Thanks for sharing! Quality is not the best but pics show the kit in good detail.

Put a good beating on the Baja today - man this beast is a load of fun! I will get the kits updated for the HV ESC and get them done ASAP so everyone else can play, too. :)

Mike, I take it that the 1527 on 7s is pushing the Baja just fine?

The 1527 is working rather well, actually. I did get it up to around 170 degrees after a while(running 7s and 8s packs), but I was running mostly in the grass and was being quite aggressive with it. A heat sink and a fan on the motor will be plenty of insurance, but probably isn't necessary. I am quite happy with it, actually. The shaft is too short, which is compounded by the motor adapter I had to make to install it, so i initially had trouble keeping the pinion on, but I have a custom adapter/bore reducer on there now and it held up for the last hour or so with no trouble.
I have the 1527/2.5d motor installed with a 12t pinion. the motor has a 5mm shaft and is only .75" long, which only allows about half of the pinion set screw to engage the shaft. The custom adapter adds another set screw and is working rather well so far. :)

Have you thought of using a Wye wind instead? I find they hold up and produce better than the Delta winds. The 1527/1.5Y is a 825kv versus the 925kv currently. 8s and a 13T pinion would make up for that.

It's good to see that people will be able to use a motor like the 1527, and not have to go all out on a 2215 or 2230, or a Lehner.

Mike, will your mount accept other motors as well? Like Scorpion outrunners or the Bigger Neu's? a 4035 would power this nicely and fairly cheap as well.

I would have used a 1.5y if I had one - the 1527/2.5d was here and its specs fit my needs, so I used it. I don't think switching to a wye wind in and of itself would make any appreciable difference in performance or 'holding up' as you put it, either. A wye motor may have a very slight efficiency advantage, but this would be tough to quantify in this application I think. The rpm vs gearing etc. is more important than delta vs wye(and I already owned the Delta motor). I wanted to try a 1527 because its smaller diameter allows broad gearing without interference with the tranny or brake disc(if mech brakes are retained - I removed mine) and also would allow a longer battery if needed. A 1527 is rated for similar continuous power to the 2215 as well, so I suspected it would work well for me and because I already had the motor, I decided to use it. If the castle 1717 motor was a 2y instead of a 1y, it would probably work quite well also.
The motor mount bolt pattern matches the outer holes on a 22 series Neu motor (45mm IIRC) to allow motor screw access when using the larger mod 1.5 pinions. I made a mount adapter to install the 1527 and could make similar adapters for most any motor that would fit if it doesn't have the needed bolt pattern.

I will be using the Neu 2215 750KV with the kit but making it capable of running with alternative motors will probably have an impact on the number of kits sold.

Do you plan on taking pre-orders or will it only be available on the site when you have them in stock?

No mechanical brakes Mike? I've always run them on my Baja under the assumption that it would be too hard on the ESC to run motor braking. Did you have any problems? Would you recommend ESC braking with the new Castle controller?

motor brakes
 

I made the conversion to accept the mechanical brakes(and ran it this way with the HV180 boat ESC), but i prefer motor braking personally - the mechanical brakes fade, run hot and add complexity to the simple E-theme. Reverse is nice, too. :yes: I am also testing the ESC, so I want to test it in real world conditions - I will be gearing it up and driving like an idiot to simulate the gamut of driving conditions these may see. So far, the ESC has held up like a champ and even without the fan plugged in, the ESC hasn't gotten over 130 degrees or so. I suspect taller gearing may heat things up a bit, but I am thinking the ESC won't likely be the weak link in a normal setup.

GREAT!! High voltage, low amp, cool temps RC history in the making!

thats great!

one of the reasons i have been holding back on getting a Baja project is the cost of the motor, but low kv 1527's are pretty easy to find used of cheep on the boat forums

do you have an price in mind for the e kit yet?

Keep in mind that this is a 2wd vehicle and just cannot load the motor like a 4wd can. So the 1527 should be good to go. I would like to see a specific carbon fiber chassis done for electric, as the stock chassis setup is not really all that good and requires alot of bracing. A lighter weight baja with 1527 on 8s power would be great. should be able to get down to around 15lbs, methinks.

I plan to make a lst based buggy (4wd) that would be close to 5th scale, maybe 6th? I will use a 6061 channel that is about 4" wide and has 1" sides. Plenty stong and narrow. Just need to get back into rc...

No mech brakes sounds good. I use a Neu 2220 and had to go with a front brake setup to get decent stopping power. The back stock brake would just cook. I'm using an HV160 with a Pistix and never tried the brake function as it is an air controller. Hopefully, the new car ESC will be out soon. I would hate to wait till next year! Please Castle have these ready in a few months!

Front brakes are a must for the baja. I would like to see esc brakes for the rear, and mech brakes for the front. Lucky for me the m11 has a 4th channel slaved to the brake function on the 2nd channel. That can be adjusted independently and coupled with esc brake adjustment the overall braking feel should be able to be tuned quite well.

As a side note I would like to see a mech front brake setup that can be used on any MT. That way a large scale 4wd conversion with a center diff could have some really good brakes. Also take some strain off the motor.

