D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

well, it seems i have a lot of little projects going on, and have several threads for them. i guess i have been tweaking engines a bit lately, so i thought i would put them all in one thread.

the first one i did was a OS. 18 CVR that i converted to marine use, http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_77...tm.htm#7701470
although it now resides in my supervee 27.

the vegas is getting gone over, i smashed it up pretty good, http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=7975785
but a friend who runs an autoshop repair joint is going to 'glass her back up. in the meantime, i found a 'scratch and dent' vegas, and am going to build that one up. not sure which ones are getting which engines, i now have two, an OS .18 TZ converted to marine, (the next post....) and i have my freshly rebuilt OS .21 VZ-M that i blew last time out. one of them will get the .21, one will get the .18, not sure who's going into who yet though........

okay, feel free to comment, thanks again to everyone here who has helped me out. much appreciated.





davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

here is one i just finished, (almost, i just noticed something as i was taking pics, more later....) it is a OS TZ .18 motor converted to marine use, using the aquacraft .18 cooling head top portion, retaining the TZ head button........

first, i machined the existing cooling head. i used a bandsaw and cut the head right at the section where the fins just get to the solid part of the head. that left me a chunk with the last two cooling fins. i then made a jig to hold it, and turned the outer diameter to the size of the aqua head, 1.210" or so. after that, i put the freshly turned piece into the lathe, and turned the top down until i just hit completely smooth, just under the indents made by the head screws. this left me a perfectly flat top surface for the cooling portion.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...ineheadtop.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...headbottom.jpg

now to the aqua part. there is a before and after pic of the head, i had to just barely machine the inner circle to clear the glow plug portion of the TZ head button. maybe .020" or so. i just took small cuts until it fit. (while i was here, i took the liberty to take a skim cut on the top of the cooling portion, to give it a nice machined look. me likey!!) i ran the bottom of the cooling portion across a flat file to true it up, to ensure a good seal against the new head. i was surprised how much a had to take off to get the 'inner circle' to match the 'outer circle', to get them both flat. it would have leaked a little on the inner ring had i not. (probably wouldn't make a difference, but i wanted it to seal anyway...)

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...olingheads.jpg

that's all i got on this one folks, here's the finished pics.......i will let you know how she runs when i get her wet.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...arineside1.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...arineside2.jpg

oh, the thing i forgot, was that the head screws are bigger on the TZ than the aqua motor, so i still need to slightly enlarge the countersunk portion of the head bolt holes, and also open up the through hole a bit too. there is PLENTY of meat to open those holes up, so there wont be a problem there. i am going to open up the bolt head portion in the head instead of filing down bolt heads, that way any bolt can go in, no detailing of them will be necessary if i should need new bolts anytime.



thanks for looking!

(ps, after all was said and done, the piece needed to do this is quite simple looking, i'm thinking i'll have a couple made at my work for other boat potential, i'm not tryin' to sell on here, but if there is a need, pm me. maybe i will do a proper post in the 'selling' portion of here if it comes to that point.........)




davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

here is another example of too much free time, too many extra parts laying around, and the need to be 'dr frankenstein' once in awhile.......:D

i had an OS .18 CVR carb laying around, and was noting the size difference in comparison to the aqua motor/carb i had laying around. needless to say, i am always guilty of trying to make things faster.;) sooooooooo, i machined the hole in the aqua motor big enough to take the throat of the os carb.......

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...cvcarbbore.jpg

then, i ran a 4mm tap through the existing bolt holes on the aqua motor, since they were just 'through' holes for the original carb. i tapped them to make them the carb hold down for the bigger carb. i cut a 4mm cap screw to just barely make it through, just contacting the carb throat. i only have one in, but if need be, i have the other side too. (yes, i cut a little deep with my bit while opening it up, getting into the opening for the crank. there is a slight portion on the closing side that will move the timing a bit, but it is very slight, on the edge of it only. eh, what are ya gonna do. it was kind of a 'for fun' hack job, what ever it is, it is.........)

