I had a great photographer take a few pics of the torpedo boat before modifying it to conform to a TB-1 USS Cushing. 😎



Isaac

I was just invited to go on a local Sarasota Florida TV morning show ( April 29th ) to bring this big old torpedo boat. This in conjunction with the local RC Sailboat club. But as some of you may recall, when I refurbished the boat last year, there were questions as to what is this boat modeled after. It looks like an 1890's USS Cushing TB-1, but this model had three smoke stacks where the actual Cushing really had only two. The three stack TB boat from that era was the USS Porter TB-6, but the bow is different and so is the stern. So it remained ambiguous....I did not mind it.

I could not be ambiguous for the show, so I decided to modify and make it look like the USS Cushing. The main visual difference was the removal of the middle stack.

However, this model has 3 geared motors and three propellors. I decided not to remove the middle one because it is not seen and also it would have required new bigger motors and bigger props as well as new ESCs. So that is the only main deviation for the USS Cushing.

The boat was then patched up and repainted grey.

I sailed it again in its current USS Cushing configuration yesterday and it was great!!!!

Pics attached on the current configuration.


Isaac😎

A couple of months ago I let a young boy run my torpedo boat under my supervision. In one of the runs he glanced the boat to the side of the dock and one of the guns snapped off and fell into the water. Oh well.

Anyhow, I was looking at the original model guns and they were really a pawn chess piece base with a metal punch for a gun. Not scale.

I decided to make a close enough scale Hotchkiss gun. Not exact, but better looking.

the pics of the gun schematic with the original chess piece gun and my new ones made of wood will be attached later since the current location does not have the needed signal strength.


Isaac

During the gearbox inspection, I noted one of the large plastic gear missing a tooth. That is the source of the noise. I do not have a method to repair it, so I lubricated the gears with a generous amount of marine grease... Hopefully it will last a few more years. I also reduced the battery voltage to 2S ( 7.4 volts ) instead of the 3S.


I still need to see if there is a great affect on the boat's speed in the water.


Isaac

The two screws holding the brushed motor to the orange gearbox backed off completely.

Unfortunately there is no access to their screws because the builder glued the wood part after the assembly was bolted together.

I had to break off the wood plate. Amazingly it separated cleanly at its original lines.

I now separated the assembly, cleaned the plastic gear and noted one tooth was mostly missing. Oh well. This is an old Robbe gearbox, and I just lubricated the gears and closed it all up.

It works fine, but is noisy.


I then reconnected the coupling and applied a generous amount of epoxy back to the wood mounting plate.


All fine. A bit noisy, but ok. Let’s see how long it lasts.

Isaac

I went yesterday to the lake with the big Torpedo boat.

As I checked the boat prior to launch, I noticed that the number 3 motor was loose off the gearbox housing. I had no tools, so I hand tighten it. Bad idea!

The run in the water went great. All fun.

I then returned after 10 minutes as it somehow slowed down.


Results: the motor completely disengaged. At least I had two more motored to rerun to port.

Home for repairs.


I will explain the repairs next.

Isaac

I replaced the radio with yet again another radio. This one was Flysky 5 channel surface radio. I did it because the old Spectrum receiver went dead in the middle of the lake. This new one is working great. I liked it so much, I purchased 5 more receivers and converted 4 more boats to that system. Transmitter has 20 model memory.
$70 USD on Amazon.
😎

Just to be clear, I changed both. These are used routinely on my RC planes. So I know they work.


I never had issues with the Spektrum radios.


I’ll let you know when I run the boat again.

Isaac

Rudy


I use the Spektrum line of radios on all my RC planes with no issues. But in this case, I used an old set and it may be the cause of failure. I’m using a newer set now and will check it out.


Lew
Yes rocks in the pond. Like all Florida developments they dig holes to make retention ponds. The bottom is not smooth. They leave rocks and debris on the bottom. And at low water level, they stick out

A beautiful day to take this big boat on the big pond here. I lowered the boat into the water, radio was working. I applied power and slowly left the dock. However, I noticed that the rudder control was reversed ( I used my Spekrum 6 channel airplane transmitter and receiver radio ). That was strange. So I reversed the power and got the boat back to the dock. I started going thru the menu of the transmitter and in the process of finding the correct menu, I reversed the rudder. But silly me, the rudder for the boat is on the right stick ( aileron side in airplane speak ). So I reversed the boat and got it back to the side of the dock still in the water. Once again as I changed the setting to reverse the servo direction for the boat, I did not pay attention and the boat drifted away from the dock and was approx 50 yards from shore. By itself this would not be a problem...🤞



but...............😔


For some reason, the boat was not responding . No communication on any channel. Nothing working. Not even the horn. It was dead in the water.


Luckily, I knew the kayak vendor right there and he let me used his kayak to rescue my bost.


After that save, I raised the boat out of the water and sure enough, nothing on the boat was working. However, after I restarted both transmitter and receiver, all was fine and working correctly.

feeling OK, I launched the boat again and it ran fine for over 10 minutes.


then....😔

As I placed the motors into reverse about 20 yard away from the dock, it died again. So back into the kayak and I rescued it again.


I took it home and decided to replace the receiver taken from one of my RC airplanes as well as program my other newer Spekrum transmitter. All is working!!!!!!!!!!!


I am yet to test it in the water. My local pond behind my house is so shallow now that I do not feel comfortable running it for fear of hitting rocks ( I already had that experience once ).


I hope this fixes things.

I wonder if the original old Robbe ESC/BEC has something to do with killing power to the receiver?


Isaac