Here's my try on a shallow draft river push tug, no plans or prints just building as I go.plans are twin 2:1 reductions turning 50mm fourblades or direct drive 65 turn lathe motors.traxxas emaxx esc 12 volt sealed lead acid battery,possibly two wire in parallel.built strong and heavy then sheared with fiberglass sheets. Hull is being built upside down and I may increase the rake in the front and decreed the rear rake and move it back some.on to the pics.here's a Microsoft paint drawing I came
up with

redlined,

What you have is looking interesting. What are the specs? I have had a similar idea by using the Springer class r/c boat as
a base, doubling the length, flattening the bottom and I'll use a 12v Marx 1:2.75 motor I happen to have on hand. The length
will be 36" but I'm not to sure about making the beam twice the Springer beam, it would be 16" which I think is a little too
wide. Maybe 10 - 12".

Bob

36x15 the beam varies on the style of tug,down south the more decke the longer the tug gets without getting a wider beam.if my tug was a single cabin 36" long I'd go 16" wide only cause a real single cabin tug is small and wide.my dad has been a shipbuilder for 30+ years and he has built many real tugs and he helped with the scale size,he suggested that the beam be between 30-40% of the push tugs lenth for stability and to maintain a shallow draft.pull tugs are different.my drawing is close to exactly how Louisiana push boats are made.

redlined,

30-40%, that's a good number to know. I'll use that percentage to figure the beam on mine as it is definitely
going to be a pusher. I happened to se a superstructure in a Tug magazine the other day that I sort of liked
that I'll probably use to. It was on a 'modern' pusher river tug boat.

Bob

check out towboats joes site hes loaded with info on push boats,along with the size of the real tug that he made his model from so You can compare sizes of diffrent and same class tugs.

heres a little progress I made lastnight,Made the outter frame rail for the top and squared it up.I used cypress blocks as guides to support the bulkheads,So its kinda like my jig for now.I need to make and add a few more ribs then I will cut the curved stringers for the front and rear rakes.My drawing shows the tugs to have all angles but in the stern it will have slow curves.I added a v in the bow aswell


Gotta love the helping weight of lead acid battiers

It's shaping up real nice so far. Do you think the 'V' on the bow will be of much benefit considering you have the pushers up there also?
Again I'm thinking of Springers with pushers built as yours are drawn. The pushers are below the water line and therefore the 'V' won't
do much good in pushing water to the side as the pushers are right there in the way. Other Springer models "do not" have their pushers
in front of the bow and below the water line but rather even with the front of the bow and straight up above the bow. I that case a 'V'
would help in pushing through the water to some degree so that there would not be such a large bow wave to push along in front of the boat.

Just a couple of thoughts/observations.

Bob

I think the v bow will give her more straight tracking and stablity while moving thru the water
heres some minor updates






tie wraps made good clamps

doubbling up on the side supports so I can hand sand a 1/2" raidus curve on all the edges


taking shape


and the final v in the bow rake

So far so good. I've been following along with each of your posts and I'm looking forward to seeing some "skin" on the frames,
especially the bow. Speaking of which (frames), are you using 3/8" x 1" pine strips for your framing?

I like all the gussets you have put in, make it nice and strong.

BTW, that's quite a "unique" Calico cat you have there, especially her back feet.

Keep up the good work.

Bob

Im using 3/8"x 1" and 1/4"x 1/2" and some 1/4"x3/8" of spanish cedar and some cypress,Im laying down the skin on the bottom now

That's good to know. How about the skin planks; look like 1" wide but how thick? 1/16", 3/32" or 1/8"? While I'm thinking of it, are you using good ol' carpenters glue (I would, no matter what wood) or epoxy, especially at the stress joints or a combination?

Bob

the planks are 1/8"x1" but I wish I had a mini planer to make em 1/16",or a better tablesaw blade,all these planks were cut with a high dollar tablesaw,I have some planks that are 1/16" but didnt have enough.Im thinking of buying a mini planer and selling plank bundles.The spanish cedar is really nice to work with and I use regular elmers carpenters glue mixed with Sig wood glue,The sig is thin and the elmers I use is thick so I mix em up but elmers is just fine.

a hott dirty black jeep always cures glue faster



had I know the KFX 90 doubbled as a wood clamp I woulda paid more for it


Holy Huge Push Tug Batman!


edlined_b16a/e03ecdb7.jpg[/IMG]

Those 1/8" planks did a super job bending to the aft frame. Did you wet them first or just carefully bend them into place?

Bob

one at a time dry,The key is to make sure your frame work is super strong enough so the planks wont pull the hull appart,cause each plank has about 5lbs of pullback strenth,5lbs aint alot until you have 20 planks all pulling 5lbs at a time,lol......thats why the atv is on top.One plank at a time,took about a 1/2 hour for all the planks.The wood does flex and curve alot.

redlined,

Really looking good. The planking came out nicely; next I'm anxious to see how the superstructure and in particular the knees come out with your "V" hull.

While cruising through another Forum I ran across a picture that may give you some encouragement and ideas. Go to this link, "http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=522762&page=158" post #2365. You will see what you are building, more or less.

Are you going to fiberglass the hull? I know you are going to use twin 2:1 reduction motors to run your boat but what size motors are you planning on running?

Bob

I plan to use two 550 motors possibly 3:1 reductions.I will fiberglass it cause it's heavier than the pacer z poxy I'd prefer to use.I have no plans as of yet how I'm gonna build the super structure but I will make 80% of the deck removable and sealed.I think my draft is too deep for the lenth.I'm thinking of adding 4" to the hull.I have to sell some rc truck stuff before I can purchase gear for it.I have to locate shafts and stuffing boxes and install them before the fiberglass work.right now my next plan is to try to make a mininplaner out of my router to make thinner planks for the next hull.I may sell this one

heres some updates,rounded the edges,added a front deck bulkhead to seal it for flotation and i ordered the props and shafts from cornwall




once the props and shafts are in i'll be able to get alot more done and then i'll be able to seal the hull

Happy to see you've got the props and shafts on the way. Are you going to use pulley and gears (or is that gears and pulleys) for reduction or are you going to use a gear system for each motor? Secondly, are you going to control each motor separately? Just wondering.

Bob

I recived my props and shafts from cornwall today,fast shipping and great to deal with.
now that its mocked up 50mm looks too small so i'm looking to turn 6000 rpm to attain the thrust i want
im think ill go with twin esc's on a 4 channel tx/rx