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...rbholddown.jpg


then, i just held it down to compress the o'ring, and snugged her up. it looks good, we'll have to see how she runs. i will do back to back comparisons in a proboat hull, as i just put one together for my son, with a stock aqua .18. i'll gps them both, and let you all know what happens. oh, i also did some 'port' work on the motor, i cleaned up/opened up both of the air/fuel charge inlet passages in the block, and slightly beveled the sleeve inlets too. it's not as pretty as i would have liked, so i ain't gonna show you my sloppy first attempt at porting.:D it's clean, just not as clean as i would have done with better dremel bits, as i did it at work......

but, here it is, OS carb on an aqua .18, all ready for beatin' on. i'll keep ya posted.....

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...acvcarbtop.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...vcarbside1.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...vcarbside2.jpg



bye!!

davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

awhile back i started a thread on my proboat formula hull that i could not get to handle at top speed, with an OS TZ .18 motor.......

i gave up on it, and put all the running gear in a second gen bud hull. (more on that one later......)

so, with all the spare parts i have accumulated, i actually had enough stuff to build a complete boat with all of my spare parts.
( insert: "hi, my name is davey, yes, i am an addict...." :D )

it has an aquacraft radio system in it, a stock aquacraft .18 motor in it, the stock vegas pipe with an 1/8" hole drilled in the end of it, with an aluminum extension added. it also has a modified proboat strut, that has been bored out to 1/4", and has a brass tubing sleeve that meets up with the stck stuff tube, covered with a piece of shrink wrap, with the aquacraft bushing from a miss vegas/supervee in the end. this way, i run one complete flex cable, from the miss vegas, and it's bullet proof. all my proboats have this mod, (the bushing mod, the others have adjustable struts, but it's the same deal here, just in a stock strut.....) and it works very well. i'm starting with a grim 36x55, and will go from there as far as props go.

i got into the habit of using the proboat flywheel on all of these, with a vegas coupler that has been cut down to fit in the proboats. i put them in the lathe, and part them off and leave about .200" of the big nut on them. i have these on all my boats, and they work great. i even drilled out one for the OS .21 in the vegas, and it works great too.

i kept the straight turn fin i already had made prior, i have the original turn fin on the new bud. i kept the rudder that was on it, since i had a new one for the bud as well. oh, it has a vegas tank in it, as this boat originally had the battery pack up in the nose cone, but, i decided to just put it all in the radio box for this one, as i used the four AA cell stock battery setup this time.

that's pretty much it, this is the boat i will do motor testing in, the aqua's, to see if the os carb makes a difference. this boat should do 30mph no problem, i was getting that out of my first gen hull, so i would think this is capable of that, it should be ok at these speeds, and be a good boat to start my boy with.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...setupstrut.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...etupengine.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...enginelong.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...upfullshot.jpg


that's all for now peeps, more later!!!!!!





davey)

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

That's some great machine work and photos. Nice work.

JD

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

thanks jerry, i have the utmost respect for you and all your accomplishments.....

i am relatively new to boating, but am loving every minute of it. i just wish we had more places to run around here, like up in washington! my son lives up in bremerton now, and i love the scenery all the way up there. i had friends who lived on a little place called 'echo lake' back in the 90's, and they used to do full blown model hydro races every year, it was always a blast. but alas, i am still looking for more places to run in the portland oregon area. any suggestions welcome here too!


thanks again jerry, keep up the great work,

davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

Good work, on these small motors, temps can be a issue, while you have the water jacket off, cut it down further to reduce internal volume. during a good run, your motor should be running in the 195* to 210*f range.

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

just thought i would add another thread of mine into here, one where i converted a first gen bud to a flex drive..............

enjoy,
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_79...tm.htm#7975856


davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

well, here is my watercooled tz .18 actually finished. (i think i am going to put this one in the new vegas hull first.......)

i drilled out the bolt holes a bit, then i drilled out the countersunk portion to fit the heads of the new 3mm bolts. they are stainless steel. everything bolted up nicely, should work great!!

enjoy!!



davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

ok, awhile back, i bought two OS TZ .18 motors for parts, off of ebay. it ends up the piston/liners were in great shape, but between the two of them, i had a cross threaded/stripped out head button, broken starter, galled start shaft, a .21 watercooled head forced onto one, ( !!! ) paint all over, all kinds of good stuff. so between the two, i made one killer motor, and had a spare shortblock (casing, crank and bearings, rod and piston/liner, carb) ready to go if i broke anything on the two tz's i now had in other boats. (one being the one made from the two of these. i had one new motor prior....)

