Amos Moses

I need a R/C boat, electric for ease of use and lack of noise, that I can use to "tow". I don't care what it looks like, but I want it to be stable and reasonably strong (power wise).

Any suggestions?

rye

My Feedback: (10)

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXEWL2**&P=SM
try this they are great rye

Quicksilver1

The villain has so much much power, I used to walk my dog using it, while at anchor. Tie rope to boat, tie dog to rope, put dog and boat in water and go. This was a pretty timid Brittany spaniel (50lb), but the boat would get him back in the water none the less.

Jhoyoza

Hello,

I'm not sure what you are towing and how much power you need, but this one is reasonably cost effective:

[link]http://www.ambientweather.com/ps300113pbc.html[/link]

The hull is 30" long and could easily tow another model boat. The trouble is the radio is cheap and the control is either full right, full left, straight. And the Prop is either full forward or full reverse. I ripped out the guts and made my own get-up.

I hope this helps.

-J

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

We first need to know what it is you want to tow before we can make any worthwhile suggestions.

LtDoc

Are you a builder, or are you looking for a RTR kind'a boat? If you can/will build this boat, then there are quite a few choices. If you are looking for a Ready To Run type boat then your choices are going to be very limited.
- 'Doc

Amos Moses

Thanks fellas....

Let me run what I want to do by you. Bear with me if it sounds stupid.

I'm a nuisance alligator hunter in Louisiana, and I occasionally have calls that are a royal pain to handle for one of a couple reasons...one is that there are large dogs around, or two, there are meddlesome people around. I set lines that dangle about 18 inches to a couple feet or so over the surface of the water, draped loosely over a bamboo pole and clothes pinned to the tip of the pole, and that's generally a done deal....well, better said is that I come back the next day and it's a done deal, that is. Now, when there are dogs around, they will occasionally smell the bait and go out in the water and pull it down. The hooks I use are a good 5 inches or so long, so I have yet to hook a dog, but man, I would absolutely hate to do that. Generally, people will keep their dogs away for two reasons; because I ask them to and because of the reason I am there in the first place. The other problem is people. I probably don't need to explain that, but I will. Most people are sensible people, and some people are morons. Morons are a pain to deal with because even though they can't handle their own business they want to handle yours. Put it this way - last year I was called out for a "large alligator" on a road. Law enforcement dispatch from a neighboring parish called me, so I asked them if law enforcement was on site, and they said, "No, you'll see the complainant there on a four wheeler next to the road". Five minutes later my cell phone rings again, and the dispatcher told me, "Law enforcement will be meeting you there....they'll be there along with Fire and EMS units, too, so there's no way you'll miss them". When I asked her "when did the drunk get there?", she said, "Oh, the road deputy already called you and told you about that already?" When I said, "No", she asked how I knew that there was a drunk there. I said, "Well, it's not usually a sober person that takes a call where the complainant is the only one to be waiting there for me and converts it over to one that brings out parish cops, EMS and Fire and Rescue." So, the idea that someone would knock down my alligator lines time and time again is not at all hard to believe when you realize that some people are stupid enough to try to make a nine and a half foot alligator "pick his head up" by hitting him on the nose with a dried up Popeye's chicken leg bone that they found on their floorboard.

Anyway, I only bring a pirogue if I HAVE to. I try to work them on foot if I can, and 95% of the time that's fine because the alligator is a nuisance anyway, and close by people already. But, I occasionally get calls where there's a body of water that you simply can NOT walk around for the vegetation on the bank, and it's too deep to wade. I have a pendant call right now in such a place, and as luck would have it, there's a resident idiot who refuses to leave my gear alone. This call is about 50 miles from my home, ONE WAY, and I neither want to burn any more money on gas nor do I want to pack that pirogue around unless I must. Obviously, I will grab the pirogue and use it to set out a few "floaters", no doubt, but I got to thinking that I may be able to utilize a R/C boat for that.

Instead of sticking the butt of a long bamboo stalk in the ground to hold my bait outta the water, I make something like a small "square" from 3" PVC. Four short (and equal length) pieces of 3" PVC, four 90's, and I have a approximate 1.5' X 1.5' square that'll float. I stick two short rods out of two holes on opposite sides of the square and I set bait to the ends of those, holding them over the water. I can't and obviously won't be able to throw that out away from the bank without slinging the hooks/bait off of their holders, and I want to tow it out there. I would really like one with a good bit of power for the towing, and I obviously want to play iwth the thing, too, whenever I get the chance!

Anyway, if someone has an example that they could tell me that I may understand, say like "this boat could pull [such-and-such] out into a body of water, or something like that, I'd truly appreciate it!

I apologize for the length of this post, but I kinda started and got caught up in it.

I sincerely thank you all for your help thus far as well as any more that you may give!

LtDoc

Not knowing much about alligators and/or alligator hunters, the first question that came to mind was 'how much of that does he really expect us to believe?'. Then my second thought was that 'this guy should just learn to 'speak' alligator', wouldn't have to bait them at all, they'd die laughing.'. And then the third though was that alligators aren't the only things he 'baits'.
- 'Doc

Quicksilver1

wow this is a tough one. This villain and/or any other rtr boat probably wont do it. Here's my problem with the villain for this purpose. It's noisy, from an alligator attacking it standpoint, because it uses gear drives. However the gear drives are good for pulling large loads. Most rtr boats would burn up trying to pull that thing. Another thing, most boats are meant for speed, which means surface drives, at low speeds these drives are really inefficient and noisy.
Off the top of my head, you want direct drive motors, high torque, low rpm and subsurface drives or jet drives. If you can build a boat the options are unlimited. You're going to need a hull and start from there. If it were me, looking at my jetboat here, I'd use my setup with twice the power. A 30"L + hull, with twin jet drives. Problem being, I hear hobby-lobby has been out of them for some time. However I'm willing to bet theyre not out of all types of them.

