Build Blog, my Hobie TI (3) 2017 project

New motor!
DHL dropped of my new motor today.
Off course I had to testmount it right away, just for the fun and also to check some messurements and the function with the beachwhhels.
Wow it is big... and a bit on the heavy side but I was counting on this.





The setup works fine in the regular down and up position but in the shallow water setting the wheels are sadly the way. Bummer!
I was planning to shorten the wheelstand to 45 cm but looks like I have to keep the leght of the prototype 48cm. I was also planning to design the wheelsstand to enable the wheels to fold/rotate inwards 90dgr to completly get them out of the water.
To enable use of the shallow water setting now I will have to do this modification aswell.






First impression of the 5hp Mercury is very nice. Solid and sturdy. Under the hood everyrhing is very tidy.
The controls are placed perfectly for my setup. The seating position with my left hand on the throttle/tiller is very comfy.
When the motor is folded up the rather large motor hood obscures the vision a bit to the left but it does not obstruct my movements or the fishing so I can live with this.
I was a bit worried about the width but its pretty slim and i can shorten the offset to about 43 cm bettwen the center kayak to propeller.

So yes, there are a few drawbacks but I can accept thoose to get the bonus of reverse gear, external fuel tank, exhaust through the prop and some more horsepower.

So now I am back in the workshop making sure to do all I can to secure this "beast" with a really solid motormount. The extra 20Lb will put a lot of force on the mount. (Crossing my fingers)
/Gustav

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

It was just a thought really.... yes, the guy in the Hobie Pro Staff team is the one I am thinking about but I think you're right, the points you listed mean that the rear option is best for your application. I look forward to the next episode....

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2015 Tandem Island - Golden Papaya "HALIBOO"
(retired) Outback - Hibiscus Red

The guy was thinkng about with the Ti mid engine mount is Victor Cisneros. I guess he might be on the forum?

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

Lots of small things fixed today.

Started of with fabricating the mounting brackets for the beachwheel crossbar.
The brackets will be bolted down in the rails with four 5mm bolts in the T-nuts. I wanted 6mm bolts but I could not find any stainless 6mm T-nuts. I have designed the brackets so I can upgrade to 6mm later on if I need to.
I welded a 8mm nut on each side. Drilled and filed out the underside of the motorcrossbar to fit over the bolts and the welded nut. Now I can easily bolt down the motorcrossbar to the wheelbrackets. Makes it pretty easy to remove when I want to.






A buddy of mine will do the welds but I can tack it together in the mean time.
Before I can weld the wheel crossbar I had to do the final mount of the rails that will hold them.
Not a very plesant job trying to reach deep inside the kayak with Sikaflex gunk everywhere withot beeing able to see what you are doing.
I polished up the inner mouting bars, prepared and put everything in order before I began.






I taped up /masked the kayak and rails not to mess them up from the Sikaflex. (The stuff is hard to remove)
I applied a rather a thick layer of sikaflex under the rails and also inside on the mounting bars.




The first side went well but the right side gave me a lot of greef. I had a hard time getting the first bolts into the nuts. More and more black gunk spreading all over my hands and inside the kayak.
After a lot of profound language I finaly could take a breather and with my arms aching admire the result.
My arms are just to short! Without the welded nuts I could never have managed to do this.

Inside the kayak there was some gunk that I had to cleen up the best I could, well nobody will see it inside the kayak anyway
The bolts are yet not fully tightened. Tomorrow when the Sikaflex is harder I will tighten them fully. (It usually takes 1-2 days for the gunk to fully harden)




I now hope the rails are correctly mounted so this messy job will be worth the trouble.
The Sikaflex will spread the forces more evenly on the HDPE plastic and hopefully prevent any cracks in the kayak. Maybe it will also reduce some of the vibrations from the motor.

Tomorrow I will continue finishing the motormount and work on the beachwheel. Its all slowly progressing in the right direction, nice!
I hope I might take a first testride this weekend to try out the 5hp Mercury.