i basically broke them down, sandblasted them, cleaned them up, and rebuilt them into one good one, and then had spare parts. this is the spare parts one. since i recently made the watercooled one, i now had an extra head button, and an air cooled head. two of my proboats use the aircooled versions, so i thought i would chop up all the broken parts, and see if i could make a complete motor. (there i go again, too much free time! well, not really, but it was slow today at work......;))

first off, the starter was broken/missing parts, there was no one way bearing, and the shaft was galled, so no pull start. so, i cut down the shaft with just enough sticking through the back plate to hold an o-ring......

the back plate itself had stripped bolt holes for the starter, so i machined off the outer portion to the profile of the motor, then put it in the lathe to clean up the face. (i got a little close to the bolt holes, i had it upside down when cutting it, and i forgot about the countersunk portion.....oops!)

i now had a short start shaft, and a cleaned up plate. i just put the o-ring over the nub of start shaft, and it's complete.(i'm sure it doesn't do anything, but i did the o-ring bit for fun anyway. if this leaks a bunch, i'll buy a REAL blank off plate.....:D) i used stainless fasteners i had for the bolts to hold it on as well....

here are the pics of the motors before, the process, and the new belt start one made from extra parts!!

enjoy......





davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

well, i had a chance to take all three proboat hydros out today. the new second gen bud, the first gen modded to adjustable strut, and the spare parts boat. it was a rough morning. i could not get the first gen TZ to run worth a dink, tons of fishing for it. i finally got a decent tune on it, after giving up and coming back to it, and started tuning the hull. man o man, this thing hauls balls now! the adjustable strut made a HUGE difference. one thing i noticed though, no matter what strut angle i ran, she still really lifted the front sponsons. i tried a ton of negative, and a ton pf positive, it just didn't respond the way the second gen does to that adjustment. it was literally riding on the prop alone, just doing a slight wheelie until you let off. it looked cool, but it was a hairy ride for sure. hitting low forties. so, i had to add about 5 oz of lead up front, and that kept her down for the most part. i also had to angle my grim turn fin down a bit, past the level that was allowed with the bolt holes, so i had to use a zip tie where the breakaway bolt would have been. this helped plant the front even further. mind you, it still rides reeeeeal light in the front. wind stopped me from testing a canard wing on the front to see if that would help......

steering: this thing has a vegas rudder on it, and it's a little far to the left, due to the transom plate i had made. i think this had alot to do with my inability to turn very well. this thing used to hook on a dime as a straight shaft, but now, it makes these huge, wide turns. kinda scary, as there are logs to avoid in the middle of where i run. (that;s how i smashed my vegas.....) so, i 'hooked' it under, and that helped alot, but she takes 'em wide. i think i will maybe make an extension, and move the rudder further back. (right now, compared to the others, the back of the prop is level with the back of the rudder, on the other boats, the back of the prop is at the leading edge of the rudder, not the back...)or, should i move it closer to the center of the transom? does either method sound like good advice? thank you. i didn't get to gps it, but it was running real good. i was just getting into different props too, but the wind picked up, and that was that for the day.....

the second gen bud was fighting me a bit on the engine tune as well, (man, nitro is not for the weak nor timid.....) finally got her going good, and started working out the bugs. this one was giving me grief to start with, kinda out of control, chine dancing, digging in the corners, all kinds of fun! so, i put my straight turn fin on, and that helped. i then put the rudder angled out, opposite of tucking, these things both helped, and my mid day, running a M440 and a Prather 215, she was doing mid forties. she's pretty stable, but i had to add about 6 oz of lead in the front to keep her on the flat. i tried going positive and negative with the strut, it helped, but could not overcome the lift up there at top speed. the strut adjustments were quite noticeable compared to the first gen, just a side note. i made a canard wing out of lexan, it seemed to help, but i didn't get enough run time to really test it, and try removing weight. so, i ran with a bunch of weight for now. by days end, i had a decent running proboat running mid forties. definitely, in my opinion, pushing this hull to it's stock design limits. i am no hull master, but i have tried a ton of tweaks, more than the average person may, and am still under the conclusion that it's sticky business when pushing these things this fast.....


