I'm in the process of building a 1/24 scale crew boat, that I will power it with 2 electric motors. I have built several nitro and gas boats, but never an electric powered. I'm thinking maybe a pair of Dumas 12v. Any input on this type of setup would be helpful.

I have the Mr. Darby from Dumas and it weighs in at 75lbs. Using a pair of dumas 12v motors is perfect power for it. I would guess that with your much lighter weight boat the power would be good. I've never built a crew boat but I believe their supposed to move at a good pace so the extra power in a lighter weight boat should give you a scale appearance. If its to fast the just keep your foot out of it.

Tim

Thanks Tim,
Once a point in time a long time ago I worked for a ship yard that specialized in crew boats. My son asked me today of how many different type of model boats I have built so for, and I could not answer him. I would have to sit down and think about it for a while. But this is the first scale size, and I'm attemping to build from memory.
You are right about the weight, and I'm thinking about adding water tanks, to help it sit in the water correct.
Today I got the frame work and the bottom and sides in place. Glassed the inside.

There are kits of crew boats out there if you would rather build up a kit that try to do it from memory. If you interested I'll try to find out a source for you. I have a friend in town here that has a couple of them. I could find out where he got them from. Your project looks like it's moving along quickly. Check out my building thread "building narvik class destroyer" in the scale forum to see what I'm working on now.

Tim

Thanks but but building it the hard way seams to do more for me. This way when I'm finished I can say I built it. Then I get time playing around with the AutoCad, making my own drawings(easer for me to understand)
Do you know any place that sells tires about 1-1/4"OD, at a real low price? I will need a lot of them.

Try this link to loyalhannadockyard. This will take you right to the tires page. They have a ton of stuff through there and Don is really nice to deal with. I met him at the Toledo show, and was impressed. They look like they could be a little pricey to run all the way around a crew boat but they sure do look nice. I have a lot of left over tires from car model kits I used to build years ago but not enough to help you out though. If you should decide you want them let me know and I'll see how many I have and if any of them are the size you need. You can have them if they fall in the realm of what works for you ok.

Tim

sorry, I had to edit this, the first time I read your post I didn't catch the "really cheap" part of the tires question. If I come across anything else I'll post it for you ok.


http://www.loyalhannadockyard.com/BO...ER%20TIRES.htm

thanks for the site, thats the kind I'm looking for. planing to have 30, 1-1/4" on each side and 4, 3" on the transome.

About the tires. KNow any kids (small ones, or the larger variety) who are into model cars or RC cars? If so, ask for their old ones...
- 'Doc

Tires for your scale crew boat. Electical supply store is the answer. I have scratch built two models of the Swift Ship 120ft boats. For my tires down each side I used 1inch gromets, they look scale and are a lot cheaper than those little rubber tires from the hobby houses. I mounted them the same way that we mounted the real thing on the boats. I have one that is a twin screw and one that is a triple screw. You said you are going to use Dumas 12volt motors, that I tried and could not get a good scale speed out of them. I now use Graupner 700bb`s. I use 2 jell cells, 12v 7.5AH. That combo does a real good job. Hope this note is some help to you. Lloyd

PS Hope to get my fleet (7 boats) on the water with our friend Tim if it ever quits raining up here.

Thanks Guys,
I like the sound of the rubber gromets, since they look more like the air plane tires, that are used in the full sized crew boats.
The Dumas I stated because it was easy to find info on, well at least it was the only info I had. What I'm building is 61" and I'm trying to get the weight up on it.
What would be the best motor setup to use? direct drive, grear 1-2? jet drive?

Installed the deck, bull works, gunnell, aft deck, aft handrails and bits. Glassed in the seams and wood defects. Now I'm waiting on more wood to arrive.
I did not cut the hatch for the laserette, before I installed the aft deck, now its going to be a fight to cut it out and install the rudder system.

Lloyd, maybe we should hook up the tugs and tow our homes to the high ground, AWAY ALL BOATS, IT'S EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!

Haljmac, I didn't consider the 700bb's like Lloyd used. I would think those in a direct drive would work ok for you. I do know there are other people on this site that know a lot more and could probably help you out more on power suggestions. Most of my experience is with scale chris-craft's using single motor direct drives. My big tug was powered with the suggestions from Dumas, which worked very well. That's using the dumas 12v's and their gear drives. One of my chris craft's uses a 700bb direct drive, it's 36" long and moves out really well and a very scale looking speed. I would think a pair of these would do you just fine. Since Lloyd has a couple of these boats I think I would bow to his opinion and go with the 700's. You will probably find somebody who will suggest something different. Before you know it you will have so many suggestions you won't know which one to use. I know that happened with my destroyer. It's good to have all those suggestions, it gives you a lot to work with. Thats the beauty of this site, you can get all kind of information and make some friends at the same time.

