Proboat Stealthwake 23 brushless conversion

[Peter A]

Question - is the OSE 6mm connector basically the same as an XT150?

No. XT150 are 5mm.

Just cut off the ec3 end off one of your existing adaptors and solder on the ose one. Or use new xt60 and ose and solder one up.

[DUPanther]

No. XT150 are 5mm.

Just cut off the ec3 end off one of your existing adaptors and solder on the ose one. Or use new xt60 and ose and solder one up.

I soldered an adapter for OSE 6mm to XT60. It was rough (first time soldering), but I got the connectors on. I couldn't, however, manage to get the red plastic cover on the OSE 6mm end to slide up over the connectors. Tried everything, it wouldn't go. So, I ended up cutting the OSE 6mm off the battery end of the esc, replacing it with an XT90 connector, and used an XT90 to XT60 adapter I found at the local hobby shop. It works.

Pic:
IMG_7645.jpg

[DUPanther]

Took it out for it's first run last night. It's significantly faster, I'm guessing close to 10mph faster than stock. It also runs completely cool...I ran it for about 15 minutes and neither the motor nor the stuffing tube were more than slightly warm to the touch.

The OSE Raider 150A esc is overkill for this setup (I think the 2750kv motor only pulls 65 amps max), and adds quite a bit of weight over the small Dynamite 60A model that was in there before. Consequently, it sits lower in the water and makes the turn fins grab hard at anything above low speed, so it's a little tricky to turn at high speeds. It's fun, though.

Couple questions for you more experienced guys:

1. Marine grease: I've been greasing the shaft every couple times I run, per instructions. I don't put a ton on there (and only so much will go up into the stuffing tube anyway, no matter how much you put on...it gets wiped off by the end of the stuffing tube when you insert the shaft). Every time I've run it, I notice grease coming out of the motor end of the stuffing tube. After I put the new motor in, that has increased. The first time I ran it with the new motor, it looked like every bit of grease that was in the tube came out of the motor side of the tube (and then the spinning shaft throws it all over the inside of the boat...it's messy). Anyone know how to stop that?

2. Props: When I ran with the new motor I first used the stock prop. 40mm, 2.5 total pitch (or so I've read). It runs pretty good with that on there. I also got a 3 blade CNC prop 36mm, total pitch 1.99. When I put the 3 blade prop on, the motor turns but the boat doesn't go anywhere when I punch it from a standstill. I think maybe it's cavitating? If so, I need a larger prop, correct? Can someone explain the relationship between number of blades, pitch, and cavitation?

[RossCo216]

Grab a soldering iron, some flux paste, solder wire and swap the plug ends on the ESC to your xt60 plugs.

[sciesielka]

1. Marine grease: I've been greasing the shaft every couple times I run, per instructions. I don't put a ton on there (and only so much will go up into the stuffing tube anyway, no matter how much you put on...it gets wiped off by the end of the stuffing tube when you insert the shaft). Every time I've run it, I notice grease coming out of the motor end of the stuffing tube. After I put the new motor in, that has increased. The first time I ran it with the new motor, it looked like every bit of grease that was in the tube came out of the motor side of the tube (and then the spinning shaft throws it all over the inside of the boat...it's messy). Anyone know how to stop that?

My son's Stealthwake has the same issue with the grease. We use the Horizon Hobby Marine Grease and it's always coming out inside the boat. And when we converted the boat to brushless, it also got worse. I read a few different suggestions on how to stop it, including putting a piece of silicon tubing over the stuffing tube and shaft ahead of the motor, but that didn't work. So our low tech fix was to take some masking tape and make a "cover" over the shaft. It's not pretty, but it keeps the grease from ending up all over the inside of the boat. One day we'll come up with a permanent fix, but for now, the tape "cover" keeps the grease contained.

