"nearly" complete Miller American

[Ryan Strecker]

Hey guys, just wanted to introduce myself and show a nearly complete Miller American ive had for over 10 years sitting on a shelf.

I have mostly ran small nitro, and large gas mono's so this hydro is a first. Unfortunately, I inherited it with the decks already on so I wasn't able to make the suggested mod's to lighten it up, move the radio box, etc. Im still waiting on a collet for the p.67 that is going it it. Other than that just have to mount the servos and its good to go. Ill take more pictures of it when I have everything done, but here is one from about a month ago after I sprayed it. Weight wise...its a little heavy. Im looking at about 12 lbs with everything I believe, so at this point I'm hoping itll just get on plane. At the suggestion of Hydro Junkie I think im going to pick up a lifting prop (octura 1460) in addition to the prather 255 I have, just in case the transom drags like I fear it will. The good news is its pretty balanced, CG appears to be directly behind the trailing edge of the sponsons.

Any other tips are welcome...

Ryan

 

[Kevin Lloyd]

Nice boat, if 12 llbs includes motor then your very light, without motor your still going to be 14-15......that's fine

 

[sport hydro]

Nice Paint job. I agre with Kevin, if the boat w/ motor and hardware is at 12lbs. its light. My Dumas 88 miller is at 15lbs.

 

[Ryan Strecker]

Thats actually with motor and hardware. i dont think I had the pipe on it though, and it was dry without receiver batteries. Boater, What type of speed do you see with your dumas? (assuming its a .67 nitro as well)

thanks guys

Ryan

 

[Hydro Junkie]

I have to agree, that is VERY LITE FOR A DUMAS. I would be willing to bet the builder did a lot to lighten the hull framing. Depending on the engine, not to mention how well broken in it is, you may want to look at an X-455, 1455, X-457, 1457 or the three blade version of those rather than or in addition to a 1460. Most racers run in the 55-60mm range so you will be in the ballpark with any of the listed props. The reason I included the X series is if the boat is that well balanced, you may not need the lifting props. Having that many to experiment with would be a serious benefit

 

[sport hydro]

Thats actually with motor and hardware. i dont think I had the pipe on it though, and it was dry without receiver batteries. Boater, What type of speed do you see with your dumas? (assuming its a .67 nitro as well)

thanks guys

Ryan

Mine runs in the 55-60 mph. I use a 1455 three blade, cupped 3.45" done by Mark S.

 

[Ryan Strecker]

awesome thanks guys. My uncle built it, so ill ask him if he did anything to lighten it. Ill get my hands on a couple octuras, probably try a lifter just to see how it runs with it. Ill keep you posted on the progress

 

[Ryan Strecker]

so the official weight is 12lb 9oz, dry. No intentional lightening was done during the construction so i guess I got lucky? who knows maybe we got some magic epoxy or a really good kit (yea right..) from dumas....but ill take it. The speedmaster hardware probably helps because the stuff is incredibly light. either way, im waiting on a coupler and ill get the pipe cut and mounted and its sea worthy. ill get some complete shots when its truly complete

 

[Ryan Strecker]

One more question guys....I received a 1455 octura today and its a raw prop so ill be doing the sharpening and balancing. Would you suggest detounging the 14 series props? From what ive read it will help unload it, but I dont want to sacrifice the lift it provides and I'd prefer the boat to be able to get on plane without a major launch.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Sharpen and balance it, then try it out. I wouldn't mod the prop until after that. If you want to keep your options open, get an X-455 and try it too. That will give you a baseline for working with other props as well as prop modding requirements to suit the boat. Using just one prop won't tell you a lot and modding right from the start won't give you that baseline needed for fine tuning the prop to the boat

 

[Ryan Strecker]

makes sense, thanks again for all the info. i have this and the prather 255 so ill be interested to see how it reacts to both.

 

[BobGutsell]

One more question guys....I received a 1455 octura today and its a raw prop so ill be doing the sharpening and balancing. Would you suggest detounging the 14 series props? From what ive read it will help unload it, but I dont want to sacrifice the lift it provides and I'd prefer the boat to be able to get on plane without a major launch.

I wouldn't bother, modding it or trying it, I've tried one on mine and it really didn't give that much lift and the boat didn't go that well with it. You're better off to try the Prather 250, 255, or an Octura 3 blade X452 or 455. You may even get away with a 3 blade 457. You need alot of lift only these props will be able to give you what you need. Actually, that's a bit of a rash generalisation, there are others, but if one of these 4 don't do it, then the others won't.

 

[jeffaustin]

also make sure you can get as much weight forward as possible even if you have to add a pound or so of weight up front........these boats have a tendency to be tail heavy

 

[Ryan Strecker]

yeah my fear is its going to ride low in the back. At the moment the CG is about 3 inches behind the trailing edge of the front sponsons, im not sure how that will translate to ride attitude.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

You will need to add some counterbalance weight in the nose. I'd say put it in the sponson tips BUT that would require drilling access holes and I don't think you want to damage the paint. With the CG being that far aft, running it very fast at this point is asking for a blow over. If your fuel tank is still under the cockpit, add weight a little at a time in front of the tank as far forward as you can BETWEEN RUNS. One other mistake you need to avoid is to try to use the wing to support the rear of the boat. The wing is used for fine tuning the boat's ride, not to carry weight from being improperly balanced

 

[Ryan Strecker]

yea the tank is under the front, I may be able to make the cockpit area removable that way I can access in front of the tank easier.

 

[Ryan Strecker]

Just had another thought....the Rx battery can probably be relocated from the radio box (stock dumas location) to up in the front under or in front of the fuel tank. Where should the CG really be on these boats?

 

[Hydro Junkie]

NORMALLY, we try to get them into the .5 to 1.5" aft of the sponson range. Depending on the boat, you may need to balance closer to or further from the sponson to get it to run level. That being said, you really need to run the boat to see what it's going to do before you start getting too crazy with adding a lot of weight. Moving the batteries won't hurt in this case.

 

[Ryan Strecker]

definitely need to run it before anything, just thinking of what can be done if necessary.

on a side note, do you guys know what the range of the stock needle settings on a p.67 picco would be? I went to fire it up today just to get it to idle and it was clearly too rich at 3 turns out, there was a pool of fuel/oil in the pipe coupler

 

[Hydro Junkie]

If you were running it on the bench with no load, that sounds normal. If you were on the water and running at normal racing speeds, you wouldn't see that as the fuel flow needed to spin the prop under load is considerably higher than a bench idle