RC boat fire and explosion - caught on three cameras

Ever have an RC with "Gremlins"?
My "Gremlin RC" is this Joysway Wildcat RC boat.
It's been one issue after the other with this boat, I just can't seem to be able to catch a break.
Today it all went horribly wrong - again.
For once, there were actually cameras present to document it...

[@corrieshepard9620]

Pretty sweet to cam the inside of the hull. Ive never thought of that one.

[@rod3134]

As soon as I saw the smoke and explosion, I knew it was your ESC. Happened to me a couple of times. The other thing I saw was no antenna high up from your hull. When the antenna is low in the boat you will lose radio contact very fast when moving away from shore. I also suspect that your LIPO volts may be to much for the ESC. My rule is use no more than 80% of ESC amp rating. Basically you need to balance the motor,ESC and LIPO power all together for the best operation. Lastly it sounded like your flex shaft needed grease. I have enjoyed learning the hard way myself. I have built and modified four rc boats so far. My fastest runs about 60mph. It wasn't cheap and I also blew the top off of two of my boats. Great video!!! Don't give up. The real joy comes in seeing your boat zoom through the water. Good luck...

[@Partykristian]

Hi Rodney. Thanks for your comments and your insight. This boat has pretty much eaten ESCs... On both of the last two occations, a brand new ESC has been used on a very easy run but has still left a little smoke coming out, and the ESC then fries on the second run. As you can see from this video, all it took was a few meters and then the fire was going. The ESC's are 6s-compatible 180A Hobbywing Seakings running on 4s total. Regarding the antenna, a 2,4GHz "whip" is typically only about 12 centimeters. The whip on this boat comes out of a waterprooof receiver box and then just sticks up for however far it can inside the hull. I have not had issues with this method on any of my boats or cars:) The flex-shaft is quite noisy, but is was freshly lubricated when this happened, so I'd be surprised to see this being the case. After some rather expensive experiences my conclusion is that there probably is a driveline issue at play. Since the flex shaft is well-greased, I'm thinking "overproping" og some weird and wonderful random issue with the shaft? PS: Thanks for your comment on the video. I recently posted a video of a very successful run with another boat on my channel:) Have a look and let me know what you think:) PPS: 60MPH is FAST! :D

[@dart5722010]

Thats why i run nitro. They never work long enough to heat up and catch on fire.

[@Partykristian]

dart5722010 Haha. That's my kind of humor:D

[@addamworthy8644]

Plus they’re slow lol

[@OmegaHellHound543]

My friend likes nitro cars more than electric cars. He doesn’t like to drive them. He likes working on them. Makes sense now

[@philldownes8685]

@@addamworthy8644 nitro boats are not slow if you have the fast stuff....

[@Negativity808]

My nitro cars all died early deaths, nitro plane at a fire inflight and went down in the ocean. (I'm from hawaii) it stalled then spun in. Never to be seen again.

[@stoneenforcer]

a bad motor stator typically causes that to happen. it creates a series of shorts when you start running it. the esc isn't able to handle the shorts ( loads ) very well and eventually burns up the esc.

[@Partykristian]

stoneenforcer Hi, thanks for bringing this up. I will read more on this subject.

[@rod3134]

WOW!!! You do have some gremlins there. I was ripping up flexshafts on my Miss GEICO 29. I had to redo my entire drive line with new components. This only happened when I went to a 12S setup. It was toooo much. I have since then scaled my power down to 8S max. The best rock solid ESC I have is the Castle ICE2 for marine. It was built to take 50volts. The bad thing is that they are hard find and expensive. 300 to 400 dollars. I am a little Leary of the 180a escs. I had that same one and it popped before I could get it in the water. The foreign made ESC tend to heat up fast even with good cooling. The esc with large capacitors seem to take more power.Take a look at the items on the "Off Shore" rc boat website. I think you will be impressed.

[@emitindustries8304]

At least you didn't end up like Sir Malcolm Campbell, in his attempt at the world's speed record on water.

[@lat78610]

I had the same boat and the esc blew up the same way at the first run i cleaned up all the mess and put on a 200a/8s swordfish esc and then i had no more power issues the boat became then very fun although it was a bit unstable at high speed

[@briancv83]

I think someone already said this but.... if your rc vehicles are going to explode or crash or burn... at least get it on camera! and you did a good job of filming, so at least there's that. sorry for your troubles though.

[@Partykristian]

Thank you for your kind comments. You are right. At least get it on video :)

[@BradfordGuy]

I just said that - - - 3 years later! LOL!

[@aaa.2146]

@@Partykristian was the camera damaged and if the explosion would've not happened why didi u put a camera inside

[@Partykristian]

@@aaa.2146 The camera was fine, but had some "dirty smoke residue on it". It was a Gopro with a dive housing so I washed it with a dishwashing brush :D I had a feeling something might happen so I decided to film inside, just in case...

[@Partykristian]

@@BradfordGuy Hey, great comments age like wine

[@JaxTellerRC]

Holy crap man, that is a serious explosion, to crack the hull like that! WOW! When I first got my boat I plugged the wrong size battery into it and it did this in my kitchen at home.... STINKS!!!!

