Aquacraft UL1 motor upgrade

[martin]

Been looking at the Aquacraft UL1, I also have a spare Leopard 4074/ 2200kv motor & a 125amp Hobby wing esc. Would this motor be a good upgrade in the UL1 or is the Leopard motor to much for this hull. I would be running it on 4s lipos or would it not be much of an improvment on the origanal UL1 motor. And what speed can you expect on a stock UL1 on 4s & how much quicker would the Leopard motor be if any. Thanks Martin.

[Brushless01]

The leopard will be fine IT WILL FLY !! not sure about the esc may want to upgrade to a turnigy 180.

[questtek]

I was thinking of doing the same but using a Seaking 180 Amp ESC. Hardware shown in the attached pics.

[LarrysDrifter]

The hatch becomes hard to tape down when using a T-180 with the wires soldered vertically.Im pretty sure you can unsolder them and solder them back horizontally.Or you can buy a Swordfish 200LV and it will fit better than the big 180.The 2200kv motor will run faster than the stocker,but the stock ul-1 motor will run very well when propped right.And dont forget this hull has its limits.

[m4a1usr]

The Leopard 4074/2200kv and Turnigy 180 is what I run in my UL1 and its awesome. On 4S2P and a 642 it screams. Consider the air dam install as you are going to see some tendancy to become unstable over 55mph. Even with the heavier motor. The Turnigy 180 with the vertical wire orientation fits inside but you need to put the speedo in towards the center of the hull. The wires can be routed inside the "hump" of the hatch. I would recommend that you ditch the factory motor mount and lay down a center section of glass, then install the mount Joe has in his picture. Makes for a much stronger mount. Also allows you to bring the weight of the batteries rearward to compensate for the change in COB.

John

[Make-a-Wake]

I say go for it! I wouldnt mess with resoldering the wires on it................they are ON there. Had to have some caps removed once and a batt lead wire put back on, the guy who did it at an electronics repair shop had to use and expensive rod of "desolder" to get them off...............it wouldnt budge for me.

[martin]

The Leopard 4074/2200kv and Turnigy 180 is what I run in my UL1 and its awesome. On 4S2P and a 642 it screams. Consider the air dam install as you are going to see some tendancy to become unstable over 55mph. Even with the heavier motor. The Turnigy 180 with the vertical wire orientation fits inside but you need to put the speedo in towards the center of the hull. The wires can be routed inside the "hump" of the hatch. I would recommend that you ditch the factory motor mount and lay down a center section of glass, then install the mount Joe has in his picture. Makes for a much stronger mount. Also allows you to bring the weight of the batteries rearward to compensate for the change in COB.

John

John did you use the original shaft or did you upgrade that for the leopard motor,I also have that same mount as in the picture. How much did you have to move the motor back for correct balance point. Martin.

[martin]

Just realised changing the mount allows the motor to stay more or less where it is & batteries moved back for correcting balance point. What sort of speed can you expect with this motor & mods like air dam & prop upgrade in this hull. Martin.

[Brushless55]

Oh man!
a Hot Rod UL-1

[m4a1usr]

John did you use the original shaft or did you upgrade that for the leopard motor,I also have that same mount as in the picture. How much did you have to move the motor back for correct balance point. Martin.

If you mean the original UL1 flex shaft, I got rid of that and purchased a Prather. Much better quality and perfectly balanced. If you mean the coupler I did replace it with an Octura. Again better then original parts.

The mod I did to the motor mount doesnt move the new motor further back. It is still in the original/ stock position. Its just that the factory motor mount, the one that goes from side to side of the inner tub, restricts being able to move the lipos back past the mount. With the new mount, like the one in Joe's picture, you can move it back as far as desired. I should post a picture to show you. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

John

[m4a1usr]

Just realised changing the mount allows the motor to stay more or less where it is & batteries moved back for correcting balance point. What sort of speed can you expect with this motor & mods like air dam & prop upgrade in this hull. Martin.

Quite literaly too much speed for the hull on the available power. Even with the air dam your probably going to blow over if you try 5S. On 4S with mine I figure I'm right at the upper 50's on light chop. On 5S it will blow over in no matter what when you least expect it to. Props can be the difference on controlling speed too. If you want to run 5S maybe go down to a 38 or 40mm. But you can get very decent speed and run times on a 642 (my favorite) and not have any heat issues And the bottom line is having fun, not being the fastest you can go.

On a side note there are lots of guys running bigger props (445 comes to mind) but when I tried the larger prop my setup had too much prop walk (even with 1" of strut depth) So I settled on a 642. YMMV.

John