Who had Remote Controlled Boats? Gas vs. Electric

[Awaken]

Now that my boat is "iced" in, looking for a winter hobby. I have an older Traxass Gas powered boat. It overheated two years ago (the water cooling hose got clogged) and it melted the exhaust tube and some wiring. I repaired the exhaust and the wiring, but now the motor won't run for longer than 20 seconds. Probably need to rebuild. But here is my question;

All the new boats are electric, anybody have any luck with electric RC boats? What do you have? What do you recommend?

This looks like a cool one; Traxxas Villain EX RC boat

http://www.rchobbies.org/traxxas_villain-ex.htm

 

[DollaBill]

check out Stinsons new project

 

[TANTRA]

someone had a vidio of one on here that looks like the GEICO boat and it was fast
as sh$t.

 

[Scarab KV]

Check out Proboat

http://www.proboatmodels.com/

All their electrics are run'n brushless motors and lipo packs. Only way to go with electrics and fast.
The Traxxas boats were ok in their day, but they sat back on their boats while technology advanced.
The Traxxas boat will putter at 25-30 mph while the Proboat Black Jack cat will blast by at 45-50 depending on the size of lipo you're using.
Proboat's Formula FASTech is a nice boat in gas or electric.

I was a dealer for both and Proboat was by far the better seller for someone looking for a serious "Out of the Box" toy.

 

[RebarBox]

My boys supervee 27:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv4eu3nnPJs

30 mph out of the box - 40'ish with right batteries and prop. Water cooled brushless motor.

 

[MattBMiller]

I had a Dumas 45" modeled after the 38KV with a weed wacker engine. I'll try to dig up some pics.

 

[jet]

I would have to say electric has come a long way ,brushless motors and light poly batterys http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j43FREB-rLs

 

[jet]

R/C is what got me started in boating I raced hydro 20 and DV 20 in the early 70's then started Jet Connection Performance Marine in the early 80's

 

[Ratickle]

Now that my boat is "iced" in, looking for a winter hobby. I have an older Traxass Gas powered boat. It overheated two years ago (the water cooling hose got clogged) and it melted the exhaust tube and some wiring. I repaired the exhaust and the wiring, but now the motor won't run for longer than 20 seconds. Probably need to rebuild. But here is my question;

All the new boats are electric, anybody have any luck with electric RC boats? What do you have? What do you recommend?

This looks like a cool one; Traxxas Villain EX RC boat

http://www.rchobbies.org/traxxas_villain-ex.htm

Go with weedwhacker (Zenoah) powered gas if you are serious about running in rougher water. Some are over 100 now. My best was high 80's on record trials in the late 90's early 00's...

 

[cosmic12]

I have a 54" Enforcer V bottom with the Zenoah weed wacker motor w/ a surface drive w/SS cleaver type prop that seems to run around 45 or so but loves the rough water, I have had it about 3ft in the air off a boat wake many times and it always lands perfect and wants more. Its great fun. Stay with a gas motor and the V-bottom and have a blast.

 

[Griswald]

I had that Villain IV replica a few years ago. Put some bigger motors in it and ran the batterie in series. Woke it up big time, but couldn't put enough battery in it to run more than 15min or so

 

[SKATIN]

I just sold a big Apache with a single zenoah if I bought one again it would be brushless battery powered

 

[Awaken]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I think I am going to switch over to electric "brushless", less maintenance and I can bring it on the "real" boat without having to worry about gas, etc.

 

[Ratickle]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I think I am going to switch over to electric "brushless", less maintenance and I can bring it on the "real" boat without having to worry about gas, etc.

I always hated the recharge and run time compared to the gas ones. Plus, size wise, the electrics don't run the big water a gas one will.

 

[cosmic12]

I always hated the recharge and run time compared to the gas ones. Plus, size wise, the electrics don't run the big water a gas one will.

:iagree:/ditto

 

[jet]

As I said electric has come a long way from nicad .....light poly and brushless make big power with no mess and run time is way better than the old stuff.

 

[Ratickle]

As I said electric has come a long way from nicad .....light poly and brushless make big power with no mess and run time is way better than the old stuff.

I know about them, it's just a pain to have 15 minutes of run time, then be done until recharge. Or carry several, expensive, battery packs.

My gas boats will run for 45 minutes on a tank if I put in a play tank vs a race tank. And, filling it back up takes a minute or two.

But, it's just my opinion from what I've run.

 

[jhenrie]

I got this fast electric a couple years ago. Real cool , great running gear , fast and cheap. I like the proboat models mentioned above too if you eant to do a weed whacker gas. I'm done with nitro.

super vee 27

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&P=SM&I=LXMDJ4**

waking up the neighbors prop testing the blackjack one sunday morning in cape coral.

http://www.youtube.com/user/scarab29#p/a/u/2/26b6MSIiDfo

 

[TIKI]

Go with the Supervee 27. A friend has one running over 50 mph with a different brushless motor and "special" batteries. The thing is a rocket!

 

[HTMike]

Cool to see some of you guys are into R/C boats. If any of you guys might be interested, Im going to be selling my 51'' Rio with a CY 27CC stroker and tuned pipe. Comes with custom stand and standard Aquacraft Radio and a bunch of extras.. this thing is stupid fast. I spent $550 on the motor and pipe alone. 708 769 6364