spede18

Iam in the process of building a 48" woody mono powered by a water cooled homelite.
I have not yet purchased any of the hardware or radio gear, I am trying to keep the costs down as much as possible.
Zipp Kits has great stuff at good prices and if anything Iknow Ican always go with them for the hardware but I am open to other suggestions.
Looking to try to get everything for less then $100. Thanks for any input.

Cheap Radio Setup: www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp

Iam also looking at some used products and wondering if they are any good.
Servos: www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm
Speed Master stringer and ruder and a hitec 75mhz 3 channel radio setup?

Any advice or input is very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff

Johnnysplits

Under $100 for all the running gear and radio system? Ummm....not gonna happen man.Your looking at $500 minimum.

spede18

I guess thats one way of looking at it.

Ok lets just say as cheap as possible then.

I know I can put everything together cheaper then $500.

Johnnysplits

Its possible I guess. You can look into getting used parts. I just wouldnt comprimise on the radio set though. You can get a decent 2.4 gig setup for $120.

rcguy1411

when it comes to used servos stay away been bitten before my lhs was talking about the Tactic 2.4 the other day and said they wernt bad for the $$$ think Aqua Craft are using them in the new Rio 51z i have been using ab FM radio in my gas boat with no problems at all so that is another way to go now i know that some of you are going to jump all over me for my suggestion but i do have a new futuba radio on order for my big Apache but he wanted to do this on a budget

spede18

The tactic looks like they are a decent price.

On the servos since you suggest not going with used what would be a good brand & model?

What about Hitec radios and recievers are they any good?

Is 75mhz ok or is 2.4ghz the way to go?
The link I posted at the top of the page has some good reviews and it is way cheap........

toyotatruckin

if your looking for hardware and radio under 100$ that may be pushing it BUT check the sale section regular and you can most likely get strut/rudder/turn fin/and tabs for around 100 give or take a bit, brand name quality hardware at that, as for a radio do not fear used transmitters BUT used servos and RX can be questionable especially in boating, really depends more on how well the person took care of their stuff(test well before use) also there is NOTHING wrong with running FM thats all I run air, land, or water and you should be able to pick up a nice used JR xs3 or futaba 3pm-fm for 50 or less, hitec has good quality stuff and if you really value your boat you will avoid dropping a hobby king/city radio system in it ESPECIALLY the HK servos.

forgot flex cables at a good price, mastons rc marine OR go with a square drive set-up and use the cable you just pulled out of that homelite

Dreamin Hemi

This may start you in a direction. WHH offers a composite drive system with rudder for about $45 and it's new. I've used abou 4-5 of these in some RTR versions of hulls I've built for customers who also were looking to save a few bucks. It is a nice system, especially would work well for your application.

www.whhonline.com/product_p/xp2p.htm

Johnnysplits

Im still going to suggest you get a 2.4g system. FM bad, old school, too much chance for interference.I wouldnt use an fm system on my crawler that im walking next to while running it. And do yourself a big favor and buy a kill switch. Do not trust the radio failsafe...you can still have a runaway, which wouldnot be a pretty sight when things go wrong in a turn and you run full throttle into land. Trust me!!! As suggested, the gear from WHH is good and inexpensive.

Paul M

I will buy anything used EXCEPT a motor or a radio. Just seen too many people get burned by others trying to dump off their problems on someone else[:@]

pyro1

Been using the Futaba-2PL FM Mag Jr. for 2 yrs. racing NAMBA district 1 & never a glitch. Radio & receiver $89.99 at Tower.
Works for me.

Paul M

I hear ya. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

BUT ....... if it were me I'd spend a few extra bucks for a 2.4. The Futaba FASST system solved soooo many problems for me.

I can't tell you the number of times I chased my tail on problems that in the end were all caused by glitching and fail safes kicking off.

PLUS it is a very very bad feeling you have when you see your boat sailing down the lake and you are turning the wheel and pressing the trigger and it is having no effect.

JMHO - Your boat is a missile on water that can kill, maim, and break expensive things. The radio system is the LAST place you want to try and save money.

spede18

Some good info on the radios guys thanks, I will be looking around a bit more and see what I can find.

