stuch

love the looks of the americanrcboats vee-rod. is this a well built hull? haven't seen many on this site matter of fact haven't seen any i'd like to see some pictures of this boat. so if you have one please give me some info on how it handles fully modded pum260's also tune pipe and haedwear. thank you.

Ron Olson

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I've got one that I'm in the middle of building now.
I'm doing it the way that Zac told me to. It's going to have a modded Sikk in it.
Sorry, all I've got right now are some really bad shots of it.
If you go to Zac's site there ahould be at least one video of it in action. There might be some quick shots of it in the Me Time promo video, it will be Zac's red one and somewhere else a plain vanilla white one.

Hardware. Speedmaster Gas stinger strut (there are 2 of them, the one that I have doesn't have the ball-links for adjusting) and the 6" stand-off rudder. The 2" x 2" trim tabs near the strut and the 1-3/4" x 1-3/4" tabs on the outside. Zac sells them separately or as a set.
Fair warning as for a gas boat everything is going to be a little tight on the transom.
Download or at least look at the setup sheet on Zac's site also. The CG has to be right at 29% (14") forward of the transom to make it handle right.

OK, I found a couple of shots. There's pretty bad as that part of my dungeon isn't that well lit and had the wrong settings on my camera.

stuch

thanks man. i guess i'll call zac tomorrow and get the info on building one.

Ron Olson

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Here's a link to the setup sheet: http://www.americanrcboats.com/howto...%20vee-rod.htm
A few things have changed but not much since that was done. Gus Dolsen was doing some R&D work on the Vee-Rod for Zac so there were a few changes. I probably messed up something above.
Maybe we can help each other out along the way. I'm at the point right now where I need some things before I can do other things. I should be able to order some more parts soon from him to get mine back on a roll. Unfortunately I had to drop about a Grand into my pick-up this past week, that didn't help.

juicr

I have seen the V-Rod run several times at races. It is a fast and great handling mono.

Zac Price

Looking good Ron, looks like it's almost done. Are you going to Dayton?

Stuch,
I have only built a few and just don't have the time to build. We are building a new shop in Arkansas and will be moving in July??? They will be available at that time along with LOTS of new things in the works.

The new Vee-Rod is a bit different than the one Ron has (hull change but same deck and hatch) and I gave the transom more working room. The new one only requires 2 inside trim tabs.

Thanks Juice

Ron Olson

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I'm not sure where I'm going yet this year as right now I'm waiting to see what the D-2 race schedule is going to be.
Being pretty much new to gas boats I'm going through the learning curve almost like a Noob. I'm trying to find a motor mount that will drop the Sikk further down in the hull. Zac, have you got anything like that as I don't see one on your site or is it possible to use one for a Zen? I could probably do some wacking on the bottom of the stock mount if I have to. I looked at Carlo's mount but it appears that it adds more angle to the engine.

Zac Price

Ron,
You are right in needing to get the engine low. I set mine all really low but 2 years ago seen one with the standard Zen mounts and the boat never did act right. I'll look this afternoon and see what I can find for the SIKK.

stuch

talked to Zac tonight said he'll build me one in july. he's working on his new hobby shop. said he did some changes to the hull to make it more forgiving. i have a bhhason pipe and a WHH 5hpmodded jug on a bonzi 260pum/w/bonzi clutch and mounts he said send it to him and he'll hook me up. he also said he'd do the gel-coat in blue flake for a little more $ instead of painting the hull. now i'am hot for it hurry up JULY.... oh by the way Zac is a cool guy to talk to. and has my business now and in the future....

Ron Olson

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I've met Zac and his wife at the Gas Nat's where I picked up my hull but not from him.
He's been absolutely great in helping me to get mine built. Once he gets moved I'm waiting to see what else he has up his sleeve. I did hear something about possibly a Cat hull in the works.

Doubledog

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One thing you can say about Zac is that he's paying his dues and coming up with his own stuff.

Ron Olson

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I hit a swap meet during the weekend but there wasn't much that I could use there. I called Zac this morning and ordered a pile of parts to get this thing finished.
The phone number on his site isn't in service yet so I called his cell phone number and got his wife. She gave me a number to contact him but his number should be usable by the end of the week. He doesn't have power to the building yet and was supposed to have had it by today but a nasty snowstorm in the area put all of the crews to work getting power back to those who are without. They have to put a pole up across the street for power then the phone company can hook up to that.
Basically I sent him a check and told him to fill a box for me. Hopefully in the next week or so I should really get rolling on it.

Doubledog

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Geez, & to think I move slow on a project Now Hydro Junkie may have us both beat.

