Midnight Express- 5 eggbeaters - 1 = 4 eggbeaters

MarylandMark

Charter Member
Ut-o

flabum1017 said:
The clamp bracket did not break......... and it happened at 40 MPH in calm waters..... we hauled it out and supported the motor until the guys from Midnight came to take it away...... The motor was ok,,,,, no water ingestion, infact there was no visible damage. It did damage the motor next to it with it's prop... took a chunck out of the cav plate.
The motor was through bolted to a plate to get it higher and the plate had studs welded to it to attach it to the transom. there were no through bolts directly holding the motor onto the transom. The studs sheared right at the plate and the motor was left dangling off one remaining stud and the tie-bar.
 

Attachments

  • mex.jpg
    mex.jpg
    162.7 KB · Views: 167
Did someone really rig the boat with the engine not through-bolted? Shouldn't someone have looked at it and thought, "hmmmm. . . maybe we should through-bolt it?"

Or, "I'm not a rocket scientist, but maybe we should through-bolt that."

Or, "I stayed at a holiday Inn Express last night and something tells me we should through-bolt that."
 
flabum1017 said:
There were no jack plates on this boat. three of the motors were bolted directly to the transom, the two outer motors were bolted to a 1/2" plate that had 1/2" S/S studs welded to the plate. The studs went through the transom and had washers and nuts securing it. There was no actual through bolts holding the plates that held the two outer motors on. They were relying on the the weld attachment at the plate. Any good welder will tell you the pitfalls of a hot weld.......................

http://forums.screamandfly.com/forums/showthread.php?t=202373
 
That is one sick boat and a definate bummer that happened!!
But I honestly don't see that there is an actual benefit in having 5 engines compared to 4.... Or is it just to be able to say I have 5 engines on my boat....?
 
That is one sick boat and a definate bummer that happened!!
But I honestly don't see that there is an actual benefit in having 5 engines compared to 4.... Or is it just to be able to say I have 5 engines on my boat....?

The reason there are 5 on it is cuz 6 wont fit.
 
welded 1/2" SS studs? Thats f in crazy. Huge amount of the strength was gone the second the welder hit it. SS re tempered and got brittle real fast I bet. It would take a real good pre heating of the 1/2" plate before even thinking of striking the arc. If not, the stud would melt and drastically weaken before the plate even melted enough to fuse to the stud.

Just one more example of wrong engineering IMHO.
 
The reason there are 5 on it is cuz 6 wont fit.

How about 8

ultimate-speed-fisihng-boat.jpg
 
3 is more than enough, 4 is awesome and has its limitations on the outer 2 motors getting enough water in turns. 5 is ..... HEY LOOK AT ME.. I've got 5 motors. Down right stupid..and if you looked at the way the boat was rigged and had just the slightest touch of common sense... you would have never bought the boat in that manner....definetly... penis envy...:leaving::willy_nilly:
 
I was waiting for this to hit the OS boards. I got the info right after it happened.

I've been on the boat, and yes it's a bit eccentric, but it's also badass. Only damage is the extreme SB motor's prop and the 2nd one in's cavitation plate. They were only running about 40mph when it happened. The motor was shut down and did not ingest water or damage anything. A friend of mine with an awesome set of tools and a spray gun will be tidying up the damage. :D

I wonder if Eric was planning on running some circle track dirt racing? I figured he was just setting the toe for better bite in the corners. :D

BTW, it's still a factory owned boat, and I don't think anyone needs to be called stupid for pushing a bit past the norm. The boat attracts a lot of attention which is what it was meant to do in the first place. And you are hard pressed prying the chicks off of it.
 
Stainless steel studs welded to the plate? Sound to me like disaster was engineered into this project. I would be going over the rest of that boat with a fine toothed comb looking for more..."surprises".
 
Back
Top