Melting wires

[lferguson]

I need some one to tell me what I need to do so I don't melt my wire all the way through. I ran my new Traxxas Blast for the first time and realized after I got home that my battery wires are starting to melt because they are touchiing my motor. How have you guys pervented this from happening? There is no room inside this thing to work much. I had a heck of a time installing the water cooling. Also it's realy hard to take the battery pack out of the boat. No room there. My main concern is I have started melting these wires. DO I try to move the? If so were. Oh the battery is a 6 cell 7.2v 4200mAh from offshoreelectroincs.com. A tad bit larger than the original battery but not too much

Also one other question, but please answer the first question if not both. This question is not that important. This boat spins out easily. How can I prevent this? Did I install a prop that was too large. I installed a Carbon Fiber 40mm.
Thanks guys.
Here are some pics

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m211/internationalfarmer/IMG_4494-1.jpg

[Rex R]

sorry to be the bearer of bad news... but if the motor is getting hot enough to melt the insulation on the wires. the motor is working too hard. is that a direct drive? or does it have a tranny? 2nd bit of bad news, that tamiya connector should be replaced before it melts(yes I know it isn't just the boat, its also the charger. been there).
Re;spin outs
indirectly caused by the prop, boat goes faster and away it goes. a turn/spin fin(s) should correct that(price you pay for going fast :))

[lferguson]

So your saying the motor is working to hard.. Do I need a bigger motor or what? The boat canme with a big peice of paper that said CAUTION!!!! The Stinger 20 turn motor get freakin' hot, don't touch it blah blah blah, hot hot hot. I put the atwer cooler hing on there and it works great in the since that water goes in and comes out but just doesn't cool good enough I guess.
If I change the conectors, can't I just cut these off the batteries, charger and boat and put new ones one? Do I really hace to buy ALL new stuff?

[Rex R]

sorry if I was unclear, meant just(yeah right, just) change connectors. pretty easy after the 1st 3 or so. if you use 'deans ultra plugs'(they come with instructions) batt pack-female, esc-male, charger-male. make sure you allow plenty of time for things to cool between tinning and attaching wires (especially the wires, else the heat shrink tubing will get stuck someplace other than where you want it(done that too)). a 25w iron works nicely. sounds like Traxxas is pushing the envelope with regards to motor heat. nice work on the cooling btw (not blocking any slots are you?)

[lferguson]

I think I will get new connectors soon. That motor get HOT. But then again like I said before this is my first RC ever, so hot to me might be warm to others. I just think it sucks that it started to melt those wires. And thatnks on the complaments for the cooling job. I was pretty impressed with my self. Took about fourty five minutes to get it and the new prop/shaft on and make sure there were no leakes. Here are two pics of the cooling job. I left alot (about 3" of tubing sticking out of the side of the boat incase I had to redo some stuff. Turns out that was a good idea 'casue when I took out that battery cradle thing I needed it. So now that tubing is tucked neatly under the side lip of the boat.

[lferguson]

Here is the other pic. Can't figure out how to do more than one attachment at a tim on this site.

[Rex R]

was thinking that you had more room... guess its a toss up pic taken before I changed connectors, rebuilt 2 packs, changed radios(and a few other odds & ends). it was the radio change that finally cured the throttle glitch I had.

[BoatDoc]

i would try a smaller prop. i think a motor like that might handle something in the 35-36mm size a lot better than a 40 mm. it also looks like the mfg didn't give you much choice about routing wires to keep them off of the motor. best you can do is find a way to insulate them from the motor. but i bet a smaller prob will help with your heat problems.

[lferguson]

Doc you know your stuff. I put the stock prop and shaft back on and ran it today. Much better. I guess bigger is not always better. It seemed to go a bit faster and the motor did not AS hot. I think I need to but that battery cradle back in becuase I could never get the battery to sit centered in the hull causing the boat to list and was never able to get a stright forward motion. I will have to work on this. Thanks again Doc.

[Fluid]

Another issue is the pack you purchased. The Traxxas is intended for cheap sport packs, and the high-power 4200 race pack you got from Steve will supply much more power than a cheap sport pack. This means that the motor will draw more amps, produce more power and get hotter. Going to the smaller prop allows the motor to wind up and reduce the amp draw. With a cheap sport pack the big prop may have worked, but with your potent cells it loaded the motor too much.

Spinning out with a steerable outdrive is a fact of life. As long as the boat ran slowly it isn't too much trouble, but going faster makes the problem worse. There is no 100% cure, but one thing to do is to reduce the side-to-side movement of the outdrive - move the linkage to the outer hole on the outdrive. This will reduce the tightness of turns, but that is why you are spinning out. Spin fins might help a little, but as you continue to mod the boat to go faster the worse this problem will become. When you can no longer live with it, then it is time for a better, faster boat! ;)

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