Proboat UL19 review

My first impression of the Horizon Hobby Proboat UL19 hydro was very striking. Excellent gelcoat and nice grafics compliment a very tidy looking rc boat.

The hatch is held down by the usual 4 knurled bolts Proboat like to use, they take a little time to undo and tighten up but thats a small insurance to never loosing the hatch.

Inside there are 2 battery trays each with a pair of hook and loop battery straps which is my preferred method of holding down battery packs and simple adjustment.

Motor is a smallish looking Dynamite 3831 2000kv motor, ESC is their waterproof 120a unit.

Installed a pair of Maxamp 3s 6500mah lipos which are quite small and light for that amount of capacity, so I installed them all the way forward. The preinstalled turn fin was set toward the rear on quite a bit of angle which I did not touch except for checking bolts for tighteness of course. Everything fired up as expected so I tightened down the hatch and launched the boat.

On light acceleration the nose ploughed into the water and did it best submarine impersonation so I quickly learned theres only one speed to take off and off it went at full speed. Water was near glass with zero wind and the boat sat perfectly at high speed until it stopped dead after the first turn. Upon retrieval i found the boat had quite a lot of water inside from that single slow takeoff and the non water proof receiver had failed.

I’ve been sitting on this boat for a year or more and I dont know if the current ones come with a waterproof receiver as my Sonicwake did? They certainly need it, failing after only 30 seconds is not ideal. Anyway second time out I taped the lid after bolting it down, threw it in the water and took off at full throttle and off it went. Water conditions were still glass and the boat sat perfectly, full speed turns on the very wide river I was at were no problem. I bought it in after a few minutes to find the inside totally dry. Motor was on the warm side and ESC almost too hot to hold, just like the Sonicwake and Voracity I had previously tested. I relaunched the boat and ran it at 3/4 speed for around 2 mins before the ESC went into low voltage protection mode.

All in all it’s an easy boat to drive but certainly not recommended for small areas or rough conditions which is no different to virtually any other hydro.

The claimed speed of 50+ MPH seems in the ball park and im sure with extra (much needed) cooling and a prop change theres plenty more speed to be had.

 

RC Boat Bitz dual outlet rudder upgrade kit-

https://rcboatbitz.com/product/ul19-dual-outlet-rudder-kit-v2-with-4-pickups-ul110k/

Upgrade Bronze Prop

Proboat upgrade CNC prop Bronze