[@Partykristian]

You know, I actually said to my friend: "This could easily have happened in the house". I don't think that stuff coming out of the ESC is exactly, shall we say, aroma therapy :D The whole area smelled and the insides of the boat instantly changed color, powerful stuff!

[@JaxTellerRC]

Yep. Not good in the house. It was like a massive mushroom cloud. Took 2 weeks for the smell to get out. It was horrible. I can even smell it now just by thinking about it ha ha

[@donwood7700]

I like how you document things as you tear them apart. Useful in the future. Don

[@Partykristian]

Thanks for the comment. It's very easy to forget stuff in the excitement of a mishap, so nice to have it on cam:)

[@boriswieland3892]

First sorry for the loss, she was good-looking. ESC failure, do you know what caused it to fail? FYI KZbin Big B has a video on the power sputter RC brush-less symptom. As Corrie posted great job on the 3 CAM angel.

[@cuddzilla]

Racing 1/10th scale electric 2wd dirt oval cars in the late 1980's in NW Indiana, a kid was in the middle of a race. Smoke stared trailing the car. The ESC caught fire. The flames spread to the body, meanwhile he is still racing. Finally, after several more laps, the car began to slow and rolled to a fiery stop. The whole thing looked full scale. I expected the driver to bail out the drivers side at any point.

[@RCengineJoe]

I feel your pain - and Oh, that smell of burnt electronics! I just had my own little boat fire a day ago on my custom made 20" Jet Ski. Wiring harness seems to catch fire. Burnt a hole right through the top and into the rider....

[@Partykristian]

That smell is nasty. Vinegar left in a small cup inside the hull seems to help...

[@scottconnors7901]

Sorry for the loss, but right from the start I knew the camera work was looking really good , and knew the rest would be too! Well done, but $$ the next build will be great!

[@Partykristian]

+Scott Connors Thanks for your kind comments. I do in fact have a few other boats. If you want, check out the videos of them on my channel :)

[@antdx316]

+Partykristian why have more than 1 boat? just get more batteries

[@Partykristian]

+Anthony Abelardo Different boats have different capabilities, etc, and all look different in the water. I enjoy building and running my various models :)

[@antdx316]

Partykristian I mean, get different hulls then but all high-performance, one of each.

[@v_2pac704]

Scott Connors iiiiii

[@davestambaugh7282]

When I saw the computer fan I had to wonder, Why use air to cool in an enclosed space when you have so much water available???

[@geoffeastwood5352]

Almost a Viking funeral!

[@MrSvenno81]

I'm sorry for your boat, but that is actually a very cool video! Are those GP's you use as camera's?

[@Partykristian]

Hey, Svenno81! Thanks for that. It was a little sad, but at least we got a good video out of it:) I do have some videos on my channel where everything went well, also. In this video I'm using two GoPro's, one inside and one on the boat. The third camera is a cell phone camera Attached to a stand on land.

[@MrSvenno81]

Partykristian Hey Partykristian, You put in some serious money with two GP's ;-) But the result is also a great video. I will check your other video's as well. By the way, I also have a couple of RC boats, you can check some footage of them on my channel as well if you'd like. Cheers, Sven

[@CanYouFoush]

That's gotta suck. I got a boat for Christmas (my first RC Boat- a UL-1 Superior) and when I went to use it for the first time, it sparked when I plugged the batteries in, and the throttle doesn't work. It seems like the connector from the speed control is messed up. I was very disappointed.

[@LA6UOA]

Trist! Men veldig bra filming!! Har du funnet en årsak til hendelsen?

[@Partykristian]

+LA6UOA Thanks for your comment. As it turns out, there has been a lot of discussion further down in the comments field, and it turns out that there was a bind issue in a bearing in the driveline, causing the motor to pull way to many amps. Once the ESC was damaged on the first run it acted funny and then blew up on the second run. Takk for hyggelig kommentar, btw :)

[@LA6UOA]

Makes sence!

[@jimhiscott2918]

Thank goodness no one was on board! She will live to run another day👍

[@GrayBeardRuns]

My helion rivos did the exact same thing. Except itnwas way further out and got stuck in full throtle without me being able to turn it. It went far off shore and stopped. I went on my kayak to go get it and it was very hot the top even started to melt. The esc was completely gone. After the explosion part it cracked down the back of the boat. There was so much smoke that when i opened it you could not see through it.

[@Partykristian]

Scary runaway! Good thing it eventually stopped, these things can go for many kilometeres on full packs!

[@afrog2666]

LoL, talk about scale accidents :p Hey, at least you got some great footage ;)

[@RCnerd74]

It was worth it to catch this with three cams ;o) If i go for another ESC i will not choose a Hobbywing Seaking...

[@OmegaHellHound543]

Was that a deadmau5 song in the intro/outro?

[@zacharytaylor9907]

I think you are (almost) an expert at wiring

[@Partykristian]

+Liketo Jump A bit of that. And a bit of OCD :D

[@judechopper]

Excellent footage sorry for your boat.

[@karlschweizer2554]

man that sucks you cant get to it just glad it did not burn to the ground it could have the motor did not sound right causing the esc to work harder and over heat

[@wernerracingteam]

Like my ESC. I used a to small motor. I use right now a Leopard4074 and a Hobbywimg 180A on 6S.

