RC BOATING SCALE BOATS Builds Scale Boats Electric Predators Aquacraft Rescue 17 Fireboat rebuild

Viewing 2 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • #1593

      After acquiring our mate Cyril’s Fire Rescue 17 RC boat and doing some initial testing with the installed brushed motor and accessories it was decided that the boat needed an upgrade.

      First order of the day was to replace the original brushed motor & ESC which, while still working OK was only just fast enough and very heavy on batteries.

      After discussions with our resident scale boat guru “Uncle G” it was decided to fit a Turnigy D3548/6 760KV motor fed via an HK 60A aircooled fully programmable car ESC (with reverse). Drive coupling was also replaced with a universal joint style coupling (5mm-motor end/3mm-prop end). This was covered with heatshrink tubing & filled with marine grease to ensure quiet running.

      A new motor mount was also required as the brushless motor (by default) mounts from the opposite end (and I couldn’t remove one of the grub screws to reverse the drive shaft)

      With the new motor installed and the ESC & Rx temporarily mounted the boat is ready for testing (hopefully next weekend) so it was time to move on to other alterations/upgrades.

      The installed LED lighting system left a lot to be desired so that is the next part of the project.

      New LED’s have been fitted to the Navigation Light brackets with the new LED’s facing forward (the direction in which the majority of the light projects. All existing wiring will be replaced and extended to the rear section of the cabin where a digital lighting controller will be eventually installed. All internal cabin wiring will be routed through tiny square styrene box section (which should look far tidier than the original open wiring from the factory.

      New Starboard light                                                                      New Port Light

       

       

      Original Port Light (shining up instead of forward)        Starboard Light was barely visible due to faulty LED

      The tiny grubscrews have been removed from the Rudder steering horn and replaced with Stainless Steel socket headed capscrews which will be far easier to remove for maintenance re greasing of the prop & rudder shaft.

      I also need to chase up some new crew figures as the ones installed by Cyril (although looking great) are too small.

      The Original 1:1 Fire Rescue boat closest in design to the model Rescue 17 is “Chief Seattle”.

      “Chief Seattle” is 97 ft long and Rescue 17 is 3ft 2in long giving it a scale of very close to 1/32.

      The silver clad figure is 1/32 from my Scalextric pit crew set and when measured against the cabin door looks the right size whereas the yellow clad figures (although a far better & more detailed model) are clearly too short.

      cont…

      Gave the boat a run last week with the new air cooled brushless setup and it goes great. Might try a slightly larger prop next time as the motor is only idling @ 10A flat out and the motor is rated at over double that.

      Got myself a 3D printer recently so have now started printing a few mods. Roof mounted searchlights have been upgraded with conical reflectors (3d printed) & superhigh output 10mm leds.

      Just working on the Radar array (3d printed) so should have a few more pics in the next day or two.

      cont…

      The Rescue 17 rebuild is almost complete, just a couple more crew members to paint & install and the Main Cabin interior to build & install.

      The working Radar Array & new Hi Power searchlights have been designed, printed & installed and connected to a new 8 channel remote control switch. All functions are now controlled via the one radio control (Turnigy 9X – upgraded with ER9X firmware).

      The Zodiac Pro rescue boat & the new liferaft are also now completed and installed. Still need to design & print the outboard motor for it but that can wait till all the rest is finished.

      • This topic was modified 4 years ago by Predator.
    • #3602

      Its been a while since this post was updated but the cabin interior has now been designed, printed & installed.

      With no plans of the original Chief Seattle Fire Boat (which Rescue 17 was modelled off) I had to work from the only decent interior pic I could find.

      So with the pic in hand it was off to the 3D modelling software to try and recreate something similar. It was decided to design each panel separately then glue them together.

      Certainly made printing a rather complex design much easier.

      Below is the final design of all separate parts ready for printing

      Of course there was the ships wheel as well which ended up connected to a servo and now operates with the rudder.

      Below are actual pics of the printed & assembled interior

      The whole interior is installed with just 2 screws & a 3D printed clip in design so removal for maintenance is very easy.

      Only thing left now is to replace the temporary cardboard ceiling lining with a Styrene sheet one and fit the interior light fittings over the LEDs.

      Here is a brief demo of the remote 8 channel lighting control system (https://youtu.be/2gOvQzanPjY)

      and a test video from Lauderdale Canal

    • #3605

      Great build Pred, lot of work gone in to this. Was the power upgrade so you can try and avoid that dangerous media boat from up the canal?

Viewing 2 reply threads
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.