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

[gfmarlin88]

I just recieved my 48 and notice the flex shaft has a 1/4 gap between prop mount and strut. My voracity is able to be pushed directly against it with the nylon washer but with the 48 the washer isnt doing a thing with that large of gap. Any input on this would be appreciated

[Xtremespeed]

You need to have about 3mm space to allow the flex shaft to tighten when running. You need this on your other boats as well or it could break the flex shaft.

[Rafael_Lopez]

The 2 Teflon washers are there as a safeguard. The gap between the washers and the drive dog will not harm anything. You don't want the drive dog pressed against the washers because, although they are Teflon, it still generates unnecessary friction. Friction equals to lost power, no matter how you look at it. The gap is there on purpose.

If your Voracity drive God is pushed against the washers, put a gap between them, equal to the thickness of the flex cable.

[Keagan-Z06]

I always give between 3-4mm gap at that teflon and drive dog. You can tell if its too close as it may have burn marks on them. Well that's how I see it anyway.

[IRON-PAWW]

All right - the Zelos 36 thread is thrumming while this one is quiet. That will never do.

Ran the Zelos 48 this morning after not being able to for weeks. Got in 2 really good runs. Middle of winter here so I had mist rising off the lake and all. Maybe around 5 degrees C (41F) which is cold fur us!

Got 93.3kmh (58mph) so I'm climbing back up to where I was with the previous hulls. I think that old 48mm 2 blader I was using had gone out of true somehow as I was getting propwalk and skittish behaviour with it, after previously doing well with it. The next 48mm I got was just too cheap and nasty - in hindsight. Too nasty for me to prep properly for use - put it that way.

This time I ran OSE's own 48mm 3-blade CNC prop. Carefully sharpened the blades on that all the way to the hub. Spindle of my prop balancer has vanished though - so it wasn't balanced. But I made those blades pretty razor sharp.

Lake was glass - so not exactly ideal for this boat I've come to find - should have taken my FE30 as well, that would have slammed. So because of that - I think - I got straight up and down bounce during my speed passes. I could still hold the trigger though despite that bounce - it wasn't anything *too* bad - and the boat would just keep powering through without the bounce getting worse. I did try chopping the lake a bit first with my own wake - then turning and powering through my own waves. It might have helped.....

Few things I've done since the last outing.

New prop - sharpened as above.
Sharpened the strut's leading edge along as much of it as I could. Spent time on it and am pretty happy with the results.
Filed out the strut's adjustment holes a little, which got me a mm or two's more adjustment. I ran it at full downward extension.
Worked on the already-sharpened rudder a little more.

I'd say less punch out of the hole with this prop - though it's still impressive. Cavitation on startup and coming out of tight & slow corners was plain to see and hear. Hit midrange speeds though and there's more bang on the trigger - I guess because the prop is getting better bite. So If I kept the speeds up the boat had awesome bang out of the corners and good trigger response. With a little larger lake I'm pretty sure that top speed figure could edge higher toward 60 with more space to extend the speed passes.

Temps: The highest temp I measured was 140 on the motor endbell you can't get into (closest the ESC). I noticed that getting hot on the previous boat as well. Mind you - this is after two good 5-minute runs where I put the boat though it's paces. Caps were 120. ESC heatsink 110. Motor around 109. Took me maybe a minute to get the hatch off after the runs and put the heat gun on it. Batts were only warm.

Has anyone else noticed that endbell getting hot?

Interesting note. The Turnigy Graphenes powered through the first run with no cutouts - remember I was having trouble with cutouts..... Another brand I get locally called Airstrike gave me a cutout after about a minute, but then powered through the rest of the run without issue. Graphenes have about 10 runs on them and the Airstrikes about 20. Stupid packaging the Graphenes come in made me laugh........ Some people do report the performance of Graphenes dropping off after they've had them a while - so I'll see if I get the same thing. I have some SMC's on the way, so it'll be interesting to see how those perform. SPC have quit shipping internationally *sigh*.

Last thing I'll say is that I got air during this run at one point, but the boat just lifted up on the level....... and came back down on the level. I run 4 batteries - and I overhang the forward ones about an inch or a little more off the end of the battery trays, then the rearward ones leave maybe 1_1/2 inches of empty mounting tray at the rear. Seems that with my setup, that placement results in pretty good balance - But I also have a little extra weight up front in the sponson tips and tunnel nose with the epoxy I put there. Anyway - looked awesome.

So I think if you're struggling with this boat like I was/am - keep at it. There is good speed in it, and good lord is it fun to drive! As soon as I put the boat on the water today and slammed it out of the hole I could see straight away it had more bang. 60 is about all I want in truth - damn fast enough for me right now.

You Zelos 36 Lads can sonic boom if you really want to - Haaaaaaaaa!

I'm currently organising some ABC props to run with this boat so hopefully we'll see what nefarious things might happen with those.

[Chado2448]

Took the zelos out and had a little accident and cracked the hull from sponson to sponson around the inside. Anyone know where to get a replacement hull? There doesn't seem to be any around. Or even a suggestion on a different hull to run the motor/esc combo in.

[IRON-PAWW]

How bad is it? Do you have some photos?

First I'd try warranty with where you bought it. It's worth at least asking. Otherwise Horizon Hobbies sells the replacement hulls. I strengthened my current hull this time around I admit.

Most proboat suppliers should be able to order you in the hull as a spare part too actually.

Sorry to hear it.

[Chado2448]

The initial damage wasn't that bad. However upon further inspection both sponsons have spider cracks up both of them. Horizon, pro boat and every online hobby shop all are out of stock until the end of August. So I was thinking about picking up a carbon zonda hull and and running the zelos electronics in it. PAWW I see that you have a zonda, how do you like it and do you think the zelos power team would run well in it?

[Keagan-Z06]

I too want a Zonda. I understand it needs heavy reinforcing!

[IRON-PAWW]

My Zonda hull is the original unstrengthened version which also has the motors a little further forward. The layup & build quality in mine was several levels below what you see with the Zelos. Mine also did not turn at *all* with any sort of speed. I'm not sure how the current versions run but I found mine a bit frustrating. Good straight line speed though for sure. Mine is currently stripped bare & in the middle of a rebuild though.

Keep in mind the Zonda is built as a twin drive too. Look on Keith Bradley forums for Fantasm builds. The Fantasm is almost the exact same hull but with minor differences. You may find a single motor build.

I think you might have trouble fitting that 56x87mm Zelos motor down in the sponsons for twin drive. Whether you could fit it centrally for single drive I really don't know.

Expensive - but Kbb has some cat hulls that might be better suited.

Just my 2c.....

[Jesse Flovin]

Got glass!

https://youtu.be/3oVoP2bh7IQ

[Jesse Flovin]

Rougher water, what would u call that? 2-4" chop

https://youtu.be/cGRkBe72Bcg

[Jesse Flovin]

Sub, & flip!

https://youtu.be/2APTM8BluCU

[kfxguy]

Got glass!

https://youtu.be/3oVoP2bh7IQ

Awesome!

[Keagan-Z06]

Jesse, looked like fun! The 48 really seems to handle the chop well, were you running 8s?