[@captainsirjackchucklebutty6147]

Great vid.Great edit... And I suggest you take up sailing. xxxxx

[@jameshendrickson8159]

Ah a case of the doodlewopper letting all the factory installed smoke out!! Yes folks I'm a rocket surgeon genius at large and I diagnose crap like this every day when I'm sleeping. Cause I never get shit done when I'm awake, cuz I'm crawling on KZbin when I'm awake, duh, lol!! I'm such a stud in my own mind!!!

[@BradfordGuy]

Awesome!!!

[@josemariamerabravo1122]

I'm sorry about the lost, dead hull. Interesting to see

[@MarcStollmeyer]

Dude, BATTERY ELIMINATING CIRCUIT (BEC). Your ESC has one but it clearly is overdrawn. A dedicated BEC can put out way more power for the RX and servos.

[@Partykristian]

There has been quite some discussion further down you can read if you scroll down, but the cause has long since been established: Sticky bearing in driveline overloaded ESC on previous run, coocking all kinds of internals. This was the aftermath :/

[@BenjaminEsposti]

Those ESCs could benefit from some overcurrent protection circuitry.

[@Partykristian]

Agreed!

[@reefer2917]

I feel sorry for you, what a Disaster! annoying after all your work for the vid! cant blame the spectrum either! *-) I was just wondering how you go about the CG with a boat? I know you need to cg them for the high speed, what do you do? for CG?

[@Partykristian]

Thanks for your kind thoughts! I'm by no means an expert, but it seems to me that CG works well when it's about 33% from the back of the boat. That's what I aimed for in this video, and it seems to be pretty stable up until warp speed, when it "climbs out": kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnuTmpp6nNaoY9U

[@austindang8389]

Most correcting comments are correct, but removing that ESC fan will help alot, it's draining most of the power, that is why the ESC kept turning on and off (beeping), boat ESCs need to be water cooled not air, and check if the esc is running the correct cell, you have to set it to match the battery.

[@Partykristian]

+austin dang May I suggest a quick scroll down the comments section? The chain of events is explained several times below :)

[@austindang8389]

Only adding to it ;)

[@DargoDog]

Perhaps is was just the frame rate, but it looked like your ESC fan was not moving, if so, was it supposed to move, or was it on a thermistor? I am a land-RCer, but dabbling in the world of boats. Stuttering throttle is normally a sign of a brown-out, likely caused by a failing ESC BEC, or a servo going bad (drawing too much current), your ESC resetting like it was is a good indication of this. Sorry for your grimlins, we all get them.

[@Partykristian]

+DargoDog Thanks for your comment. All of this is explained in either the film or in the comments below :). It's a water-cooled ESC, no need for the fan. The ESC became damaged from the previous run, resulting in the intermittent power seen in this video.

[@Bandicoot803]

Seems that the LiPos were faulty before the trip began. Were the gittery-throttle-and-rudder-syndrome caused by power surges within the electrical system?

[@Partykristian]

Hi, there is quite a bit down below in the comments about what went wrong, but the short story is: "Sticky bearing in driveline held back motor and cooked ESC on previous run, this run started with a defective ESC and this video is the result" :/

[@Bandicoot803]

Oh, dear! Good luck on your next run!

[@lightknight05]

Yeah painful. Mind you I had 2 T180's blow up the same day about 4 months ago. I see you added a cooling fan...I took a different approach and put a water cooled ESC cooler on the base and then (using the heatsinks from previous T180 blowups I made up an additional cooler cold soldered onto the heatsink. I think it works

[@Partykristian]

Hello. Thanks for your kind comment. I stuck the fan on there just for giggles really. I don't know, perhaps it will help in cooling slightly after a run is over and there is no more water flow? Anyways, the boat had cooling lines running through the ESC as well as through a heat sink the ESC was attached to:)

[@kanadakb8690]

I have the exactly same crash yesterday boat died and after few seconds just exploded. Battery is fine just ESC for some reason burn out

[@AutomaticUniverse]

2:41... was a slap in the face... I WOULD've BEEN PISSED!!!

[@gregoryguza4623]

And next time-stay away from that brand power system. That’s probably the reason you had so many issues with your boat-it was a very nice boat.

[@Partykristian]

The issue turned out to be a sticky bearing in the driveline, overloading the ESC, but thanks for your comment :)

[@KoolHandDan]

Keep on Bro! I've got my M41 with the Oxidean Dominator motor and Hobbywing 180A ESC. Good Times!

