New Hobby King Cat (Surge Crusher)

[NOZ69R]

hope this will be a good boat. im waiting for mine on the mail and will post up pics and specs of the electronics it has.

Hope so, I just put an order in for one too.

Cheers

[nomobux]

It really suits my budget too, I'm glad I found this thread as before I spend my lousy allowance I get from my "Minister for War, Peace & Finances" I wanted to get some feedback on how it goes.

Although I'm not intending to race competively more just a bunch of mates having fun, I still want something half decent and I know you only get what you pay for.

Cheers

Half decent may be better than a EKOS !!!

[electric]

Mine has finally arrived. Going to pick it up at the Post Office this afternoon. I will take some pics and then hook up a data logger to it and take it out for a run with Lipo's and see what it does out of the box.

[Karfrik]

Wuhuuuuuu!!!!.......Al

[Basstronics]

Mine has finally arrived. Going to pick it up at the Post Office this afternoon. I will take some pics and then hook up a data logger to it and take it out for a run with Lipo's and see what it does out of the box.

Nice.

I wasnt able to order mine, pesky bills...

Hopefully end of the month I can.

[electric]

I got the boat and just had enough time to open it and look it over. Here are my first impressions:
1. It almost looks like it is made of plastic, but then you look inside it is glass but has a really strong smell.
2. The finish is poor with many blemishes
3. The boat is kinda transparent and the color looks a little uneven because of that.
4. Check out the drive shaft, it is just plastic tubing underneath
5. Actually had a small manual and extra parts!
6. Funny mount on back, you have that screw sticking up as a grab handle to the left of the hatch and the other item screws down to hold the hatch.
7. Looks like you get about 138 dollars worth of boat.

Which is to say, hey if it runs it can still be alot a fun for not much money. This was purchased for my son and I think it will be perfect for that. Here are some pics. Check out the box it came in. Scary, shocked that it made it in one piece. If you are thinking you are getting something like a UL1 or SV there is no comparison.

More to come tomorrow, I will put the fins on and test it in the tube for leaks and then possibly Friday or Saturday run it with the logger on.

[electric]

more pics

[electric]

Last pics for the night. I will add more tomorrow...good night.

[vasy]

What drive shaft is it, 4mm?

[NOZ69R]

Thanks electric, great first impressions.

I was ordering mine via my local hobby store which today was having trouble so I cancelled.

So now I'll wait for your report on how it runs before I make up my mind.

The price really grabbed me....but like the old saying "You get what you pay for"

Cheers

[hpipro4]

boat looks good...cant wait to see how it performs! thnx for the awesome pics electric

wow they charged soo much on shipping and doesnt look like they do a good job packaging...haha

[Basstronics]

If you could, get us a few pics of the motor.

It was believed to be one of the new leopard hobbies motor?

Sounds like the quality is in line with the 25" Prince Head of the River type hulls. The description could be the same. I reinforced with CF.

[electric]

Re-read what I wrote last night(was pretty tired when I wrote it up), but still feel it is pretty accurate assesment. I guess you could say from two feet away it looks like a pretty good boat? I noticed it still looks pretty good in the pictures. Really, for 138 bucks, you get a basic boat, servo, esc, brushless motor, hardware and stand. Still pretty impressive. Now if it just melts down on the first run, not so good a deal. Of course, there is shipping so it is more like 180's. I will get more pics of the motor and do some initial bench testing. Not sure what size the shaft is? How would I measure that? I can take an SV shaft and see how it fits in there...

On the packaging. Look at the picture. They took the original box and turned it inside out and made it the internal box, and then put a stronger box around that. The deal is there was no gap between the two boxes and almost NO stuffing. I was really surprised it came in one piece.

[electric]

Finished setting up the boat for testing tomorrow. The first thing I am going to do is attempt to describe the drive shaft assembly. Strangest thing I have seen in a while. Here are the facts:
1. The drive shaft has to be pushed out toward the motor not pulled out.
2. There is a collet, but it has a hex to screw it to the motor shaft, but the metal drive shaft has a square end and it freefloats inside the collet.
3. To grease the shaft you will have to take off the entire prop assembly, remove the motor and slide it out foward.
4. The good news (looking for the positive) is it was already greased and it does appear to work quite smoothly.
5. Not sure how much grease you would need anyway since it is entirely plastic shaft underneath.
6. I took a picture of the shaft besides and SV shaft (bottom) and a larger (can't remember the diameter 3/16 I think) shaft above.
7. The motor did "sound" really smooth and nice and everything armed properly.

[electric]

Here is diagram showing the drive shaft has to be pushed foward. By the way the instruction manual is very clear and well done. There are some close ups of the motor as well. Thought I would show you the size difference compared to a UL-1. Also notice the "Shine" coming off of the UL-1 in comparison. The Surge has a dull finish. I also should mention that I float tested it and there were NO leaks.

[electric]

Given there is no rain. Tomorrow I will have the data. Speed, Temps, amps..etc...
The batteries don't fit all that great, but the turnigy's have that issue in most boats. Also, the rudder set up will need some work. It will turn right, but not much to the left. The push rod is binding and will need some work, but ran out of time tonight. Tomorrow I will be sure and only go right, I think I have enough left to counter any torque efffects.

[hpipro4]

hey electric which turnigy lipo are you running?

[electric]

hey electric which turnigy lipo are you running?

2s, 40c, 5000mah. The problem with these batt's is the huge wires come out the side of the lipo and this causes you to need more width. Not the end of the world, but just creates some hassles sometimes.

[sailr]

You take the strut off and pull it out the back!

