Hey guys, I have a Triton Catamaran sitting around that I took apart a long time ago. I'm looking to get it back together and take it to the river, and hopefully make it a bit faster than it used to be. I've got 2 props and the driveshaft, but the gears, gearbox, and motors are gone. Still have the two servos and the crappy mechanical speed control. I'm thinking about just getting a new motor, mounting it to the driveshaft, and then getting a esc for it.

So my questions are, would that setup be better than the stock setup? Should I (or could I?) get a flexshaft to replace the drive shaft? And and all advice would be really helpful. I haven't done much R/C for a few years, got a Jeep to take up all my time.

Hi GS5,

Do you mean the Academy Triton cat, which comes stock with two 540 motors on a single shaft, with the horrible steering outdrive?

I have one on the shelf too, waiting for a refit with a flexshaft, separate rudder and a mild brushless.

Before I do that, I need to reinforce the transom with ply and the riding surfaces of the sponsons with thin ABS sheet and sharpen all traling edges.

My motor will be one of these, as I have them at hand:
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...hless_Inrunner on 3S
or:
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...hless_Inrunner on 4S.

The second option is the more 'sane' one in terms of rpm and ampdraw...

Hardware will come from Hongkong aswel:
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Head-o...34Q2ec0Q2em322

Regards, Jan.

Yeah pompebled, that's the one I'm talking about. Thanks for the advice. I'd love to see how you are going to sharpen the edges on the boat, as well as anything else you do to it. What flexshaft are you planning on using? I'll probably just use a brushed motor for now, but upgrade to brushless and lipo's later. Thanks for your help!

Hi GS5,

I added a sketch, showing how I go about it.

I make a goo out of scrap pieces of ABS, solved in Acetone or MEK, both will work, make it thick, not too runny.

I glue a strip of ABS onto the edge I want to sharpen, using a small amount of goo, or just a drop of solvent.
Once set, I fill the gap with the goo, higher than required, as it will shrinkg once the solvent eveporates.
Work in thin layers, as the solvent will also soften the surrounding ABS, too much solvent wil cause deformation (and more repairs).

To avoid the goo from running to the sides, I close those gaps with tape, preferably polyester tape, as it is less affected by the solvent.

Once the solvent has eveporated, over night, you can file, sand the edge sharp.

Regards, Jan.

Thanks for the help pompebled, I'll have to try that and see how it goes.

Since I'm on a very small budget right now I went and got a Traxxas 12t Titan motor today, I'm ordering a 1/8 to 4mm coupler from offshoreelectrics.com to couple it to the stock driveshaft. I'm going to cut the shaft and the stuffing tube down on the inside and fabricate my own mount for the motor. This will allow me to at least get the boat running, and then I can upgrade to a brushless setup when the time comes.

I have the stock prop and a 4mm plastic one, I think by Octura, that says 40 5 K on the hub. With the Titan 550 12t, one of these props, and 6 or 7 cells, should I expect the boat to exceed the stock performance? I'm not looking for amazing speeds, just a bit better than what it was.

I finished the motor mount and got it bolted in, just waiting for the shaft coupler to come in so I can make the final changes to the driveshaft and get it all hooked up. I also took off the turn fins and filled in the holes because I read cats don't need them.

I got the titan motor and a 6 cell Venom battery with a Futaba 2PH radio. It runs pretty well, much faster than stock but still nothing to impressive. Its really fun to run so far though.

You can't leave it at that...

We'd like to see some pictures of the set-up and the boat in action, please

Regards, Jan.

Haha sorry to leave you hanging Pompebled, but there's nothing to exciting to see here. Did get some pics from my run today. At one point the driveshaft came disconnected, well the mini-c went in after it, and once I got the sponsons around the outdrive it made a nice little recovery. I ordered some upgrades for the mini-c, but I'm still not sure what else I should do to the Triton. Anyways, pics...

The real reason I have no money for the boats...






It's really hard to work the transmitter and iPhone at the same time, but did get one action shot.