[@ScruffyOldJimbo]

Oh man that sucks. I had a runaway boat 2 weeks ago and my gopro was on it but not recording :(

[@bp3310]

Man, too bad and very sorry for the mishap. One of my first boats was the Joysway Wildcat and I loved that boat.Of course mine wasn't stock like most of my boats. But what I liked about your video is the use of 3 video cameras capturing all the action. Very clever and everything that transpired provided great information to be reviewed later. Very nice way to see how your boat performs inside and out. It really is too bad for your boat but I hope you managed to rebuild the boat back and maybe made it even better. . .carbon fiber inlay reinforcement, better hardware, motor, esc and servo mounts. . .etc. I only say this because since you have to overhaul all the gear inside, you might as well make it bulletproof. Why go through all that trouble when there's better boats out there? Well, IMHO it is actually a great handling cat even at high speeds if dialed in correctly with the right components. Surprisingly enough mine was very stable at very high speeds and better than my BJ29 V2 or MG29 V2 which everyone was raving at that time.I didn't have a gps to tuck inside back then, I do now, but I would say at least in the high 60's mph. Of course mine was heavily modified. Sadly enough I sold the boat and it's not easy to find one here in the US. But you can still get one from Hobby Warehouse in Australia for a mere $599 + shipping. .lol and I believe you might be able to get one from Canada. My two young sons, 8 and 11 yr olds, always get excited when I occasionally have mishaps with my boats like catching on fire or flip overs, crashes and so forth. They always tell me to let them know when my next boat is going to catch on fire or blow up so they can video tape it and put it on KZbin. . like I plan to do these things. LOL Well, Partykristian I hope you got it running again, I know it happened a few years back but I wish you luck with your other ventures. This boat fire. . .well, I've been there and more than I'd like to admit since I sometimes get carried away and push my boats to its limits or just don't know what I was doing (in the beginning of my rc boating). But for sure, I might adapt your way of capturing all the angles on newly built boats on its first test runs or just testing newly installed equipment to see how it performs. Although this video was a bust it was still a great video. . .entertaining as well as informative and I'm sure you've learned a few things from this. Now I have another way to capture the performance of my newly built boats as it skims across the water but as well of what is happening inside. I've thought of it before but never really did it but after your images. . .I LIKE IT VERY MUCH>>>>> Take care sir and happy boating!!!! BTW, I still have a few Joysway boats and one in particular. . .the self-righting Joysway Offshore Infinity, I have three of them, and they are among my most favorite boats. Not too big and not too small and mine are all differently modified and are super super fun speed demons. I have many boats and some 10X more expensive than my Joysway Offshore Infinity but I truly love this boat. . .I love it enough to take it with me on vacations. LOL and the wife not very happy. .BUT?? LOL. . Yes, I have other great boats in the 16"+ size range like the Super Mono X, Feilun FT012 or FT011,Barbwire XL . . .etc, but my JOSI is the greatest!

[@Partykristian]

Brian. Thank you for your (long) kind comment :) This boat is sitting on my veranda wall as a cool decoration. I do however have a few other boats and have videos of them in my boat playlist here on my YT channel. Thanks again, and take care! :)

[@AutomaticUniverse]

Your whole problem was, your using a car or truck electronic speed controller(ESC). Did your ESC have water running through it?... look at my boat videos and go that route. I know your pissed, but it happens to us all... very good camera work... thumbs up!!!

[@Partykristian]

Hey Automatic Universe. Not pissed at all, just puzzeled! I will look at your vids. but if you were to click on mine and check out some of my other boating vids you'll see I have had great sucsesses, too :) Both the ESC and the motor had several sources of cool water too keep temps down, in fact this boat had a quadruple cooling system that I'm sure would work wonders under other circumstances. PS: I REALLY doubt the Hobbywing Seaking 180 is a car ESC...

[@AutomaticUniverse]

HEAT... that's where the smoke came from. The motor and ESC must be water cooled, look at my boat and look at the speed. If your prop is small you don't need to cool the motor, but the Electronic Speed Controller must be.

[@Partykristian]

Thanks for your suggestions. There was an oversized water line cooling the original ESC cooling cap as well as a standard cooling line cooling an aftermarket heat sink the ESC was attached to. And on top of that, there was a fan additionally cooling the cooling cap. My mid-run temp checks showed temperatures lower than normal room temps.

[@AutomaticUniverse]

Partykristian Dam, you had that much cooling and she still blew up... that's a lot of money there champ. Dude, just get a Swordfish ESC like mine and get it over with... you'll only need one cooling line.

[@dstar706]

Nice vid awesome cam 👍

[@Mystic-on5xy]

The esc is water cool and it does a excellent job at it but why do you have a fan on top of that?? Unless you're running a separate battery for the fan all it doing is draining your battery and taken away power from your receiver and servo.

[@Partykristian]

All true, but the ESC is more than capable of running the fan. The initial idea was that the fan would help cool the ESC if liPo-cut should render the boat immovable during a very hard run. Going from very high current draw to a full standstill would probably not be great for the ESC, so I figured every little bit helps :)

[@PinoyGoodVibes741608]

my rc boat was burnt too..explode the esc and hard to remove the bad smell and the brown color inside...any help,TIA..

[@Partykristian]

You can get some of the discoloration off with an old dishwashing-brush and soapy water. As for the smell, try leaving a small cup of vinegar in the hull and close it off for a few days :)

[@PinoyGoodVibes741608]

thanks bro...

