Nikko boat twin jet drive conversion

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I was given this Nikko boat a couple years ago as a gift and we all know it's no hobby grade boat. Since then I've acquired 3 hobby grade boats. A few times out I ran into problems when something would go wrong while the boat was out in the middle of the pond and had to wait 2 hours for the wind to blow it back. So I decided to turn this Nikko boat into a recovery boat. I wanted to do something different, not just throw hobby grade stuff in it. So I'm finally getting around to building this up. I am going with 2 Pro Boat jet drives from their decoy retrieval boat, and 2 Traxxas 18t 380 motors. After laying everything out I realized that I would not only have to cut out the bottom of the boat to remove the stuffing tube and surrounding area, I would have to rebuild the transom to bring it to a 90* angle so I could mount the jet drives. Here are the pics that bring me up to tonight.

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The bottom panel is not glued in yet. I need to order my second jet drive and mount it before I make the cutouts for the jets.

[masonis1]

Looking good.. you might wanna convert that to brushless and have a badass

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We'll see how well it works first, building it on the cheap for now since it's being built as a recovery boat. Also, I'm not sure how well those jet drives would handle brushless, they aren't super high quality.

[masonis1]

Oh gotcha. Hah brushless is the stuff

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Brushless is usually the way to go, my other two boats are brushless and are awesome. I also have a Proboat Formula Fastech and a Venom King of Shaves C1

[masonis1]

Venom makes boats too?

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Ya, they have a couple. Some question their quality, haven't had any problems with mine yet.

[masonis1]

Hah kinda like the venom creeper

[Make-a-Wake]

Very cool build here!!!! I have always been fond of that hull...............looks cool!

[masonis1]

Any updates

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Nope, I'm at a stand still until I order another jet, motors and couplers. The couplers are on backorder at the moment so when they come in I'll order everything at once. They were supposed to be in stock mid March. :-/

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Got reminded today why I'm building this boat. Took my Fastech out today and the flex shaft separated from the prop shaft. Had to wait about 30 min for the wind to blow it to the other side of the pond.

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Well I went ahead and ordered my second jet drive and motors. The couplers are on backorder till who knows when. I figured I would order the jet and motors so I could at least finish rebuilding the hull. I have some other couplers in my parts bin but they might be too long, hard to tell without the motor here. So I hope to get going on this again, switching back to the day shift this week too so I hope I'll still get time to work on it.

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Parts are here today. Hope to get back on this this afternoon, got a few free hours after work today.

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Got some more work done on this. Mocked up the second jet on the transom, gonna be sweet!!


Bolted up the second jet and traced out the locations for the water inlets. I cut out the inlets and sanded everything so I got a nice tight fit.



I chose the Traxxas 380 18turn motors for this hoping they would have a little more kick to them than the stock motor that goes in the decoy boat. However the correct couplers have been on back order for months so luckily my couplers from my KOS fit the prop shaft, but not the motor shaft. The motor shaft was smaller. I rummaged around and found some brass tube that fit over the motor shaft and inside the coupler. A little notch for the set screw and then I had a nice little adapter.

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Wouldn't ya know it, the damn couplers were too long. They didn't fit in the jet housing, so I had to cut them shorter. Man what a PITA that was, probably the hardest thing I've had to do yet in this build.



After all that I was able to assemble one of the jets.



Next step is to assemble the second jet and get everything mounted for a test fit of the bottom hull panel. Hopefully everything is right and it will fit right in. If all goes to plan then I will be putting the panel in for good. I plan to reinforce it plenty so it will hold up. Once that's in it will be a water-tight test to see if I have leaks. Then filler, paint, steering linkages, electronics and I'll probably wait till I get a maiden done to work on water cooling. That's it for now, hope to get some more time this week.

[masonis1]

Hope it turns out good.

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Getting closer! Built up the second jet today after work.



Bolted them up to the bottom panel for a test fit.



After a test fit I realized I needed some reinforcing on the panel as it flexed quite a bit with both jets on there. A little angle styrene fixed that.



After a bit of trimming it was time to bolt the jets to the transom and tack in the bottom with some glue. I started at the corners, then the middle of the sides and let it cure. Tomorrow I'll finish gluing everything along with more reinforcing on the seams.



I'm going to have a problem where the original hull meets the new panel on the bottom of the boat. The original hull is a Vee style while the new panel is flat. I've created a piece to fill in the gap but I'm wondering about the new shape causing problems. Should I try to make some pieces to sort of blend the hull and bottom together? If I do I'm worried it would block the water inlets for the jets.

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Wired up the motors and ESC today, I'm going to have to tear down one of the jets. It seems I didn't get the motor shaft, coupler and impeller shaft perfectly inline. It binds at low speed so I'' have to try again. I also did the first float test to check for leaks. Got 1 small leak by the transom and the new bottom. Gotta get some more styrene and then start filling and smoothing out the hull. I also need some linkage for a "rudder" system. Getting close now!

[masonis1]

Getting there

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Been pretty discouraged with this build the past few weeks. Been battling watertight integrity for the most part. I finally got it water tight and built the steering system. I put it all together, did a float check in the bath tub, and took it downstairs to the pond for a maiden. Let's just say there won't be any video. This thing is less than impressive. It was pretty windy but it wouldn't even make forward progress against the wind. Had my steering servo reversed and I'll have to readjust the whole steering system. A pretty disappointing maiden. Going to redo the steering and try again when it isn't windy but it still won't get on a plane that's for sure. I'll have to see if it will even be able to push another boat.

[Make-a-Wake]

Looks very nice!

[ryanjblajda]

any updates?