I agree in that that is not overgeared. I am also using a 16t pinion, only I am running a 4s lipo (14.8V... 16.8V fully charged). But overgearing is usually what would cause a hot ESC. Maybe try a fan and see how it does then. What temps are you getting to exactly though? If it is hot to touch, that doesn't always mean it is actually that hot, as some people are more/less sensitive to heat.

I didn't temp gun it, I only ran it for less than 5 min testing the throttle response. For the amount of time I ran it there should be no reason for it to be even hot to the touch. But there was a very large difference in temperature between the ESC being hot to the touch and the motor and battery being hardly noticeably warm.

It is over geared

Josh has 3.5in buggy tires, And he has truck tires, which are 4 in. You need to gear it down a little bit

Think changing from 16 to 14t would help? That and putting in some heavier center diff grease?

I'll change it to 14T and see what it does. If I'm not happy I'll change back to 16T and try a fan. If that fails I might be looking for an ESC that can handle more current. I'd love to stay with castle creations but I'm hesitant about the MMM. I would like to see all the bugs worked out. Before I dive into getting one.

After doing some more searching of the board and web surfing about heating ESC and the causes of it I've decided to order a few power caps. I don't think my batteries are to blame, but low charge on the batteries could have caused some current ripple when the batteries were near 10-20% charge.
So 2 teeth lower on the pinion, heavier center diff lube, and a power cap. Really hope the temps don't get out of hand.

Id go to 15, or just try the caps first. I just realized with those batts you arent spinning alot of RPM. With the 16t pinion your at 40 with no ballooning.

You sure you have no drive train drag, or to tight of gear mesh, bad solder joints?

Try the caps, Maybe a fan on the speedo. You should be running nice cool temps

That batt setup gives me nominal voltage between 3s and 4s Lipos, which should be great as far as power and reliability goes.

Are you questioning MY solder joints?:no:
I looked over them and they're all well soldered, no shorts. I used flux and made sure all the connections were not cold joints or partial joints while I was working on them. The wires on the battery and motor were not even as luke warm as the motor or battery.

It might have been voltage ripple with batteries that weren't not fully charged, so I'll try one step at a time after the battery charger gets here on thurday. I toned the punch down %30 so that might help a little.
Caps, different bullet connectors, lower gearing, fan, I should be able to find the problem somewhere. If none of those are the culprit my last guess would be the motor being 4-pole design where as a 2-pole might work better. But there is no way I'm changing my motor.

Receiver my FMA 10s Lithium charger today, and WOW, what a great piece of equipment!

Anyhow, charged up my finished (now shrink wrapped) 4s A123 pack. Worked AWESOME. Charger displayed all 4 cells progress and independent voltage. I haven't tried the PC monitoring software yet, but I plan to.
Plugged in the pack and did some more testing infront of the house. I thought a dead battery pack hard punch! Jeeze, this thing has enough power to shred the tires on any surface and then some.
I temped the ESC and motor with just a few minutes of LIGHT testing. ESC was up to 120, motor was 88, batteries were not much warmer than the air. But with some feeling around on the truck I think I might have found the culprit. Two of the Three motor wires were warm...what does that tell you? I checked the plugs and as it turns out one of the plugs is damaged, the plug that was connected to the coolest wire to be exact. Wasn't my solder connection, the actual plug is damged, one of the spring teeth was barely hanging on there. Luckily, I ordered some more sets of plug from Tower this weekend and they got here today! Stay tuned....

Well, partially fixed the problem. I replaced the connectors to the motor and the temps came down some. Did some driving on the road infront of the house, mostly just 0 to 50% throttle. After several minutes (much more running than the light driving I did earlier) the temp on the ESC was up to 130F, motor was at ~100, batteries...If I hadn't known I was just using them, I would have guessed they were another pack they were so cool.
I haven't added the power cap yet, or changed the center diff oil to something heavier, but I wasn't exactly hammering the throttle to throw the power to the front wheels either. I might step the pinion down a tooth...or wish I could, I only have a 16t and a 14t. We'll see what happens tomarrow when I get some more work done on it. Sigh, why does it have to get dark so early:cry:

any temps under 160-170 and you are perfectly fine on the mm, go ahead and add the caps and they will help a good bit too.