the spare parts boat ran like a champ! i had actually gotten so frustrated with the two tz powered buds, that i went to the aqua powered cursed hull.;) it did absolutely great for what it is, a 30 mph cruiser. even at these slower speeds, i could see evidence of this hulls 'shimmy' characteristics. i blew it over once, but it stayed pretty planted for the day. ran a few tanks through her, and decided it's good enough just like it is, especially for my son, or as a 'slow boat' racer with friends of the same speed. i will still gps my 'ported cv carbed' modded aqua 18 against the stock one, just to see if it makes any dang difference at all. i love data like that.:D plus, it if it does, my info here will help others tweak if they want to........



so, all in all, it was a rough start, but i had a good time. the boats still aren't as stable as my friends beat to crap second gen, which just handles like a dream, but they're close, and that's good enough for me................ for now.[8D]




davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

well, i am trying a new rudder mount on the miss bud conversion, to help with the lack of turning capabilities. my thoughts were to push it further back, like my other boats, which turn fine with that setup. the back of the prop was even with the back of the rudder, and it really seemed it needed the rudder to be further back to help in turning, in my opinion. my other setup has the back of the prop even with the leading edge of the rudder, and it turns on a dime. soooooooo:

first thing i did was chop off the mounting tab of the old mount. then i chopped off just the rudder mount portion of a second one, and then welded the two together. boy, this cast aluminum welds like CRAP. it's full of pits, we added a ton of wire while welding it, but it still looks like crappola. it's sound, just not pretty. eh, can't win them all i guess. oh, i decided to tilt it inward too, as it was really far to the left. not sure if that matters, but i thought i would get it more centered, to match the other adjustable setups that seem to work well.

i haven't tested it yet, but i have high hopes that this boat will turn well, and i will have a screamer on my hands. it looked promising last time out, real fast, but real light in the nose for sure. we'll find out soon me hopes, more later!


enjoy,,,,,


davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

so, in the vegas thread, i updated folks on mine that i crashed into a log doin' forty, she didn't look so good after that. pretty trashed, but maybe i'll do something with it, or get someone to do some 'glass work on her, since that is not my fortay......

anyway, i just remembered a bonehead move i made that day, before the 'log crash', i had a 'senior moment' with it. i put the os.21 in the vegas, but that day, i rotated the carb 180 degrees, to put the high speed needle opposite the exhaust. it made for a not so pretty linkage from the radio box, but it worked. so, when fiddling with the new linkage, i accidentally pulled the antenna out of the tube, and it was in the radio box only. it is a spektrum dsx2 system. (yeah yeah, i am only now realizing they are not the best for boats, from what i read, although i have not had many problems.....well, this story ain't over yet.;)) i also had to reverse the servo to make the arm actuate the throttle properly.

on the shore, got her fired up, put my nice, freshly sharpened/balanced ss prather 215 on her, and hit the wakes. i got about 50 feet out, and i felt it lose steering, and slow slightly. now i have no steering, and it's on a plane at a good clip, and i can't figure out why i can't kill it, or further more, why the failsafe did not kick in on the throttle. the lake is probably a mile wide, as i watch my boat just take off, straight away, clear across the lake, and i mean this took a good 40 seconds at least, felt like a life time. finally, i can't even hear it, but i see it approaching the shore, i can't tell when its going to hit because it's so far away now, until i see it tumbling head over tea kettle onto the rocky beach. get the boat back, and to my surprise, it looks great. it did such i nice skid onto the rocks, there was no sponson damage at all, just scratches, bu the back of the boat, the right rear transom, was busted up good. it missed a several ton boulder by about 4 inches. had it been 6 inches to the right, it would have ran straight into this rock, with i'm sure, not as pretty of results as this outcome. oh, and my prather prop was destroyed. (i got her back into shape, but man, it took some time with a small ballpeen, filing, scotchbrite wheel, but she looks as good as new.....) so, i cleaned her up, took a look at the radio, it didn't take long to figure it out: i killed the transmitter, and watched the failsafe work flawlessly.............IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. silly me, when i reversed the servo, i learned the hard way, that it does not reverse your failsafe commands from the previous direction, they move the same way, not moving opposite like the servo during operation. oh, and i noticed my dippy move on the antenna. notes to self!

