Hi All,
First off let me explain that I'm Brand New to R/C Boating and thought that The "SpeedSnail" would be a good boat to play around with while I had some down time here in Iraq. Boy was I wrong.

I've put it in the water once and everyone around had the same thought I did, "That's It". After that I (and the 3 other guys that fell for this trap) desided that this boat needs soaped up. Going off this thead I've started to come up with a plan and would like to run it by you all before droping some serious money.

My plan is 2 x OffshoreElectrics 700SC (Super Charged) motors left in the orginal motor area (Can I use the stock prop shafts?) Graupner Carbon Fiber Prop 40mm, 2 x 12 Cell GP3700. I plan to move the black box (like I said I'm brand new. So I don't know what to call it) as far forward as possible and mount the batterys behind that. For body mods I'm thinking of removing the rear wing and shaving down the hatch to the point that the "intake" is removed.

Hi all, I am just thinking of getting back into model boats and getting a NQD Hydo, How stable is it on rough water? I will be mainly using it on the sea (only when calm and near the beach?

not sure if the NQD Hydro is too rough water orientaded, i know with mine i'm switching over to nitro and making the hull a 1 piece insted of 2. out of the box it's pretty lame and wants to become a submerine in some cases from factory leaks

Hi Adrian,

A stock NQD hydro is so slow, you can run it in almost any condition.
Salt water is never very healty for boat electrics, so rinse with sweet water thouroughly after each run.

If you want to modify the boat to real hydroplane speed, the smoother the water, the better, hydroplanes don't like chop at all.

Regards, Jan.

Hi remf_11m,

As you may (or may not ) have read in the previous postst in this thread, that the NQD hydro is a sloppy engineered toy, it looks the part, but that's it.
To make it run like a hydroplane, keeping it las light as possible is the key.

Two 700SC in the original motor positions will shift the COG way too far to the rear and the 24 cells will do the rest to make it a submarine.

The best way to get some serious speed is a single 700SC on a flexshaft, a strut and separate rudder, prop; from 40-45mm (Graupner K-series) and 12-14 cells sub-C.
The 'black box' houses the stock electronics, which will fry when using a 700 motor, so a separate receiver, rudder servo and ESC is in order, maybe, just maybe you can use the stock transmitter, but I would not count on it.

The stock shafts need to come off completely to reduce drag.

The CoG should be no more that an inch after the sponsons end, this is very hard to achieve, due to the internal layout of the boat, which leaves the sponsons and a part of the hull free to the water outside (hence the liberal amount of foam).

I have a gutted hull on the workbench, and I'm still figuring out how to fit the components inside this hull (which is already very heavy to begin with).

Regards, Jan.

Big note to everyone

NQD is not a good boat mine sits on a shelf now, as i have ABS hydros that can do 65kmh on 15 cells and a 700, the nqd would be lucky if it did 40kmh

At the moment im running a classic hydros shovelnose with an 12 - 16 cellsss1, and a bby oval master 26 running on 12 - 16 cells and ss1, both of these hulls are cheap and they are very good hulls, fast and stable the ss1 is also the 700 to have, u can run bigger props than the graupner, i was running an X450 on my hydro on 12 cells!! for saw! on the oval master i run 40 - 45mm depending on cells and race conditions your money is much better spent on something like this... the Oval Master is a very good rough water boat, very quick.

That is very true...
Shame I bought the boat AFTER i read that post lol.
You however, can get some fun out of it by overvolting it to 12v... i did this for a while, and although it most likely will smoke the motors, after examining the controler, it actualy uses 15A relays for control, making it probably quite decent! (radio range is awful though)
Me and friends delight in hacking up toys like this... and we may make a vacuform hull using the NQD as a mould, resulting in a much lighter hull!
By the way, my names Angus, from Australia... combat robot builder.

Expect some hardcore modding soon.

Short video containing stock NQD, and modded NQD.. with stats.
2 drill motors at 12v heh.

http://glen.botclips.net/Boats/nqdhackage.wmv

2 drill motors seem to perform better than stock

Did you have a change to try it on a slightly bigger body of water yet?

Video?

Regards, Jan.

I will... in a week, school takes up all my time during weekdays...[:'(]

I do however have a video of stock at bronte beach at low tide in a little protected area, but it's so slow !
Also to anyone looking for a high power cheap as chips drive setup, a cheapo cordless drill has a 12v 1.2ah nicad pack/s, a nice 550 12v motor and if your lucky, a funky variable speed trigger controler which, once modded (you remove the outter casing and spring) can be connected to a servo with a push rod for a HIGHLY powerful ESC.... people have run 300w scooter motors of these due to their 15A current limiting. Not melting is a good thing!

Here's the vid;
http://glen.botclips.net/Boats/NQDstock.wmv

NQD Speed Snail

Well, took it to the lake, here's the vid;
http://glen.botclips.net/hacknqd.wmv
Conclusion: the NQD is a badly designed hull, too heavy and leaks like a sieve.
Time to move on to something better...
Still... it is fun to drive, and has the power behind it, and about the little bird... oops Not my fault these birds are too tame for their own good! The swans follow you!!! lol

[quote]ORIGINAL: SJN

If the speed 700 isn`t going to move it, then I dont know what will..........................or do I??
!!!!!!!!!!!BRUSHLESS!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is tempting... but the whole idea is to NOT spend more than a proper rc boat... a brushless setup decent enough is way above my "side rc boat" hobby I'd love to see someone else give it a go though!

