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Thread: Semi retro Parma Ski Tiger

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    La
    Posts
    163

    Default Semi retro Parma Ski Tiger

    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
    Last edited by treystoys; 12-23-2017 at 04:58 PM. Reason: Added link

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    AZ
    Posts
    8,009

    Cool

    I built one for my wife in the mid-1990s with 6-cells and a 15-turn 05 EPIC motor. No strut, just a brass stuffing tube out the back. I also used SpeedMaster hardware and with an Octura x431 plastic prop it ran mid-20s. She raced it in our club and did very well with it! It is long gone, but the memories remain. It would not be ‘competitive’ today but a great sport boat nonetheless.

    Today with a 4S LiPo pack and a 1500 Kv brushless motor it would provide long runtime and similar speeds. Lots of 21st Century fun and no brush dust to clean out!



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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    La
    Posts
    163

    Default

    Totally agree on the competitiveness of this boat, the design of the keel with the ridge for the stuffing tube makes it a bear in high speed turns. Mid to upper 20mph area is where it’s comfortable. I mainly built this guy as a living memory to share with my kids. Plus I think they are really nice looking boats. After I swap in the larger can 05 I may go with a proper brushless set up, but for now it’s fun to reminisce.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    BC
    Posts
    7,629

    Default

    Haha, I had one in a fuschia color with Astro 212 and Some torquey car motor(black diamond?).
    It was fun in the day

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    La
    Posts
    163

    Default

    That’s funny, my first one ended up painted fluorescent orange...think safety orange lol with a brass steerable outdrive. I got that idea from my rc boat modeler with an article about the then current 8 cell electric mono record, thinking this was late 80s. The set up was a 3D demon mono hull with a simple brass steerable outdrive, a 27 turn 05 motor, and 8 sub Cs with a micro-switch for the speed control turning an octura x43something prop. I think the speed was in the mid 20s. Gosh I wish I still had all those old magazines. Anyhow, a series of my boats from the ski tiger to mrp bud light tunnel and I think it was an mrp Americana that all got those outdrives. Very fun times. Anyway what I later found, a few years after the orange steerable outdrive ski tiger, I picked up a second one, just built how it was intended with the stuffing tube strut and rudder along with an 18 turn double, the speed was way better than my outdrive set up and it settled the boat down as well. That was some fun though, being into fast electrics before they were “fast”

    Trey

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Location
    MI
    Posts
    409

    Default

    Great build! I remember these boats and almost purchased one before on Ebay, might have to start looking for one.

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