so i get her all done up to get wet again, new M440 on there, did some speed runs, (could only muster 47.5 that day, couldn't hit my 49.5 i hit earlier this year. was looking for fifty....) and then ram it into a log. pure driver error. was racing a buddy, took the wide side to avoid him, and plowed a log. sweet. oh, and then to top it off, it leaned out on me on shore while i was putting the canopy back on it after some tweaking, and i lost a conrod before i could shut her down. awesome! i managed to beach it, plow it into a log, then blow the .21 up.

all in all, it was a rough day on the vegas, and she's resting piecefully now........ it bits everywhere, (i borrowed the strut for my proboat.)but will most likely live again in some madmax form. i am working on finishing up the new little brother, a scratch and dent vegas, (was missing motor parts, no biggie, already sold the drivetrain anyhoo......) which is going to have a os tz .18, mac's HN 3.5 pipe, grim fin, strengthened hull with a cross stringer, and the rest pretty much stock. oh, a deeper grooved strut, and that's about it. more on that buildup as soon as i download the pics from the build.........

so a lesson to all, ALWAYS check your failsafe before each day out, unlike me, who obviously still has alot to learn...... some of it the hard way!:D




davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

ok, here is my second vegas hull, a scratch and dent special from tower, it was only missing a header, (sold the drivetrain anyway.....) and got it for CHEAP. me likey, extra hardware, tank, radio box, etc this way, so when i try my hand at repairing my smashed one, i will have spare parts for the "miss madmax" that i'll slap together.....

anyway, this hull was sold to me/listed, as an orange and white, so i thought i would do a miss elam theme for the fun of it, i thought since that's what it was going to be anyway,(i know i know, bad subject here, but i wanted to do something different this time without painting, since i don't know how..........) i ordered up miss elam decals, they came first, then the hull came, which, low and behold, IS YELLOW. well, you win some, you lose some. they didn't have an orange scratch and dent to replace it, so i just kept it. so, being the dork that i am, i now have a yellow miss elam.:D it might stay, it might not. the stickers were there, i was bored, so there you have it. well, it is different!

first off, i stripped it, and epoxied a reinforcement strip across the front of the boat, from stringer to stringer, in front of the tank. i used some ply cut into a square, (3/8"'s i think?) didn't have time to go find an arrow, or carbon fiber, so wood it was. i then epoxied the stringers top and bottom, coated the entire hull floor, and she's stiff as a dog now. shouldn't have any flex issues, at least not like my last one. i then mounted my fresh TZ.18 to the vegas mounts, and mounted it...........



davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

then, i fabbed up the exhaust, a mac's HN 3.5 pipe, silicon tubing for a coupler, and of course, mounted the exhaust pressure nipples with jb weld, works great. since i already had this pipe in one of my proboats, it has extended aluminum tubing welded to the back. i managed to fit it in, with just a small piece of the original black silicon tubing to get it the rest of the way out of the hull. i have to make a special little 'pad' out of fuel line for the hold down strap, to hold the pipe snuggly in place. i then ran all the lines, water, fuel, exhaust tank pressure, etc.......

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

then i installed the radio box, (after fitting the servos in there......) i also made a hole in the servo support, so i can reach that screw under there, the 'driver side' one. i leave the front 'passenger side' one out, so only three hold it down, works fine for me. i had to mount the box just a little catterwonky to fit the mac's pipe, leaving about an 1/8" clearance. i hope it's enough! i figure the air gap should be enough with airflow through the hull. oh, i opened up the turbine section, to allow more airflow through too.

i used an adjustable rod holder on the rudder, i like these better, quick and easy to adjust. i made a new rudder rod out of .035" 316 stainless welding wire. i left some slack on the back, just in case i need it. i used the stock throttle one, after adjusting the arm on the TZ to match up with it perfectly to where i mounted the box when i relocated it...........

