Rookie Racer

[JKAHINSON]

Hello.. I just purchased a Traxxas Rustler with the 12t titan and the xl5 .. I was looking at putting a brushless system in it and was wondering what systems anyone could reccomend .. 200 denero or less .. I want speeds in the range of 50-60 mph .. is that possible and what would it take .. Any and all comments are welcome .. if you think I am insane just say it .. Thanks J

[evst 360]

YOU ARE INSANE! :D


50-60 mph is possible with the mamba max 7700 or maybe even 5700. But they go for over $200. The best price I have seen on them was $219.99, and it is more in many places. You may have to stretch your budget a little to get a good BL system. :cool:

[JKAHINSON]

will i have to change my receiver for that or will the tq2 receiver still work? also is there anything else that I will have to change to adapt to the brushelss set up .. thanks!

[evst 360]

The receiver will work with the BL system. The main thing to do is to lower the gear ratio with the BL motor. You may need to strengthen the drivetrain, as BL motors can put out a lot of power. :cool:

[Demon-TC3]

Dont....if you have "just purchased it" i would keep it stock for at least a month or so so you get a good feel of the car. thats not just driving wise, maintenance wise you will find the stock titans will requiere so much maintenance...if you go and put a mamba in there or any brushless for the matter the maintenance you will need to do will go up by a considerable ammount.

Keep it stock for a month or so and get used to the whole maintenance cycle of things...then knock urself out with whatever u want...P.S i would first get soem descent motors (Brushed) before going brushless..take it in gradual steps...

[TheSteve]

I'd recommend a different vehicle if you really want to do 60 MPH. Many high-end touring cars will fail when driven at that speed. I really don't think you have much hope of driving a Rustler at that speed. I'd aim for 30 MPH and then see if you really think the truck can handle double that.

[Demon-TC3]

HEHE i missed that, 60MPH???? seriously you dont NEED 60MPH...with something this small 60MPH is HIAUUUUGE! :huh:

still, with a good system (brushed or brushless) you will probably hit 30 - 35 which may not sound like much but remember these things are only less than 1.5feet long so it will seem much more when its going.

Theres more to rc's than just going fast...you will learn this one day :teacher:

[TheSteve]

Everytime I drive my Losi jrxs sedan at 60+ mph on my street I do a once over check of the entire car, I then do a quick check of the street for rocks or twigs. At that speed you're doing roughly 90 feet per second! If we assume you're lightning quick and have a reaction time of 0.15 seconds and that your radio gear has another 0.15(pretty optimistic) seconds of latency thats 0.3 seconds total to react to changes in which time you've traveled 27 feet! Check how wide the road you're running on is, then consider what happens if you get a glitch or run out of range.

[Demon-TC3]

hehe yea you will need some pretty damn hot reaction speed in order to be able to handle a car at those speeds...that sort of reaction wont come from anything but using the car and racing..."naturally quick" reactions are also fairly useless as you will sence you need to react but you will have no idea what to do to make it right at the very instant...

I hope u enjoy the hobby but dont think its quite time for the BL dive!

[redrider4life1]

My 2 cents:

That was my plan originally for my T3. Then I looked at the big picture. To make sure you would have to for a Mamba Max 7700 which is like $220 after shipping. Then look into a battery so you have decent run time: Max Amps has a 8000 for like $80ish. Then you need a LIPO charger which I like the Duratrax ICE which is another $130ish with temp sensor. If you have these already then it is much cheaper for you. Obviously the stock rustler wasn't built for those speeds or power so you will obviously have to replace other stuff as it breaks or if you feel the truck doesn't handle well at those speeds. Overall I would expect to spend close to $500 in the end to make the car driveable at 60+mph for a decent period of time.

[tcolesen]

60+ in any non-speed designed car is quite unrealistic. A year or two ago I made it my goal to hit 60mph+ with my (upgraded) Rustler. It's not as easy as you think... Here's my list of problems why I never hit 60mph:
-Any bit of turning will flip the truck
-With so much power on board, it's difficult to keep smooth throttle control so that you don't allow the Rustler to wheelie and end up flipping over
-A LOT of range is needed, my range was limited to only a couple hundred feet in each direction (this is where throttle control is necessary)
-You need as much open pavement as you do range

That said, my Rustler hit a GPS-verified 57.5mph. It's possible that it went faster and the GPS wasn't able to refresh fast enough to catch the actual top speed, but I have no way of knowing the answer to this.
Soon I'll be reattempting 60mph+ now that I have more powerful batteries, and there's a good chance I'll be getting a Nomadio React (should increase my range 5 times).

[JKAHINSON]

Like the title of the msg says I am pretty rookie at electric .. what thing do you have to do to upkeep the motors ..

