ELAM 1/12 Scale Racer (INPUT APPRECIATED)

[monojeff]

Got a ELAM hull from a friend which was has some battle scars but should still make a great race boat!

I will be using an aquacraft 60amp ESC & testing the proboat 1500 motor and a UL-1 motor to see which one will give me best speeds and handling.
Going to be using the stock proboat rudder and a UL-1 strut which I will either use stock brass bushing or something recommended??
Ordered a .150 flex shaft and liner from OSE & a Graupner K Series 42mm prop for testing seams people are having good success with x642 prop and not sure what others might work???

I will post up some pictures of it later when I have a chance to take some.

Not sure if using 2 part pour in foam is the way to go or possibly just use some GREAT STUFF anyone had success with using it in this boat??
Figured it might work out ok and add some weight and stiffen things up......

Any advice or help with this will be greatly appreciated!
I have read threw Darrin's race prep and he has some good stuff in there but I am also interested to see what other have done to the boat and had good success with.

[dana]

Def use a 642 with proboat motor then maybe a x4 prop with ul1 motor. Or a grim 40/57/3. My biggest issue with my Elam was then front never had enough weight. I would say s high lift prop would be good, but I sold mine before I ever got to testing props

[monojeff]

Seams to be one of the main issues with the hull that I have read about.
Having the UL-1 strut gives it the adjust-ability it needs so you can raise the strut unlike the stock proboat strut.
Did you make any mods to the hull before you sold it??

Here are the local clubs rules that I will be racing this hull with.

Motors:
ProBoat A3630-1500 (P/N PRB3310)
Aquacraft 36-56-2030 (P/N AQUG7001)

Speed Control:
ProBoat 45amp ESC (P/N PRB3309)
Aquacraft 60amp ESC (P/N AQUG7011)

Hardware:
1. Stock hardware components may be exchanged between hulls. Essentially, if a part comes stock on one boat, it may be used on the other.
Examples: Motors, esc's, rudders, turnfins, struts may be exchanged between hulls.
2. Stock radio may be replaced.
3. Allowable aftermarket replacement items:
a. The stock flex cable may be replaced with a similar design .150 cable (Octura, Hughey, etc.
b. The stock cable collet may be replaced with Octura (P/N ocfhe5mm15 ) 5mm-.150 flexhex.
c. The strut bushing may be replaced with Speedmaster (P/N spds-014-bsf).
d. Electrical connectors between motor/ESC/Battery may be replaced.
e. Teflon stuffing tube liner may be replaced.
f. Motor cooling jacket and water lines may be replaced.
g. No other non-stock items are allowed.

Hull:
1. Sponson bottoms and edges may be trued/sharpened to remove production flaws. No material may be added to alter the shape of the ride surface.
2. Wings and fins may be removed.
3. Air dams may be added to the tunnel roof.
4. Boats may be painted.
5. No other hull modifications are allowed.

[dana]

IMO 1500 is too low kv and is better suited to 6s, And if I remember correctly there isn't room for it. So maybe just go for ul1 motor

[dana]

I never did anything with it. It was my first boat.... Looking back, had I known what I know now about FE boats, I prolly woulda tried more. I would try running 4s pack in the cockpit in front of motor, and put the high lifter prop.

[dana]

Oh yeah, and I would have made the turnfin better. Stupid thing had 1 bolt so it always moved

[monojeff]

Was debating trying the 4s pack at moment all I have is 2s packs so might pic one up and try it out in the nose.
Was hoping someone else who has tried it could chime in and say if it helped or not.
Seams most people add weight in the sponsons I was also thinking about dropping some lead into them and then putting the foam in after to hold it in place..

