--- The Crawler Innovations Water Skippin' FOFFer Build ---

[Nova's Ark]

I've been wanting to swap from the stock delrin links that come with the chassis kit to titanium. I'm after some weight savings, added strength, and the added clearance is nice.


Lunsford ti:


Installed:



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[KJ10]

Just saw this today and read through it. Nice videos and amazing work getting that truck to this point! Can't wait to see where it goes!

[Nova's Ark]

Back together as running after months of sitting around broken.





Track width is now 10.5" from outside edge to outside edge in the front. I hope this eats up some water :-)


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[Nova's Ark]

Gonna take this out along with the FOFFer and see how it does. 6 pole motor and 6s lipo should be fun :-)

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[Nova's Ark]

Well the boat didn't fair so good. It stopped in the middle of the pond with smoke pouring out of the canopy. I'm still waiting for the light wind to blow it to shore (hopefully).


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[M1tch]

I had the same happen to a boat of mine. Lucky the wires from battery to esc melted. The burning stopped then!

[Rudukai13]

So what's the advantage of using skinny tires on the rear of the FOFF rig? It would seem to me the wider the paddle the better the traction on the surface of the water...?

[stelerzman]

My guess is more rear wheel speed due to the larger diameter which will help keep front of the rig up. Just my 2 cents.

[dragonracing]

novel idea. its been done before. the great kinwald and company did this back in the early 90's with a yokomo yr4. cept they just added paddles to onroad foam tires. crossed a swimming pool a few times. with nicads and brushed motors. ill see if i can dig up the vid.

none the less very cool. what kind of distance have you achieved yet?

[Nova's Ark]

Originally Posted by stelerzman

Those wheels look killer. How much do they weigh & what is your new track width?
Can't wait to see new video.

Thanks. One wheel (no tire or foam) weighs 2.4 ounces and the new track width is 10.5".

Originally Posted by KJ10

Just saw this today and read through it. Nice videos and amazing work getting that truck to this point! Can't wait to see where it goes!

Thank you

Originally Posted by M1tch

I had the same happen to a boat of mine. Lucky the wires from battery to esc melted. The burning stopped then!

After it blew to shore, I learned that the esc caught fire. The two 3S lipos were / are fine. I think the motor is junk possibly to, it spins freely now, which being a 6 pole motor it never did before. The smell is awful!!

Originally Posted by Rudukai13

So what's the advantage of using skinny tires on the rear of the FOFF rig? It would seem to me the wider the paddle the better the traction on the surface of the water...?

No advantage. It was done to gain the proper weight bias. The front and rear are nearly the same height at rest, and at speed the front is taller than the rear.

Originally Posted by stelerzman

My guess is more rear wheel speed due to the larger diameter which will help keep front of the rig up. Just my 2 cents.

See above post.

Originally Posted by dragonracing

novel idea. its been done before. the great kinwald and company did this back in the early 90's with a yokomo yr4. cept they just added paddles to onroad foam tires. crossed a swimming pool a few times. with nicads and brushed motors. ill see if i can dig up the vid.

none the less very cool. what kind of distance have you achieved yet?

I'd be very interested to see what you can find. I'm confident what I am doing is completely different. This car weighs 6 pounds and drives across water the length of a football field. I've never seen or heard of that being done before.

[dragonracing]

could not find the videos. they are really old. i think they were from 91 or 92. they guy i knew that had tehm does not have them anymore. anyway they just went across a pool. not very far and only made it twice. they didnt have the ponies we have today.

[Nova's Ark]

Video #8 in the series that shows the test & tuning of Crawler Innovations Water Skipping Formula Off Road RC car.

This was filmed on location at The Roc park in Tyler, Texas.

This is the longest water crossing yet

[dragonracing]

haha! thats bad ass! great shot on the last run. dead straight on at the camera! nice job dude. i dont think u need to test anymore. i think it works.

[Szczerba]

wow. that's pretty amazing. what was the length of the full pull?

[ROLANDROCKSHOP]

Originally Posted by Nova's Ark

Attachment 240100

Gonna take this out along with the FOFFer and see how it does. 6 pole motor and 6s lipo should be fun :-)

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hey..i know that boat..

so..
did the captn go down with his ship??

[JeepinDoug]

Sick video.
I'm still waiting for Don to finish the twin force chassis so I could finish my glass blower Foff.

[Hacksaw707]

That's BADASS

Great video, very balanced rig

[Nova's Ark]

Originally Posted by dragonracing

haha! thats bad ass! great shot on the last run. dead straight on at the camera! nice job dude. i dont think u need to test anymore. i think it works.

Thank you, but I already have some new parts on order for it. The FOFFer still struggled on the open water.

I was hoping to be able to have more steerable control on the water which did not happen. The VP 8* set up did make an improvement on both land and water turning. However, I could not flat out steer on the water. The last pulls in the video you can see how much the truck drifts on top of the water. I'd like to control that if possible. More test & tune awaits

Originally Posted by Szczerba

wow. that's pretty amazing. what was the length of the full pull?

Thank you.
My guess is roughly 100 yards. I'd like to go back and measure an exact distance. Do you have any suggestions on what to use?

Originally Posted by ROLANDROCKSHOP

hey..i know that boat..

so..
did the captn go down with his ship??

The ESC and Motor are toast. The electronics box has some burn holes and warpage from the fire. I haven't tested the RX or Servo yet, but they smell awful and are covered in some sort of residue from the ESC fire.

Thankfully the boat/hull has zero issues. Per your suggestion, the Castle Hydra ICE ESC is already on the list for the rebuild.

After about 20 minutes the wind had blown the boat close to shore where the water is knee high. I started the video wearing rain boots, but by the end of the video I was barefoot. The entire ROC Park pond has thick vegetation along 4 - 6 feet of it's banks. When the FOFFer doesn't make it across, the closest it can paddle to is the vegetation. I still have to go into the water to retrieve it and the boat was no different.

You did a very nice job detailing the boat Josh. Any person that comes into my office from Arkansas comments about it. They love it of course.

Originally Posted by JeepinDoug

Sick video.
I'm still waiting for Don to finish the twin force chassis so I could finish my glass blower Foff.

Thanks Doug
Don has A LOT of people always waiting on him. He was/is working a featherweight FOFF using AR60 axles for me. I gave up waiting and went back to this truck to further tweak it. I'm thinking I am going to braze up a tube chassis water crossing FOFF next. The adrenaline rush of driving on water is fun. You only get once chance to get it right on each attempt.

Originally Posted by Hacksaw707

That's BADASS

Great video, very balanced rig

Thank you sir

[Nova's Ark]

The electronics and box from the boat.

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[ROLANDROCKSHOP]

yaaa....that's no good..

I think it was only rated for a 4s lipo...