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

Quick stop for some dinner after a busy day in the workshop......

The mounting of the rails came out pretty good. The Sikaflex has started to harden and I have tightened the bolts and it all seems very solid. The edges around the rail could be a bit more tidy but the end result is acceptable.





So far the motormount crossbar is almost finished. I drilled out the "speed holes" and it looks pretty nice. The bulky feeling of the sort of massive aluminiumbar is now more "sporty". Just some edges that has to be trimmed.
I also saved a lot of weight.... NOT! The aluminium I drilled out was only 150grams! LOL!
The main purpose of the big holes are to gain access for inserting the fastening bolts inside the bar.
The bolts will be changed to the right lenght, more hardware is on its way in the mail.
I will also drill two more holes for fasteningbolts in the bottom on the bar.
I dont like the open ends on the motor crossbar so I will make some sort of caps. Maybe a nice piece of teak would look nice and give the hard "tech" style a more "organic look?






Well now I can finaly start the to design/manufacture the torsion struts that has been on my mind all week.

The front struts will be made from the same type of aluminiumbars as the rest of the motormount. They will be bolted down into the rails in front of the aka bar. A 8mm bolt will run across thru the motormount crossbar and I will weld a bolt into the forward strut. On the top the front strut will also hold the front hinge to the foldable raiser bar.

The rear struts will be made from 8mm thick aluminium plate bended in an angle so that it fits down to the new two shorter rails, (25 cm/10"), that I will mount behind the rodholders.

Returning to the workshop now for a late nights work. I really want to finish up the motormount and take a short testride during the weekend.
Much more to do!

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

Not very pretty but I guess this will work....
So this evening I fabricated the forward torsion struts. They still need some trimming of the edges and polishing. They will be mounted with three 5mm bolts in the rail in front of the extra aka crossbar. As for now I will screw the two pieces together but later on they will be welded together (same with the motor cross bar). My welding skills unfortunately do not allow me to do aluminium welds, tried it once... oh boy what a mess!
The fastening brackets (inside the struts) connecting the motor crossbar with the struts must be fixed tomorrow. I will use a piece of the 6mm stainless plate steel and weld a nut into the bracket. I will try to mount the hinges for the rear folding riserbar with the same bracket ontop of the struts.




The forward facing opening on the struts will be covered with some nice cap, maybe a nice piece of wood, same as the ends of the motormount will look good?

Tomorrow I will mount the rear short rails behind the hobie original rodholders and fabricate the rear torsion struts.

I still have to fabricate the fastening clamp/screw for the swing mechanism for the motor plate, not really sure yet how to do this. The outer edge of the left/portside forward strut will be close so it will be a tight fit to make it work.

Many small tings all add up... to a lot of time in the workshop...

I must confess, right now I just long for a good stretch of sailing and some fishing!

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

Looking forward to seeing your completed project.

Chris

Thanks mate!
Me to !

I will keep posting as the project develops.
All the best!
/Gustav

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

Short lunchbrake and I am posting the results from the morning while waiting for the coffe.

The forward struts are now almost completely ready and I testmounted them to take messures for the bolts and brackets that will connect the motor crossbar with the struts.




It might look a bit cramped but the motormount does not in any way impede my movements. I can freely move arms/elbows without any problems and even turn around and sit over the gunwale on the kayak. Nice! All the different positions of the chair works grate. The knob for the lumbar support is a bit hard to reach without folding the seat forward a little but I can live with that minor problem.








Well I cant really say that its a beautiful build. It sure looks more like a sharkcage then a motormount!
But it sure is very solid and sturdy and thats the main point. I accually wonder if the rear diagonal struts will be necessary at all?

After lunch I will fabricate the steel brackets (for the bolts from the motorcrossbar) and mount everything together and test how much it flexes with the 50lb motor mounted. I hope the motormount will be sufficient and sturdy enough without any more support.
It would be nice to have the space free from rear struts in the cargohold and of course this would save a little weight aswell.