[dana]

Yeah some weight in those sponsons would be a big help. It's a great looking scale boat, unfortunately it didn't perform as well as my ul1 right outta the box. But I'm sure with some work this can be a great boat -) I've always wanted to pick up another one of these hulls and make it awesome, so I'll be watching you -D

[properchopper]

Jeff, I got your PM. Thing is, my hydro was an AQ Vegas, a different boat altogether. IIRC Darin did a very thorough thread about race prepping the Elam ( I hope I'm remembering this correctly) . Do a search or maybe Darin can chime in.

Tony

[monojeff]

Hey Tony I have read through Darins thread and there is some good stuff in there.
I know your hull was different but they are still similar so I figured I'd ask some of the stuff you did to it.

Did you add flotation into the sponsons if so what kind?

These Elams have just about no flotation in them.
A little piece of foam in the sponson but it's not much.

What do you think would be best to repair the cracks on the ride pads?

I took some pictures today but have not had a chance to upload them to computer.

[properchopper]

Jeff,

My Vegas had styrofoam in the hull sides; I stuffed pool noodle where I could. I CA cracks and then either a thin coating of Bondo or West Marine Formula 27; sand down smooth & red primer & lightly sand to smooth. If cracks are really minor use CA, then Glazing putty (Bondo brand from auto parts store), sand, prime & re-sand with 1000 grit.

[Make-a-Wake]

I run my Elam on 8s with a Neu 1515 1100kv motor. Two 2s batts in the cockpit, and one each in the sponsons. Running an x642 now and it tops out at 53 mph.

[monojeff]

What did you do cut out the supports on the sides to get the batteries in the sponsons??
I'll be running this on 4s club rules.

[Make-a-Wake]

Probably should have mentioned that i bought the gas version hull......here's how i did it.

[monojeff]

Darn Teflon liner is stuck in the stuffing tube any tricks to getting it out?
I need to put a longer one in so it will work with the ul-1 strut.

[monojeff]

Here are some pics of the boat.
I removed all the stock decals and there is the classic ghosted image of them which seams to happen with all the stock hulls.

You can see one of the wings is partially broken off.
I am thinking I am going to remove both of them completely and smooth out the rear deck.
The hole in the middle I believe was there so that some T nuts could be installed on the transom to hold the UL-1, it will be filled and smoother out.

Can also see the sponsons have a bunch of cracks in them which need to be smoother/filled.

The stock radio box before I cut out the plastic tray.

Another thing I did was remove the lack of flotation from the front sponsons.
They had very little white foam that was badly glued in and had broken loose so I removed it and will replace with either 2 part or some cut up pool noodles still trying to decide which one to go with.

[Alexgar]

I really enjoyed my Elam cc1512 1800 kv on 2 2s and a x642 it was alot more fun than my ul1

[dana]

Pool noodles. They're removable and easy to shape. Plus really. Good floatation

[monojeff]

Pool noodles. They're removable and easy to shape. Plus really. Good floatation

Funny you say that I got some work done on it past week and stuffed pool noodles in the sponsons.
I used a bunch that were cut down and jammed as many as I could in there.
The framing on the sides was easy to remove since the glue proboat used is not the greatest.
A little heat and an exacto knife made short work of it they snapped right out.
Sponsons are now a lot less flimsy and have nice support plus the added weight up front!

Also removed old stuffing tube and will be glassing in a new 1/4" tube soon.

[monojeff]

Well guys finally got the boat ready for the water.
Ul-1 motor
Ul-1 strut
Ul-1 esc
New stuffing tube and flex shaft
Fightercat Aluminum 443 prop

Boat ran very well first time out plenty more testing and tuning to be had but no doubt I know I will be competitive in local Ul-1 & proboat stock class.
Boat was running very fast and pretty darn stable in some choppy water while testing.
Some time tuning and I think I will have a great runner.

I will post up some pics when I can on the transformation I made with the boat.

