This is how it all started

[kfxguy]

I was going through pictures in my Photobucket the other day and had some nice laughs, some laughs I'd like to share with you guys. I saw pictures of the first boats I started messing with when I got into this hobby about 3 years ago. A lot of people have come and gone on this forum. Some originals are still here so they might remember how silly some of the stuff I did/said/ask was. Still is sometimes lol. For you newer guys, this is a good share for you to show you that you can progress greatly in your own builds after a little time.

Short story. This is how I got into this. I grew up in a poor-ish family and as a kid my parents couldn't afford stuff like this (Rc boats, cars etc....although I did get into Rc cars with the financial help of my grandmother). One of my kids told me he wanted an Rc boat for his birthday one year so I picked him up a 26" proboat shockwave, instantly I was hooked. Back to the hobbyshop I went. Of course I couldn't keep it stock. I threw a momba monster 2 esc and a 1512 2650kv motor in it. It was basically uncontrollable at this point, not fast but I thought/felt like it was. Here's the boat that started it all for me.







Follow along as I list my progressions in building.

[srislash]

Haha, yup, you've come a long way Travis (as have I). This will be interesting

Shawn

[kfxguy]

Next boat I moved "up" to was a miss geico. Boy I thought I was hot stuff at this point. I thought I had a "real" model boat compared to the plastic boat I was used to. I found out real quick that the elmers school glue that was used to hold the parts down in a geico wasn't up to snuff real quick. So then I called myself rebuilding this boat. Lol. What did I know?




Woohoo look at that mess!!





And just for comparison this is a geico I built a year or so ago

[T.S.Davis]

Should we start a "this is where the addiction started" thread? Might be fun.

[kfxguy]

So at this point I wrecked the geico onto land. I did a very very stupid thing that I'm very ashamed of and chills me to the bone every time I think about it. Some of you may remember. Two of my younger sons was sitting on the edge of the lake and I decided to zoom by and turn a little so the wake would splash them. Yea well the water was real shallow there and it ran aground, went through my recovery boat and when flipping through the air right past my kids heads. Talk about a wake up call. Whew.

[kfxguy]

Should we start a "this is where the addiction started" thread? Might be fun.

I thought about that. Would be interesting. In this thread I wanted to share my story and how things progressed for me. I've had some experiences along the way.

[Tamelesstgr]

I love how the kids ask for the present and we as fathers end up taking it and dropping large sums of money into it lol. There are 3 boys in my family (two sons and me haha) and the standing rule is that we each can only have 1 boat each. I poo poo on that, but right now it's 3 boats and 3 short course trucks, and my oldest son got a drift car for Christmas so how does that seem fair?

The 26 Shockwave started it off for me too, blindly tring a motor and esc that gave me nothing but headaches. Once I got a great running system in there I realized that the location of the motor (too high above centerline) and cramming 4s in that little narrow hull really wasn't what I (I mean my son) wanted. The hull chine walked badly at speed.

20150704_185839(0).jpg

My 2nd boat was the 32" offshore which was a total rebuild, lots of custom thought and head scratching went into this one, ultimately I wish I had gone with a stinger and offset rudder, but she works.

Before and After 4.jpg

Before and After 3.jpg

Before and After 1.jpg

20160724_220350.jpg

Now I'm excited to be building a boat from the ground up, just did my first CF inlay last night.

Future plans include building a wooden rigger from scratch using the KEPS plans.

[kfxguy]

So now I'm on the hunt. For another boat. I'm eyeballing this thing called a Rivercat. I loved the way it looked and thought maybe I could get 60mph out of it. I kept getting steered away from it and Scott (a member that no longer posts) made me a smoking deal on a cheetah. It was partially built and I learned a few things from that. I pulled it apart an did an inlay and redid the stuffing tube and motor mount, servo mount...etc. holes were drilled and at this point I was glad because I wasn't comfortable drilling just yet. I thought there was some voodoo magic that would make the boat run bad if things weren't exactly perfect and lined up to the .000001 lol. It gets more interesting after this. Things start to look up for me and my experience gains traction pretty quickly after this boat......





Then as a comparison, the last cheetah I built.

