Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

I built a stand for mine as the one supplied isn't the greatest. It's OK for working on or display but that's it. I built one similar to the one in my "Simple Boat Stand" thread. Do a search for it in here.

Jesus C

Trim tabs are used to make the front ride higher or lower, so you can adjust it for water conditons & speed. Spin fins are used so that your boat dosent spin out while doing high speed turns(Correct me if I'm wrong). J T you should build a stand out of PVC pipe, holds together well & is sturdy. Like Ron said look up the thread he mentioned as it has alot of good info. Our aqua jets wont even stand a chance agents the race boats. Hey Scorpio are you going to get into racing?

J T

Thanks for the tips guys I've had enough tanks through mine now to lean it out and fit the CF prop - hopefully this weekend. I think I need to tighten the exaust up as it's leaking a lot of oil though. I've got a few questions though about servicing the boat. i take it the exhaust screws that i need to tighten are the two long horizontal ones? and also i'm not sure if my cooling head is blocked but there doesn't seem to be much water coming through it. if i spit on the cooling block it fizzes a tiny bit. has anyone had any problems like this with their nitro boats? Also how do i go about greasing the prop shaft or do i not need to do this? the instructions aren't too clear about how it is undone.

Jesus C

The ones you need to tighten are the ones on the muffler & the long ones. The prop shaft you remove the tiny screw on the u-joint & pull the u-joint off. Just dont let the tiny screw fall or you might lose it.

Scorpio145

I am looking into it. I certainly would like too but its about doing it to a budget. As you said Jesus I would get laughed out of the lake with the old Aqua Jet. Becasue I want to do it on a budget I was thinking about getting a RTR boat then swapping the engine props, etc etc etc. Thats why I was thinking about the Thundercat31. Jt as far as the cooling head I think the average running temp is around 220F I could be wrong here. So it will fizz away if you spit on it The water can be hard to see comig out the sides at times. The best way to see if there is a block is idle the boat, put it in the water and hold it still. There should be a steady stream coming out of the pipe.

Jesus C

What do they race at the club? I dont know much about race boats so maybe ron can help choose what hull, engine, ect to use for racing

J T

I ran my engine lean with the new CF prop at the weekend - on the sea. I gave up looking for a lake big enough and as I was by the sea (there was no wind but a slight swell with breaking waves on the beach) I decided to give it some sea action. I was really suprised at the speed increase and amount of air I got! I managed to get quite a lot of water inside it though about 2 pints! - probably through the rear end of the hatch as I was constantly slowing down to turn it and to avoid the constant attack of flying seagulls!! The only damage I had was the switch got wet which wasn't bagged. I had to take it apart and hairdry it but I have bagged it now.
I was thinking though as I'm getting sick of the velcro hatch that i am going to use neodymium magnets instead. Hatch tape seems a bit faffy to get stuck right. so I was going to use magnets and petroleum jelly (vaseline) to keep the water out of the hatch. can anyone see any downfalls to doing this?

BSchrader

I have a few ? for you guys.My boat takes around 20'-30' to turn around fast or slow it doesnt seem right to me with everyone saying how to tend to spin-out.I have just broken in the motor and started to lean it out.My brother has the traxxas ex that is stock and he smokes me .Should he be out running me like this his is suppose to only be able to go 18-22 mph stock?

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

If your AJ isn't turning tight enough for you, there is a third knob on your trasnsmitter that should say "D-R". That is the dual-rate knob. Turn it to the right to give you more steering throw.

Jesus C

you should be getting at least 25 mph out of the cen engine. Are you still using the plastic prop that came with the boat? If you are, change the prop.

J T

Since I leaned my engine out and fitted a carbon fibre prop (big increase in speed) mine runs i guess about 30mph and I find it very hard to turn at that speed probably due to the force from the prop. turning slowly isn't a problem for me though. I use a Futaba Attack 2ER controller that has no steering throw adjustment so I will just try a different notch on the servo arm + rudder arm to see what works best.

On Saturday I was running it on a fairly windy lake at full speed and it hit the small wake of a boat that was heading out to help rescue a capsized sailing boat and I watched as it took off 3 feet out of the water and did a full 720 degrees barrel roll; landing upright and carrying on. Everyone watching thought i had made it perform a trick on purpose.
I wish i had a video of that to show you all, you'd be impressed. Me and my mate just looked on - eyes wide open and then we both burst out laughing!