[sciesielka]

Looking for some guidance on a flex cable drive for the Pro Boat Stealthwake. I've put together a shopping list but I'm not sure which parts would work better. We already upgraded to a brushless system (3660 2600KV) and installed OSE trim tabs. I already have a new Octura x642 3/16" prop and a metal rudder picked out as well.
Now we're looking to upgrade the drive system this fall/winter. Here's what I'm considering. Appreciate any feedback on the options and also need to know if I'm missing anything.
Cable assembly: #1 or #2 which I suppose depends upon which strut or stinger I get right?
1) OSE .150 cable with 3/16", 2.75" long prop shaft ose-cable-150L-xL
2) OSE .150 cable with 3/16" prop shaft 2.25" long ose-cable-150L
Motor Coupler (5mm motor shaft):
OSE 5mm to 3.8mm (.150) Coupler : Short 25mm Long ose-81502-s
Strut (#A) or Stinger (#1, 2 or 3) : I've read the stingers are 'harder' on the Stealthwake transom than a strut, but if it's a strut, which is better of the 3 below? And also, how far should the prop be from the transom? Is it better to have it 2 or 3 inches away or should it be 4+ inches away? I assumed it would be approximately the same distance away as it is on the stock boat.
A) TFL 3/16" Adjustable Stinger Strut tfl-503b72
1) Speedmaster 21 Strut : Mono ros-spdss-002
2) Speedmaster Large 3/16" (.187) Strut : Mono : Round ros-spds-007
3) TFL Aluminum CNC Adjustable T Strut for 3/16" Shaft tfl-503B27
Thank you in advance for the feedback!

[sciesielka]

1. Marine grease: I've been greasing the shaft every couple times I run, per instructions. I don't put a ton on there (and only so much will go up into the stuffing tube anyway, no matter how much you put on...it gets wiped off by the end of the stuffing tube when you insert the shaft). Every time I've run it, I notice grease coming out of the motor end of the stuffing tube. After I put the new motor in, that has increased. The first time I ran it with the new motor, it looked like every bit of grease that was in the tube came out of the motor side of the tube (and then the spinning shaft throws it all over the inside of the boat...it's messy). Anyone know how to stop that?

@DUPanther, we just converted our Stealthwake to a flex shaft system. When we removed the stock prop shaft and stuffing tube, I measured the bushings on the ends of the stuffing tube. The prop shaft is 2.9mm diameter. At the motor end of the stuffing tube, the bushing was 3.2mm. At the prop end of the stuffing tube, the bushing was an oval. It ranged from 3.3mm to 3.5mm. I suspect that is why we got water in the stuffing tube, pushing the grease out by the motor. That may be your issue too. You can easily replace the stock stuffing tube and prop shaft. You can get them from Horizon Hobby.

[sciesielka]

We completed the conversion to the flex shaft system. We used the Speedmaster 21 Strut, the .150 cable with 3/16", 2.25" long prop shaft. We also got a CNC 40mm, 1.6 pitch, De-Tongued prop. I created a webpage with info and video links to all the upgrades we've done to the Stealthwake including the conversion to the flex shaft. The page is at http://myplace.frontier.com/~sv_design/s_wake.html

[sciesielka]

Stealthwake with strut and flex cable - handling issues

Before the lakes froze over in 2020, we had only managed one run of the Stealthwake with the flex shaft and strut. The spring of 2021 found us testing different props and setups to get the Stealthwake to run flat and fast and not end up upside-down so often. In 2 years with the brushless system, it was belly-up 2 times with the stock rigid driveshaft with a -6 degree angle whereas with the flex/strut system it's upside down at least once every run! We moved the trim tabs closer to the the keel, added new turn fins, made the strut adjustable +/-2 degrees and it was still a wild ride compared to the same setup with the stock drive shaft. Apparently with the prop shaft level, this boat likes the CoG to be almost 33%. It wasn't until I shoved the battery into the bow did I get the boat to handle better. The balance point moved about 1 inch forward but it meant moving the battery from the battery tray to a point where it was almost behind the motor.

