gcosse

I am new to rcuniverse.com and these forum searches are killing me! I have a rio 51Z with the zenoah G2D straight plug in it, highly modded by Marine specialties. I recently purchased this boat used and after a few days of occasionally running it, i somehow spun my GrimRacer prop (3 blade) that was on there off. The seller installeed this prop and i dont know what model it was. So i went home and got the 2 blade prop he sent me with it (im assuming this is the stock prop) and about 5 minutes and 75+ ft. into the lake, i twisted my flex shaft. Well i tig welded the shaft back together, and have 2 spares on order. Now i need another 3 blade prop, and I AM LOST!! I want top end speed, not too worried about coming out of the bottom end. Can you guysPLEASE reccomend a prop for me? Ive about narrowed it down with all my research to a choice between a 7018/3, and a 7014/3. But i dont know how much different they are or how much one or the other will help me/hurt me. Can you allplease reccomend one of these, or ANY prop? Your help would be GREATLY apprecieated, Gerald. [email protected]

01VIPER27

My Feedback: (1)

You can put aSS 3 blade"VOODOO Tater" prop from voodooprops.com ortry the 7014or 18. Check out my youtube channnel under mysig for some RIO 51 runs with the voodoo prop.

gcosse

Thanks alot, i have been on the hunt for several days now so im just ordering both lol. i literally JUST ordered the 7018/3 modified from vaportrailsrc.com. im going to get ahold of the propworkswest and also order the one he reccomended for me. thanks for the input

advanced builder

That tig welded shaft is shot. don't use. A 1/4 drive line are pretty beefy. Are you greasing your cables properly. Having only one prop is risky You can also use a prop saver on the engine coupler. that's a doughnut that fits over the cable. keep it close to the coupler as they are not balanced. They have a prop for sale section in the IW http://www.intlwaters.com/ You can pick up some new or used ones. Can we get a pic of you drive line setup? So we can see. A prop can get damaged just bring it to shore. Finding the best prop is testing or having more that one size/pitch Was that prop you put on balanced ? if not that's how you can twist up a cable. Read how to balance a prop. use proper nuts , Zuber prop nuts are good My one buddy uses 2 nuts behind his props. Look your strut over how's the bearings. Do you have a bearing sleeve that fits into the strut. Or a piece of pipe with holes drilled it, that slides into the strut, if that was missing U twist a cable

gcosse

The shaft that i broke twisted apart right where the flex cable is soldered into the barrel of the prop shaft. Im a pipe welder offshore and i like to think that im pretty damn good at tig welding. its very very smooth where i welded it and slides right in and runs smooth with my balanced and sharpened 2 blade prop. (im assuming its the stock one) When i broke the shaft and pulled it out the shaft tube, it was nice and greasy! When i say i spun my prop off, i mean my nut spun off and prop went bye bye! i now have a grim racer lock nut behind my prop with 2 jam nuts behind it lol. (it aint coming off again!!) Im offshore right now but as soon as i get home tuesday i will post some good pics of my setup. i did find that my shaft tube is not drilled directly center of my transom, which i later found out that %99.9 of them are not! but my strut brackets were mounted center making it to where the hole in the strut for the shaft to pass through, was not in a straight line with my shaft tube opening on the transom. im assuming this will cause bind on my shaft and i will be moving those brackets when i get off this platform so everything is nice and in line. i will get me a few props eventually, but i dont race or anything like that, just want it to run fast. so i ordered a 7018/3 from vaportrailsrc.com. if my modded zenoah still rips rpm's, ill seek another, more pitched prop. thanks guys for the help and info

01VIPER27

My Feedback: (1)

gcosse,
All model race boats are set up like that with the stuffing box offset to the right. The reason why your stuffing box is offset to the right of the keel line is to compensate for prop walk to the right caused by the torque roll from the engine and is more pronounced when you areusing a modified engine.With properly sharpened and balanced props you can reduce prop walk but not entirely.