[@randycoolbaugh1408]

yep, I know that feeling... a R/C truck I built in, well finished in 96'. I was at a photo shoot for RCCA. they wanted to see it run. I turned it on and the same thing happened, luckely they took all the pictures before my "malfunction". I took it home, totally rebuilt all the electronics and never turned it on again, till this day..... ( R/C Car Action, January 1996)

[@Partykristian]

Hey Randy. Thanks for your nice comment and story about your car. Do you have a link to the article, if it's online? :)

[@randycoolbaugh1408]

yah, a fellow named Martin Zurru has a page where he wrote an article back in 08'. www.zurru.de/english/randys_t3e.htm Even these pix are out dated. I have made several "improvements" over the years. but still yet to turn it on..... Even with my latest project, what I'm working on as we speak.... a 1/32 scale live steam tug, I have been working on for about 4 years now. just cant bring myself to "fire it up"........ lol

[@Partykristian]

So, the mean green machine in the link is yours? That thing looks awesome. Reminds me of a "Marauder": i.ytimg.com/vi/UL0v7UAdky8/maxresdefault.jpg

[@randycoolbaugh1408]

lol, yep. minus the flat fenders..

[@mam362]

My guess would be defective ESC (or ESC thermal shut down mechanism) or incorrect attachment of wires so that the rudder control and the throttle wires were switched when plugged into the servo (I found out the hard way that where you put the wire into the servo DOES matter even though all of the sockets look the same). In fact, incorrectly plugging things into the servo could be what CAUSED the ESC to blow.

[@Partykristian]

+mam362 Hi. Thanks for your comment. As it turns out, there has been a lot of discussion further down in the comments field, and it turns out that there was a bind issue in a bearing in the driveline, causing the motor to pull way to many amps. Once the ESC was damaged on the first run it acted funny and then blew up on the second run.

[@taterjones5544]

Dude sorry about your boat but that was awesome!

[@wernerracingteam]

I hope a running Video with my pimped BlackJack is coming soon.

[@MM-rr5si]

did you fix it yet? If not, you really should that is a really nice boat!!

[@Partykristian]

+Golden Soldier Arena Bros Thank you for your kind comment. This one serves as a wall decoration on my veranda at the moment :) But I do have other boats that can be seen on my channel:)

[@bluewira2003]

ok tq...i am in survey in this v3 esc issue,,,for tppower motor 40mm 1900kv...what is the model TPPower 4040 or 4050 that you using?....in this all my survey TPPOWER motor is among many problem went use with Esc hobbywing Seaking V3 180a...not like Leopard motor not many problem..

[@my73737373]

Why did you have a camera in the hull in the first place? Did you know it was going to blow up?

[@james66872]

He knew that his batteries were junk and we're not matched

[@Partykristian]

Hi, this is explained in other comments, but I'll repeat for new viewers :) I had experienced the same situation before on the same boat: New ESC, small puff of smoke at end of first run. Next run, ESC goes up in flames. This was the second run on an otherwise fresh ESC, and there had been a puff of smoke on the end of the last run. So I figured, if this meant the loss of another ESC I might as well get a decent video out of it.

[@Partykristian]

Hi, thanks for your kind suggestion, but nothing wrong with the batteies.

[@19Marc79]

Frying 2 ESCs in a row on the same motor ??? => The motor most probably is defect and therefore will kill any new ESC in the future, too...Get rid of that motor, bro !!!

[@hayabusaryder12]

I run electric boats also. nothing to laugh at when you lose a boat but man I couldn't help not to laugh because I've been there. great job getting it on cam and editing. I've watched it a few more times than I probably should have just got more funny only like I said .been there done that. have you got a new boat since?

[@Partykristian]

Hello, thank you for the encouraging comment! :) Things happen, and it turned out to be a decent video in the end :) If you check out "playlists" on this channel, there is one with my other boats :)

[@WhiteRiverRails]

That was a bad thing for the boat, but amazing footage of it!

[@Partykristian]

+BNSFguy 617 Haha, yes, a true "Kodak moment" :D

[@YOUNGSTERS-JETS]

I had the same probs with the 120 amp , I got a cannon size boom from my boat lost the cowl lid but the boat was ok, there's a vid on my page,, sorry for your loss, Great in-boat footage, Thanks for the vid Mark

[@Partykristian]

Thank you for your kind comment, will check out your vid:)

[@Luca-uj6eh]

It was the same with my boat, the controller cables were unsoldered and the hull broke in exactly the same place, this is a high kv motor, put one in with less kv

[@BenPortmanlewes]

Got here because I just got an FT007 for my 45th Bday, and find I really like the boating. you don't have the issue of altitude, but depth.. anyway, sad to see that boat go up like that... and the batteries were O.K? looked like a dodgy radio link to me, but a binding drive chain, wow. Looking at the small bolt for my first proper boat, will then be set up for boats as I'm a quadcopter man (racing not automated off the shelf) Not been able to find a good review, anyone have any thoughts? budget is the main issue and then size!

[@Partykristian]

Ben Portman Hi Ben. Sorry for the late reply. I have a FT009, fun beginner boat, and I use it to push my other boats ashore if they should stop:) The ESC was already damaged from the previous run, so the sequence I filmed here was just the final death throws :/ I have had strange issues with this boat. If you would like to read morte, there is additional info in the previous comments and my replies. Have a nice day. PS: When choosing a boat. Try to get one that you can source parts for locally!