An hour or so later and I flipped it over while turning it. My friend was having a go and I'd richened the fuel a bit but it was quite windy and he handed me the controller back saying he was scared it would flip. I compensated by turning it at slower speeds. I don't know if this caused it though - sounded like it suddenly leaned out even though there was about 1/4 of a tank left in it. I had to wait half an hour for a rescue boat to come by, by which time it had drifted 500 ft due to the wind. Now it's in bits again as i had to take it apart and make sure it was all dry which luckily it was.

Jesus C

lol, wow I wish I was there to see that! At the lake I run when the lake patrol boat passes it makes a huge wake, & I didnt see the wake coming. All of a sudden the boat dose a 360 flip in the air & landed like nothing had happend. When it was in the air, I saw it go like it was it was in slow motion.

I've been thinking about floatation & will 2-3 rubber racquetball balls be good for flotation? I've CA'ed 2 of them together & stuck them in the bow.

Scorpio145

Hey Guys long time no speak. I like your thoughst on flotation Jesus. A novel approach. I haven't used my AJ much over the last few weeks. I am still trying to put together my seaducer for racing. I did put on a tuned pipe for it though and it has mad a nice increase in the rev range and power. Plus got to love that crackle sound!

Jesus C

Hey scorpio, are you using the header from the grey thunder? Good luck on your build, I've been wanting to get into racing but there are no clubs around me. The closest RC place to my house is a flying feild.

James Aqua

Hi guys, thanks for all the tips and help. I have now gone over to Gas Boats. Thanks and good luck in the future.

James

knobsquasher

Hi does anyone know the size of grub screw that holds the propshaft to the engine thanks jon.

J T

Hi Jon, not sure what size it is... you might want to check with Steve at offshore electrics, he might know.

fastnitrofiberglass

Hi, i'm pretty much building one of these i am buying a macs pipe for it a new prop a high capacity water cooled head and a bigger fuel tank and i'm not worried about the radio equipment getting wet i'm running on smooth water are there any other performance mods i can do to this boat?

youdirtyfox

What engine does it have in there? I heard a good .18 will wake it up a bit! Im pretty sure most of the mods are in this thread though, would be cool if there were some new
ones to share also

I managed to squeeze a cen pipe in there as I run in rough water (sea) I didnt want to cut the hatch, and fitted a carbon prop wich was much better than stock. still waiting for a balanced and sharpened x-437/3 from prestwich though! I didnt bother with a radio box in the end, just ballooned and zip tied everything. Not taken her out for drive much though recently

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

That boat came with both .16's and .18's in them, that would depend on where it was purchased. There is about 2,000 RPM between the two.
If you really want to wake it up, drop and Aquacraft .18 in there!

fastnitrofiberglass

where can you buy a .18 version and i will be ocean running too and sorry yourdirtyfox but the cen pipe is like a fancy looking muffler to get any performance i suggest buying this:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXZ557&P=7

it costs about the same and will make you go faster than that octura ever willso pop this sucker in there and LIGHT IT UP plus running a McCoy glowplug will squeeze out a little more juice and in nitro rc boating you want to be fast or WHY THE HECK DID YOU BUY A NITRO!!! so speed is always good and i'm on a $350 budget NOT including shipping charges trust me that cen pipe is not ok and you will need to add a pressure fitting to this have the guy at your hobby shop do it and be prepared to go so fast you have stability problems!!! p.s. theres not really gonna be stability problems this is a good hull.

fastnitrofiberglass

can someone please post a link to the cen baja boss nitro i'm curious about that thing...

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

www.offshoreelectrics.com has the .18 sized versions.
They did away with the Baja Boss boat as it's essentially the same as the Aqua-Jet, just a different color and decals.

youdirtyfox

@ fastnitrofiberglass - I have no delusion's about that cen pipe what so ever! I do however have a 'vegas' pipe waiting to be fitted, at the end of the day I just dont think it's justifiable to spend too much money on this boat.
and it was mainly an experiment to see if I could get the pipe out the back of the hull with no hatch cutting involved.

BTW, please, no need for shouting is there.

fastnitrofiberglass

No just a suggestion and offshoreelectrics has only a .18 engine upgrade or a .18 wave shark which is to big and i'm looking for a direct-drop larger rudder for this fastelectrics has one but good luck trying to order anything from there site when you click order it tells you have nothing in your cart i googled .18 aquajet and couldn't find anything maybe i'll just by a bare hull throw a big set of hardware on it an o.s. 18 and a futaba 2ph and a radio box with a macs pipe talk about quick