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Hi all. Newb to the RC boating world here. Is there a drop in brushless combo that I can replace the brushed system with? Currently not interested in doing a bunch of mods just want to reap the benefits of brushless efficiency and hopefully lower temps. I’ve been through 3 brushed motors. Thanks.
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@GMMWicked, I had the same problem with my son's Pro Boat Stealthwake. He got it for Christmas 2018 and by mid-summer 2019 we had burned up 2 550 brushed motors. And we couldn't even run it until the lakes thawed in April! We tried a few different setups and finally found a good combination. We didn't change anything on the boat except for the motor and ESC, and the coupler to the prop shaft. I spent about $70 total for the motor, ESC and coupler. I bought a Turnigy 90 amp marine brushless ESC and Surpass Hobby 3660 2600KV brushless motor from Hobbyking. Because the motor has a 5mm diameter shaft, I had to buy a new coupler to connect the 5mm dia. motor shaft to the 3mm dia. prop shaft. We only run it with a 2S LiPo and the 6-cell NiMh battery it came with and it runs great. With the LiPo we got it to run about 10mph faster. It runs almost 15 minutes and both the ESC and motor are only slightly warm. We were able to use the stock cooling setup, we just had to get some more tubing to plumb the ESC into the loop.
Here's the final upgrade video: https://youtu.be/YzZffRRFp10 (I updated the video and this link after I originally posted here).
Have you run this setup in 3s?
Thanks
@Luis325, no we have not tried a 3s. The motor and ESC could handle it easily, but we don't have any 3S batteries yet. It would be interesting to see though!
Over the winter of 2019/2020 we made some further upgrades. We bought some parts from OSE including trim tabs (ose-80077), a water cooling outlet (ose-80895) and we even tried a larger prop. We got a little more speed out of the prop, but it came off mid-run so we don't know how it worked long-term. Even with some creative moving of parts, the shaft was too short to get enough threads showing at the end of the prop for the nut to really hold properly.
Here's the link to the video about the upgrades: https://youtu.be/G3atSFNJXuA with all the details about the parts in the description area.
Here's the link to the video with the first runs post-upgrades: https://youtu.be/p_EhwPE7B2Y (the Stealthwake portion starts at about 1:50)
Has anyone replaced their solid drive shaft with a flex drive shaft?
YesQuote:
Originally Posted by Swamprat1977
https://forums.offshoreelectrics.com...ion&highlight=
Luis325, we did run a 3S in the Stealthwake with the stock rigid shaft drive in late 2020. However, before that we had put a new rudder on from OSE (Rudder Assembly with water pickup for 650mm to 900mm boat ose-83260). I don't think it would have been manageable on 3S without the new rudder. It was incredibly fast and ran great for a while until it flipped over. First time we ever got the Stealthwake upside down.Quote:
Originally Posted by Luis325
We actually upgraded just recently to a flex shaft drive and found out that the bushing in the stock stuffing tube had been worn pretty bad and was an oval. Don't know if that was from the 3S or just from running it so often.
@Swamprat1977, I just completed the flex drive conversion in my son's Stealthwake. I got my inspiration from fweasel's and arrover's threads about their successful conversions. I didn't post the details of the conversion on the forums, but I have details on my website with links to all of the videos on the various upgrades we did including a new rudder, trim tabs, various improvements and most recently, the conversion to a flex shaft drive using a Speedmaster Strut.Quote:
Originally Posted by Swamprat1977
Here's the website: http://myplace.frontier.com/~sv_design/s_wake.html and the video of the flex drive conversion.
Here's a picture of the finished upgradesAttachment 171303
I posted this in another thread about the Stealthwake and wanted to update this thread as well since I commented on our Stealthwake upgrade.
Before the lakes froze over in 2020, we had only managed one run of the Stealthwake with the flex shaft and strut. The spring of 2021 found us testing different props and setups to get the Stealthwake to run flat and fast and not end up upside-down so often. In 2 years with the brushless system, it was belly-up 2 times with the stock rigid driveshaft with a -6 degree angle whereas with the flex/strut system it's upside down at least once every run! We moved the trim tabs closer to the the keel, added new turn fins, made the strut adjustable +/-2 degrees and it was still a wild ride compared to the same setup with the stock drive shaft. Apparently with the prop shaft level, this boat likes the CoG to be almost 33%. It wasn't until I shoved the battery into the bow did I get the boat to handle better. The balance point moved about 1 inch forward but it meant moving the battery from the battery tray to a point where it was almost behind the motor.
Maybe it was just us, but I've seen others do a similar upgrade with fewer issues. I've figured out that if I add 7oz of weight to the front of the bow, I can keep the battery in the battery tray and keep the CoG around 32%. The thought of adding weight is frustrating but we're testing it out to see what happens.