Maybe it was just us, but I've seen others do a similar upgrade with fewer issues. I've figured out that if I add 7oz of weight to the front of the bow, I can keep the battery in the battery tray and keep the CoG around 32%. The thought of adding weight is frustrating but we're testing it out to see what happens.

[Jesse J]

Have you raised the strut?

[sciesielka]

Have you raised the strut?

Jesse, that is one thing I thought of trying but can't. I didn't have room to put a wet well in and even though I had seen where others re-drilled the stuffing tube hole up to 4mm higher that stock, I didn't do that. I get, I think, the advantage to raising the strut in that it gets more of the stern, or rather more of the "V" in the water instead of just the tip of the "V" (very technical terms, right?!). I thought by moving the trim tabs in close to the prop shaft that I could replicate the same effect of raising the strut. But it didn't help. The thing just porpoises and gets airborne and it's only going about 25mph on 2S, so it's not getting air from high speeds.

Think it's worth redoing it with the strut higher? Currently the stuffing tube is coming out right at the bottom of the hull, any lower and it would bust through the bottom which is how it was stock.

[Jesse J]

If it were me, I’d raise it at least half an inch, if not 5/8 in.

[fweasel]

While definitely more squirrely with all the upgrades, I've had none of the stability issues you're describing, even when my young son was driving. My stuffing tube is higher than the stock hole for the original solid driveshaft.

2018-01-06 11.57.29.jpg 2018-01-06 13.31.56.jpg 2018-01-06 17.32.21.jpg

[sciesielka]

While definitely more squirrely with all the upgrades, I've had none of the stability issues you're describing, even when my young son was driving. My stuffing tube is higher than the stock hole for the original solid driveshaft.

Shortly after installing the brushless motor and ESC, I came across your Stealthwake build and arrover's. For almost 2 years we ran with the stock solid shaft and the brushless setup and it ran great. I figured with the flex shaft, it could only get better. When I finally decided to go forward with the flex shaft and strut, I looked again at your guys' builds. I kept debating moving the stuffing tube up like you did or just leaving it where it was like arrover did. Apparently, I should have moved the stuffing tube up like you did. I had also debated the strut vs. stinger but was afraid the Speedmaster stinger was too long and I didn't have the courage to cut it shorter. I thought leaving it long as it came, with the prop so far back that I'd have issues turning.
The issue now is the bow just won't stay down. Once it starts porpoising, the next step is it flips or rolls, even when I drive the trim tabs down and angle the strut down. Here's the video of the latest trials. If you look in the description box, I put time stamps so you can jump to the different sections. It's also pasted below.
Also, it's using a 3660 2600KV motor and 90A ESC. The prop used in the videos is a CNC 1.4x44mm from OSE. It's so far only ever run on a 2-cell LiPo but we were hoping with this latest upgrade that we could try a 3-cell but haven't yet.

[sciesielka]

If it were me, I’d raise it at least half an inch, if not 5/8 in.

Here's my "deep thought" of the day ... when I moved the trim tabs in closer to the keel, could I have made my handling problems worse? It seemed that way when I was testing it. My thought is that the trim tabs are holding the stern up and not letting it settle into the water. Knowing that the prop shaft is so low and that it should be raised to get the stern planted (???), are the trim tabs fighting me? I know you angle the trim tabs to get the stern up and bow down, so am I basically lifting the stern so far out of the water that it's causing issues (even though during testing the trim tabs were usually parallel and not angled). And knowing that the boat pivots around the CG, with it at 27% there's just no way to get enough of the hull in the water without seriously shifting the CG by over an inch forward to get to 32% (which is what I did when I put the battery most of the way into the bow)?
Just trying to think through where I went wrong to make sure I understand the forces at play here.

I'm thinking I'll try taking the trim tabs off just for s--ts and giggles to see what happens ... just have to seal off the holes ... might have to find some small o-rings