Bancroft PT-596 Patrol Boat - RTR

[Elbee]

Other than that we are functional just in time for winter, Now it's detail time, crew, weathering etc..

R7, Please post pictures as you progress. Looking forward to it. Best, LB

[Rascal76]

It's been a while but I finally got my PT in the water for a test of the replacement ESC. It seemed to run correctly.
I put a continuous 5 minutes on it and it ran well and didn't get hot.
I did do the grease to petroleum jelly change.

I am not at all impressed with the top speed. It seems barely scale.

I am going to have to play with the balance as the boat seems to ride a little bow up. Maybe a sound card up there?

It is a loud boat. the large unsupported deck rings a lot. I have started adding some internal structure to try and deaden the hull sound.

Other than that we are functional just in time for winter,
Now it's detail time, crew, weathering etc..

[Battleship]

To diaphn respectfully saying sir and mamThe dymimit esc works excellent it’s got a better range. So that’s what kind of esc I use
I use it in my Atlantic harbor tug boat and my fletcher class destroyer battle ship with a cooling fan

[RSRN]

I guess we can look at the bright side had this been an aircraft, we would be sweeping up a pile of parts. For those needing to redo the shafts on the PT Boat, I tried removing the shafs 2 ways, remove prop and pull from the rear, very tight clearence on the ruders. Or loosen motor( mark first where the motor is in relation to heatsink/motor mount), remove prop and locknut and bring shaft forward,the later being easier. That grease is an absolute mess, but will clean. out with some effort and a can of electronics cleaner. Hoping this maybe the end of the projects, I can't take much more of this Ready to Run stuff. I am thinking about converting it( PT boat) to steam and making it a sidewheeler, Missisippi river boat. I just need to get some 1/24 scale Mark Twain figures

[dai phan]

Not nice to hear at all. All my 3 boats are grounded ! Dai

[Rascal76]

The dog bones came from Zipp Kits https://zippkits.com/index.php?main_...roducts_id=631
It's not a simple conversion. Both the motor shafts and the prop shafts have to be shortened and the prop side drive lug needs to have it's hole opened up. I had to buy a couple of reamers to do it.

I also have to question where the thrust load from the prop shaft should be applied. Out of the box it looks like the forward thrust load is pushing on the strut the hangs down at the back of the boat.
I wasn't to confident about that as the welding that connects the cylindrical part to the flat strut leg doesn't look very strong. If it isn't applied there then it is loading up on the motor shaft. I'm pretty sure those motors aren't designed to take a thrust load. So I added collars the prop shafts that push on the hull where the prop shaft enters. that way the strut isn't loaded up and the motor isn't seeing thrust load. This should improve the life of all components. was it necessary probably not but that's my engineering experience at work.
I plan to put some running hours on this boat!

[Elbee]

Hey All, I do not have one of the ships yet, though I have experience with the racing methanol/nitro .60 CC fuelie boats circa the 1980's. We used Hughey Boats Shaft Lubricant (Part Number B230). It is 'blue' in color and always felt waxy as well as oily. I would check out what is being used by the fuelie racers. Very high RPM and harsh conditions would demand finding the better solution, I would think. Best, LB

[RSRN]

Hey Rascal,
The dogbone replacements for the motor/driveshaft universals, where did you get them. It just seems like there are alot of things that are cropping up, this boats starting to feel like a kit, not a RTR. As far as the guns go, except for the 40mm, I've replaced all mine with 1/24 Shapeways Acrylic gun, they are models within themselves. I've also been doing some reading and vasoline is not really reccomended by too many boating blogs, they mention Lithium grease, but the red grease was certainly stiff. Thanks for your time.

[Rascal76]

Hi all. I got my replacement ESC a couple of days ago. Its was less than inspiring.
It is a truck ESC with dual motor leads. The web site says they are in parallel so any pair will work. I am going to seal off the unused pair so if it does get wet in there they won't short out..
I did hook it up and it does seem to work with no load. It does have a good looking heat sink on it.
It did not come with an instruction sheet and was not shipped in the original box. I did look it up and found it came from Hobby Wing.
Here is a link to the instructions http://www.hobbywing.com/products/enpdf/WP880en.pdf
Its original purchase price is $33.99 and came with an auxiliary fan which was not included. It has some programmable features but you will need to by a special programmer to change anything. It does not reverse in it's current state.

Now the boat.

The car type transmitter was a poor choice for this boat (my opinion) A stick type radio would have been a better fit. Not the one in the Fletcher. I like a radio without a spring loaded throttle so It can be set for consistent cruising speed without having to hold it in position. A stick type radio also allows for other functions to be activated. Like a sound system etc.

The universal joints were not a good choice for the motor / prop shaft connection. A dog bone style connector would be much better. I have installed them in my boat. Much more compliant and allow for axial misalignment. You need a double universal for that.

Apparently the grease on the prop shaft is wrong and needs to be replaced. No big deal but ???

Was the one counter rotating prop really necessary? If so then the prop for that shaft should have had the opposite direction thread. As it stands the shaft rotation direction is trying to loosen that prop not tighten it like the other two. If you take it off for maintenance make sure to use plenty of thread locker when reinstalling it. The shafts and props are a M4 X .07 thread. You will need to clean out all the old thread locker before reinstalling.

There are some cosmetic things like droopy gun barrels but I can fix that stuff.

