Semi retro Parma Ski Tiger

[treystoys]

Hey Guys,

Been a long time since I posted, life and kids and all that good stuff. I just wanted to share this with everyone, esp because there is so little out there about these great little vintage esq boats.

I had a few of these when I was younger, and they were always a solid running little boat. I picked this one up a few years back new in box off eBay. It was either the basic kit (hull, motor and radio mount, and stickers) or a delux kit that was robbed of the hardware. Either way I received it as a new unassembled hull set with the inner liner, radio tray and motor mount. I have always built my race monos in a rear motor configuration, so I decided to go that route on this guy to give me some freedom for battery mounting later. Those familiar with the ski tiger know that it’s designed with the battery and motor mount up close to the front of the hatch. So what I did was cut the inner liner about mid way through the battery tray, then mounted that all the way to the transom. That allowed me to still use the removable factory motor mount and freedom to put my batteries wherever I wanted.

Since the boat didn’t come with the hardware I used a Speedmaster rudder and an older Fullers hd strut and 2” bracket, both of which I already had around the house. I fabed up a battery tray using 1/8 lite ply and a sheet of carbon fiber, then bolted 2 rc10 battery holders to it and glued the hole thing to the hull. My initial motor and controller were a castle car esc and an Orion 17 turn sensorless motor. I ran that set up on 2s and a detongued x437 prop and the boat went 32mph on gps, but was very flighty. I tried fairly steep degree of down angle on the strut, and raising the strut vertically, neither settings helped settle the boat. I guess I could eventually add some small trim tabs, but really wanted the boat to be mellow enough to hand the controls over to my kids w/o worry that they’d destroy it.

My solution was to go old school. I threw in a horded new in package Astro Flight 212d and a brushed car motor from an onroad car I had laying around. I retested using some old uncared for 4200 nihm 6 cell packs, and got the milder performance I was looking for. I’d guess it runs in the low 20s now which is perfect for my 11-14 year old daughters and my 4 year old son.

I do have an old vintage weapon in the mail for it though! Not a high speed monster by today’s standards, but what we used back in the day before most everyone else knew what a fastcelectric boat was lol. Anyhow is a new in box Kyosho 360G, and some proper water cooling for the motor. I’m not looking for anymore speed, but the longer 550 motor will work way better in the boat environment than the standard 05 can does. I went this route after I overheated the car motor and melted a lead off of it mid run. I’ll post that video shortly to share. You can see how she runs there, and please ignore the commentary from the girls in it ��

Well thanks for bearing with me, enjoy the pics, and feel free to post up and ask questions. There is very little out there on the interweb about these boats, so I felt compelled to contribute. Share your pics if you have one...(hinting to Jay) who I know has a nice example. Ttyl guys and Merry Christmas!

Here’s the video link, hope it’s ok in the picture thread, if not I can move it. Thanks guys...

https://youtu.be/qIZ8TWTxPZg

Trey