Tim

That's some nice progress on that hull. It's looking really good. Next time I bet you get everthing done in the hull before you install the decks. I'm dealing with that right now on my destroyer and refusing to install the mid and aft decks until I've had it in the water and tested. It's so much easier to work on with no deck installed. I don't want to run into something that has to be done and now I have a deck in the way. I look forward to seeing your boat done. Keep up the thread and posting pics, it's fun to see what others are doing.

Tim

Hello again Haljmac, I`ll pass along a few thoughts that I have learned over the years of building scale electric boats. Direct drive I find the best, quiet, gears are noisy. I use a speed control on each motor. With this set up I have very good manuvering control even able to walk it right or left a big asset when running a manuvering course. Also I would have suggested making the main deck fully removable in one or two pieces it is nice to be able to get at any place in the hull at future times. It seems somthing in the hull always needs changeing or repair, such as moving ballast around to get the right trim line. If I can answer any questions for you just let me know.

Lloyd

Thanks Guys, I am the type of person that will always hear any advice from any one. The direct drive sounds like the best way to go. With speed control for each motor. I gonna start out with a pair, then if needed I'll add more. This boat that I'm building, in the full size, is running 4 engines. And with 4 engines its will without any problem walk. Walking with 2 can be done, but takes some extra knowledge, with 4 its simple. With working offshore I have had the chance to play around with crew boats one twin drive and the other with 4 engines. Alone with the capt. teaching me. I'm very happy that I had this chance of learing a little of something new.
Back to the advice thing. I was once told, A dumb man; one that thinks he knows, that will not listen to anything new or different. A smart man; one that knows he will never know what he needs, and will hear out any one with a new or different idea.
And this is why I hear myself telling know it alls,"Don't tell me how long you've been doing this, show me what you know".
Back to the boat,
Waiting on UPS for more wood. This morning I was able to install the cowling for the engine room. The mid bits and the bow bit. My step son (10 years old) made the anchor for it, and did a fine job on it. I'll post pics latter today.

While waiting on the wood to arrive, I painted the hull. Wood arrive, back to work. Built the cabin, pilet house, the mask and installed the handrails. Cutting out the windows is a pain in the ass, seamed like they would never stop coming. Will not be able to work on it for a few days, the job is calling me.
Here are a few pics

I could not stand it, I had to see, even though its no where near finished, how she was gonna float.

WOW, your really moving along on your project. I've never built something as fast as your going. I'm impressed. Looks really good too. I still haven't gotten any work done on my destroyer this week. To much going on to get to it. Maybe I can get a building session in tomorrow, we'll just have to see. I'm still waiting for the props so I can test run and then install the deck. I've been waiting for about 5 weeks now. They must be coming from europe or something, their back ordered.

Once again, nice job there.

Tim

I'm gonna have to slow down before long. LOL the wife told me I must sell on of my toys to get the money to buy my motors and hardware. 5 weeks on waiting on a part, man that would kill me. Could you use a prop from a diffrent company?
This afternoon I removed all of the paint(scraping and sanding) I was not happy with the results. Got most all of it repainted, just have the handrails on the aft deck and the cargo rails to repaint.
Installed the doors on the cabin, the handles and knobs was a pain. The windows I used plexy-glass and painted the back side wide a gloss black to give it a tinted window look. The next crew boat I build, thinking about going with clear glass and putting detail inside of the cabin. I got the wild idea of building the life rafts from wood, cutting and sanding to shape them, this is taking some work. Also thinking about cutting the wheels from wood(I must have lost my mind, LOL).
Made all of the deck boards for the cargo deck, this really help a lot on the looks of it being a crew boat.
Thanks Tim, all of my hulls come together fast, then I get to the finish work, then it slows way down. This hull I have a little over 60 hours into it, counting designing and making the layouts. AutoCad really helps out a lot on the time it takes off of building. It takes out about 95% of useing a tape meassure and pencil. I just print it out 1 to 1, spray some glue on the back of the print, stick it to the wood and cut it out. Takes the worry out of having the lines drawn wrong, and the parts come together exactly right. Some parts I don't try to lay out, but I scribe them as needed(bottom and sides)
Again thanks, this is some of my better work, I'm proud to say I'm building it.

