's a problem. Sometimes bad collets can cause it.

Or if you're getting slippage at the collet when you run then the flex will heat red hot quicksmart and could melt the teflon. Collet has to be nice & tight.

Just ideas to check for.

[Xtremespeed]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look at the collet better this evening. I'm positive it wasn't slipping but maybe there is some wobble I missed. I don't think so, but it's definitely worth another look.