Going fast for cheap In the RC world. Part 1

If you have a tight budget but have a need for speed this info might be for you.

If you tell people you wanna go fast in the RC world most people scream buy THIS LIPO BATTERY AND THIS BRUSHLESS SYSTEM . I tend to take a more conservative approach. Instead of dropping $100 dollars on lipo batteries and probable just as much on brushless system , then even more on a battery charger and other part's why not just recycle stuff that other people don't want .

I'm going to start like this what if I told you that you could buy a ESC that was rated at 24 volt's and a max currant rating of 350 amps and was made buy a well known manufacture for less than $20 dollar's .Sounds crazy don't it well that just what I bought . Now I know I forgot to tell you that this ESC is used and that it will only work with brushed motor's but I seen you drool a little when you where reading those spec's but the fact is any car is fast when you start running those kind of power level's .

Now if your still with me the video below is me talking about the ESC I bought but many more just as powerful or even more powerful are out there some can be seen in the link's below.

http://www.teamtekin.com/archive.html

http://www.teamnovak.com/products/esc_specs/discont_specs/index.html

http://www.teamnovak.com/products/esc_specs/rev_specs/index.html

Now if still interested in this don't rush out and buy lipo's even though they do have great quality's . The fact is a lot of brand new NIMH battery pack's are being tossed in the trash or sold on Ebay for next to nothing so these can be picked up cheap. If you get a couple of matching pack's your almost ready to go all you have to do now is buy or make a adapter harness that will connect 2\ 6 cell or 2\ 7 cell  or 3\ 6 cell packs together in a series .

2 pack harness 

second example

3 pack harness

You got to be wondering about motor's . Well that's pretty simple if it's brushed you can use it but you must keep a few thing's in mind if the motor was not designed for the voltage you are running it at . It will wear out faster than if it was run at the proper voltage designated by the manufacture. So to start I recommend one of the following there normally easy to get and are generally pretty cheap if not free and work great at 14.4 to 16.8 volt's .


The traxxas 550 titan from the E-Maxx and E-Revo lots of people replace these when they still have plenty of life left in them .

Pull a motor from a old cordless drill lot's of the 9.6 to 12 volt models use 550 motor's that work great .

Pull a motor from a old child ride on toy like a Power Wheel's car most of these use 550 motors and are junked with usable  motor's

Old portable air compressor's some time's use 550 motor's

Well look forward to more soon .

ZD Racing 1/16 scale car's

Several month's ago I bought a couple of cheap 1/16 scale cars off of Ebay little did I know that I would come to love these little guy's . Despite there flaws "and they have several" these have become some of my favorites .Now because of there flaw's I find it hard to recommend these car's to anyone who isn't a veteran of R.C. car's because they lack part's support even though part's that fit these car's are all over the web . You just need to know where to look . 

Below is are link's to review I did on the brushed MT model . 

http://www.ultimaterc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149928

If you already bought one of these car's I'm here to help but if your thinking of buying one Caveat emptor .  


After months of abuse my brushed model has had no problem's except the bearings where sub par  and is the most versatile of the two. I liked this car so much I made a Youtube count just so I could post video's of it . 

Later I did a driving video of it.

I then did a video when I decided to try a 9.6v battery and may have stumbled on to a LVC on the ESC

Soon I'm going to try a 2s and 3s lipo to see what  kinda results I get so check back for that .

Now the brushless model is a little different and I point out alot of the differences here .

But for the most part it's durability  was on par with the brushed model except the diff's at a minimum need shimmed or to have metal components installed . For this you have a couple of options . 

Your cheapest choice is to buy diff components for the Turnigy Monster Beetle from www.hobbyking.com these parts are made from a zinc alloy.

For the front and rear diff's it's easiest to just buy 2 of these .

www.hobbyking.com

For the center you will need 2 of these

www.hobbyking.com

and one set of these

www.hobbyking.com

Plus you will need some material to make pin's for the pinion gears to ride on.

If you want to lock the front and rear diff's and eliminate the weakest link's you will need this kit here.  

                                                            www.hobbyking.com

For the Best quality option you can buy steel parts here. http://www.shop.gotnitroonline.com

For the front and rear diff's it's easiest to just buy 2 of these . 

://www.shop.gotnitroonline.com/Rear-Differential-All-Metal-Gears-32002.htm 

For the center you will need 2 of these

http://www.shop.gotnitroonline.com/M...rive-32005.htm

and one set of these

 http://www.shop.gotnitroonline.com/M...eces-32006.htm

Plus one of these if you want 

 http://www.shop.gotnitroonline.com/S...lcan-32013.htm 

these pin's may not fit if your set up doesn't have two sizes on the original 

pinion gear so different pins may need to be sourced .

Sadly I have not took much video of the brushless 

model but I do plan to .

S

So I will do the next best think here is video (that is not mine) showing a brushless model with a replacement motor with a 3s lipo . the stock car is fast but not as powerful as this little guy.

Play with a propulse

Well a good while back I picked up some 1/16th scale ZD Racing  car's and liked them a lot so I thought I should pick up something in the 1/18th scale size . After lot's of searching I decided to get a RadioShack Propulse of Ebay. I purchased this truck because it had a good reputation for durability and had lot's of parts support due to it being a brother to the Megatech Megapro (There only different in name and bodies) and sister to the Hpi mini recon (There  different in name , bodies , and the chassis are slightly different) .

So far this car has received the Megatech  aluminum shock upgrade and the twin brushed motor upgrade.
Sadly the twin motor set up leaves a bit to be desired . it appears the stock batter can not deliver enough amp's for the motor's under high load so the car some time's shudder's .

Currently I am in the middle of swapping in a brushless system and bigger tires . So check back for that.

Maisto Rock Crawler project

Well I starter this project about a week ago so I will try to fill you in . I had seen these guy's and thought they looked pretty cool . I was reluctant to by one because of all the time's I've been let down by toy grade R.C. Cars in the past  . After seeing ton's of post online about this car I finally decided I wanted one . My wife then bought it for me as a early Christmas present . So far I'm having a ball this little guy is probable the most capable toy grade car I have ever owned . I have already made plan's to improve it's performance . My first mod was to replace the tire's with Team Losi  Mini Rock Crawler Claw Tires LOSB1480  and they did help traction a bit but I think adding weight to the rim's will make a bigger improvement. some other mod including increasing tire clearance to the body .