Great Memories OB hydros

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twox45

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2006
Messages
323
Well I finally got the chance to run the new ZippKits 21 OB hydro and did it ever bring back lots of old pleasant memories........ My brother and I started with the ElDibalo OB hydros from Martin Davis some 30+ years ago. I had forgotten how simple things were back then, just fuel, crank and go. No belts no cowlings just easy and fun. We had seven of the OB hydros in our club and it wasn't unusual to go though a gallon of 20% cool power and 2 receiver packs on a Sunday. We would even drag the big clock out to the lake with the 2 arms that actually counted down from 3 minutes. Its a wonder we can still hear, those little K&B's with a 1/2" stub pipe for an exhaust were really loud. Oh and don't forget about all the broken 12mm K&B cranks, well most memories were pleasant.

Back to the new boat, it was a pre built kit by Mike Walker and assembled by Ron Zaker Senior. The motor was a MAC 21 power head on a lawless 21 foot not sure who the pipe mfg was. We left the cavitation plate on the motor this time so we were limited to a 45mm prop. We started testing with the 1745/3 octura. I was concerned over the really wide ride pad under the boat, was not sure what effects it would have on how the boat would handle. Turns out it took all the sensitivity to different types of props out of the equation, we ran 14's, 16's, X's, and the 17 series and had nothing but good results. We topped out in the low 60's with the 1745, then the prop fell off, oh well. We will test some more in a couple weeks, at our Turkey Day time trial, with the cavitation plate off and a Truex power head.

By the way, the boat drives much better than what you see in some of the video, I had my new radio that has more knobs than my grand mothers old Victrola and I was too busy playing with all the knobs. The video starts out fat but after the third launch we had the needle dialed in. You will also see how easy it launches when Bill just sat the boat in the water. It had an X445 on it then.




 
Mine is just an old lazy K&B with a Lawless drive and it is one of the funnest boats to drive I have.

Like Rod says turns like it's tied to a post

Great job David

Oh ya I forgot mines not that fast
 
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Great looking boats, guys. The new/old outboard outrigger looks like it can breathe some new life into the small r/c boat scene. And, they're fasssssst, too. I appreciate the mention of the Lawless Drive back there. I hope that using it contributes to the whole effort for great results. Anybody who's looking for a Lawless Drive can now find them on EBAY. My seller's name is fredhh47. Check them out. If you buy one and mention that you saw my post on Intlwaters, I will discount your purchase by 5%. Just use the "note to seller" feature. I am now converting any old Lawless 3.5 drive that you may have, to use the OS propshaft (even if the original propshaft threads are stripped or worn out). This seems to be a popular mod lately, and I have the tools to do it. E-mail me if you'd like to consider that upgrade. In case you're interested in going a step further, I also have adapters to use OS powerheads on the 3.5, so you can combine some of the best parts available to your advantage. And, no matter how you mod it, it still uses the same size flexshaft. Nothing new to buy there. Good water for all in 2013!

Fred

Good luck with everybody's efforts to go fast. Looking forward to seeing some of you again at Hobart next fall.

Fred
 
I absolutely love mine, I am running a stock O/S and it is very fast and fun to drive. I think this is one of my favorite boats!

D
 
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