The official 36" zelos twin modding thread

[banixj]

First run of the season. Had the struts set at about 2.5mm with ABC 1814 props and 4 3S packs. Had a little too much hop on the first run and never really got many WOT passes. GPS read 67.5mph. Took out the HRB packs and put a set of Revo's 70C graphenes in. Second run was better, smoother down wind, but still not a lot of WOT because I didn't want to flip it today. I did flip it pretty good once, more of a sideways cartwheel, and landed business side down. Ran 71.6mph, but the temps came back really warm. The motor connectors melted the hatch foam and there was a lot of smoke, on both runs. It was alarming at first, but I knew as soon as there was no smell, it wasn't the electronics. I borked one of the struts on the flip to nearly full positive trim angle. Funny, I didn't really notice it much on the few passes I made after the flip before I brought it back. Next trip I'll use an air dam and run the struts at 3mm.

my first flip was with ABC props... never happened with other props at higher speeds...
anyway what do you mean with 3mm? 3mm from the "table"? neutral is 4mm from the "table"... so 2.5mm is better of 3mm to bring the nose down...

[fweasel]

my first flip was with ABC props... never happened with other props at higher speeds...
anyway what do you mean with 3mm? 3mm from the "table"? neutral is 4mm from the "table"... so 2.5mm is better of 3mm to bring the nose down...

I've flipped on all props. It's really not that hard. My strut measurements are taken as illustrated in the manual. Yes, 3mm will run the bow higher, but that's not why I'm making the change. I want less prop in the water to bring the temps down a little and I'll be using an air dam to reduce air pushing up on the bottom of the tunnel.

[banixj]

Everythig is clear! Thank u so much!
For same reason, less prop in the water, i leave stock 4mm setup..
I change balance moving the 2 6s lipo packs: in the center of batt tray boat is not so wet and drag when close gas is so low... But i am scared by waves and wind...
So i move packs a little bit under the hood... I think it is the best solution... But drag increase so much... So at half gas boat is a little bit slower...

[REDLINE1]

Ended up covering / sealing the spider cracks in the bottom of the hull up with some carbon fiber look vinyl zelos.JPG

If you look close you can still see a few of them under the vinyl.
Hope it stays on lol

Also add 2 layers of CF cloth inside under the battery / electronics tray . That area is much stiffer now. All ready for a few more flips lol

[dasboata]

First run of the season. Had the struts set at about 2.5mm with ABC 1814 props and 4 3S packs. Had a little too much hop on the first run and never really got many WOT passes. GPS read 67.5mph. Took out the HRB packs and put a set of Revo's 70C graphenes in. Second run was better, smoother down wind, but still not a lot of WOT because I didn't want to flip it today. I did flip it pretty good once, more of a sideways cartwheel, and landed business side down. Ran 71.6mph, but the temps came back really warm. The motor connectors melted the hatch foam and there was a lot of smoke, on both runs. It was alarming at first, but I knew as soon as there was no smell, it wasn't the electronics. I borked one of the struts on the flip to nearly full positive trim angle. Funny, I didn't really notice it much on the few passes I made after the flip before I brought it back. Next trip I'll use an air dam and run the struts at 3mm.

So guys to bring the bow angle down,,,, lower your strut in the water, this will raise the transom!!!! which pushes the nose down,,, think of it as a sea saw

[dasboata]

I've flipped on all props. It's really not that hard. My strut measurements are taken as illustrated in the manual. Yes, 3mm will run the bow higher, but that's not why I'm making the change. I want less prop in the water to bring the temps down a little and I'll be using an air dam to reduce air pushing up on the bottom of the tunnel.

then go with a smaller size prop also !!!

[REDLINE1]

Looks good...but I wonder how long it will hold up before the water starts making the carbon decal come off? I went ahead day one and brushed a light coat of T88 on the center hump around the battery tray mounts to make that area more rigid and to help secure the battery tray mounts better and possibly keep them from coming loose after a flip.

We'll see I used acrylic edge sealer that the vinyl guys use to keep the edges from lifting.

Whats T88 ?

[Erroneous]

This epoxy is awesome https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-...50?recordNum=7 Ive blueprinted two hulls and numerous repairs. Easy to mix, use, sand and paint. Did a test with a blob vs the garage floor, didnt break.

[Team Lucas]

All this talk about the bottom having "spider cracks". as far as I know they don't leak. its just the gelcoat, won't get through the fiberglass. Seeing all the pics you guy's post of the bottom, all nice and shinny I sand my bottom so theres no drag from "sticking" to the water surface. Thought that was in R/C boating 101.

[REDLINE1]

All this talk about the bottom having "spider cracks". as far as I know they don't leak. its just the gelcoat, won't get through the fiberglass. Seeing all the pics you guy's post of the bottom, all nice and shinny I sand my bottom so theres no drag from "sticking" to the water surface. Thought that was in R/C boating 101.

It was my understanding that cat hulls when up on plane only ride on the sponsons not the center section of the hull so you only need to sand the bottom of the rear two sponsons.
You are correct spider cracks are just in the paint and gel coat but my thought was to use the vinyl to seal the cracks from moisture getting in the gel coat fiberglass layer.

[HESTER24]

After spending several days reading this whole thread you guys have convinced me. I just ordered me a Zelos 36.
I do have one question that I didn't see answered. Can I use the optional connectors that allow you to run 4 3s batteries and run 4 2s batteries to make 8s of power? Or should I just go ahead and run 2 or 4 3s batteries. I have several 2s batteries. What is your guys thoughts. Would it be faster running 2 3s vs 4 2s?

[Keagan-Z06]

4 3S or 2 3S

[HESTER24]

Congrats on the boat you will love it.
4-3s are faster than just 2-3s. for me. I ran 59mph with 2-3s and 62.2mph with 4-3s on the same water and same set up with factory dull props.
2-3s will only give you about 2.5 min of runtime and will be hitting low voltage quickly unless they are top notch batteries.
4-2 s packs with the optional adapters would be only 4s to each esc which would work and you would be around 45mph (pretty slow for a boat this size).
8s will fry the electronics.

Thank you so much!
Ya I meant 4s per side.
Looks like I'm buying some 3s batteries!
What are your thought on the power hobby batteries I see all over. Price is decent but I know you get what you pay for. I run venom packs now. All my 2s are hard pack. I have had 3 of my venom soft packs have the power wired pull out. They can out all corroded. So skeptical about buying there 3s packs.

[kfxguy]

Let me lay some truth down for you.

The best way to run it is a 4s, 5s or 6s pack per motor.
As said you cannot run 8s on the stock electronics, but I think you figured that out.
Venom batteries were the first batteries I ran when I got into this. They are decent but too expensive for what you get. I had quite a few failures out of those batteries and getting them warrantied wasn't easy...I was paying $95 each for a 50c 5000mah 3s pack.

Your best bet is to just skip all the b.s. And buy revolectrix batteries from the ose store. That's the only battery I will run. Are they trouble free? No. But I haven't seen a lipo that is yet. If you take care of them like your supposed to then you will be far less likely to have a problem. They have proven far more reliable in my experience than any other battery I've used with gens ace coming in next in line. Revo has been the most powerful battery I've used also. Check out the prices, cheaper than pretty much everything else and far better. You can thank me later.

[Erroneous]

Revolectrix all the way. A couple days ago I decided to soft cycle all my packs and check IRs. The SMC and SPC packs that I used to swear by have twice the resistance of even my oldest most abused Revo packs. I fell victim to the venom packs too.