NTN-600 Brushless V-Hull R / C Bateau (675mm) Plug-n-Drive

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Fitting-out the NTN-600

Sep 13, 2017

The NTN-600 needs some extra parts (and a little work) to make it ready to run and these notes may be helpful to anyone else who decides to buy one.
I always check that any new boat has some sort of buoyancy to stop it sinking in the event of an accident - or even a flip that may cause the hatch cover to become detached allowing the hull to fill-up with water. Fortunately this nice TFL model comes with a hard foam block already fitted so that is one less job to do!
The motor needs to be removed to allow the flex-shaft to be pulled out and greased prior to use - this is simple and should become a routine maintenance job after every 10 or so runs to keep everything working smoothly and lasting for as long as possible before a replacement shaft may be needed.
The plugs that comes fitted to the motor are too small to fit the sockets that come fitted to the Turnigy 60A marine ESC that I have chosen to use so these need to be changed and is best done when the motor is out of the hull.
The supplied water tubing is easy to kink and so I have replaced mine with a lumo-coloured non-kink type that I picked up from RossMod to make sure the water cooling supply stays working.
Fitting the ESC, receiver, and steering servo is a "non-event" as they are simply held in place on the pre-fitted plywood mounts with the supplied cable ties. I always like to also use Velcro as well as the cable ties as this gives a little extra security and provides some insulation from vibration to help keep the electronics healthy for years to come.
I had an old Futaba S9304 servo laying around on my work bench at home so I fitted a suitable output arm and opened-out one of the arms holes to fit the kinked steering shaft that was then threaded through the bellows (a little grease here is not a bad idea) and connected to the rudder.
All of the pre-mentioned components fit along the same side of the hull to provide a nice balance for the LiPo that fits along the opposite side of the boat.
I will be using some more self adhesive Velcro patches on the LiPo packs to help hold them securely and I will also be using Velcro style battery straps to hold the cells as they are easier to adjust and will not "bite" into the battery .
Being a small boat the size and weight of the LiPo cells used can become a major factor so I will be using some of the NanoTech LiPo cells as they are usually smaller and lighter than some rivals and I have had good results from them in the past.
As soon as my new cells arrive I will be running the NTN-600 at my local club and will report back on the way the boat and my chosen components work!

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Nice quality model with a GRP Hull.

Sep 13, 2017

My NTN-600 arrived from the UK warehouse this afternoon and was well packed with an outer box around a plain brown inner box that contained the boat that was held secure in hard foam holders to prevent any movement in transit.
The model has the same manufacturer as my larger Pursuit and is moulded in the same GRP material that is nicely painted and with a clear coating over the scale type decals.
Unfortunately my model has some marks in the paintwork both on the deck and the canopy cover but I will not be returning it although I can understand why I have seen some repainted in non-scale colours.
As with the Pursuit there is no method of fastening the the canopy to the deck - apart from a roll of clear tape that is intended to hold it on and prevent any water splashing through the deck to canopy joint. As I remarked in my review of the Pursuit - this is not an elegant solution - but it does the job.
For this model I will try to fit a flat gasket to the deck recess and fit some sort of mechanical fastener to avoid the need to risk the paintwork when the tape is pulled off after every run.
The canopy on my model is also slightly warped so a mechanical fastener will help to pull it into shape as it holds it down against the deck .
Fitting the rudder and metal prop is all that is needed to complete the assembly so the next job is to decide what speed controller and steering servo to use.
I did blow though the water-cooling system and there was no restriction so the water will be able to flow freely through the motor and motor mount as long as the water pick-up works properly - this is a piece of brass tube that is (unusually) pushed through the bottom of the hull about 35mm forwards of the transom!
The pick-up tube extends down underneath the hull by approximately 5mm at the back and is angled so that the front of the tube is flush with the underside of the hull forming a forward facing angle that should scoop up the water as the boat moves forwards - but it will be unable to collect any water when the boat is not moving as it does not use the prop-wash to push the water into the system in the usual way.
Plywood holders in the hull are provided for the battery, receiver, and speed controller and are slotted to allow cable ties to hold these parts in place.
The motor is fixed at the front only into an alloy water-cooled mount that is held between two black GRP side mounting plates.
A nicely (laser-cut) plywood stand just needs to be slotted together to form m attractive mount that fits the hull shape very well - but adding a length of split tubing would help prevent the bare wood edges scratching the painted hull.
The familiar TFL alloy aerial tube mount is included - it looks nice - but the ariel tube will not fit it until the hole is opened out ( I use a 3.1mm drill to do this).
The current photos on the Hobby King site show the underside of the hull form correctly - so what you see is what you get!.
I am a little disappointed that my example has arrived with some paint damage and chips but I still like it and hope it will run as well as it looks as this is nice model.