[@BenPortmanlewes]

Partykristian I've decided to just get one more boat, a small bolt from hobby king. These have mixed reviews, and don't seem to seal very well. But I think for me, it's more the setting up and fine tuning is where I get the joy, so having something that is very good if carefully set up and also very fast and stable for it's small size will be perfect.

[@Partykristian]

Sometimes I think the building and maintenance is just as fun as the running, as well. I'm sure you'll be happy with what you choose:)

[@BenPortmanlewes]

Yeah, it's here, very nice boat. Needs some fettling

[@BradfordGuy]

If you are going to hve a fail, it's always the video that has the silver lining. I bet that was some money to fix. Cheers!

[@ukteaboy]

I have the seaking 180a It seems the inline capacitors got wet and shorted. Repairable?

[@bluewira2003]

what setup that you using ? 6s or 4s....what size tppower motor ? kv? ..

[@Partykristian]

Hi Otai Ben! What seems to be happening with this boat is that the ESCs let out a little bit of smoke on their first run, even if they are not hot. Then, on the second run, they burn up completely, like in the video. Since I have had several occurunces playing out very similarly I'm thinking driveline/prop-issue, even if I can't seem to pinpoint it. The setup in the video is Hobbywing Seaking 180 ESC on 4S and a 40mm TP motor, 1900KV.

[@emitindustries8304]

Broken dreams and empty pockets! That's good!! With R/C airplanes though, you just end up with a large pile of broken balsa and electronics. And a ton of money, months of work, and the hoped for hours of enjoyment. Gone in seconds.

[@miguelsalami]

FAN ON ESC WAS NOT TURNING AFTER YOU STARTED THE BOAT. You should have noticed that before you put the hatch cover on !

[@Fabianthehunter]

Its extra cooling fan, dont see the water lines?

[@notyouraverageyoutuber3172]

When I first saw this i was like “tHeRe cHeaP iTS fiNe” now that I have 2 RC cars that is an expensive fail sorry about your boat dude and I’ve also had my second cars motor burn on me so I know how it feels

[@notyouraverageyoutuber3172]

@@allengrier4767 I’ve had 2 for abt a year now and actually I’m buying a new one soon so you can’t really call me a beginner

[@notyouraverageyoutuber3172]

@@allengrier4767 now u just flexing lol

[@notyouraverageyoutuber3172]

@@allengrier4767 It doesn’t matter how many cars you have dude it’s also how good you are on the track, road, etc.

[@notyouraverageyoutuber3172]

@@allengrier4767 I wouldn’t call them toys but you can call them whatever the hell you want lol

[@notyouraverageyoutuber3172]

@@allengrier4767 and I also do take my RC cars seriously. Is it a problem to take things seriously? If so just tell me.

[@shaftysgaming9857]

gotta love those esc if they don't get water they over heat ,I have BN down this road I had to buy a new due to mine was not pumping water at all causing everything to over heat I was playing in my pool ,but I was planning on upgrading to bigger and better

[@Partykristian]

Hi James, thanks for your comment. As it turns out it was a sticky bearing on the propshaft that overloaded the motor/ESC and damaged the ESC on the previous run :( Best of luck on your boating endevours :)

[@MushroomKingdom101]

That's not good looks like that boat needs a new engine and some other parts

[@racingturtel5002]

That kinda was really relaxing the sounds

[@ericbrockhus2518]

hi, very nice video. very well done. pretty sat to see the boat die like that. really a very beautiful boat. Maybe you did cut up the length of the video a lot otherwise i can not understand why it would be overheated so quick. you made no speed and just light use until the point of the fire.. I am a rc lover myself but on an other level. when i was a young boy i had cars and boats. just normal tamiya and graupner stuff. when i turned 16 i got my new hobby. my moped so no more rc. That was until 20 years later my dad got retired and started model airplane flying. just simple selfbuild planes made of foam. i joined him and the rc fire was on again. i do not go for the perfect model. Just raw models that work. But then i bought a few crawlers and made an rc duck to play with the kids when on our boat. but lately a friend of mine offered me some old rc race boats he found hidden away in a shed. A scarab and a portofino. I took out the ancient 3 step speed control and receiver and put in some modern stuff. the esc's i use are dirt cheap. like 8 dollars on dx.com or aliexpress.com work fine but bad quality. they say they can handle 320 amps and 11,1 v. The first time i put in the ancient 7,2 nicd (yr 1995, came with the boat and still worked after a few special charge cycles). the second time i put in a small 1000 mah 3s lipo. wow what a blast. For what i am used to in my old boats at least. but after 1 minute of fun is was dead in an instand. When i had it back i could smell the trouble. the esc was fried. but when i looked at it i saw a copper track that was burned. so i repaired the track on the circuitboard and now it works again. these esc's are great and i buy them a lot. they are for brushed motors, have brake function and reverse. i make them waterresistant with a few layers of plastidip spray and good to go. i hacked some "fake" toy rc cars and boats for my cousins and put in a real servo and these esc's. after waterproofing nothing happened until this first burned track. What speed can your boot do?

