Chinese Rafts

[Kazzer]

Here are some photos of the raft project so far.

[trout]

It is coming together. How does this perform? Did the larger engine work out?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Not enough beam ... damned thing will roll over, Mike!

M

[Scott T]

Looks good Mike.
Did you add a board to help the bow to plane instead of plow. More power.
If it were tippy and you wanted to keep its narrow beam you could add some pipes under each edge
open ended so the water could flow through while cruising no added water weight to push. Flow through ballast
tanks. They would react to stop a list for a short time before they emptied. Might help with wave action from boat
wakes also. That is my theory.
If it does nothing useful it could be removed and used on the next Kazzer-Dynasty production.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080326111641.htm

[Kazzer]

Not enough beam ... damned thing will roll over, Mike!

M

Rubbish! :wink:

[Kazzer]

tried the new motor http://www.maxtool.com/us/products/XP16HPE.aspand raft (sea trials) last week and encountered several problems.

I. When I tried to turn hard, the canopy posts got in my way. On looking closer at my video of the Chinese rafts, I realised they had no railings on the back few feet of the boat, so the tiller handle could swing out wide.
2. The post I made from a 2" pipe flange mounted on the deck with 18" of pipe screwed into it was too high. It was also poorly secured to the deck.
3. The motor itself had a problem with the off switch. It didn't work!

So, with all these things going on, I got into a bit of trouble. I was having trouble swinging the raft around and so went in circles, but as my steering was hampered, the circles were getting bigger. Then the engine mounting bracket started to work loose, so I decided to switch off the motor before I drove it into the bank, I couldn't switch it off. I switched off the fuel and just kept going.
Then the motor bracket gave out and the engine keeled over. Fortunately, it didn't fall off completely, and I was eventually able to stop the raft. I paddled it to a nearby dock, and got my pontoon out to tow it home. I was less than 100 yards from my own dock.
It was quite a hair raising experience!

On inspection, the 'off' switch wasn't functioning because there was a loose connection to a capacitor inside the switch box. So much for quality control! I tightened that up and the engine worked correctly, but I've now fitted the kill switch!

As for the engine mount. I've totally redesigned that and now have a wooden transom perched right on the stern of the raft, and I'm using the supplied transom mounting bracket. The canopy has been modified to give me more maneuvering space for steering.

I think this project would have been a lot easier with a set of plans to work with, as these modifications and alterations have taken up a lot of my time. I mentioned to my wife that we should go back to China so I could take some measurements, but the idea fell on stony ground!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I would have paid good money to see that freak-show, Mike. Ah ... the wonders of product-testing.

David

[MFR1964]

To quote you David, crawl, walk and run!!!!

Hmm, would it be possible to make a little rc chinese raft, i wonder, i'll add it to the bucketlist.


Manfred.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

If your bucket-list is anything like mine, we'll have to live to 500 to get it all done.

M

[vital.spark]

Mike, you have reinvented the perverbial Chinese Fire Drill! I would have paid big money to to watch the show.

Myron

[MFR1964]

What!!!!, are you not immortal like me!!!, i hope Mike can profide some more pics and vids to add at my archive, that flimsy looking craft looks like a nice challence to be build at scale, gotta catch that gerbill running inside my head.


Manfred.

[Kazzer]

Here is my latest set of video clips as we develop the raft!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

slick!......

m

[trout]

Big improvement in how it plows through the water. Almost ready for prime time.

[Slats]

Ingenious - like the bending method.

J