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Customer Rated

Sep 30, 2014

The Photos in the listing do not show a true representation of the item !
The listing shows a 'Stepped Hull' but in fact the hull is not stepped it s only smooth. This difference is a huge issue regarding the true value of the Boat ! and very poor when it comes to being able to trust what the listing shows when deciding upon making the purchase of other Hobby King Product !

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Customer Rated

Aug 29, 2014

I bought this boat despite negative reviews. The first thing I did was to replace the prop with an Octura642 3/16" drive. I purchased a 3/16" to 1/8" prop adapter from USA, couldn't find one in the UK. I Powered it with a 4000mah 3C Lipo not the best of fits, but set it as far forward as the motor mount will allow. I had to balance it out by adding 260gms of lead to the servo side. It allows water up the flex shaft but noticed that there was a large gap between the dog drive and the flex shaft tube carrier. Removed this gap by tightening the prop and forcing the dog drive up the shaft to close the gap. Need to test water ingress but am confident that this mod will reduce it. The water cooling is useless, it is very difficult to blow through the inlet to outlet so water flow stands no chance. There are no kinks in the piping, I will therefore have to run an alternative cooling method. However with this setup and a little prop drive angle tuning it is fantastically fast and sits nicely on the plane. A joy to own and pilot.

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Certified Buyer Rated

Jun 22, 2014

nice boat, didnt tested it yet , but looks great

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Customer Rated

Jul 26, 2012

Bought this for a friend as his first boat. Only had a 120A ESC left that supports down to 3Cells, so maiden was with 3S and it went pretty fast, stable and with no water in it after 5 minutes. Then we tried a 3 blade prop which resulted in very low speed. Next attempt was a 4S 4700mah - THIS IS FUN LIKE HELL! At least with the original 2 blade prop, with 3 blades it only flys around in the pond in all directions. And no overheating - regardless that the watercooling does not work! The concept is a bit overkill, standard inrunnercooling AND motormount as well, but it does not work even with only one cooling connected. I think about replacing the inlet. After a few runs the mount for the lipo broke down but can easily glued in again. For the money and with a bit of experience it's good fun!

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Customer Rated

Apr 01, 2012

The only thing this boat is quality finish, the rest is crap, poor stability, recommended battery is too heavy for the size of the vessel at high speed it tends to sink, too much water enters the telescope despite spending grease regularly , already burned two servants to enter the water. I do not recommend buying this product hobbyking because no one plays good fun. To give you an idea of how bad the boat, the telescope it is on a slope below the float level of the boat, which facilitates the entry of water through the telescope.

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Customer Rated

Feb 10, 2012

Otima Lancha...



Acabamento de primeira, veio muito bem embalada e sem nenhum problema estou usando como ESC um Aquastar 120A. recomendo a compra desta maquina... simplesmente perfeita!

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Customer Rated

Sep 13, 2010

Hi.

I have no runed this boat a few times. As some other says, the 50a esc fail after 5 minutes of 11,1v run. I have no switch it with a Turnigy marine 60A. I have not nailed it in yet, so its wery unstabel i high speed. I have plans of laying som lead sheets in the bottom in back of the boat. It is plowing to mutch, so some weight in the back is nesesary. The prop is blunt, so I'm going to switsh it with a balansed prop from grimracer.

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Customer Rated

Aug 24, 2010

Buena lancha, precio normal.

Es muy tcnica y algo compleja de ajustar, como viene de serie no navega bin, requiere bastante ajuste de pesos y modificar la posicin de batera, el capatador de refrigeracin, ngulo de helice y timn.

Una vez bin ajustada navega decente, un peln escasa de motor, pero es una pasada como se agarra en el agua.

Ha costado un poco de trabajo centrar bin todo, pero ahora va genial !!!!!!