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

let's see, i also epoxied the original drain hole shut, put a piece of radio box tape over it, then globbed epoxy over it on teh inside of the hull. then i used a proboat grommet and plug located at the lower left transom corner. i just did this to have all the same plugs, and if i want, i can leave that one out, and just have it drain as i run it. i had an auto bailer in the other one, but after a stall, it still seemed to take on water, i'm sure it just had a piece of crap in there, and was letting it back fill a bit. so i chose not to install one this time, just let it ride like this. we'll see how it pans out....

so, i finished up the insides, the radio box, all the tubing, adjusted all the failsafes, rudder adjustments, throttle adjustments, ballooned the receiver, placed the antenna, and buttoned her all up. i chose to mount the grim fin for now, but have some .064" aluminum plate, i was thinking about making some new ones for fun, and see how they work out. (love the tunin' don't ya know....) i grooved the strut to go deeper, down to a half inch, figured that would be enough. i am starting with a Y535, get a tune on the boat and hull, then prop up from there. (the flex is just sitting in there, not lubed installed yet.....) for now, i put my old supervee flywheel on there, the stocker was so out of whack, and the collet was drilled off center and had a mean wobble, so i put an octura one on there. i couldn't really tighten it like i wanted to, because the nut of the main part of the collet goes inside the sv flywheel. we'll see how it works. i may just put another proboat flywheel on there with one of my cut down vegas collets, i have those on everything else, 3 proboats, and my other vegas, and they work just fine for me....

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

here she is all finished! just need a nice day to take her out, this weekend was windy as heck here, so no go. we are running out of days here, the leaves are falling, and the spot i go to becomes a nightmare for debris real soon. hopefully i will get some run time in, and i'll let you all know how she does....

enjoy, and thanks!!


davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

cool boat man , im trying to finish upa miss bud , but the new strut is a pain to find.

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

like this one?
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXPGS3&P=7

davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

yea but i think i wanna go another route.the strut u have pictured in your qoute, how would i go about bolting that to a first gen miss bud . ? i know the other is better but i wanna try this wat .

oh yea if your interested , i have a just about new aqu .18 motor(less then 1/2 gallon thru her) a dynamite .15 with header, a formula cowl and cross wing for the miss bud im sellin just hit me up with a offer. all are on this sites classified forum.

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

i wouldn't know what to tell you about trying to mount the later strut on a first gen. let's see, you would have to lay down some backing on the bottom of the hull on the inside, above the area you want to mount it. like a small piece of ply epoxied to it, then cut/notch out the section in the bottom of the hull to receive the strut. i would personally do the vegas strut mounted out back, it's adjustable, easy to maintain, and you don't need to do more body work to get it on there. that's just my 2 cents of course.....

oh, i just sold a bunch of the same stuff you have, so, thanks but no thanks!!


davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

this is my boat retrieval system for all but the farthest of stalls, (friend has a raft for those, otherwise i stay inland quite a bit.......).

it's a 'chuckit!' dog ball launcher. i milled a slot into the handle, to accept the fishing reel base perfectly. i tied it on with nylon kite string, as i didn't want any hose clamps or anything on the handle (and it's all i could come up with on short notice.....if it ain't broke, don't fix it i guess...;)) i drilled all the way through the neck of the chuckit, and installed the end eye of a fishing rod. i then jb welded it to hold it in addition to the tight tolerance fit i already had....

for the ball, i sharpened a piece of .035" ss welding wire, and poked it through the ball. once it came through the other side, i bent a 'u' shape, and pulled it back into the ball, so it comes out, does a u-turn, and goes back into the ball. once that was done, i simply bent a full loop on the top portion, leaving me with a bulletproof connection to the tennis ball.....

i have 20 pound braid on there now, but it snaps sometimes on launch. i am going to step up to 30 pound braid, high visibilty stuff, and see if that makes things a little more secure, and easier to see......

enjoy!!!



davey

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

how did this end up working out ?

RE: D-lo's Engine/Boat Mod Thread............
 

still haven't made it back out yet, the weather is turning to crap pretty quick, but i hope to at least get a tune on this boat, i was real close, just need to try out the rudder, and mess with some weight up front. it's real light in the nose compared to the second gen, despite strut adjustments............


davey