If you have chosen to re-locate the stuffing box right above the keel lineyou will also need to center your stinger in line with the stuffing box. Centering the drive lineis just as good but you may see more prop walk. If you do see more prop walk simply remove both trim tabs and CUTTHETABSURFACESONLYin half so that you will end up with 4 separate trim tabs. Once completed and installed back onto the transom flat with the hull (use a ruler), set the right inside trim tab 1/8" lower than the one beside it and your boat should run straight.

gcosse

viper,
im going to leave the shaft tube alone! not getting into that mess, but i am going to move my brackets for my strut so my stinger and shaft will be in line with the shaft tube, for it is off a little right now. i think that probably had alot to do with the shaft twisting. it broke right where the mis alignment is between the strut and the shaft tube. thanks for the help. Hopefully my new 7018/3 will be in next week and i can see what i got!!

advanced builder

OK your a good welder Ck your job with a drill to see if your straight. They were welded once why not twice, they must get shorter. I been messing with a G2D in a Aeromarine Danger Zone Vee. The hull came to me used ,Ive had to open up that engine more that a few times. It did run for a 15 seconds. The hull is a few years old but in good shape. I got someones headache. I'll pull her apart one more time. THAT'S IT I'm tired of the engine, but I'm not a engine man. I like nitro been into gas 1 yr
.I get tired of pulling that cord.

gcosse

i fit it straight before i tacked it. i put 4 tacks all around it before i welded it out because the strain of the weld hardening will pull it crooked. it made 2 low heat passes around it and it came out sttraight as an arrow. i spun it in a drill and it looks perfect. woo hoo lol!!! but i do have 2 new ones ordered. and a new 7018/3 prop from vaportrailsrc.com. at first i thought i was getting someone elses headache too, but i think i turned out ok. ive got, from what i understand, a highly modded zenoah G2D straight plug from marine specialties. and man let me tell you, pull the plug wire off, finger over carb bore, 2 half pulls, snap wire back on, and within 3 pulls its gonna crand and run smooth!! i can complain about that! But i think soon i will ionves in a smaller nitro boat too. I played with some nitro cars and trucks for a few years and i just like the nitro. so we will see. Hey anyone know what all this talk of a piece of fuel tubing behind the prop is? Good idea? bad idea? thanks guys.

gcosse

I CANT** complain about that!! sorry guys its early haha. Invest** in a smalled nitro boat.

advanced builder

I run fuel lines on my smaller stuff.21 like that. I never tried larger. good luck -depending on how much you pay for props. I don't like to loose a expensive prop.

gcosse

I would hate to lose the one i just ordered!!! $80. i just dont see how the fuel line helps, but at the same time, i dont see how i spun off my other one either.

expresscraft

there is also a 7016 prop thats right in the middle of the props you mentioned, i like two blade props on cats and 3 blade props on deep vs most of the time not really a rule of thumb,

gcosse

expresscraft,
I have googled, and researched, and read, and read and read!!! I have probably seen just about every forum and chart there is out there on props! I just cant seem to understand what the differences are in certain areas, and so many companies label and identify them so different. Ive emailed many builders/companies that are selling props that i was interested in asking them questions. all builders that are recommended by expert boaters. I can go on a site that has a number of props and pretty much nail 3 of em by looking. but when i email asking questions, they give me no help. They write back with everything but the explained answer of my question. I wont name any names, but i ordered one thursday, hoping that it will do well for me because i couldnt get any help. I live in a little country town in SE Louisiana and ppl here have never seen anything like this so i basically have only forums and emails for help. Ive called every Hobby shop in a 125mi radius, willing to drive if someone would have had a prop that they recommended would do good for me. When i get home from work in the Gulf Of Mexico, i will be taking a trip to the New Orleans area to visit Carlo, Owner of cc-racingengines.com. Hopefully i can make some friends on a weekend when theres a bunch of em together so i can learn!!! Im new to rc boating, but mind you, i consider myself very mechanically inclined. This boat WILL NOT beat me haha. thanks for the reply. I will keep everyone on this thread posted on what happens when i get home. I will also post pics of my shaft break, and my heli-arc (tig) welded fix.thanks again!!