Either a setup like this, or maybe a powerful tug boat, but if you want to use the boat for fun as well as work, I'd go with this idea.

So a boat with twin 29mm jet drives and twin 700 series motors should have enough power to pull a 1.5' x1.5' square out in the water quietly, assuming you set everything up straight and true and had no vibrations. Could even put the 700's on belt drives, but that's money. I'll think about this some more, I just woke up from a dream where ironically I was being attacked by a great white shark.......little hazy still.

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This sounds believable to me. I dont know which part you dont believe, that he traps alligators or that he uses bait to get them. Either way, it seems like a good way to find the alligators.

Quicksilver1

I have another idea, how about a boogie board, outfitted with a twin 700 series direct drive, using a subsurface hardware. The drive set up could be contained in a some what aligator safe box, made out of aluminum or steel. This way if an alligator attacks the boat he may just get the a hunk of foam instead of your $500 boat. Draw back here, is I dont know how much fun this boat would be on your down time. The box could house the radio, esc, batteries, motors, and shafts. I need to draw a diagram.

Quicksilver1

ok this didnt take too long, um, so I drew this up as a twin 700 motor setup. However thinking about it further, you probably could get away with twin 540's or speed 600's. Which would mean you could get away with one esc instead of two.

So with that in mind.
Boogie board $50 ?
radio $60
Motors 2x$30
esc $100 Traxxas XL-10 would work
batteries 12cell, sport packs, $60
Hardware maybe $60
Gator proof box- no idea, guess it's what ever you can find.
$390+ or - whatever you already have.
This setup could also be changed to jet drives, which would cost about the same.

just an idea. dont worry, this didnt take me too long, used paint, but I used to use AutoCAD often.

Maggster

My Feedback: (2)

Why not use a 12 volt ups battery and a trolling motor?

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Take a look at the Atlantic Tug RTR. It is all set to run out of the box. I have one and tested it on a 4200 mAh battery pack and it ran for over an hour and a half before I got tired and quit. So, bone stock it runs a good long time. Since it is a tug, it is designed to "tug things" and you can install a better prop than stock that will give more pulling power. My club guys routinely use them for hauling disabled model boats back to shore.

Villains and all similar boats are absolutely wrong for this application.

ATLANTIC TUG RTR

Quicksilver1

I agree a villain or similar boat is wrong, hence my boogie board idea, but dont ya think the tug might not be able to pull a 1.5' x 1.5' PVC square through the water fast enough and get out of the area equally fast. I figured go with something expendable with a tug type drive setup, but a bit more tugging power than normal.

Amos Moses

First, thanks a bunch.....

I had to laugh when I saw that tugboat, because the first thing that came to my mind when I thought about doing this was a R/C tugboat, but of course I didn't think such an animal existed.

So, do you all agree? Should I go ahead and pull the trigger, or is there something else someone wants to throw in? I am deferring to ya'lls' judgment here.

Amos Moses

Quicksilver,

Oh, I meant to tell you that I definitely appreciate the input....but I would love to get something that I didn't have to build for now. I mean, it's not like I think it's beyond my ability....it's just that I, as usual, have waited until I needed this to start looking for it. No doubt a specific ally built piece of hardware would be better, but I'd be fumbling with that and tweaking it for three weeks. Again, it's very much appreciated, and I'm dead serious about that.

Oh, LtDoc . . . I have no doubt that it may sound a bit weird to you in OK, which is why I didn't throw all that out to start with, but trust me, if you lived in Louisiana or Florida, it wouldn't be one bit odd to you....

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Maybe you need to mount a 12 Ga. on that model boat! [X(]

lol...

CadillacDTS2001

there is a custom built tug that can tow 400 LBS barge along with 6 car break disks across the bottom of the lake. and it is about 2 feet long .
its custom made one for tug competion and it is SUPER strong.
the tug ran a course with this barge and then it clipped a buoy and held onto it for the ride around. the buoy was anchored down with 3 car break dicks ( about 15 lbs a piece)
it used power wheel chair motor to power a 4 inch 4 bladed prop. and it had 2 of them
could move a full size boat like its a toy.
it was custom mind you.

Larryds

Try ebay or the buy sell section here and look for a Mr Darby. They say it can pull two men in a row boat.

Quicksilver1

not a problem, I wasnt sure, so I went about it with best possible design for the application. I guess if these guys are sure an rtr tug can do it, than go for it.

Amos Moses

Oh, MAN! I would love to have that SuperTug thing, whatever it is! I could do all kinda neat stuff with that!!

Obviously, just paddling a pirogue is most applicable, really, but I would love to have something small like that, making it where I wouldn't have to pack a pirogue around with me on most calls!

icyuod2

thats just wrong

:P :P

oneFASTcat

I pointed the same mistake out to him by PM. He thought i was talking bad about him and sent me a PM saying im blocking you on my PM. LOL

icyuod2

lmao