.5
 

Hey Willy...My .5 has a mm with a 5700...Plenty fast for racing with a 2 cell...stupid fast with a 3 cell.:lol:..I will have to come to russelville and race with you guys at one stop..

HEY FRED! Right now I might be out at Alison this Sunday, maybe I'll see you there!

good to meet you out at alison's youll have to come out and run with us one weekend when we come up to wolfpack to practice.

btw i forgot your real name and i never did ask you where exactly you lived....

Good to meet you too rootar, just have to say that's one mean setup you have on your buggy! When's the next time you're coming to One-Stop? That's my usual place if they're running on a saturday.
I plan on getting the RCM chassis soon, and maybe even the lengthen a-arms (if they're available). If I'm gonna continue to run the buggy rim like I did this last sunday I'm going to need a taller pinion for sure. If I'm going to wreck on half the jumps I better be darn fast on the straits to make up for some of that lost time!
Dead last is what I expected considering it was my first time at the track and my first time to really race the truck and play with the setup some.

haha i didnt even get to run my main, make no mistake those guys in the 4wd buggy class are FAST they are the best in the state, and they were running track record times every run. i dunno where onestop raceway is? but im about 2hours south of littlerock and about an hour and 45 minutes from hotsprings (wolfpack). so going much farther is a little too much of a trip for us, but yea i forgot to tell you i have a set of Xray front buggy shocks for the rear of your crt.5 next time we meet up ill bring them.

but hey me and you should have raced (me with my slash and you with the crt.5) that would have been pretty fair and fun.

Sounds good rootar, that is unless I get impatient and over-pay for a set on my next order of parts. That Slash was NUTS:oh: How high did you have that thing geared?
Had a good time bashing today in the park, just wanted to cycle my 2 packs. Those gladiator tires are really fun in the rough stuff, they grab onto anything! Short to mild grass is nothing, truck rolls right over it like it isn't there. ESC isn't getting above 140 with big tires, driving on grass, full-throttle speed runs.
Can't wait till Mike gets some more extended chassis made, along with some extended a-arms. Those are next, maybe along with some 30 series rims and tires:party:

yea the slash was pretty silly, it was geared for 45 with no tire balloning and its easily hit that as you saw, lol isold enough other stuff that i decided to keep the slash so next time you see it ill have it set back up for racing instead of screwing around.

after you get these front shocKs on the rear and mike's extended kit and extned arms along with some truck size bowties, youll be in business, the track should be ALOT easier to drive with the bigger footprint.

when ever the next time you think you can make it down to hotsprings let me know, Its a HUGE track, doesnt cost anything to come play, BIG jump and covered pits with power and all. My girlfriend is wanting to go sometime before too long and try out her J82, i need to run a couple laps with my Xray and practice alot with my slash. so let me know a date thatd be good for you and ill see if we can come .

Sounds like a cool place. I plan on going to one-stop this weekend because it may be their last race judging from the RCO forums.
Edit: wait...not this weekend, the 11th, I think it's a saturday.

I'm sure this is on everyone's mind, but is there any word on the next batch of RCM chassis? I really got an itch to know.

Soon. Im still debating on buying one

I have decided I will only buy one if it is longer then my 55 mill chassis. Other wise, im saving the cash for my NEU lol

The next batch is almost ready - this round they are getting a hard anodize and are at the anodizer now. :)

Thanks for the update Mike! I was out racing at the track today and the 2.2 gladiators really wanna make the truck do back flips in the air. I managed to land a few of them over the jumps too:rofl: The small crowd thought it was great.