As far as the fail safe other then the throttle reverse, your talking about a 3rd channel with a fail safe?
What would be a good one to get?

Still could use some advice on some servos.

Dreamin Hemi

Hitec 645MG will do just fine. A quality metal gear servo at a good price.

spede18

Thanks, and that drive you suggested will not work because it is an inline rudder but thanks for the advice I am pretty sure I have the drive setup all figured out.

Johnnysplits

Why wouldnt the inline rudder work?

spede18

I am no expert so I am not the best one to explain this but on the mono's apparenlty it is best offset to the right to help them in the turns to keep the fins in the water and stop them from lifting. As well as if they are set inline the prop wash can cause some handling issues as well as added drag. This is just how I understand it. If you google mono rudder placement a lot of info comes up on the subject.

Dreamin Hemi

I suggested that particular product since you obviously are doing a very low budget build. Surely offset is the way to go especially with a nice Zenoah or RCMK engine on a boat designed for speed however with your Homlite engine on a woody hull you won't be breaking any speed records anyway. Like Imentioned earlier, I am a manufacturer and have used this system on several of my designs with great success. For the price you can't beat it. There isn't a mono hull out there that an inline system woulden't work on. Perhaps not the best out there, but hey....you were looking at a $19.99 radio system so I didn't recommend a top quality product that comes with a significantly higher price tag for hardware. To prove my point more, one of my best sellers is my "Dreamin'CS" mono. Lower half of this fiberglass hull is based on a slightly streached version of the popular woody boat you most likely found plans for. This hull turns GREAT using this WHH composite system and is an absolute blast to drive.

As far as turning, what happens when you offset your rudder to the right while making a left turn??? (and you will) Talk about lifting! Keeping things in the center keeps the same rudder depth in the water and will aid in turning right OR left in your woody sport boat. Again, it's a good system for the money, VERY strong and WHH will replace anything on it if you were to break it. Google that guarantee on any of the more costly offset aluminum rudder systems.

spede18

I will weight out my options and see what gear will work. I am sure the drive setup could work and is an option worth looking at.

Hydro Junkie

I have to agree with Dreamin, if the boat is for play, go with a centerline rudder. If you plan on racing, then look at an offset. Stay away from the dual rudder set ups as they don't work any better than a single rudder and just add a hell of a lot more weight to the transom. I'm not sure if you know this or not, but a boat has to be balanced like an airplane. Having a lot of weight in the hardware hanging off the transom is not a good thing.

Paul M

I use the Venom failsafe. It has worked well so far. It is not on the 3rd channel but is plugged in in-line with the throttle servo. There is a third channel kill switch style fail safe that a guy on here sells (believe it). There are differences in how they work and under what circumstances they kick. I can go into greater detail if you are interested.

The FASST system has it's own built in failsafe but it must be reset everytime unless you use digital servos which trust me are NOT budget.


I don;t want to sound like a broken record, but you would not be sorry if you spent the extra bucks on the 2.4.

spede18

At the moment the Fasst setup is something I am debating with the
Tactic ttx240 also has a built in fail safe and I am wondering if it is the same thing?

If I do go with this radio setup then I wouldn't need the additional kill switch for the third channel?

Paul M

I'm not familiar with the Tactic system. I saw the word Spectrum mentioned and I do know there was quite a bit of fuss awhile back about Spectrum not working on water. I also did not see anything much about how the failsafe works.

Alot of people use the Futaba and you will find few if any complaining about them.

The third channel failsafe that I was talking about protects you from a situation like the battery cable coming loose. If this happens a failsafe like the Venom will be of little use because the throttle servo is going to remain in the same position it was when the power went off.

Hope it helps.

spede18

So what would be the 3rd channel fail safe for a situation like you described where the battery cable comes loose?
Would a killer bee fail safe include this?

Johnnysplits

Get the killer bee man. It will kill the engine if you lose battery power, low battery power, radio glitch, and you can kill the engine with the 3rd channel. This is the only failsafe to use. I run this kill switch on my boat and truck and it works perfectly. It is not worth risking a runaway. And again, get yourself either a futaba or airtronics 2.4g system.