[kfxguy]

Now it's time for the boat that put me on the map. I guess it kinda helped to help me get noticed, not that I was gunning for that tho. It basically brought me lots of builds, so I pay tribute to this boat. Even tho I got the cheetah and I was steered away from this boat numerous times, but I kept getting drawn to this boat like a magnet. At this time Scott Kubinski was my supplier because I knew no one and I didn't know much about boats either so he guided me and helped me. He seemed to grow impatient with me the faster I got. I'm not sure why. I guess because at the time we mainly communicated through texts and there was some miscommunication several times because of that and I'd change up my order due to lack of funds and misunderstanding what I'm being charged for. I guess he got tired of that so eventually he just quit responding to my texts. I did spend a good bit of money with him and I didn't expect that, but whatever. He helped me and I thank him for that, but I'm not missing anything, especially now. Anyway, homage is over. Time to get on to the boat.

Here's my first full on scratch build. This boat is still in service today. I did a prop for the owner last week that should put it over the century mark. It's best ever when I had it was 97.5mph.





Ready for battle.




On my maiden voyage I had a 1515 2200kv motor and tried to run an x646 3 blade prop from the get go. On 6s. What an idiot I was!!!! The result in about 50ft of travel.

[Lone-Wolf]

Great idea for a thread Travis, really enjoying this one,keep it up!

I'll put some shots up for laughs shortly of my beginnings, first boat for me was the famous Traxxas Villain, I actually kinda miss it...nah!

[kfxguy]

Sorry fellas, I'm gonna keep this going for a little bit but I got busy at work and then found out one of my email addresses got deactivated so I've been on the phone with people trying to get this sorted out. So just so some of you guys know, my aol email is no longer good, and it may stay like that.

Anyways. Back to the Rivercat. This won't go in perfect order at this point because I started building multiple things. What I'll do is highlight some boats along the way and some changes. I think at this point I decided to build a mini version of this boat. I left the Rivercat to sit for a little bit because of the burnt esc. I'm trying to remember when the shocker came into play because I did have it while I had the cheetah. Maybe I'll skip to it. I know it had a Fightercat esc in it too so it was around this time. So here's the first shocker I built. It too is still in service. It got sold to someone who then sold it and later on regretted it and bought it back. Ha. I almost bought it from the guy he sold it to but ended up letting him get it back and then I built me another. Here's the original.




It's worth a quick watch of this 8 sec clip, I always thought the original shocker took off pretty quick.

https://youtu.be/znPbJIq-ww4






And here's my latest version. This one now belongs to lone wolf

[kfxguy]

So now I figured it was time to build the Rivercat a little brother lol. I hold a soft spot for this little fella because it is such a cool little boat. I don't know why I like it so much but I think it is my favorite. I took the electronics of the geico and put in this boat. The same electronics that was in the shockwave to. Lol


Building started to improve a little at this point but still not to the point of where it's at now.

Whew. Messy





Mo better. I rebuilt it once my skills improved

[kfxguy]

But I still wasn't happy. It looked good but not where I wanted it. Oddly I had a few outrageous offers on it and I ended up taking one guy up on it so I could find a top notch build. A lehner and a MGM was originally planned but reliability issues with lehner swayed me away. And I'm glad because the tp motor I have in it turned out to be an absolute beast on a motor in a small package.

And then the new version. Old boat went 72 on 5s. New boat managed a blistering 92mph on just 4 cells.

[kfxguy]

So my Rivercat builds have seriously evolved. I've learned something from each one I've built, in each build I've found things that I'd do different in the next build and apply it to the next. For a bit I was using the aeromarine stuffing tube seal, I've found that it's more of a hassle and didn't stop water anyway and the bearings didn't last. Omitted for now on. I was cutting side slots in the battery trays to use too straps but that was also more hassle than it's worth. One long quality strap is all that's needed, also holding the trays in with epoxy was a nightmare and I used to dread it. I learned from Keith that silicon works great, cheaper, easiest to remove and apply and looks better. I no longer dread that part of the build. So here's some progression pics....