Looks like I might get ready in time for a short testrun tomorrow....
/Gustav

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

The brackets took some effort but after a lot of elbow grease I am finished.
As usual my welds look terrible so its lucky the brackets are placed inside the struts.






It looks neat when the hinges/bimini fittings are mounted with the same bolts as the inside bracket. I think I will drill the holes bigger and change the 5mm bolt to 6mm instead to better withstand the forces involved.

No lights in the workshop and to dark to do more work so " I will call it a day " and continue ghe project tomorrow.
I have an idea for a locking mechanism for the swinging motorplate that I will try out and when this is solved I will take a testride!

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

Very nice metalwork Gustav! That OB bracket is really taking shape. I like how you've joined and shaped the tube for those struts. Very innovative!

Thanks for the pos. fedback mate!

This morning I finished the monting of the brackets and "beefed up" the brackets bolts to 6mm.




I messured (the best I coluld) tnd the holes thru the motor cross bar and and drilled them out... crossed my fingers... wow it accually fits perfectly... you never know until its all done. Nice!




I put a thin piece of hard rubber between the struts and the crossbar. This give just a tiny bit of flex to even out the forces. Not sure if this is smart but I will try this and se how it works. I can se a bend in the aluminum crossbar.. the bolt will need a bigger washer...





I put on the motor and the mount feels very solid. I can easily shift and roll around the entire trailer with the kayak ontop just by pushing on the propeller.



The only place were I can see a little bit of flex/movement is the swing mechanism on the motorplate and this will be better secured when I finnished the locking mechanism. With 2 clamps attached it seems to work fine.



Some more little details to figure out and fix today. If the weather clears up (very windy and rainy right now) i might take the first testride later this evening.

/Gustav

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

After lunch I felt like doing something a bit more fun. The weather is still very windy so I prosponed the testride until tomorrow.

First I mounted the rear rails. Theybare holding the rear mounts for the riser bar (and maybe will secure the rear torsion struts if needed).
I masked off the area with tejp and drilled up the holes. (The aluminium bar across is just a temprary guide to keep the two rails level until the Sikaflex sets/hardens and it will be removed shortly.)




On the inside the rails are secured with 20x20 aluminium tubing and a fair amount of Sikaflex.




Then I cut up the tubing for the riser bar and testmounted the pieces. I think it came out pretty good. Looks very "flashy"!
It is easily totaly removable with four quickrelease pins or it can be folded backwards with the rear pins removed.





The bar will have several functions:
- It acts as support/handrail when standing in the rear cockpit.
- Riser bar for the mainsheet.
- When camping or storing the kayak the end of the mast will be supported making a nice tent with a made to messure tarp.
- Navigation lights / flag.
- The bar will also hold certain items as e.g. a storing tube for the drift sock and some other tools.



Unfortunately the gear change lever on the motor hits the riser bar when turning hard left. I think it will be possible to modify the gear changer in the future but I can live with this little problem for the time beeing. (I think the kayak rudder will be sufficient to get full control in most situations.)

Tomorrow I wil do the last small fixes with the motormount and go for a short testrun!!
Fun!!

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!

Wow Gustav! Beautiful workmanship. I wondered what those Bimini mounts were for.
Very nicely done!

Thanks a lot mate! Just wait a bit with all the praise..... lets see if it still floats first!?
Big day tomorrow. Testride!!
Just a few small things to fix in the morning and then I go down to the lake for a short run.
The weather forecast looks good so I hope the weatherman keeps his promise.
I got to check the motor manual... I dont know if the motor needs to get "run in" as it is brand new.

I ordered a pair of spline boards yesterday too! They will, send them from Germany so it will take a week or so before delivery. Military surplus on E-bay. Cheepest I could find but I really like the used Mil-look and they are flat ontop so that is a good thing too. Hakas! Yes!

I will do some photage and vids from the testride with ghe OB tomorrow, crossing my fingers).
/Gustav

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Sailing my TI and fishing.... thats bliss!!