:yipi: finally some good news, hey mike reply to my email am :neutral: (its about the medusa 36-50 and the new chassis)

O.K. I gotta ask: Does anyone have any idea what color they are going to be, or is there going to be a choice?

i think it's gonna be the same color as the ofna stock chasis. but dont take my word for it am just guessing.

Generally hard annodized is the copper-ish color that the stock chassis is.

I'm getting back onto this project. Order a RCM chassis. I'd like to get a good Lipo next. Do the Zippy Lipo's fit in the battery box?

I believe they will fit in the lg. boxes Mike sells...I had a custom one made specific to my Zippy batts. IMO it is well worth the extra 12- for a tight fit for a custom tray...just my 2cents worth

One of the few pieces I need to get this thing ready is a new body and body post. Is there anything out there that is a better choice than the factory plastic body posts? I don't really wanna order another tree of plastic parts when all I really need is a few body post.

I use these...just cut off the long posts.. then cut to the right length and drill a new hole to mount to the tower. I also use one of these in the rear


http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXJK46&P=Z

ditto

I'm using this CEN Racing 1/8 body mount on the rear: http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...ducts_id/11213

I use the stock mounts on the front, but put them behind the shock tower. They have lasted a very long time behind the tower.

Yeah mine were fine until I decided to run with the body off. I tapped the brakes and it went literally head over heals and tore one off.

New body post are in transit, RCM chassis is in transit, picked up a 1/8 generic wing at the shop, and I joined the Mamba Monster Club today =p. MM will be my back up.

should have sent me a message man i got a ton of spare body mounts..... im on my 3rd set of parts trees in the 3 times ive run the damned little truck.... my .5 is ready to throw down. you gonna come out to our huge april 4th race, they said we could run our .5s with the 1/10th 4wds........gonna be fun!

btw im ready to get a look at the rcm chassis because i might ditch my slash in favor of doing some mods to the .5, also which body you gonna run with the extended chassis?

:mdr:I'd love to be out there weather and pet sitter permitting. I'd love to roll over some buggies. Isn't there going to be a sportsman class as well (run whatever you bring)? I'm going to try the stampede body mounts, that way I don't have to buy $10 part trees everytime I break them. ($5 is much better!). I might need to resolder my A123 packs from 2 4s packs to 4 2s packs to allow better mounting options with the new chassis. Would just series two of the packs to get my 4s.

I really have no idea what body I'm gonna choose, maybe whatever fits :tongue:

Might I just say, "Mike, YOU'RE THE MAN!"

Now everyone else can envy the black chassis!

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...Jammin/001.jpg
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...Jammin/002.jpg
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...Jammin/003.jpg

Anyone who doesn't have an RCM chassis for their CRT.5 is really missing out. Mike really outdoes himself on his products.

Wow, that looks great! What kind of rims and tires are those? I think those fit Mike's chassis perfectly. :yes: Is that an 1/8 scale wing as well?

Proline rims, 2.2s. I'd have to look em up to see what they're called. 1/8 scale generic proline wing. I might be going to a race here in a week that is going to be...over crowded. So I need to get hot and order the 6.5mm plugs for the MMM as my backup, order and paint a body, and get some 30 series rims with something a little less aggressive tread on them (maybe bow-tie/step-pin). I'm also looking into a 4s Lipo to fit the box better than A123's

Mike, When you gonna have more suspension kits available?

that wing is a little massive aint it? ive got an LS10 wing we can stick on there and see how it looks, i have one on mine... and for tires, im running panther komodo softs and they work GREAT they also work well at alison's too... id stay away from the steppins, go with the panther komodos, the proline boweties, or the jconepts goosebumps, and get a soft compund its makes all the difference.

i dunno if they are gonna let us run with the 1/10th 4wd, theyve got a full group now so theyd have to break it into 2 classes in the qualifiers which they dont want too..... BUT at all of our club or series races we can stick our crt.5s in with either monster trucks or the sportsman class....