hey guys, after wanting to get into nitro boats for years I finally did after watching my neighbor run his old ones the he used to race as a kid im very mechanically inclined and work on full size boats and power sports stuff. after looking on craigslist for about a week i found a great deal on exactly what i wanted. my neighbor had the outboard tunnel boats and i loved everything about them. i found 3 boats with tons of parts and extras. one is a 54'' mono hull with a ops .67, fairly large tunnel hydroplane with K&B 7.5, last is a "fast cat" off shore cat with a k&b 3.5 along with tons and tons of parts and accessories. i have lots of questions but one of my main ones is with setting up the K&B 7.5 tunnel. i have all the servos and stuff for it but need to build a box and buy steering and throttle cables. could one of you guys show me what and where i can get that stuff. im 16 and trying to keep the sport alive and would really appreciate if i could talk to some of you much more experienced guys on the phone to ask stuff. thanks in advanced chas.

OK, this is a 3.5/.21 OB tunnel boat but the idea here is to help show you what goes where and how to set up everything and the parts needed to do it with. You're just working on a slightly larger scale. If that neighbor is still around he should be able to get you pointed in the right direction. Really, it's a lot easy to have someone looking over your shoulder than it is to try to do things over the Internet.
http://manuals.hobbico.com/aqu/aqub0006-manual.pdf

my neighbor is helpful but he doesn't know a whole lot. my main question is about getting the steering and throttle cables for the k&b 7.5. what size? what connectors? ill post pics if needed.

Pictures are always helpful as then we can see what you've got and need.
Mark "OB nut" Scott and Jerry Dunlap are both members here, a couple of the most experienced people on this site for OB tunnel knowledge.

Ron, checks in the mail!


Depending on how "fancy" you want the setup, there are few ways to go about this. For throttle, I use the Sullivan push cable. There are two sizes, .032 or .056. Either of these will work. The cable requires to be solid mounted on the radio box and motor. There must be enough cable slack to allow the motor to turn left/right without binding. Both K&B and O.S. make motor cable mounts. For steering, easiest way is to use 4-40 push rods. Clevises on both ends with a wheel colar to allow adjustments.

Steering servo clevises and 4-40 push rods




O.S. throttle cable clamp.




Throttle cable slack and 4-40 steering rods.

Thanks Mark, I could use the money!
Let me know when you're up in this neck of the woods again as we'll have to get the boats out. I've got plenty to play with.
Is that one of Mike's fuel cells? I don't think that he's made any since he got the job at AquaCraft. He doesn't work there anymore so maybe he'll get back in the business of making them. He and Sheila moved back to Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Ron, forgot to tell ya, I don't do checks! Going to have to see how my funds go for the year. I'd love to make it back home to see those that were at the fun runs. I was up in G.R. a month ago, but that was for family, not pleasure. The tank is from Walt Barney. I do have a Grim tank, but the fuel tube is now inside the tank . I've had a HDPE made by Ryan Lipgens for the 11cc. Do like to see how much fuel is left vs not seeing. Didn't know Mike is not at Aquacraft. That's what I get for dropping off the face of the earth for 5 years.

Mike quit there about a year ago and got his old job back "making babies". It looks like AquaCraft owns his Grim Racer name now. I wanted to hear the real story from him but he didn't come to Hobart this past year, he went to a model rocket meet instead. I think that it wasn't quite the dream job he expected. Jerry Dunlap started showing up 2 years ago hanging with Gary Preusse.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. The VS-1 manual was about the only thing I had handy to help this guy set up an OB tunnel boat. There's a lot to learn in it as both Mike and Jerry worked on it. You remember that boat from when Mike was producing them himself under his Power Surge Racing name as the Villain.

In here we get a lot of people asking about what hardware they need to build or finish a boat kit. I wish that we could cover such a big thing in an easy way but with so many hulls types and power choices, it's not easy.

From the way it sounds but can't be certain until we see some shots, I'm hazarding a guess at thinking he may have a Prather hull. Hyperformance, www.hyperprod.com still carries a lot of things for those boats including the radio box and other hardware for it.

Interesting info on Mike. Hope he finds a new venture to keep that mind going.. I show up in RCU every now and then. Mostly when I'm bored at work. As with everything in the world, there are 1000 different ways to do the same thing. Everyone has their preference on how things should be done. I just offer what little I know and allow those to chose what is best for them.