Is is a great looking boat on the water. I am looking forward to actually being able to use it!


I am getting the boat set up for test run but with the weather forecast here in New England it may not happen until next spring.
If there is problem then who knows what happens.

[pdansalvish]

I have a couple of speed boats and purchased boat grease for the prop shafts. This should work too.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/marine-grease-5-oz/DYNE4201.html

[RSRN]

Good evening Tom,
I've not heard from you until now,thanks for the update. Were we going to be contacted on this through Motion RC channels or just find it here on the blog. When we got the new ESC's to replace the water cooled ESC's that were original to the boat, we were assured that was the problem and every thing was fixed.So we should replace the red grease just to be sure, with petrolatum. Thanks Derek I appreciate your discovery, hopefully this will end the saga of the RTR PT boat.

[Tom]

All - I noticed some of you are having ESC problems or problems with hot ESC or motors. After testing some of our test boats, we found the problem is absolutely not ESC or motor related. Rather, we found the red grease used on the prop shaft(s) is too heavy and will cause the motors to work too hard. We removed the red grease from the shafts on our test boats and replaced it with petroleum jelly. We ran an amp test before and after we replaced the grease and found the amp draw went down by 80% and the boat speed was now 4X faster with a cool ESC and cool motors. If any of you are feeling a hot motor or ESC, please replace the red grease on the prop shaft with petroleum jelly. If you need help, please call or email our support. Credit to Derek in Motion RC support for figuring this out.

[pdansalvish]

So pdan,
They didn't like your review. Whats a dip switch.

I should not have answer you without my morning coffee. They should be jumper pins. They are useless without the jumper.

[RSRN]

So pdan,
They didn't like your review. Whats a dip switch.

[pdansalvish]

RSRN,

Thanks for the info. As for review good luck. They never printed mine. As for the pins they are most likely for dip switch pins. They only work when a jumper connects two of them together.

[RSRN]

Hey pdan,
I contacted the tech rep when the new ESC came and they said just hook up one set of the motor leads. Hook the yellow lead to the double red/sigle black, then hook blue to double black/single red. I also ask about the 3 exposed pins on top of the new ESC and Derek tech rep said he had no idea what the pins were for. The new ESC works on the bench, I did run a new set of wires to be able to use the on /off switch that is mounted in the boat already. I'll be curious if they print my review.

[pdansalvish]

RSRN,

Can you take a picture on how you hoooked up the replacement ESC? TIA

[RSRN]

Here's my review,

I'm writing this review 2 months after recieving this boat. This model had a few concerns that needed to be rectified prior to an honest look at this boat. I will go over why I rated items the way I did.
Quality, the overall quality is good, the molded hull and superstructure are good, over all layout of the electronics is good. The original ESC supplied was water cooled with NO attempt to water cool it. This caused numerous problems including overheating, to complete failure while the boat was underway, leading to some tricky retrieval. This effected 4 other boat owners. After several attempts to contact tech reps the suggestions ranged from plumbing the boat for water cooling, which I purchased ,water pickups,tubing, and outlets. Fortunately prior to drilling holes in my model we were contacted that a new ESC was being tested. and eventually after 30 days a new ESC arrived, I installed it and it works well on the bench. Due to being late in te season, running on the water will wait till spring.
Value This is an expensive model and is advertised as RTR. Having to go in after the purchase and repair this boat was not what I expected with a 570.00 model
Ease of assembly/use/operate The first problem that we boat owners found was the ESC had the battery type jumper was in the wrong position( for Nicad,not LiPo , this cause overheating an d failure for some owner. I was not familiar with this and only after reading the PT blog provide on this page was I made aware of it. I'm very thankful that this blog exists and that we have some very experienced modelers who generally were the folks that pointed out defects,
Performance/Function As mentioned, at this point it would appear that the boat is functional and will work properly, again I need to run it on the water.
My number one concern is that the model is realiable and will go out and come back. I get the fact that stuff can happen, but as an RTR vessel it should be good to go out of the box. To anyone looking to purchase this model, make sure that it has been upgraded and the new ESC has been installed.
The model does have a great overall appeal and can be the base for some great after market scale upgrades ( weapons).

[RSRN]

Just received the new ESC and after some discusion with the tech rep installed it and it ran well on the bench, this was just to see throttle response and check steerage. Not sure I will get on the water again this season, maybe we'll see. The New ESC does come with two (2) sets of motor leads,I was advised just pick one and it worked. My winter project is putting together improved armorment just finished assemblying the shapeways 50 cal upgrade and fitting the Mk 17 cradles to the tub stations. Also have the improved Mk4 37mm gun and mount in the works. The 20mm gun is on the way. I've trimmed and primed my shapeway 9 pc PT crew and will get them underway shortly. Holding off on the 40mm for the moment as it is 165.00, there is talk the price may come down. Interested to hear how other make out with the new ESC.

[pdansalvish]

My only grip is MRC shipped it via DHL. In Southern Maryland, DHL can not find an address without a map, GPS and pointer dog and still they would not be able to find it. I had a friend who was waiting on a nose piece for his plane. After waiting a month (all in DHL hands) he had to drive 2 hours and pick it up at DHL's warehouse. DHL used the excuse they could not find his house. However, he receives FEDEX, UPS and USPS packages without a problem to the same address.