Original Rivercat at first




Original Rivercat after clean up




Next Rivercat




[URL=http://s218.photobucket.com/user/ltzguy/media/C3CBCE83-89E5-4EFD-91BC-CBDAD2F9BA93.jpg.html][

[Lone-Wolf]

TBH I have admired all your builds, first saw them on KBB. Your first builds look to me like someone that has built many boats already, attention to detail and the way you route the wires and cooling tubes...some may call it O.C.D. but consider it a compliment, so neat and tidy. I would know one of your builds any day just on the wiring alone, wires cut to the mm in most cases. Consider yourself a top shelf builder, it's clear you have skills from before you got into FE.

Your Rivercat's are just so neat, working on them must be a pain because of the small size, at least they are not twins with motors tucked into sponsons!

Keep up the inspiring builds and innovations, always thinking outside the box and how to get that hair more in performance, that's the spirit.

[kfxguy]

TBH I have admired all your builds, first saw them on KBB. Your first builds look to me like someone that has built many boats already, attention to detail and the way you route the wires and cooling tubes...some may call it O.C.D. but consider it a compliment, so neat and tidy. I would know one of your builds any day just on the wiring alone, wires cut to the mm in most cases. Consider yourself a top shelf builder, it's clear you have skills from before you got into FE.

Your Rivercat's are just so neat, working on them must be a pain because of the small size, at least they are not twins with motors tucked into sponsons!

Keep up the inspiring builds and innovations, always thinking outside the box and how to get that hair more in performance, that's the spirit.

Thanks man. I appreciate the compliments. It's definitely refreshing whenever everyone you know in your day to day life thinks your a nut for doing these kinds of things lol. They don't think that when they see these things blasting across the water though!

[Keagan-Z06]

That was a nice read! Good work Travis!

[kfxguy]

This is one of my latest iterations of the Rivercat. This boat sank sandlot from a flip that it just couldn't handle. I had just made a 98mph pass right before so I suspect it was going at least that fast. This boat taught me a few things. Lesson number one: never trust the hatch that comes with the boat to be strong enough out the box. I strengthen the whole boat minus the hatch, I never recovered the boat but my strong suspicion tells me the hatch broke open. So for now on I add lots of extra reinforcement. Lesson number two: when you think you have enough foam, add more. Yea, if I would have added just a little more foam I would have been able to retrieve this boat. Very expensive lesson. I now fill the whole bow as much as I can with two part foam (for you guys cringing at this, do note there's a product available that easily dissolves it should you need to make repairs). Then I add some foam noodles in the empty areas, in the transom and rear part of the sponsons. I think/hope next time a bad flip happens I'll be able to recover the boat to see what happened.

[Jcarlton]

Always admired your builds as well ... working on a 32" cat build and im stealing alot of your ideas for it .. Keep it up Travis !!!

[Brushless55]

Sweet builds Travis!

[dirtdummy]

Great read Travis! You have built some awesome boats!

[kfxguy]

Thanks fellas for the compliments. Without this forum and the great bunch of guys here, I don't think I'd know half of what I do now. I would like to list names but if I forget anyone then people might get offended, you guys who've helped me along the way know who you are and great thanks go to you. I've also used some of these guys great ideas when doing my builds so the credit cannot go all to me. Some things I've come up with out of necessity but a lot of it was ideas from these folks. I feel like I'm neglecting the boat world right now and I really am, I'm just trying to get my life back in order still. Having an open heart surgery set me back and it did something to me. It kinda made me lose interest in boats. Not sure why. I hadn't broke 100mph yet before my surgery and then during my down time I came back and did it with the little 32" boat I've been trying to do it with, on 4s to boot. Then I felt like my ultimate goal was smashed, several times. Now I'm too nervous to run that boat because it's very special to me (I'm a weirdo I guess lol). Now I'm concentrating on getting my obligations to my people I'm building boats for. One big problem I have is I don't just build boats. I build automatic transmissions for gm vehicles and I fabricate a few custom 4 wheeler parts. Along with all the other odds and ends I end up doing for people. I've been asked a few times if I'm retiring from boats. Well no I'm not. I'm just on a little break right now because life gets in the way. I still have been pecking away on builds here lately as time permits. I just haven't had much time to be on the forum but I do lurk a lot and not post.

[Prodrvr]

Man Travis, only three years in and doing such great work...super impressed!! Can't wait to see the Daytona in person!!