1st post.....couple...well a bunch of ??'s...LOL

[fearcityinc]

Hey guys....I'm Jordan from Chicago.

I was into nitro's while I was in high school....and recently got back into boats after my nephew gave me his traxxas villian.....LOL....


I was thinking about building like maybe a zippkits eazy vee to start.

I just picked up a homie leaf blower 25cc for 20 clams off craigslist....and I HOPE....(fingers crossed) that I'll be able to get away with using this motor.


Soooo....here's where the questions start.


1st off, I dont want to break any speed records to start......I'd like to keep it air cooled with the stock muffler, modded to exit vertically.....then maybe down the road get a pipe, and a new carb.

I'll be able to fab up a water jacket too it looks like, so that's no biggie.
Is this all feasible just to get me going??


Is building a boat from scratch super hard??? I'd imagine if you follow the plans, and use lots of epoxy, it should go pretty easily......again...fingers crossed...LOL


I've heard you use the flex shaft from a weed trimmer for the drive off the motor, to the prop??
Is the measurements for the length of the shaft with the boat building plans, or do you cowboy it??


The stuffing tube still puzzles me a little, but I think I get it somewhat.....that just holds the flex shaft in correct, and exits it to the outdrive..??

I hope to be able to use the radio, receiver, and one of the servo's from the traxxas boat to save some money.....not fancy I know, but hope that'll work to get me in the water for a while.

Will buy a 1/4 scale servo for the steering then as well.

Eventually, I'd like to go with something that's clutched....so it'll stay still when launching, and "docking"..

Does an Unclutched boat take off pretty good when launching???? or is it manageable???

Sorry for the long post, but I figured everybody here starts out somewhere like me.....( I hope LOL)


From the searching I've been doing.....and researching..........I think....key word THINK, I can build this boat for under 300 bucks.... and that compared to buying a new one off the shelf for over a grand....should be decent.


Thanks guys!!!!!!

[dwr9]

It's hard to beat the EasyVee for value. It's a good kit at a great price. You won't be disappointed. If you don't mind cutting your own parts there are plans for a hull here on Modelpowerboat.com you can download.
I don't know much about the Homie leaf blower motors, but the weed whacker motors work fine. Lots of guys have used them, so if the leaf blower motors are similar it should be ok.
Nothing too hard about building a wood boat if you're at all handy.
As for using the Traxxas radio, maybe, maybe not. I'm assuming it's probably an inexpensive AM radio. AM sometimes has some problems handling the electrical noise from the ignition on gas engines. It may work or it may not. A basic FM radio is better, PCM is better yet, and a Futaba FASST 2.4ghz radio is probably the best. Whatever radio you decide to use you need to get a resister spark plug for the engine.

Doug

[fearcityinc]

Yeah, I heard about the resistor plug....am radio probably not the best idea.

There's TONS of guys around here running like 1,000 watts from a cb radio.......27mhz...NOT GOOD!!!! LOL.

I tried to download the plans......but come time to print, I cant get it to print "tiled"......I searched and searched on here, but still cant figure it out.

Foxit reader, with an Epson workforce 500 printer.

Some stuff came out fine and to scale, but the real long parts didnt print right.
Maybe I'll just put it on a thumb drive, and go to a print shop.
I think many print shops dont do this in fear of viruses though.

[dwr9]

A print shop is the best way to get it printed. Plenty of guys have done it with those plans. Doug

[fearcityinc]

Okay, I'll have to call around I guess....

will they be able to use the cad plans.....DXF files......or the PDF......either I would guess huh??

[dwr9]

Any decent print shop should be able to use either. Doug