[monojeff]

Well guys here is what the boat looks like now.
Been a while since I have updated this thread.
So far first day of racing didn't go so well hit a dead boat and was out for the day due to rudder issues.
2nd day of heat racing (1st place)
3rd day of heat racing (2nd place)

Gpsd the boat today and getting consistent 46.5mph on the 443 prop.
Pretty sure there is a lot more I could get out of this setup but also thinking I am going to switch back to the stock motor and see what I can do with that since I have some other plans for the UL motor.

Boat is very stable I tape off the first break in the tunnel with some hatch tape from the canards back to the tunnel and also tape off the turbine opening.
This really helps keep the boat settled down from any gusts of wind or wanting to lift the nose at speed.
Boat is 5.5 pounds RTR.

New name for the boat is KAMIKAZE.

[Namba328]

totally should get some video of this hydro XD

[monojeff]

totally should get some video of this hydro XD

I will try to get some video of it next time I am doing some testing.

[srislash]

Looks good Jeff.Can't wait to see it moving.

[monojeff]

Was out doing more testing today.
I might have a video to post not the greatest but I will see if its worth while once I get it downloaded.


I hit 50.6mph
Using a 645prop that was cut down to 43mm and cupped by Mark Sholund (props4u.com)
I rounded the tips sorta like a 42x55 prop because last time out I hit something but it seamed to help the prop a bit.
Had to add 6ounces of weight on the very front of the boat to help keep it settled down.

With a ABC 42x55 prop I hit the same speeds I was getting before with the 443 aluminum prop. 46.5mph

Problem is the run after this one I must have pinched a waterline or something because I fried my UL-1 motor!
Oh well I am not totally sure it was operating to its full potential anyways.
I will be trying out the stock proboat motor this coming weekend for heat racing and see what I can do with that.
If the speeds are close then I will continue to run stock motor if not I will get a new UL motor!


I also changed out the stock turn fin for the UL-1 turn fin and it turns much better but does tend to cause a bit of lift oh well I can deal with that.
Stay tuned more to come.....

[monojeff]

New look for the Elam. Custom cowl and wrap.
The boat was so beat up and stressed cracked everywhere that I decided to try and wrap the bottom of the boat to keep the water out and stop it from cracking more.
Should still be a great fun race boat. I sealed all the edges and plan to race it this weekend.
Hopefully the vinyl on the bottom holds up.
I'm pretty sure it should do just fine.
It was a bathtub otherwise and took on so much water by end of the race it's not even funny.

Nice and bright fluorescent orange decals!

[monojeff]

Here is some video of the last time out racing!

Final heat walking away with the win until I flipped going into the last turn, guess that's what I get for not letting off the throttle I was having to much fun holding it wide open whenever possible. It was running nice and smooth up to the flip. I am not sure what happened but I didn't hit anything, it must have been bad luck and some wind it doesn't take much to flip these little guys when your flying around the course close to 50mph.

All the other boats were over the line at the start so mine was in the lead the entire time. Love the boat when it is running well just need to get the water to stop coming in the hull, I found a few places it was still coming in so I am working on making it water tight again and hopefully be able to run an entire heat with no water leaks.

Hope you guys enjoy!

[tlandauer]

Wow, intense! That is pretty windy! Beautiful lake! I love the vid, thanks for posting!

[monojeff]

That's not windy for out here in NW. That's just breezy. It gets a lot worse out here in the NW.
Fun day though for sure. 1/12 racing can get crazy at times.

[Scamp73]

New look for the Elam. Custom cowl and wrap.
The boat was so beat up and stressed cracked everywhere that I decided to try and wrap the bottom of the boat to keep the water out and stop it from cracking more.
Should still be a great fun race boat. I sealed all the edges and plan to race it this weekend.
Hopefully the vinyl on the bottom holds up.
I'm pretty sure it should do just fine.
It was a bathtub otherwise and took on so much water by end of the race it's not even funny.

Nice and bright fluorescent orange decals!

Where did you get that hatch assbly? Or did you modify the origial hatch? I hate trying to tape the rear around the exhaust plume on the stock boat.