Joining the thread of discussion - Just bought the floating brick after spending sometime time studying hydroplanes.
spent £20 on the boat and tried with stock equipment. Then tried 8.4v some improvement - marginal.

My obsevations on the stock setup:-

- 3 point Hull ride plane very close to the real thing.
- far to big and heavy for electric, will never get up to plane onto prop and front sponsons
- centre of gravity slightly to far aft

The Hull is not bad apart from a couple of moulding lines on the rear wing.

I have seen all the videos and noticed the following:-
Drag from aft sitting to low in the water - this would also cause drag with built up air beneath the hull. The air flow dynamics are not working. Think back at the basic airplane wing principles !!

Suggestions apart from chucking in the Bin;

- keep the bottom part of the moulding and make a new top half - should reduce the weight considerbly. improving power to weight ratio.
- keep the sponson angle as stock- if you increase the angle then this will only cause a push down on the aft.
- Single prop with adjustable pitch, prop to lifting
- 18 to 20 cells if you want to keep it electric ie you need about 300-500 watts of power for a model this weight and size. check out this site http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=516


I am looking at a lighter toy model for about the same price before deciding on which one to modify. I have also found a smaller version of this NQD model which i might also buy.

Weight is the key reduce weight increase power and you should get this up to plane. Problem with the electric to generate this amount of power the model will only run for about 5 mins.

I am Also Getting an NQd type Boat , OK, they are Cheap and will allow me to get wet..

I Already have a Traxxas 2700mah NiMh Battery That I am Going to Use over the Stock 1700..

Do you think Two Venom Fireball 15 Turn Motors fit?
What Type of ESC's will allow this Sort of Modification?

I already have the Motors but am Unsure what ESC will work it?
I dont Intend to go Over Board and am Quite Happy to stick with the " Vectored Thrust"
What limit would you say the Stock ESC can Handle?

I would like to start by saying that I have enjoyed reading everyone's posts; they've been quite inspirational after my disappointing experience with the NQD Hydro. I Just bought one recently and was disappointed with the snail-like performance. I previously bought another e-bay special - the EP Wing Speed and had much better results. Only thing is, it disintegrates and sinks upon impact - Big OOPS!. Hence, here is my take on modifying the NQD Hydro:

2x Cordite SS1 700 Series 1/3HP electric motors
2x 7.2V battery packs
2x 30A relays

I plan to mount the motors in the original spaces using the existing drivetrain
The output from the existing esc will be used as the signal voltage to actuate the relays
Battery packs will be in series, esc will be paralleled into one of the packs
Motor negatives will be paralleled to battery negative
Motor positives receive power from the positive outputs of the relays

In a nutshell, what I'm trying to achieve is to increase the motor size and battery size while preserving the original vector push design without burning out the stock esc. I like the vector push because no additional equipment is required for steering. Setup should cost just under $150 (The motors are the biggest cost at $65 a pop). Need all comments and suggestions. Thanks!

Magnat, I don't know if you read my previous post, but you should be able to do the same thing using one battery pack with the two hotter motors. The key is to use 30A automotive relays to send power to the motors while using the 7.2V from the stock ESC as the actuating signal. This will increase your current draw without actually running the extra current through the ESC and risking a meltdown. It also allows you to keep the stock vector thrust control. If you have ever done any accessory wiring in a car (airhorns, stereo amplifiers, etc) you should have no problem. If you haven't, just let me know and I'll send you a wiring diagram.

Has anyone messed around with the smaller version (1:25) of this boat? I know that merdub01 mentioned something about it, but I wasn't sure if anyone has actually had the chance to see one run. I would think that a boat of this size would be better suited to using twin 380s and would surely have a better chance of planing than its larger brother. I really love the look of the hydro and thought about buying the 30" version until I read this thread. I may buy the small version just to play around with.

***EDIT***

I went ahead and purchased one of the smaller boats to see how it runs. I can't help but think that it will be a more capable hydro than the larger one, considering it is using the exact same motors as the 30" boat.

I have not been able to find the smaller scale 1:25 of this model but would be very interested in the test runs from bugman72. Hows it going?

Took the brick out on the water with stock gear and run 9.6v pack. As you can guess all started to smoke with one of the motors packing up due to overheating and build up of water through the bad hull deck joint.

I've decided only one course of action. Take my two 700BB motors and belt drive system out of my 40" mono hull add my single shaft steerable graupner drive unit and octura 50-1.4pitch prop and run on 12cells. Remove the deck and replace with thin sheet clear plastic.

Hopefully, I will get the boat by the weekend so I can test it out. It's sort of strange...the 1:25 scale one (18"L x 10"W) uses the same pair of 380s but uses a 9.6V battery pack instead of the 7.2V of the larger boat. I don't necessarily see why the smaller boat would use a larger pack, but it does!

Have you got any pictures or links to this smaller boat ?

[link=http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6049298337&rd=1&sspage name=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1]1:25 RC Hydro[/link]

This is the one that I bought. I sent him a best offer of $15, so including insurance, I'm getting it for $44. Not cheap...but not a bad price to play around with. They also have blue and yellow versions. I'm in the process of finding a good pic of Miss Budweiser so I can replace the decals with offical markings.

It is the same boat as mine..... Same size.