This has been my experience with the Derfflinger. Been meaning to set that gun at a shallower angle to address it.
I've been doing some work on this boat for the past couple of weeks after Nats. The main objectives are 1) replace prop shafts and gearbox to have a normal setup 2) adjust wiring to support a second drive motor 3) install second stern cannon 4) install 4th solenoid 5) adjust wiring to support dual stern guns The reason for replacing the drive train are that the interwoven props had issues on a few occasions, such that It did not meet my reliability standards. I think the idea can still work, and others have done it, but I wasn't able to use the boat at a battle because the props jammed in the first sortie. If I was going to try it again, I wouldn't out them so close so there would be more room for rotation between the two props if something slips/deforms. My props were pretty close so any movement mean failure I started by cutting out the old drive train. Unfortunately I put the shafts in pretty rigidly and filled in a lot of area around them with epoxy/filler, so it was a pain to Get them out. The gear box was also a through hull, epoxy and goop job so I opted to remove the hull there as well. Here it is post cut And the shafts. The set screw on one of the gears stripped out, so I cut the shaft to free it. Gear might now be recoverable Cleaned up bottom From here I wanted to fiberglass over most of the holes before moving on to installing new shafts. Lots of tape, electrical on first, then some painters View inside pre fiberglass And glass drying I made more progress today but no pictures, I'm hoping to get the traxxas boxes in tomoorw, probably a multi-day job to glass the new stuffing tubes in
More progress made, glued the motor mounts in last night, and around the shaft area tonight Shaft test fit/alignment. Made a holder for the ends of the shafts Close up of repair area Tape for the holes for the shafts Side, ended up with no leaks Inside showing shafts. They ended up pretty straight because of the length and size of the props, couldn't get much toe on them. Rudder servo mount survived the removal of old shafts Showing the area dremelled out. Hopefully my next boat I'll do the shafts right the first time Motor mounts Tomorrow will probably be struts, and sheeting the California for Mings
I've been happy with the tape method, it sure beats trying to contain an epoxy leak mid-set. Shafts (well stuffing tubes) are now done Here is post electrical tape, it came out nice, stuck the shafts and rudder in for test fit I'm pleased with how they lined up Next was struts Ended up sturdy Next steps are cutting a new shaft and reinstalling running gear, then probably attempt to make a mount for the second stern gun and solenoid. Hopefully it will all be done by Mings
I got a lot of work done before Mings, here are some photos. Motors installed. Still not a lot of hand room to work, but better than before Here is the solenoid mount for the extra gun, directly fwd of the servo mount Here is the new gun, my standard hose configuration Guns bent into place and installed. These three aft guns stay in the boat, so it's important to make sure they are set correctly prior to installing. It makes the install process a pain, but is a nice feature at the pond. Solenoid installed as well Midships, can see the magazine load points And looking towards the motors. Probably won't make a spin guard since all the wires and hoses are zip tied out of the way I also changed the wiring around and added (evil) test switches on top of the radio box. After testing the boat with two motors, I think the starting current spike is too much for one LiFe battery, so I'm changing the battery load out from 1 4s zippy and two 20Ah bricks to two 4s zippy's (one per drive motor), and two cylindrical 15Ah cells from my Missouri packs for the pump. I think it should all work out. It will give more room for the extra ESC, since I had very little room to squeeze it in for the test run at Mings last week Should finish up Thursday, on this weekend if I don't go down to Statesboro