[JKAHINSON]

The Rustler claims that it will do 35 out of the box .. that is not accurate but I am running a 3800 battery with the 23 tooth gear and I am probably in the range of 28-30 .. I am thinking that 60 is a lot of work and money to achieve ..If i were to go with a brushed motor what are some reccomendations on that. Is it feasable to get 40-45 out of a brushed motor with reliability and not lose all of my battery life ..

another question ... I was reading an article that said with the nimh batteries if you line them up IIIIII instead of === and sodder the connections that you get more life and more power .. is this true ?

[kufman]

I don't know about more life, but you can get a little bit more power since the foil that is used in stick packs cannot pass as much current as good side by side battery bars. An easy way to make stick packs have more performance is to replace the foil that connects the two "sticks" of cells together. This is on the opposite end from the output wires and is usually under a plastic cap. Higher power brushed and brushless motors can draw enough current to make this foil glow red hot and it wil melt through the shrinkwrap on the ends of those two cells. Replace this will a good battery bar. Something like this works well.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXDHV6&P=7

This will help the lifetime of the pack by preventing catastrophic failure. The main reason people build side by side packs is so that they can use cell equalizers like the one made by novak, trinity, much more, etc. This brings all the voltages of the cells to the same level and helps prevent overcharging of the better cells in the pack. This highest power packs made are actually stick packs that are directly soldered together without foil inbetween. This can be seen on this page.

http://www.slkelectronics.com/battery/index.htm

[Demon-TC3]

to keep your motor running at its best you need to regularly open it up, clean and re-oil it and occasionally Cut the Commutator (copper bit that burshes ride on)

The titan motors are non rebuildable (as far as i know) so i wouldnt worry but when you get a descent motor in there that is rebuildable, it wlll matter.

[JKAHINSON]

do you suggest any certain brands for the brushed .. the xl5 can handle 12 turn motors ..

[Demon-TC3]

Orion motors have always been a favourite among many...epsecially the SV2 motors seem to be getting allot of pos feedback.
Loot into those.

[NORTEX-T1FK]

I just broke the front arm on my XXXT propelled by a Novak 4.5. It probably wouldnt of broken with a slower motor. Something to think about when going brushless. You will break something sooner or later...but probably sooner than later.=P

yes, I know the rear tires are rotating backwards :p

[glassdoctor]

Forgive me for not reading all the posts yet... just wanted to comment on the 60mph Rustler thing...

My brother in law just got a Jato and he's having the front lift off the ground with any wind etc, and he's not even getting max top end out of it yet... still running it rich.

So flipping at 60mph is a "problem".... but a good sort of problem to have imo... lol!

[SpEEdyBL]

JkAHINSON, find a brand new Mamba Max system on ebay. I guarantee that you will be able to find one for less than $200 shipped. I suggest you get the 5700 (equal to a 9-10 turn brushed motor) instead of the 7700, because you can always add cells later and it will certainly be faster than your stock titan. Btw, the 5700 on 3s lipo will run comfortably between 50-60 mph, and the 7700 on 6 cells or 2s may not even be able reach 50 without heat problems.

[starluckrc]

I caution the Ebay route. If they are selling them below MAP ($212.49), they may not be authorized dealers, and you may have problems if you ever need warranty service. Castle has been trying to crack down on ebay sells. Dealers are allowed to have short sales below MAP and must be advertised as such. I would use ebay as a last source if your local hobby shop cannot help you and after trying reputable online retailers.

[JKAHINSON]

Thanks for all of the info .. Im thinking that the mamba is going to be a little over kill for me ..I think I am going to work more towards torque. I would still like to hit 40-45 but I think I am going to get to know my vehicle a little more. This last weekend I got my truck out and I think I already fried my titan .. I have no idea how since i have only ran one battery pack through it but it wont move .. I called my local dealer and he said that the brushes might be siezed up and that if I pull them apart that it might work. Other wise I hope warranty will pick it up.. Even thought I am looking to replace the motor it is still nice to have back ups for bashing.

Another question... I put a speed world 19 turn in it and put the 23 tooth gear on .. The motor got so hot that it started smoking..and I spit on the motor to test the heat and it evaporated very quickly.. Is that normal ? My dealer said that it was from me putting it in reverse and then slamming it into forward ..and also that the higher tooth pinnion gear would cause that? ( learn something new every day)

Thanks for all of the advice... J oh yeah I already broke that front left steering and suspension by cliping a curb! fun fun!

[Demon-TC3]

wow yea thats fairly damn hot.
when your getting a lower turn motor you need to get a smaller pinion to compensate for loss of power.

[ElectricThunder]

You overgeared that poor little motor... :eek: