hardware weights......

[mercguy]

this might sound stupid, but has anyone ever compared the weights of the various manufacturers race boat hardware? I need to save as much weight on my new 20 hydro as possible and am hoping someone has determined which pieces are lighter and recommendations....

[fitsracing]

weight

Try dieting? or go altralite!!! I did and I can still eat twinkies!!!

[mercguy]

more wise cracks.......

I DO NOT want an Altralite (not saying there is anything wrong with them), I like the Dawecraft stock hydros/runabouts I race now and will continue to!

[kws]

we havent had to Daren . on the other hand i know that there are some very light alluminum steering wheels, i have only seen 1 on a boat this year
the one i saw weighs about 1/3 of the steel ones

[jsilvestri]

Daren,

I know this has nothing to do with hardware, but I see that Ernie used some carbon fiber in your C boat, so if he were to make up cockpit sides from carbon and foam, that would save you some weight in your new 20 boat. And, they would be strong. Good luck with the new boat!

[brian]

Try a go-kart wheel as it is plastic and has to be less than a steel hub. Use the Nylon steering hubs as they are lighter but not as nice as the portage stuff.

The go kart wheel is really strong, my next boat will have one for safety reasons as well.

[champhotrod]

Kart Wheel

Brian,
Where is a good place to purchase a Go Kart wheel?

Cooper

[mercguy]

Daren,

I know this has nothing to do with hardware, but I see that Ernie used some carbon fiber in your C boat, so if he were to make up cockpit sides from carbon and foam, that would save you some weight in your new 20 boat. And, they would be strong. Good luck with the new boat!

thanks Joe, that will probably be done also. Where do you get the foam sheets from?

[mercguy]

Try a go-kart wheel as it is plastic and has to be less than a steel hub. Use the Nylon steering hubs as they are lighter but not as nice as the portage stuff.

The go kart wheel is really strong, my next boat will have one for safety reasons as well.

Brian, I have seen the aluminum go-cart wheels, but not a plastic one, which is still lighter than the steel ones. What supplier has the plastic ones?

[jsilvestri]

Daren,

I bought my foam called "last-a-foam" from Wicks Aircraft Supply. Here is the link directly to the foam I used on the CSH, laydown.

http://www.wicksaircraft.com/catalog...387/index.html

I sandwiched 1/2" foam between two pieces of 3mm plywood. The cockpit sides run from transom to the nose of the boat, they are 21" tall at their highest point, in the front, and are as tall as the transom in the back and they weighed 11lbs a piece. When I glued them up, I rolled the west on one side of the plywood, one side of the foam, layed them together on my dad's workbench, which is very flat, then rolled the west on the up side of the foam and one side of the other piece of plywood. I then put the top piece of plywood ontop of the foam and stacked cement blocks side to side end to end and let dry over night. Also, I layed wax paper down on the workbench before laminating everything and wax paper ontop of the laminations before laying the cement blocks down. I didn't want anything to stick to something it wasn't supposed to.

Now, I'm not sure if 11lbs. is light, but they seemed very light to me and they are really strong, especially for those of us who like tall sides. I'm sure using a vac*** bag system to glue the components together would be better but I don't have a vacuum bag system, yet. Dave Mason also uses this foam in his boats and is the one who turned me onto it. It works really well.

There may be better ways to do this or better foam, hopefully other boat builders will chime in on this. But, that is a start for you. If you could use Carbon with the foam it may be lighter and stonger, I'm not sure. Look over the web site I attached, it has all types of cloths, foam, glues, etc...

[bill hoctor]

weight

Dave Bennett, 1 F,10 F, US 1, has carbon fiber steering wheels. 1 904 814 4519 St. Augustine fl.

[Jeff Akers]

this might sound stupid, but has anyone ever compared the weights of the various manufacturers race boat hardware? I need to save as much weight on my new 20 hydro as possible and am hoping someone has determined which pieces are lighter and recommendations....

Just hapen to have a box of "Lee Tietze's" hardware in a box and not on my boat

Weight listed is for ( one each)

1- steering bar pulley w/ bolts ...3.2oz
1-combing pulley w/ bolts.........4.4oz
1-tie back w/o bolts.................5.3oz
1-stern handle w/o bolts............3.2oz
1-side fin & bracket w/o bolts.....1#6oz
1- laydown throttle w/o bolts......1#3.3oz
misc bolts & nuts cable clamps.....8.4oz

I've got a 5" steering hub and stainless wheel from "Portage Bay" if you want the weights on them I could post them later .

BTW: congrats on your 3rd place at the Nats !!!!!!!

[mercguy]

Awesome Info!!!!!!!!!

Daren,

I bought my foam called "last-a-foam" from Wicks Aircraft Supply. Here is the link directly to the foam I used on the CSH, laydown.

http://www.wicksaircraft.com/catalog...387/index.html

I sandwiched 1/2" foam between two pieces of 3mm plywood. The cockpit sides run from transom to the nose of the boat, they are 21" tall at their highest point, in the front, and are as tall as the transom in the back and they weighed 11lbs a piece. When I glued them up, I rolled the west on one side of the plywood, one side of the foam, layed them together on my dad's workbench, which is very flat, then rolled the west on the up side of the foam and one side of the other piece of plywood. I then put the top piece of plywood ontop of the foam and stacked cement blocks side to side end to end and let dry over night. Also, I layed wax paper down on the workbench before laminating everything and wax paper ontop of the laminations before laying the cement blocks down. I didn't want anything to stick to something it wasn't supposed to.

Now, I'm not sure if 11lbs. is light, but they seemed very light to me and they are really strong, especially for those of us who like tall sides. I'm sure using a vac*** bag system to glue the components together would be better but I don't have a vacuum bag system, yet. Dave Mason also uses this foam in his boats and is the one who turned me onto it. It works really well.

There may be better ways to do this or better foam, hopefully other boat builders will chime in on this. But, that is a start for you. If you could use Carbon with the foam it may be lighter and stonger, I'm not sure. Look over the web site I attached, it has all types of cloths, foam, glues, etc...

thanks so much Joe...........that is the ticket!!!!

[mercguy]

not on boat????????

Just hapen to have a box of "Lee Tietze's" hardware in a box and not on my boat

Weight listed is for ( one each)

1- steering bar pulley w/ bolts ...3.2oz
1-combing pulley w/ bolts.........4.4oz
1-tie back w/o bolts.................5.3oz
1-stern handle w/o bolts............3.2oz
1-side fin & bracket w/o bolts.....1#6oz
1- laydown throttle w/o bolts......1#3.3oz
misc bolts & nuts cable clamps.....8.4oz

I've got a 5" steering hub and stainless wheel from "Portage Bay" if you want the weights on them I could post them later .

BTW: congrats on your 3rd place at the Nats !!!!!!!

Jeff, do I need to ***** at you again??????? Thanks for the info though. I guess I could have pulled all the Tietze hardware from my Darneille hydro, but that would take WAY TOO MUCH time.........