getting stated

[Mike Jackson]

I've just bought a NQD hydroplane boat and i'm looking for practical upgrades to help with the speed i'm looking to get the boat up to 20 mph for now any good suggestions ? The boat is in factory trim and has 2 380 motors,i've been told that upgrading the battery would help with achieving some more speed.Would changing the props. help or hurt?Remember practical upgrades i'm not looking to do consistant racing mayby occational races for this class of boat or is this possible? thaks flameknee

[CG Bob]

Some of te more practical upgrades are: changing props; changing motors; changing the ESC. Changing props to a smaller one with more pitch can increase speed. Changing to a hotter motor or installing a brushless motor (if allowed by class rules) will increase speed. Sometimes changing ESC's will increase speed. Upgrading from a 6 cell 7.2V to a 7 cell 8.4V or 8 cell 9.6v battery wil increase speed. If you change to a battery with more cells (increase the voltage) you generally have to change tthe ESC.

[Mike Jackson]

thanks i'll look into the prop changes,would that be to three blade or two blade or does it matter on that aspect? Also is it a good idea to try and lighten the boat such as taking off the rear wing ?,or does the wing offer any kind of bennifit for the weight over the rear of the boat for bite into the depth into the water ?or does this matter for r/c boats? Thses questions may be slightly redundant or even slightly on the stupid side please be pateint with my nieveness on this matter. Have a good day,happy r/cing

[Mike Jackson]

I was curious to know if taking out some of the front of the scoop material for cooling and venting for the battery pack is a good idea?Or is that risking too much for water getting into the hull during run time and damaging the electronics?Is taking off the rear wing ok to do or does it accullaly stabilize the boat at speed or is it just for asthetic reasons?

[taylormg]

I had one of these myself, and after looking at how much work was involved in getting it to go fast, I decided to scrap the project and go with a real hobby boat. Here are the problems I ran in to: 1. No rudders - the twin-drive vector push design must be cheap to produce because ebay is littered with "Hong Kong Specials" that feature vector push systems. 2. Integrated electronics - another cost savings measure. If you replace anything, you have to replace everything. 3. Weight - the hull is plastic, but not the same as an ABS plastic hobby hull. It may be stronger, but heavier. Hydroplanes run fast when you can get them up on plane, but it takes a lot of power to do so.
I had some limited success with an NQD hydro running a 12 cells and speed control with dual 550 motors and rudders, but I do stress limited.
That experiment did teach me that you can't go wrong with good quality hobby equipment and trying to take budget short cuts will only cost you more money in the long run.
I'd hate to think of how much money and time I've spent so far in chasing the elusive 20 MPH mark. I did, however benefit from that experimentation. I'm currently awaiting the delivery of the parts that will likely take me over 20...and hopefully farther.

[Mike Jackson]

Thank you for the advice,this is in a way good news, this will let me know not toss alot of money at this boat it will probly end up going to my daughter as a play toy since the hull is somewhat tough(learning control) but for now this will have to work and i will keep an eye out for more quality hobby boats hopfully the same hydroplane boat simply for the cool looks that the hydros have and i will continue eyeing this forum for good solid advice.

[Mike Jackson]

good luck on your pursuit for the over 20 mph mark keep us posted..

[n.h.schmidt]

Hi Guys
I don't have the boat you guys are talking about but, I have seen them on ebay. About thirty inches long? Usually red? They would be approx., the same size hydros we run in a LSH raceing class. We use A 700 type motor (Cost about $40-$50) and use twelve cells. I would like to encourage you guys to keep at it but go the right direction here. If done right your boats could run 30 or more mph . Our Lsh boats (many of them plastic too) run from 30mph to over 36 mph. With long run times too. Six to seven min. runs are easy to get with some props. Eneough for now ,its late and going to bed. Later n.h.schmidt

[taylormg]

Mike - I agree, the "miss bud" look is way cool. There is one ebay store (based in China) who sells a fiberglass 1:18 scale Miss Bud and Miss Llumar RTR with a stock 550/ESC/radio for $250. I think the price is a bit steep, but it is RTR and judging from the video, it runs well on 7 cells. One of my future projects will be to either acquire one of these and "hop it up", or buy a bare Pro Boat Miss Bud 1:12 hull and put in the biggest, baddest brushless set-up I can find/afford. For some good info on the LSH (Light Sport Hydro) class, check out Radio Control Boat Modeler AUG 05 issue. They had a great article on getting started. Happy boating! - MT
PS - Hopefully I'll have my Triton Cat on the water by next weekend with its new parts installed. If the winds aren't too strong, I'll throw the GPS in and see what I get.

[Mike Jackson]

This topic really fired you guys up and i appreciate the enthusiasm about some upgrades for my boat. You know reaDING AND LISTENING TO you guys it sorta sounds like my boat may be underpowered slightly. But i stll don't want to spend too much money at this thing but as the gentleman said it is a good experience for getting ready for the next step ,and the miss bud is on the list i read a artical on try out/testing and the reviews said that the boat is alot of fun and is well powered for the size and motor ,see you guys later keep up the good conversation this is fun.

[taylormg]

Glad to help - I was right where you are back in November and have learned boat loads (pardon the pun) since then. -MT

[Mike Jackson]

I have some good news on the progress side i got a new battry for the hydro and there was some slight differences in the performance end the boat did plane up a little more and had a slight waddle for a moment .(A grin appeared) also were can i look to get more information or to look for the hydro class boats in the i'm guessing the 1/12 scale that are electric (the size of boat that i have)is that correct?or in the nitro. And what am i looking to spend for good used boat and or new ? Something in the rtr thanks agin for your patients..

[Mike Jackson]

i just read the upper thread on were i could get some inf for the class of boat i'm interested in thanks

[Mike Jackson]

one of you guys suggested going to smaller props with a better pitch , inlighten me to this . would it be for a quicker acceleration and or less work on the motors? And what would be the size and pitch of the blade for the 380 motors and boat of this size? Thanks agin for the time

[Mike Jackson]

i'm considering trying a 9.6 in place of the 7.2 would this be a ok experiment to try ? let me know if this would be acceptable or can the compomets telerate this uping the voltage in the system?

[JFrey]

Mike,

I just got one of those boats and was likewise unhappy with the performance. I had two motors that I had from racing R/C trucks that I am working on installing. They are substantially bigger but after removing the stock motors and the plastic carriage that they sat on, they fit just fine. I used two old pinion gears to attach to the motor axle to seat the rubber drive shaft connection. I have to hit the hobby store for an extra "deans clip" which is what I have the motors set up to sue for easy swapping, as well as two extra propellors since the boat slid off its stand on me and the props snapped. I just hope I can get props that work on this boat ok.

I am just wondering if even with bigger and better motors will it still be underpowered with only one battery. I borrowed again from my car and am using a 7.2 2400 instead of the cheap 1800 it came with. Before the motor switch it ran much better with the increase in battery but not enough to make me happy. Since I can borrow these parts from my car I am not really investing much so I hope it works.

Anyone know if I create a battery splitter and attach two of these 2400 7.2 volts together will it kill the speed controller? That might be worth a try but would require more in connections... I guess that will be my next step to try something if the motors don't get enough power. Worst case scenerio I kill the ESC and don't have the boat to play with anymore. Was even considering using the hull and buying a nitro marine motor and using existing stuff that I have to mount a rudder with servo... wonder if it would work.... I guess if I kill the electronics it might be worth a shot....

[Mike Jackson]

jfreyi've put the hydro to rest for now one of the motors burned up and decided to make a project ou of the hydro,I've seen some jet set ups that might be fun to toy with on a hydro.let me know how your upgrading goes.