HV Savage (MT class) for Next Year

[tcolesen]

I attended the WFRCCC (I was the guy with the rock crawler, for those who saw it ;)), but I didn't bring anything. Now, I wish I had started on this project sooner so I could have challenged the guys in the MT class.

I had a Savage laying around for a good 8-10 months, collecting dust. The idea was that I would convert it to electric when I got the chance, so I did. Except this is a high-power electric! Here's what I did to the Savage:

-worked on the diffs, filled them with oil and set the mesh just about perfectly (very smooth, yet very strong), and installed the 4-spider gear setup with the HPI aluminum diff cups
-bought a Castle Creations HV-110 (http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXLBY5&P=ML) brushless airplane ESC (using a PiStix adapter for car use)
-bought a Feigao 540 12XL, and installed two Boca 5x11x5mm ceramic bearings
-hooked up and mounted 10s2p A123 (33v 4600mah, capable of 5HP peaks)
-made a completely custom center diff and motor mount
-rigged up a custom mechanical brake setup (Hyper 8 dual disks with HPI pads, custom linkages)
-custom mounted the steering and brake servos
-bought HPI Phaltline tires on wheels, belted the front tires with strapping tape, and reglued all of the tires (HPI can't glue worth a ****)
-installed HPI CVDs in the front

And here are the results:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/4x4pede/Savage/IMG_6057.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/4x4pede/Savage/IMG_6063.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/4x4pede/Savage/IMG_6065.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/4x4pede/Savage/IMG_6062.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/4x4pede/Savage/IMG_6070.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/4x4pede/Savage/IMG_6067.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/4x4pede/Savage/IMG_6069.jpg

I took it out to a long open street today and got some footage, but sadly the GPS kept turning off so I never found out the speed it was hitting. I hope to have the video footage up in a couple hours.

So far everything is working wonderfully. The brakes are working wonderfully, as is the HV-110 (although I haven't really done anything to set it up except change a few settings through Castle Link).
After some passes I got the idea to slow down my steering servo (I LOVE the Nomadio React!). This resulted in a much more stable truck that I still had plenty of control over.

Unfortunately I did have one problem: the truck lost power due to the spur gear missing its teeth, but it looks like the teeth weren't stripped, but actually melted off :eek:.

That's it for now, the video will be up in a couple hours. Hopefully tomorrow I can do some more speed runs with a fresh spur gear.

[tcolesen]

The video is up:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3924745575189089257

[t3oc45]

Holy crap! That's pretty damn powerful.

What kind of temperatures are you getting?

What kind of runtimes are you getting on 10s?

Looks like you need some more tape in the tires. They balloon pretty hardcore when you get on the gas, then it seems extremely unstable.

Enjoyed the video nonetheless.

[tcolesen]

The ESC isn't too bad, I haven't used a temp gun yet, but it seems to be around 150 deg. F. The motor is what's suffering, as it's running quite hot, especially when doing more than just speed runs (like doing wheelies and stuff).

Runtimes haven't yet been determined due to plastic spur gears melting. In the video I was probably running for 10mins at the point when the gear melted. The new one I put on seems to be doing the same thing as the previous one. While disassembling the whole motor/center diff mount I snapped some pics of what it looks like:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/4x4pede/Savage/IMG_6071.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/4x4pede/Savage/IMG_6075.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/4x4pede/Savage/IMG_6076.jpg

It's too late to tape up the tires any more, I reglued them all, and they aren't going to come off the rim.

I'm thinking about running a steel spur I have laying around, and buying one of the Robinson Racing hardened steel mod1 5mm bore pinions sold through Mega Motors. This would undoubtedly solve gear melting problems.

[ajlovering12345]

The video is up:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3924745575189089257


You missed my run! :(

[porra]

Good to see you here too man. Lets get everyone on the HV wagon.

[tcolesen]

You missed my run! :(

Well, I wasn't the guy who recorded that video. I know the guy who did (he was the one with the dual BL aluminum/titanium/carbon fiber E-Maxx), and he sent me the tape so I could upload it.

[tcolesen]

My hardened steel 18t and 20t pinions from Mega Motor USA arrived today. This means that I'll throw my steel center diff spur on, and do some speed runs tomorrow. Hopefully the GPS won't turn itself off this time.

[tcolesen]

Turns out the Feiago 12XL is damaged. One of the three magnets on the rotor cracked in half. This motor is toast. So now, I guess my only option is to save up a bit and get something like a Neu 1515/3D or a Lehner 1950/10 hi-amp (~1300 kv).