Miss Geico-What Works For Me

[airman66285]

There has been a ton of information listed here on OSE regarding Proboat's Miss Geico. I wanted to take the time to show what I have done with my set up so that other Miss Geico owners might be able to gain some possible insight. To preface things a bit, I am a sport user, not a racer. I love speed, but not at the price of small scale nuclear explosions. Reliability and enjoyment are of paramount importance when it comes to my FE rigs. Out of the box, Proboat's Miss Geico is a fantastic boat in terms of build quality, performance and ease of operability. Having said that, some things are left to be desired. Namely, the porpoising. By trial and error, I have found that the porpoising is caused by the stock in-line rudder configuration and nothing else. I tried multiple props, COG adjustments, battery placement and what I found was that an offset rudder configuration eliminates the porpoising 100%. I ordered the Kintec Racing offset bracket and it works, except that it introduces a significant amount of drag which I found to be unacceptable. I ended up altering the Kintec design by removing the bottom portion of the bracket as shown in the photo below. This kept the bracket out of the water line and eliminated the drag. I also installed an aftermarket rudder which is 4" in length versus the stock 3.5" rudder. This change brough back the amazing handling that was somewhat lost when I originally offset the rudder in the first place. The next modification I did was to remove the stock power system. Now don't get wrong, the stock PB 1500 motor and ESC are damn near invinceable at 4S but I wanted more speed without having to tweak the heck out of the stock components. This means I didn't want to blueprint the hull. After consulting with Steve at OSE, I chose the Leopard 4074 2000kV motor and Hobbywing Seaking 180 V2 ESC. This duo, combined with a S/B/P Octura x642 prop nets me speeds in the mid-fifties every run. The temps are luke warm at most and that is considering the fact that I have 5.5mm bullet connectors on everything. I am also not using the BEC and have opted to use a 1600mAH NiMH Rx pack instead. My batteries are (2) Zippy Flightmax 5000mAH 2S 40C packs for a total system power of 4S (14.8v). Based on past perfomance baselines, I decided to stick with my trusty Tactic 2.4GHZ Tx/Rx combo because I loathe antennae's. Differrent strokes for different folks there. This system set-up lets me run in the mid-fifties reliably and safely every time I go out and I always come back with a huge smile on my face because I didn't sink the boat or cause any explosions. Thank you to all of you who have posted here because you have given me a lot of valuable information and further enhanced my love of this incredible pastime!

[johnf]

Nice write up! Few questions..

Did the motor drop in with the stock mount? Any clearance issues with the sub hatch?
What make hatch lock is that? Looks nice.

Also, I like the grease splatter shield you made.

[airman66285]

Nice write up! Few questions..

Did the motor drop in with the stock mount? Any clearance issues with the sub hatch?
What make hatch lock is that? Looks nice.

Also, I like the grease splatter shield you made.

The Leopard 4074 motor bolts up perfectly to the stock MG motor mount. I did remove the blue anodizing so that may have thrown you for a loop. There are no clearance issues at all with the larger motor as long as you route the wires along the side of the can and not on top of it. The motor has multiple mounting configuation holes on the end bell. I made the hatch lock custom with a SS 8/32 machine screw and a threaded T-nut. I removed the barbs from the T-nut and used JB Weld to attach it to the inside of the hull. I then used 2 o-ring seals on the screw itself and just finger tighten it. It simply works fabulous and I no longer need to tape the canopy down.

[johnf]

Nice work bud. It must have been the color of the motor mount throwin me off like you said.

[airman66285]

Nice work bud. It must have been the color of the motor mount throwin me off like you said.

If you think this boat is a blast on stock power, wait until you go full throttle with the Leopard - I found out real quick that I needed a bigger lake!

[johnf]

Yeah I can imagine. I have a vac-u-pickle that runs in the 50s. The geico would be real fun at that speed!

[Boomer]

Your off set bracket design is the best I've seen. I mentioned in one of my recent posts after testing the Kintec racing rudder off set kit, that I was correclty concerned about the potential for the lower portion of it creating drag. It does.

I really like your design over either the Kintec or using the 2 Octura spaces set up.
The off set is the key to having a smooth ride on these boats. I am wondering if 120A Turnigy ESC would work with this combo..

Thanks for the post. Always good to have good documentation
Boomer

[airman66285]

L

Your off set bracket design is the best I've seen. I mentioned in one of my recent posts after testing the Kintec racing rudder off set kit, that I was correclty concerned about the potential for the lower portion of it creating drag. It does.

I really like your design over either the Kintec or using the 2 Octura spaces set up.
The off set is the key to having a smooth ride on these boats. I am wondering if 120A Turnigy ESC would work with this combo..

Thanks for the post. Always good to have good documentation
Boomer

I would not use the 120A ESC with the 2000kv Leopard. I pull 100 amps with this set up so it is nice to have headroom. My motto is, "over engineer, under utilize".

[teamchrome]

Nice info.. Thanks.
PM sent.

[bigpapa]

do you have a bracket set up such as your 4 sale ?????????

[johnf]

Todd, just modify your kintec bracket. That's what he did. Looks good!

[bigpapa]

john send me sum pics of yours

[johnf]

Mine? I still have the stock rudder setup.

[bigpapa]

thought u modified the kintec

[bigpapa]

oh sorry read it wrong

[teamchrome]

That answers my question on the rudder set-up.

[ron1950]

a very cheep and easy offset is the octura stand offs....about 10 dollars

[tiqueman]

Nice write up Airman. Im going to pick up my Geico in about 3 hours. I ordered the Octura pieces for mine on Monday.. I suspect they will be here today as well. Im gunna be busy tonight!

[johnf]

Scott, you are gonna love this boat! Incredibly fun for the money!

[tiqueman]

Thats what Im thinking. I drove Rons while he was in town, hes done the offset mod to his. What a great boat. I didnt need it.. but I fell in love w/ it. Now I have 8 cats in my collection...

I think Im going to run this one in the monthly club races

[johnf]

And make a nice hatch for it

[tman52804]

I'm sure Kintec will make a design change once they get wind of the drag with the lower portion of the bracket. Not a big deal to remove anyway. It is a very nice mounting system, and much better than the octura standoffs because you can utilize a plastic shear bolt. The octura standoffs don't allow for a shear bolt without using an easy out.

[Boomer]

Airman
Would you be so kind as to post a picture from the other side of your bracket? I'd like to see how you made it, or how much of the Kintec bracket you removed. I am ready to cut!
Thank you
Boomer

[airman66285]

I'm sure Kintec will make a design change once they get wind of the drag with the lower portion of the bracket. Not a big deal to remove anyway. It is a very nice mounting system, and much better than the octura standoffs because you can utilize a plastic shear bolt. The octura standoffs don't allow for a shear bolt without using an easy out.

The Octura offset brackets still caused too much drag for me. Yes, they are cylindrical in profile (versus the square profile of the Kintec) but they are still in the flow line and cause drag. The Kintec bracket is machined from very hard aluminum - probably 6061 T6 aircraft grade because it was a bitch to grind through with my Dremel.

[airman66285]

Airman
Would you be so kind as to post a picture from the other side of your bracket? I'd like to see how you made it, or how much of the Kintec bracket you removed. I am ready to cut!
Thank you
Boomer

Is this what you were looking for? If not, I could whip up a 3D rendering in AutoCAD really quick as well...

[jac4412]

How long are your run times

[airman66285]

How long are your run times

My run times with this set-up are around 3 minutes at full throttle. This might be an issue for some operators but I have 10 pairs of battery packs for this boat so I get extended run time that way instead.

[airman66285]

Airman
Would you be so kind as to post a picture from the other side of your bracket? I'd like to see how you made it, or how much of the Kintec bracket you removed. I am ready to cut!
Thank you
Boomer

Boomer,

This will probably help you more. The entire bracket is shown as received from Kintec. The red portion is the portion that needs to be removed to eliminate drag and the blue portion is the part that might need to be removed or altered depending on your rudder configuration. I ended up removing the blue portion as well to facilitate the installation of my new 4" rudder blade and hinge.

I hope this clarifies things a bit!

[Diesel6401]

Boomer,

This will probably help you more. The entire bracket is shown as received from Kintec. The red portion is the portion that needs to be removed to eliminate drag and the blue portion is the part that might need to be removed or altered depending on your rudder configuration. I ended up removing the blue portion as well to facilitate the installation of my new 4" rudder blade and hinge.

I hope this clarifies things a bit!

Did strength suffer with the red part being removed?

[Boomer]

Airman
That is just what I needed! Your drawing is perfect. It seems Kintec may have miss drilled one of the holes in the bracket I received, as my rudder is on angle now. I will send him a picture and share with him what we all have concluded about the shape of his bracket.
Thank you
Boomer