How To Perform Basic Marine Maintenance
Easy Steps to Keep Your Traxxas Boat Running at Its Best
Summer boat season is winding down, and we bet you’ve already put a bunch of packs through your Spartan or M41 Widebody. Both are engineered to deliver extreme performance, and with simple routine maintenance, your Traxxas boat will give all the exciting boat action you can handle season after season. Follow along as we cover all you need to do to keep the Spartan and M41 Widebody boiling water in peak condition.
Essential Boat Maintenance
When you’re done boating for the day, make sure you check follow these steps before storing your Spartan or M41:
When you’re done boating for the day, make sure you check follow these steps before storing your Spartan or M41:
- Make certain the motor is completely dry, particularly the bearings.
- Lubricate the motor bearings with light oil.
- Remove, dry, and lubricate the drive cable with Traxxas marine grease.
- Dry and lubricate the bushings in the drive strut.
- Check all the screws in the drive system for tightness.
- Inspect and clean the cooling water inlet for debris and clean if necessary.
Clean & Inspect the Hull
All you need to clean your boat’s hull is a soft cloth and dish soap. If you encounter any stubborn marks, you can try a stronger water-based cleaner. Do not use solvents to clean the hull, as they may attack the ABS material. As you clean the hull, keep an eye out for scratches and gouges. If any are severe enough to have raised an edge or burr, use 400 grit sandpaper to smooth it down. Don’t worry about putting a shine on the bottom of the hull, as a matte finish actually has less resistance in the water than a gloss finish. Lastly, inspect the cooling water inlet and tube for debris and clean if necessary.
Boat maintenance starts with a cleaning and inspection.
Don’t overlook the stuffing tube seal and the silicone bellows that seals the rudder linkage. If the bellows is looking chalky, rub a little silicone shock fluid onto it to restore suppleness. If either seal is cracked or split, replacements are only a couple of bucks—just ask for 5725 at your Traxxas dealer.
This M41’s linkage seal was looking dry, but a little silicone oil restored it.
Traxxas boat hulls are made of durable ABS for years of fun under normal use. If a collision or other mishap damages the hull or hatch beyond repair, replacement hulls are available. You can even get the hulls in plain white for custom painting.
Inside the Hull
Always dry the inside of the hull between runs and store your boat with the hatch cover removed so any trapped water can more easily evaporate. Flush out your cooling system with clean water to ensure there is no debris in the line. Inspect the motor’s water jacket and the the rest of the water-cooling tubing to be sure the jacket and connections are watertight. If you need replacement tubing, it’s 5759. Finally, confirm all the hardware inside the hull is tight.
When you bring your boat to shore, the rudder has a tendency to run through the mud and muck in the shallows. It's important to clean out your water inlet before the mud hardens and blocks the flow of water. Pull the water tube off the top of the rudder and run clean water through the system. You should get clean water flowing from the outlet in the hull and the inlet at the bottom of the rudder. This will ensure you have a fully functioning cooling system the next time you run the boat.
After each run, dry the inside of the hull and make sure the cooling system connections are watertight.
Drivetrain Maintenance
If you’ve been keeping up with the Traxxas-recommended maintenance schedule, you’ve been lubricating your boat’s motor bearings with light oil after each run and regreasing the flex cable every three runs (or every 15 minutes or so of on-throttle operation). If you haven’t been doing that, now is definitely the time. Any light oil is fine for bearing lubrication, but the flex cable requires heavy-duty waterproof grease. Use the genuine Traxxas marine grease included with your boat to assure peak performance and maximum drivetrain life.
To remove the flex cable, first loosen the collet that secures the cable to the motor using the supplied 10 mm wrenches. You don’t have to unthread the collet fully, just loosen it by a turn.
Pull the prop straight out to extract the cable from the stuffing tube.
You’ll find a 5x8x0.5 mm PTFE washer on the flex cable. If it’s missing or damaged, replace it using part number 1985.
Before you move on to greasing and reinstalling the flex cable, apply Traxxas marine grease to the drive strut bearing.
A needle-tip bottle is ideal for precise oiling. Just put a drop on the bearing and rotate the motor shaft to work it in.
Clean the cable then apply a liberal coat of Traxxas marine grease. Gloves aren’t essential, but they sure make cleanup easier. Reverse the cable removal steps to reinstall it, and wipe off any excess grease that squeezes out at the drive strut.
One last step: inspect the prop for damage. Just a nick can impact performance, so when in doubt, replace it. The Spartan and M41 both use the 5733 42x59 mm prop. A new prop will only set you back about $5, so it’s inexpensive to keep spares in your tool kit.
Strut and Rudder Adjustment
A rudder angle of zero degrees is recommended for both Spartan and M41. Just loosen the adjustment screws to change the setting if needed or preferred. Altering the rudder angle effects how much the rudder “lifts” the hull while cornering.
To adjust the Spartan’s strut, hold a straightedge against the hull, align it beneath the strut, and note the gap. The stock setting of 4 mm sets the strut parallel with the hull bottom, which is ideal for the surface-piercing prop configuration. Tilting the strut down will submerge the prop more and may help performance when running your boat on a pair of 2s batteries instead of 3s packs, but amp draw will be increased. Don’t tilt the strut past a 2 mm gap, as performance will suffer.
The M41 includes an alignment tool that makes it easy to set the strut angle and height. Place the gauge on the edge of a flat table so the rudder can hang beneath the tabletop. Loosen the screws strut angle and height screws, then place the hull on the table and align the strut over the slot in the gauge with the setting you prefer.
Each slot in the gauge is labeled by height and angle. The left-most slot will give you the recommended starting setup: a 2-degree angle with a height of 6 mm.
The stock setting for the M41’s trim tabs is parallel with the bottom of the hull, and easily checked with a straightedge. If the angle needs to be adjusted, just bend the tab with pliers. Or, install the 5731X trim tab adjusters.
That’s everything you need to know about keeping your Spartan or M41 Widebody operating its best. As always, if you have any questions or need more information, give us a call at 1-888-TRAXXAS, or e-mail us at support@Traxxas.com 24/7.