Finished setting up the boat for testing tomorrow. The first thing I am going to do is attempt to describe the drive shaft assembly. Strangest thing I have seen in a while. Here are the facts:
1. The drive shaft has to be pushed out toward the motor not pulled out.
2. There is a collet, but it has a hex to screw it to the motor shaft, but the metal drive shaft has a square end and it freefloats inside the collet.
3. To grease the shaft you will have to take off the entire prop assembly, remove the motor and slide it out foward.
4. The good news (looking for the positive) is it was already greased and it does appear to work quite smoothly.
5. Not sure how much grease you would need anyway since it is entirely plastic shaft underneath.
6. I took a picture of the shaft besides and SV shaft (bottom) and a larger (can't remember the diameter 3/16 I think) shaft above.
7. The motor did "sound" really smooth and nice and everything armed properly.

[electric]

You take the strut off and pull it out the back!

Chuckle. I dare you too!! What prevents this from happening is there is groove cut in the shaft that prevents it from going through the strut out the back!!!! The reason for this is the shaft at the motor side is not held in by anything. It is a square shaft "floating" inside the collet. Told you it was weird...

Believe me, I pulled on it hard and thought..hmmm. Then looked at the directions and went out the other way. Once I saw what they had done to the shaft and how it all mounts in there, I was amazed.

I have dealt with two piece shafts before, but never anything strange as this. Not sure why they keep trying to invent new ways to do this... Someone send them shaft assembly..

[sailr]

Right, it will not go through the strut. You sure the flexshaft isn't square on both ends? One end slips into the coupler, the other end slips into a captive prop shaft. If you will pull the strut, you should be able to pull the prop shaft away from the flexshaft and then remove the flexshaft. How do I know? I had one of these same boats about two years ago.

What you describe sounds really strange!

[ray schrauwen]

This is where they all come from, these boats that is...

Here is an upgrade version....

http://www.joysway-hobby.com/Product_show.asp?proid=480

Should never show me a box that it came in.....lol....

[electric]

Right, it will not go through the strut. You sure the flexshaft isn't square on both ends? One end slips into the coupler, the other end slips into a captive prop shaft. If you will pull the strut, you should be able to pull the prop shaft away from the flexshaft and then remove the flexshaft. How do I know? I had one of these same boats about two years ago.

What you describe sounds really strange!

It is. I had a boat once that has what you are thinking of. This one is very different from that. I first thought it was two piece deal with a square shaft at the strut end going in to a seperate square solid shaft in the strut. This one is not that way. The really wild thing is the work they had to do to mill this slight reduction in the shaft to keep the shaft from falling out of the rear strut of the boat since it is not secured at all going into the collet. I guess they figured they would "solve" the two piece shaft issue, but what they created is just odd.

The bummer is, if you want to make it "standard" will will have to not only get a new shaft, you will also have to purchase a collet.

[ray schrauwen]

Just replace it, sounds nasty....

[NOZ69R]

This is where they all come from, these boats that is...

Here is an upgrade version....

http://www.joysway-hobby.com/Product_show.asp?proid=480

Should never show me a box that it came in.....lol....

Does't that look SUPER and crazy fast.

Cheers

[electric]

Could not get to the pond this afternoon. I should be able to run it tomorrow and get some data on the boat.

[sailr]

The strange thing is that the instructions you showed that discusses lubricating the shaft tells you to do just what I said, remove the strut! Oh well.

I have 5 of their boats. They ALL work this way. I have had two of the Surge Crusher boats. They work the same way. I have replacement flexshafts. They are square on both ends. one end slips into the coupler at the motor end and the other end slips into the captive prop shaft. By removing the strut, you can pull the cable out.

It is. I had a boat once that has what you are thinking of. This one is very different from that. I first thought it was two piece deal with a square shaft at the strut end going in to a seperate square solid shaft in the strut. This one is not that way. The really wild thing is the work they had to do to mill this slight reduction in the shaft to keep the shaft from falling out of the rear strut of the boat since it is not secured at all going into the collet. I guess they figured they would "solve" the two piece shaft issue, but what they created is just odd.

The bummer is, if you want to make it "standard" will will have to not only get a new shaft, you will also have to purchase a collet.

[sailr]

The shaft is 5mm as I recall which is .1968". To convert to a 3/16" (.1875") you would need to shim the inside of the strut with something to make up the difference. If you could buy 5mm OD tubing it might work out OK but I haven't found a good source for it.

Bottom line, run it like it is. It works OK.

[vasy]

The strange thing is that the instructions you showed that discusses lubricating the shaft tells you to do just what I said, remove the strut! Oh well.

I have 5 of their boats. They ALL work this way. I have had two of the Surge Crusher boats. They work the same way. I have replacement flexshafts. They are square on both ends. one end slips into the coupler at the motor end and the other end slips into the captive prop shaft. By removing the strut, you can pull the cable out.

I have 3 of their boats and 2 use this square system with one square end that pulls out easy that way sailr says, making a lube job a super easy. But the shaft ends are soldered in. Maybe the changed something on this boat, but the instructions do show the lube done with 1 screw?

[electric]

Here is the data... I must say the boat ran great. It handled great around the turns and was very stable wide open. Very impressed. I do have some kind of water leak that I have to find. I tested the hull and it was fine, so it must be in the cooling. The temps looked and felt good, but I did not publish them because of the short run time. I expect them to be fine. 37mph out of the box with a stock set up. Not Bad. I was running 4s1p 40c 5000mah Turnigy batts

On the debated shaft issue. Look at the picture that comes with the boat, it specifcally states to push it through to the motor(step2). I took a picture of it. See that groove in the shaft. that prevents the shaft from comming out the back of the strut. I just thought about it some more. You could remove the prop, drivedog and the strut itself and then probably pull it out the back...

Once I get the leak fixed (almost fried my datalogger) I will take it out for a long run for more data and heat testing