rcguy1411

i always run a pice of fuel tube its just added protection also will protect the prop numbers from wearing off the prop on some of my nitro boat ill just run the fuel line when testing give it a try and you will see how well fuel tubing will hold

gcosse

I can see helping save the numbers on the prop hub, but how does it help otherwise? I mean what does it actually do for you?

rcguy1411

it WILL hold a prop on if the nut comes off rember the prop is always pushing itself on untill it stops turning then it will drag and come off since we don t have reverse it doesent take much to hold on a prop and at $50-$100 a prop alittle extra protection is worth it

gcosse

hmm, good point. i will definitely start to do that. My 2nd run with my new rio i lost a prop. 2 week setback. [:@] hopefully my new one will be here wednesday. i will do the fuel tubing with a lock nut and a jam nut behind it. thanks guys. I really cant wait to get home so you guys can see the repair of the flex shaft i did. I bet it wont break again!! (not in the same place anyway!)

hendocap

I wouldn't chance using a Tig'd shaft, too much heat and its just gonna break again. If you have a new shaft just use it. JMO and your $80.

gcosse

i made 6 or so runs on the tig'd shaft. checked for cracks or stress marks, none. i think this shaft is here to stay. i did order 2 spares tho, since theyre so far away, and take forever to come in. If you read my earlier post, my strut housing was not properly lined up with my shaft tube... thus causing my shaft to bind. it is obvious where the shaft was riding on one side of the shaft tube. i didnt realize it unti after i repaired my shaft, did 5 or 6 runs, and was dis-assembling everything for cleaning. but thats all been fixed now. just waiting to get off of work to test it out. thanks guys

hendocap

Well if you notice that the shafts are silver soldered and Tig'd for a reason. Not trying to be a wise guy but the cable is a spring and will become brittle with to much heat. Good luck with it. cheers

gcosse

Yea, I know its not very strong to be welding in the first place, and to be honest I was iffy about doing it to begin with. But what the heck, it was broken anyway right haha? I did 4 tacks all around with very low heat, then I ran a very light bead at very low heat (just hot enough to melt the rod) around one half of it as fast as I could so it didn't get too hot, then cooled for a few min and did the other side. The only thing that was red hot was my puddle from my rod. When the puddle didn't "sink in" to the cable like solder would, I knew I didn't get it very hott like most ppl would expect. A guy that I work with welded two soda cans together with this machine and never blew a hole so when I say low heat, I REALLY mean low heat. I hope this shaft lasts like I think It will, may have just found a permanent fix for the rio 51 flex cable drive issue. I searched but didn't find, is anyone converting this flex cable to a different kind if shaft system? That would be awesome to not even have to worry about all this crap!

hendocap

All I'm saying is when the shaft breaks you loose your new prop. Kinda the saying goes, "step over a dollar to pick up a Dime."

gcosse

are you a rio owner? theres a "hub" that sits on the front side of the inner strut assembly, inner strut assembly clamped in place by the outer strut assembly with screws, shaft breaks, it goes no where. The cable is welded on the FRONT side of this hub. the hub is made to the steel prop shaft. not welded, not soldered. its casted that way. so it is highly unlikely to break there. but that is the only way that the prop shaft could come out if it were to break, which would lose your prop shaft and everything on it. but highly unlikely to happen. Just because alot of ppl dont use welding in rc hobbies, doesnt mean it wont work. I mean ive heard of ppl trying to use loctite. and everyone was all for it!!! i can assure you that a tig weld is a lot stronger than loctite or solder. and it probably didnt get much hotter than if i would have soldered it with a torch. I appreciate your ideas and your opinion, for that is why i came to the forums... so ppl can give me they're opinions and helpful information, but c'mon man dont put down on my idea so hard!! Its a test, im trying it out. i have more runs on this shaft that i have before i repaired it. I ran it twice after purchase when it broke. MAYBE 25 min run time total. i have now ran about 6 or so FULL tanks through it and not a problem. Im happy with my idea. Maybe when i can upload some pics of it and you can see what it looks like you will feel better about it.

hendocap

I Don't own a Rio, But I Do own a Lincoln Square-wave and have been welding for 20 yrs. I prefer boats with alot better performance and speed. GoodLuck