Ron Olson

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Poverty slowed me down last month as we had to drop about $1,300.00 into the pick-up that I didn't have then about a week after that my SUV tossed the distributor gears so there was another $330.00 to get that fixed. February is usually a bad month around here for some reason. I finally got a couple of bucks in my pocket so I had to send them Zac's way.
Yeah, it was driving me nuts watching that boat collect dust as I'm running out of building season.

BTW, Zac is supposed to be working on an improved version of this hull, one with a little more transom area as things are a little tight back there.

Doubledog

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Speaking of Zac, I was on his site yesterday needing to order a new filling station for a friend. He's out of stock so I shot him an email asking when they'll be in. Also need a new grey coil for the zen...

Ron Olson

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A lot of parts are still rolling into the new shop plus he has a ton of boxes to unload yet. Once he gets power and his machinery moved from Indiana he'll be back to making hulls again with some new designs on the way. A Cat hull is rumored to be in the works but didn't ask him about it.

Doubledog

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I enjoy doing business with him.
Now back to you.... dig in the couch, under the car seat, and get enough scratch to finish this thing up. Heck, its tax season so hopefully uncle sam shined on you.

Ron Olson

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I wish. I've paid extra to Uncle Sam the past few years as he wasn't happy with my donations.
I'm still at that point where I need one thing in order to get something else done, it's a domino effect. hopefully the box of goodies will be more than enough to Git-R-Done!
I picked up a new unmolested Aeromarine Signature 57 at a swap meet Saturday from Bob Kensill super-cheap. What I'm going to do with that thing, I don't know but couldn't pass up a bargain. That Vee-Rod looks tiny next to that hull!

Ron Olson

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The thrashing has begun! I got home today and as I was pulling up to my driveway the USPS parcel truck pulled up also with my box of goodies. My son ripped into it before I had a chance to while I was unloading groceries.
I got about the only radio box that Zac had in stock which was bright green. I almost kept it that color but instead decided to lay some black over it instead. I got some nice servo mounts that I drilled and tapped ot the servos are now mounted in those. A 100 degree header and exhaust cooler went on with a little reworking. T-mod muffler thrown on. I just quit for the night after working on getting the CG figured out as it has ot be really close to 13", no more. It's not as easy as it sounds.
I will take some shots as things progress. Between what I want ot get done on it and my wifes Honey-do list this week it's going to be busy.

Ron Olson

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I've been promising some pix for a while so today I took some outside then headed back in for some more thrashing.
Tonight the rudder linkage is all but done, the engine almost ready for a final fitting, the radio box is bolted in but will probably be coming out again to mount the tuned pipe bracket.
I still need a couple of minor things like a header gasket which I can make if need be and a pipe stop. The CG is right were it needs to be at 29% but a hair back in case things start to get heavy when adding more things like floatation.
Before anybody says anything, 29% is where it's supposed to be on this hull. Any further forward and the hull will spin out.

Doubledog

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I like that drive. Looks good & beefy similar to the Seebold unit I've got. Are you setup for square or collet drive Ron?

Ron Olson

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Collet drive. I can't bring myself to use a square drive yet. Nothing against them but I'm just used to round collets.
That's a Speedmaster part. It looks beefy but is very light. The rudder is Speedmaster also. Those are Zac's trim tabs and a Top Secret turn fin. Mike Tyson's muffler is staring at you on a Hanson 2" band pipe.
I still haven't decided for sure what radio system is going in it as I have 2 sitting here, A Hi-tec FM or a JR XR-3 that has almost no time on it.
Note that I'm trying a little something out to see how it works, a vibration isolater on the pipe mount. I think that it might be the cure for those that are having header cracking problems as most people mount them solid and the engine torque is cracking the headers. I've got one of those Chinese Profession Model WTC pipes to try on another build and I'm going to use the same type of setup.

Doubledog

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I built something similar for my Sprint. Along with the slight give of the mount insulator, the ring has a little flex as well. Have a look...

motrcyclryan

hey ron... boats looking great. you got alot more done than i do. im still waiting for things to calm down with the new baby before i start throwing more money at this boat...lol a while back you told me that there was a great rc shop near me that had a good set of baot parts. do you remember the name? All i know of is rogers hobby shop here in saginaw. what baffled me there is, the owner is the treasurer of the r/c boat club that runs at the field and stream, yet he has next to nothing for boats. just a few props pileing dust on the shelf and some nitro pipes. if theres another shop that you were talking about it, id love to check em out. - Ryan

Ron Olson

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Roger's was the place that I was thinking of. It's been a while since I've been there but at that time they had a good stock of boat parts.
Other than that you can try Vinnie/Vince at http://gasrcproducts.moonfruit.com/ in Livonia or ask some of the guys in the Saginaw club where they get their stuff.