[@Partykristian]

Eric Brockhus Hei Eric. There was a reoccuring theme with this boat: New ESC, make a run, just a little bit of smoke would come out. Next run, this would happen. Three times this happened, the last time was caught on camera. I have another boat, a yellow Minicat, that I have a video about on my channel. That one is quite fast, you might want to have a look at that video, as well:) I have never measured it, though.

[@Partykristian]

+Partykristian I have gotten some new boats by now, and some measurements, It's all on my channel :)

[@bobbyrayofthefamilysmith24]

Couldn't you fix the Hull with epoxy or fibre glass

[@livingstonrc4706]

Eeeeehhh that sucks sorry for your loss man, I only have a traxxas stampede electric, dromida and a traxxas nitro 3.3 slash

[@Partykristian]

Traxxas have nice stuff, including a cool new boat that just came out:) Thanks for your comment:)

[@michaelfranz9139]

Mir ist mit diesem Regler das selbe nach ca 2min passiert.Alle Daten wurden mit der Jeti aufgezeichnet.Der Motor zog max.65 Ampere bei 6S. Regler und Motor kamen nicht über 40Grad.Das war für diesen 180A Regler zu viel.Ich fahre nun mit einem 120Ampere Castle Creations Phoenix ICE V2 HV aus einem Hubi.Den habe ich gestrippt und mit 3 Wasserkühlern umbaut plus einem Prozessorkühler und 4 ZusatzKondensatoren.Keine Probleme mehr.

[@jameshenneberg1937]

My guess is bad motor. If it manages to draw too much off of the ESC,... that's the result. It seemed like when your throttle was low,... all was ok,.. but when you went over about I'd say 15% power, then it started to get glitchy. Tray a different motor.

[@28noch]

lipo tic-tac of death

[@Partykristian]

+28noch Haha, yeah, I love the "James Bond Moment" right before the smoke comes out :D

[@crispyspa]

Why are you not monitized? The views would have recouped some of the loss.

[@Partykristian]

+crispyspa Good question. I guess it's just a hobby, and being a "free agent" allows me to use almost whatever music I want in my videos. At least that's how I understand it.

[@crispyspa]

+Partykristian Nope. you can't use copyrighted music regardless of monitize status.

[@Partykristian]

Do you have a link to where KZbin states this? What I have seen says something along the lines of "It may be OK and it may not be" depending on whether whoever owns the music asks you to remove it.

[@Timber-Wolf]

Just to be clear. Copyright Laws are exactly that, they are Laws, and not something YT have control over. Your status as a YT partner or not a YT partner will not change the Copyright Law.

[@Partykristian]

I have since checked this more closely. One can search for songs in the KZbin creator dashboard. If the songs you wish to use are listed you can use them, but whatever revenue the video would be making ends up with the copyrightholders of the songs, instead. This seems to be the case in this situation, and considering this video is doing quite well, I'd imagine the copyrightholders to the songs in question are fine with the situation. :)

[@jvmalta081]

sorry for that :( you seem to take good care of things and very dedicated ! i understand you!! it happens to me a lot and especially when it comes to have fun with my hobbies !!! i fix the others to have fun and mine are always with something ! thats life

[@Partykristian]

+cb400 You know, I understand what you mean, and appreciate your nice comment.

[@funkyfokker1]

you said the boats a goner? not at all simple repairs was it thrown away?

[@dazspurs9899]

Lee Palmer some epoxy would easily repair the hull

[@funkyfokker1]

ya not selling then

[@Partykristian]

HI, thanks for your comment. My understanding is that repairing cracked hulls like this means more work than just epoxying the gash, as the fiberglass might start soaking in water for a fairly large area around the actual crack. I might attempt it in the future. For now, the boat is a veranda ornament :)

[@aljensen7779]

I just wanna go hug my boat...

[@Partykristian]

We all need a little TLC sometimes! :)

[@jesser5127]

Electronics shorted out and put a short in the LiPos that released gas and exploded? Sounds like it.

[@Mr3Kidneys]

Looks like the wires were pressed against that little cooling fan so it couldn't spin...

[@Partykristian]

The issue was with a binding prop shaft bearing. The cooling fan is mostly for looks, the ESC is very well cooled by water:) Thanks for chiming in, though.

[@Mr3Kidneys]

Partykristian Ok, cool. I just noticed that, so I pointed it out. I knew it couldn't have been the sole cause of something that catastrophic, but wasn't sure if it could have contributed or was even an issue. Thanks for the info.

[@Partykristian]

Learning and sharing is one of the great things with KZbin. When people keep it respectful... Thank you for doing just that and thanks again for chiming in :)

[@Mr3Kidneys]

Totally! I'm just getting into the hobby myself, and you definitely seem cool and knowledgeable, I subed. Are you open to answering questions in the future if I can't find answers elsewhere? There's lots of great sources, but it's always nice to ask somebody that you can actually see what kinda stuff they're up too.

[@Partykristian]

Feel free to post questions any time. If I see them I will try to answer to the best of my ability:)

[@efthimisspyropoulos]

What motor tp power did you have? and what esc name - amps, vots?

