I was told by someone else that went brushless with his that he had a problem with stripping his bottom drive gear (only a problem for the Villain, most boats use direct drive which is a ton better). Those Rusty style U-Joints are also a weak point, the Graupner U-Joints are much tougher than the stock ones but I will still need to replace them occassionally. I'm not a big fan of the boat having bushings and they need to be replaced sometimes as well.

The project was on hold for the winter since I couldn't really run it anyway and there was a shipping problem but it's mostly together right now. I've been having a hard time with the pushrod boots and tore my old ones and I had to get a new Y harness but I'm hoping to be able to tub test it either later tonight or tomorrow sometime.

Forgot to post back with the results. I ran it shortly and it seems to work very well, once it warms up a bit more I'll take it out for some more extensive testing. So far so good, but I'm still running both BECs enabled so hopefully that won't be a problem (they are parallelled, shouldn't cause any trouble) but I'm still keeping it close to shore until I feel more comfortable with it.

I was in a bit of a rush out the door today so I forgot my camera and didn't adjust my trim but the Villain performed beyond my expectations. On 2s lipo with those props and stock gearing I'm beyond the handling limits of the hull as far as turning. For straight-line performance I've still got some room to go but when I get some turn fins on there it will help a ton with handling.

Honestly I went out today expecting something to go wrong, since that often happens when you use cheap components, but my BL setup performed like an absolute champ. The only problem I had is the steering servo got stuck at full lock and I was stuck doing circles in the middle of the pond until the wind blew it back. I replaced the stock 2055 servo with a Futaba S3003 and in the process of rescuing my buddy's boat it happened again so I'm going to swap out receivers and try it again. Overall I'm blown away by this boat, it is about as fast as I want it to be (3s lipo will fix this without touching gearing, new motors will definitely bring me up to where I want to be) and overall it drives great. I'm bummed that I couldn't get any video of it, but for those of you looking to go BL with your Villain I'd say give it the green light. It really is a simple upgrade and the performance is well worth it. I hope Traxxas looks into updating the Villain in the future with BL power.

Nice writeup. I've also got a villain I got bored with on the stock system. I really like it though because they run great on choppy water compared to my supervee that needs crystal clear water to run everytime. Seems like the supervee only has one speed(fast) where the villain lets you play around a bit more, run at some slower speeds and jump some waves.

Thanks. I definitely like the stability of the stock hull, I have run mine through some fairly bad chop and it has come back every time. My SuperVee has a totally different problem, it cuts out and sinks every time I use it.

Right now the Villain runs great, but the motors have no cooling (the heatsinks let me run 5-10 minutes before having to stop) so I need to get bigger motors for it that can actually accomodate a cooling jacket. I've been bidding on Traxxas Velineon motors on eBay recently, I'm trying to snag a pair of them for about $100. They're a Feigao 10S (or maybe 11S) which is what I'm looking for but they're rebuildable and a little cheaper.

Vid:
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EDIT: With the new motors, I plan to do something about the wiring, it's a total mess right now! With the new motors, I'm going to step up to 15T pinions and eventually 3s lipos. The video was taken on 2s lipos with 13T pinions.

These should fit your motors, they are not very wide: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXMTZ6&P=7

Those are nice jackets, but too much pressure and they burst out the sides.


Hope to see the bigger pinions and more voltage up those speeds...

That particular one is too big, but thanks for the idea!!! I've looked through every single one that OffShoreElectrics has and there was only one that would fit if I wanted to silicone the end a little bit. I took the water jacket off of Sir Sinksalot (my SuperVee 27) and it would fit! I'll have to order another one and hope I get a good one, I've heard the AquaCrap jackets are prone to leaking, but I'm sure a little silicone bathroom sealant will fix that right up. Thanks for the tip, James.

I've heard about the bursting issue, which was why I was avoiding the only ones on OSE that would actually work, but I just got this sudden rush of common sense (only comes once-in-a-while so it's good to listen to :lol:) that a little bit of sealant or even some Shoe Goo would easily fix those up.

For the speed, I was happy with it when I first ran it but then I took video of it and it looked painfully slow. 3s lipo will make it a completely different beast, but I'm waiting for my turn fins to come in from the U.K. which should make it somewhat controllable at speed. I'm aiming for 35 MPH out of this boat, I get the feeling the hull won't like that much though.

No prob US, any water cooling will help alot. I was surprised how warm the sv27 motor ran in my emaxx! It needs the water cooling for sure. Boats have no airflow when the hatch is on.

I have had my supervee flip a couple times and almost sink too. I'm a bit scared to run it now. Putting some 8000mah lipos in there and knowing they could find a home at the bottom of a lake doesnt make me feel so well. So wouldnt going to 3S and gearing down get you much better temps? Maybe enough to let you run a little longer without the water cooling?

Get a foam noodle (kids pool toy) and cut it up, pack the nose with it. Boat guys call this flotation, and it will stop the boat sinking if it starts taking on water... Or if you flip.

The SuperVee likes calm water. Fortunately most of the ponds where I live are very still. It's always windy here, but the ponds usually aren't too bad and that helps with keeping the SV hatch side up.

I may be gearing up as well as going to 3s which will make them run hotter, the water cooling will be essential.

Mine ran fine in choppy water. Had to get the cg and trim tabs setup correctly though. Adjusted the strut as well. Plus going to a x624 prop helps a bit as well with prop walk.