I made up my mind on what I'm useing for the tires. Just spent the last 2 days cutting out tires. Useing 2 1/4" sheets of ply, cut the outter edge with a hole-saw, then used a belt sander to shap, then drilled the inner hole, then used a rasp to shap inside the tires, dressed, then painted. So much for one side, now the other side and transome. This is hard on the old back.

Wow, that's a lot of work making tires but they look to have come out pretty good. Nice work there, I would have not thought to make them out of plywood.

Tim

hi all this is my first post after reading the entire thread,,,haljmac,,,,nice boat,very nice,,,similar to my pilot boat in dimensions,,,on mine though i did a few things differently and i know this come a little late seeing as you are close to done.....some of the things i did differently was,,,,i used pairs of props mounted port and starboard,,each side is run independantly by one motor for the pair by matching them with pullies and rubber belts with side tensioners,,,gives equal power to each prop in its pairing while being quiet and more forgiving in alignment and repair proceedures,,,,the rudders are also mounted and run in pairs with individual servo channels allowing drift capabilities you would not believe,,along with a custom dual motor dual control bow thruster that has its ports pointing down 2% while they point forward 3%,,i also have ballast tanks on board 2 forward and 2 aft and they are controlled by mercury switches that read the list of the hull this is especially nice when running on choppy water or under heavy or moderate wind,,,,,when they craft is hit port side with a cross wind the starboard tanks empty while the port side tanks fill pulling the hull back into the water.

you didnt mention ligths but mine has mini mag (AA)light lens capsules and the solitaire mini mag (AAA) light lens capsule for forward rearward and deck service lighting,,,,it really lights up on the water even at dusk,,,,,everything runs on remote including the crane and winches,airhorn,collision warning beacon,and a digital recording of "all hands on deck" and 3 search lights i am currently working on putting in 2 independant diesel sound devices from R.A.M. and many other things on board,,the whole thing works by implementing 3 transmitters and 3 receivers and a total of 24 channels,,2-2 channels and 1-4 channel system with a switching system i designed.

this model is the design basis for the larger version i am planning to start this summer,,a 120" long 38" beam size in 1/6th scale using the 12" action figures that i want to animate.......well i have wwritten more in one post then i probably should have but i wanted to step in and let at least someone on here know i exist,,,i dont have a scanner or digital camera so i dont have photos,,,gettinga new computer soon maybe ill buy one as part of the unit,,,,im thomas im in denver,colorado and i also build planes." have a good one " to all of you.

Thanks Thomas,
I did try some LED's for the running lights, but don't know the voltage for them. I like your ideas alot, and also I have given some thought into haveing more remote detail. Your boat sounds like a dream. I had to bring my hull to some what of a stop, the wife said I need to search the sofa for pennies. LOL

hey hal,,,,
believe me when i say i know what you mean,,, when i start the new hull it will be constructed using an aluminum frame with aluminum skin overlayed with fibreglass cloth in 3 layers and five or six applications of resin not including the graphite reinforced overcoat and the gel coat and of course the paint which is an epoxy base. i think the worst or should i say the hardest part will be approximately 80 hand laid boards for the deck,,,,,

with the bigger version being right at 10 feet long i will be using 12 volt gel cell car batteries called optima's they are the absolute best for positioning and they dont leak yes they are heavy but i figure the ballast required to bring her to water line will be around 90 to 100 pounds,,,,,furthermore i am also including a self maintained charging system consisting of an automotive alternator and an electric start weed eater motor to drive it and use the basic charging equipment like the relays and voltage regulator etc that will allow the craft to run unassisted for upto approximately 28 hours.......if it turns out like i hope...it should set some new standards in remote control scale boating ,,,,,and hopefully some people will notice my efforts and abilities....i will see what happens i guess.....

thomas

Thomas you have to get us some pics on this monster as you build it.
Just went shopping on the bay for the first time, looking for motors, for my crew boat. Came across a set of 2, made my bid, then came across another set of 2 of a different brand, made a bid, then came across another set of 3 and made a bid on them. Thinking I would have a chance of getting at least 2 motors. Won all 3 bids, now I have 7 motors on the way. Think its time to start designing another hull.
With all of these motors I should be able to build something with all kind of attachments to play with. Now I need to find some controlers. I was thinking about useing controlers from automobiles(AC/heater fan controls) has any one tried useing this type of controler? I know I will not have fine tuning of the speed of the motors, but will something like this work?