Glen,The battery pod location is a carry over from the one man version of the K-350. All that was done for the two man K-350 was adding two feet of length to the hull. I suppose if the battery pods were a foot farther aft, that would be better. A heavy manipulator arm on the K-350, as it now is, would defiantly bring it nose down.
The squirley wandering when being towed is more a factor of it's diameter to length ratio. Not much can be done about that. You surely wouldn't want to make it smaller in diameter, and to make it longer just to improve it's towing performance wouldn't be practical.
I don't have a manipulator on my sub, but I suppose of I did and was going after something heavy, a disposable bag of rocks or sand on a release mechanism would be a good way to insure you weren't struggling to resurface. The trouble with sand or rocks, as you pointed out, is they aren't that heavy when weighed in water, but the price is right if your looking for something you can leave on the bottom as part of a regular routine.
Dan H.----- Original Message ----- From: "glen brown" <glenbrown@vodamail.co.za>
To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org> Sent: Monday, June 01, 2009 9:27 AM Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Pod Vent Allignment
Hi DanDo you think that the pods could be safely situated amidships allowing for a more robust manipulator arm ?Could the nose down attitude have something to do with the problem of keeping course with the K machines that I have read about?I was also thinking of sand ballast which could be ditched on recovery of something I now it would not be displacing volume in the pressure hull but some sands in south Africa have a very high specific gravity.I would appreatiate any thought . Thanks Glen South Africa PS we are not terrorists or drug smugglers----- Original Message ----- From: "Dan H." <Jumachine@comcast.net>To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org> Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 2:41 PM Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Pod Vent AllignmentJames, Sorry for a late reply. If you haven't already located your pods, maybe this will be of some use.I remember have the same question when building my sub. The location isn'tclearly indicated. If I remember correctly, I located my battery pods by scaling off the drawings. I know it's now a safe thing to do, but I did some calculations and it looked about right. Now that I'm using my sub, I can tell you that I have about four hundred pounds of ballast in the aft section of the hull and about a hundred upforward. When I take a passenger and they lay on the deck looking forward,I remove my forward weights but it usually isn't enough to get level.Depending on the passenger weight, I could have a 5 to 7 degree forward down angle. Five degrees isn't that noticeable, and when scanning the bottom,it actually helps so no big deal. If I were to do it again, I think I would move the battery pods aft a few inches, as long as it didn't interfere with the hull frames and you have clearance for welding. That way maybe I could have a bit more forward movable ballast. Hope this helps, Dan H.----- Original Message ----- From: "James Frankland" <james@guernseysubmarine.com>To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org> Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 7:14 AM Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Pod Vent Allignment Hi All. Finally i am assembling my battery pods. Can someone help me with a problem.The plans show the position of the vents on the pods themselves, but i cantsee where they go on the hull, lengthways down the hull. Not exactly anyway. Looks like the front vent ends up between hull frames 1 and 2. but whereexactly? Smack in the middle? That would be 7 inches from the front of theuncapped hull tube. Or, does it line up so the uncapped pod lines up with the uncapped hull?Also, i am only putting in 1 vent at the front. The other is replaced with the electrical through hulls (Alec's design). I have modified the spacing of the through hulls so they fall exactly between frames. easier to weld ifthey are not to close to the frames. Do you understand what i mean? Picture is here of them just placed intoposition. The front vent is in the correct place as per the plans and thespacing would allow the vent to to in the middle of frames 1 and 2, the others fall in between the other frames. http://www.guernseysubmarine.com/index_files/Page20926.htm The questions are: 1 Where exactly do the pods go in relation to the hull.2 Am i ok to change the spacing of the vent\through hulls to allow them tofall conveniently between frames? Thanks James ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ The personal submersibles mailing list complies with the US Federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Your email address appears in our database because either you, or someone you know, requested you receive messages from our organization. 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