TOPIC: World's Smallest Power Cat!!!

I put a modified Nylint toy Mercury on an old Fleet-Line toy boat (a rough approximation of a Power Cat) and added R/C bits. Ran it this morning!
- Scott

Dude, that's awesome.

Kelly

I want one.......I want one.........

that totally rawks!

Some details...
The boat was made by Fleet-Line in the early 1960s. It originally came with twin plastic Johnson or Evinrude 40s on it. It also had a cruiser style superstructure. The hull and styling are very much like the Power Cats of the day. Measures about 11 inches long.

The motor is a 1990s era toy Mercury made by the now defunt Nylint Toys. They are quite common and frequently can be had on eBay for under $25.00. I modified this one with several updates. First, the motor that comes in the outboard is pretty weak and does not stand up well to even modest voltage upgrades. It has metallic brushes that simply melt down when you juice it with anything over 3V. I added carbon brushes out of a higher end motor to take care of that issue. Second, the gears on these motors do not mesh well. They're relatively substantial (for a toy) but they barely engage. So I shimmed the propshaft to get better engagement and take the slop out of the drivetrain. Third, I had to add a heavier coupling between the motor and driveshaft, as the original wasn't much more than plastic shrink tubing. I used some 1/32" I.D. bleeder hose with a 1/8" wall. The end result is a motor that stands up to 7.4V without cooking or breaking anything. The propeller is the stock prop that came with the toy.

The speed control is a Nano sized model C-7 by Electrifly. Battery is a 7.4V 400 mah Lithium Polymer. Radio is by Tactic, and is a 2.4 GHZ transmitter and receiver (no antenna!!).

- Scott

Nice job ya did there toooo awesome!

Scott:
Do you have any close up shots of the boat..
Pretty cool...

Takes the waves like a champ! I think thats the one and only Frank A aka PC1000 behind the wheel,LOL.

Here you go...

Having been on the RC scene for 10 years and remembering to waterproof my dirt cars when it got hairy... I have only one question...

... yea, I know it's the antenna

NO!

Actually, it's one of the wires from the ESC. The Tactic 2.4GHZ receiver doesn't use an antenna! It's all tucked inside a baby food tub to keep it dry.

Mr. 88 wrote:

Takes the waves like a champ! I think thats the one and only Frank A aka PC1000 behind the wheel,LOL.

thats what i was going to write b4 i read your post.hehe and was going to add lucky no muskies were in the shallows. ron

there is something to be said for gerber technology. one of these days I will have to post some of my PT boat RC's.

THE ICE IS OUT!!!!

Scott,
Sweet! I like it. Makes me want to dig out my old Mahogany RC boat.

Bob

This is my rc boat. 48" long with a 25.4cc 2 cycle gas engine. It does over 57mph.