Motor Mount

This weekend I spent a lot of time determining what motors would fit where in Nassau. If possible I really want to only run the center propeller. The fast gunners have some experience with this hull shape and tell me that will result in the best maneuverability. Unfortunately only a little 280 motor will fit inline behind the aft turrret - and then only if I move the turret 0.5" out of scale. I doubt that the 280 by itself would be powerful enough so I made a motor mount that places the motor above the propeller shaft instead of inline with it.

The first step was to cut a hole in the stuffing tube so a set screw can be applied to the propeller shaft assembly.

The plastic block will allow me to screw the motor mount it and be precisely positioned relative to the stuffing tube. If you don't need a mount then you can simply use a nut to hold the set screw. I did this with the outboard stuffing tubes.

I am not going to power step by step instructions for making the motor mount as it is pretty specific to this application. If you have questions post up and I will try and answer them. Here are some pictures of the aluminum parts and then assembled with the housing for the propeller shaft assembly installed.

The bracket will allow me to adjust the location of the motor so I can correctly tension the belt that will run from a pulley on the motor's output shaft to a pulley on the propeller shaft.

Here is a picture of the bracket in place with a 550 size motor. Nothing is screwed together yet as I still need to buy screws that will fit the motor. The second picture gives you a good idea how tight it is between the stuffing tube and the aft turret.

If this looks familiar it is because I've posted about this before. I posted about Greg McFadden's much nicer looking version back in February. I don't have a CNC mill so my version is much simpler. However, the basic concept is the same. My thanks to Greg for posting great pictures of his first class motor mounts.

In theory I can fit 550 motors for the outboard props... but it would be more work that this was. My backup plan if the single 550 is not enough will be to install 280 motors inline with the outboard shafts. From what I've heard three 280s would be enough - so two 280s and one 550 should be plenty.