Toy boat conversions
01-26-2009, 10:36 AM
#1
Toy boat conversions
Has anyone bought a toy r/c boat from Toys R Us and converted it to regular rc electronics? I saw a boat in Toys R Us a few days ago that had some nice detail and I was thinking of getting it, gutting it and putting in some regular electronics. I just want something to putt around the pond, maybe make a trailer and pull it around with my Emaxx. Anyone else done this successfully? I have all the electronics and the boat is only $50.
01-26-2009, 11:31 AM
#2
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I would like to for when I go to the beach and there's no surf. I was thinking RTR gear, but with a modified motor 
01-26-2009, 04:43 PM
#3
I just figured it would be a cheap way to have a boat too. I don't need a full blown race boat or a thousand dollar scale boat. I dump enough money into my trucks as it is. Just wondered if anyone else has thought about it. I might be asking this in the wrong website. 
01-27-2009, 01:27 PM
#4
01-27-2009, 03:45 PM
#5
Thats what I'm looking at doing. The boat I'm looking at is a yaht style and is about 3 feet long. It's only $50 and I figured it should have enough room for some batteries and other electronics. I don't care if its fast or not. How well does yours work?
01-28-2009, 08:34 AM
#6
It's not fast. I also need a less bendy servo rod. The motor overheats if you run full throttle for too long, but other than that, it worked great.
02-03-2009, 05:23 PM
#9
hows the brushless mini rio coming along?
02-08-2009, 08:40 PM
#10
I have done up vaious toys r us boats. My adivice is to just get a cheap used "floater" like a rolling chassis off ebay. Some good examples are kyosho viper, great planes dagger, stinger, wilcat and wave rocket. All of these boats are sized perfect for 6 cells and are plenty entertaining with an old 27 turn. Just my .02
02-12-2009, 10:53 AM
#13
I guess it depends on how big the boat is. I would probably stay around a mild modified, like a 17 turn. Any faster than that would probably destroy the boat or make it too hard to drive. I would like to do a conversion simply because you can pick up a New Bright or Nikko boat for around 70$ and it's pretty scale looking. That's my problem, most of the quality boats don't even look like boats, just a slick floating hull. I don't really want to spend a ton of money on a totally decked out scaler either, just something that looks decent that I can cruize around with.
02-12-2009, 01:14 PM
#14
Tech Initiate
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Agreed about the scale look. My new bright boat cost me $38 brand new. Mind you it's insanely slow at this point, (won't even plane) but with a real radio/esc/motor/battery and a bit of elbow grease it should be lots of fun. The boat is 20 inches in length and looks pretty good with all the cheesy decals pulled off. Here's a link: http://www.newbright.com/nb-consumer...&action=detail
Right now it has a standard low quality 370 size motor in it, I've been thinking about getting a Losi 19T modified 380 size motor for I think the mini T or whatever it's called. Then I don't have to make any big modifications to the motor mount. I also got a brass prop for it which looks pretty cool, and I have a couple of 7-cell AAA size battery packs collecting dust from when I went to LiPo power for my heli.
Right now it has a standard low quality 370 size motor in it, I've been thinking about getting a Losi 19T modified 380 size motor for I think the mini T or whatever it's called. Then I don't have to make any big modifications to the motor mount. I also got a brass prop for it which looks pretty cool, and I have a couple of 7-cell AAA size battery packs collecting dust from when I went to LiPo power for my heli.
02-12-2009, 01:46 PM
#15
I'm pretty sure the Mini T motors would work great in that boat. This is the one I'm looking at. I think it would look pretty sweet behind my Emaxx.
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index...ductId=2555296
It's 28" and should be able to accept a 540 motor and at least one battery pack. I did a smaller boat conversion years ago, but by the time I added the electronics and 6 cell pack it was so heavy it sat really low in the water and wouldn't even plane. it was only about a 12" boat though. Post up some pics of yours if you can. I'd like to see how you are going to do it.
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index...ductId=2555296
It's 28" and should be able to accept a 540 motor and at least one battery pack. I did a smaller boat conversion years ago, but by the time I added the electronics and 6 cell pack it was so heavy it sat really low in the water and wouldn't even plane. it was only about a 12" boat though. Post up some pics of yours if you can. I'd like to see how you are going to do it.