[@LocoKilaProductions]

looks to me either you over powered your esc most likely due to the location of where it melted or you have too big/too small of a motor for that esc! to put it in an easy to understand prospective its simular to a car stereo system if a subwoofer is rated for say 400w (rms) and 800w max and you put either a 150w amp or a 1000w amp on it, something is going to give and burn up! my advice from experience is to stick with known brand esc and motor combo kits such as the traxxas vxl 6s kit not sure what you are running but that's just my advice or buy something already fast and leave it the hell alone lol like ive always been told if its not broken don't fix it lol 😂 hope you get it all fixed soon bud!

[@Partykristian]

Thanks for your insight. The driveline had a rusty bearing that provided extra mechanical resistance for the motor, leading to the ESC overheating. This happened on the previous run to this one, meaning the ESC was already damaged. It's all discussed in various comments below :)

[@danielauen7790]

I blew up an ESC, turns out the motor was at fault, then again, it was a really big motor and a 30 amp esc, the motor was rated to draw 6 amps... at around 200v, I gave it 12, it exploded. WHOOPS!

[@Partykristian]

Yeah, that'll do it !:O

[@nitro_rc_dude8158]

Your ESC fan didn't work and it over heated and blew up

[@Partykristian]

Thanks for your suggestion, but your conclusion is incorrect. A quick scroll down the comments section will reveal all :)

[@cagsanozbek4210]

So why this happened ? Whats the reason

[@JameyCampbell_54]

Was definitely a bind in your strut / flex cable That's what generated the heat and extra load and popped that sea King How about the guy saying it was a car/truck esc and it's a "sea King" wow lol Nice wiring job and nice camera work keep it up!

[@Partykristian]

+Jamey Campbell Thanks for the kind words! I have noticed how quite a few people commenting on KZbin seem to "know it all"... Thanks for keeping it respectful:)

[@JameyCampbell_54]

no problem bud.... still boating? cold here mines on the shelf! :(

[@Partykristian]

+Jamey Campbell It's mostly airplanes these days, lot's of snow and ice on the lakes!!

[@had2galsinthebooth]

We were hit by Greek fire and now Poseidon is reaching into our ship!! Yyeeeaaaagh!

[@Partykristian]

I just hate when that happens ...

[@morpher34]

How did you get it back out of the water?

[@Partykristian]

+Aidan Miller I used a big tree branch I found nearby to retrieve the boat:)

[@ArmanRC]

Wow, the ecs get burn, awesome to much power😂👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@PlexyNeck]

1:53 lol…ah this hilarious 😂

[@benwachtel23]

You sure you don't have too strong of batteries? I experienced this with one of my planes, I overcharged the receiver & it fried that & the esc

[@Partykristian]

+Ben Wachtel Hi, thanks for your comment. In this setup there is a separate BEC in the ESC that delivers regulated power to the receiver and servos. This is regulated to 5 volts even if the ESC itself is seeing a much higher voltage. This was a 6S-maximum setup, being run at 4S. The receiver was still seeing 5 volts.

[@benwachtel23]

+Partykristian so it's not too much voltage, something must have gone wrong, but I can't put my finger on it. My buddy gave me a At-6 Texan that crashed because the wings flew off then, once it went nose first from that it damaged the esc, but he didn't notice. So the next time he flew it it caught fire.

[@Partykristian]

+Ben Wachtel There was a binding issue in the driveline. On the first run (the day before) with that ESC it was damaged because of excessive amp draw. I was living in the hope that it was OK, but as you can see it started doing all kinds of funky stuff as soon as it hit the water.

[@benwachtel23]

+Partykristian so exposed wires touched each other?

[@Partykristian]

No. What made you think that?

[@bigharrykochenbauls4567]

I don't think the pilot survived the explosion

[@TheIllestMVP]

nightmare but repair that hull with some glass fibre rather than disposing of it and buy a decent esc

[@Partykristian]

At the moment it's decorating a wall on my veranda, but who knows what the future holds :)

[@oceanstreamer4156]

LiPo issue. Over voltage or damaged. Might have been left in the sun.

[@noneyourb2526]

Wtf is that blinking red light? Self destruct ?

[@Partykristian]

Haha, yes it's the timer! :D No, seriously, I think it's a reflection of the record-light on one of the cameras.

[@coldude09]

oh noooo! did the pilot make it alive?

[@Partykristian]

+coldude09 Haha, he was coughing a lot, for sure! :D

[@brandonTopchev]

I like how it was like a time bomb with it beeping also I recommend a century yaht there good you can get them on Amazon I have a one I think it's the 3000 it goes 30mph on full battery and last 15-20 min

[@Partykristian]

Hi Brandon. Yeah, a bit of a "james Bond moment" there! I have had better luck with other boats, there is a video of a yellow one here on my channel that I'm quite happy with:)

[@twoguyspies2056]

Were the lipos puffed?

[@twoguyspies2056]

sorry, just watched the end.

[@RC-ij4je]

The cooling fan on the esc didn't turned on...

[@Partykristian]

RC 44: Hi, thanks, it's a water cooled ESC. All the white tubes you can see inside the boat are water lines :)

[@tijlmollers2329]

Wait... I am considering buying a rc boat. Anyone knows a good rc boat for filming on it?