This might be a silly question but will the gear cover still be able to fit on with this setup. Either way I am in but just curious
Any new updates Mike

The motor brakes work very well on this setup - about 10x better than the stock mechanical brakes did(mech brakes stop it about 2 times, slow it down slightly about 2 times and then are non-existent). The problem with mechanical front discs is that they tend to get fouled up in the grass, etc. - the beast slows rather well with motor braking and I won't be adding any mechanical brakes on mine(reverse is a nice touch this way as well).
Mine has the FLM extended suspension arms and cvds, so it is similar weight to a stock gasser(+/-22 pounds rtr?). It isn't exactly a light-weight vehicle, but it is impressively nimble for its size. I will add a heat sink to the motor and possibly a fan for insurance.

The setup does NOT allow the stock gear cover to be used(would limit gearing adjustment anyway) - the lower plastic skid/guard and the ody work together to shield the gear mesh rather well anyways, and as long as the truck is moving, it is very unlikely that anything is gonna get caught in the spinning gears anyways - haven't had any issues yet, and I ran a lot without the body on. :)

Hey, Mike. Any news on how production is going? Also, can you give any hints (without making Castle angry) on when the new beta controller is coming out?

Yeah the controller is so intriguing!

Hi Mike,
any news? Some time ago you mentioned it would be on your site but as far I can see nothing has showed up yet.

Thanks.

I think I'm going to do this too. Not in a big hurry, I'll run the gas motor until everything is ready, i.e. the esc and conversion kit. I'm thinking, since Mike is having good results with the 1527, of going with the 1527 1.5/Y on 8s. The problem is on Castle's site the motor is $302.00 shipped.

Anybody have links to some good boat forums so I can start searching for a good used one?

Also, Mike, how do you think the Castle 1717 would do, would it be enough?

updates
 

I will post updates as I have them as far as the conversion is concerned - been a bit swamped lately with various things, but these kits are coming along and will be ready very soon.

I think the 1717 motor MAY be enough IF it was a 2y instead of a 1Y - I couldn't say with any certainty without an actual 1717/2y motor to test, though!

The 1717 would be borderline, though - the 1527 is proving to be borderline - with a 12t pinion and no heat sinking, it can get pretty hot when I am beating on it - with 7s and 8s it works great but I can get the motor up to 160F or so near the end of the run. I will add heat sinks(2 losi heat sinks fit nicely) and see how it goes and maybe add a fan(or use the ESC fan, as I haven't even plugged it in yet - the 1527 motor is the limit and not the ESC so far).

For 8s or less, the motor really needs to be under 1000Kv IMO for best results. Sensored/hybrid would be great in this application due to the gearing - stock Baja is designed for a 20k rpm motor, so there is a bit of load on takeoff - small pinions are ideal. The ESC is working terrific as it is - but with aggressive gearing, it will cog a bit on takeoff (I use 12t pinion and it is awesome, but I have run up to an 18t pinion and it cogs on takeoff with this gearing(and the motor gets hot pretty quickly - need more motor for aggressive gearing). I think a 1527/1.5y with a 1.5" long 8mm shaft and heatsinks will be a great setup for most users. With short gearing it works extremely well, is a lot of fun, and still gets near 50mph(borderline too fast for this beast unless you have lots of space).

Hey Mike, Do you think the 2250 lehner would work in a baja conversion? I have a 10 turn version (1183KV) and if i ever get to where i could afford one of these beasts, That would be my motor if it would work. Thanks

2250/10 Lehner won't work at all, Crazy - better send it to me!
J/K - it will work great. :)

So it would work, Cool thanks. thats a reason to keep it

crazy- what size shaft does your 2250 have? keep in mind that the baja uses mod1.5 andd mike has these in 8mm bore.

It has a 5mm shaft, but i'm sure mike could make an adapter for it, or i could order some gears with a 5mm bore instead

I have 8mm to 6mm and 8mm to 5mm bore reducers for the mod 1.5 gears. :)

Hey Mike, What's your Email? I tryed to Email you but it seems to not be going through

its a secret... :wink:

What's the word Mike any updates I have this baby just waiting patiently to be abused can you help her. HAHA Just Kidding
Just Curious
The red rings will be going away shortly I have new rings powdercoated and ready to go.

http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/a...x/100_0244.jpg
http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/a...x/100_0243.jpg
http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/a...x/100_0242.jpg
http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/a...x/100_0241.jpg
http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/a...x/100_0240.jpg

I've got a car just like that waiting for the kit to come out. Any news from you Mike?

While we are waiting for Mike, here is a link to a carbon fiber kit that may be produced in the future.

http://www.hpibajaforum.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=85610

A very nice conversion. Thanks for posting the link!

Any news at all on the kit? It hasn't been canceled has it?

I should hope not. I've got an odd feeling that Mike is waiting for CC to finish their ICE ESC for large scale cars and the 2025 motor. Could be wrong of course.

I already have everything I need so I just want the kit out asap. I will probably still buy yet another kit and whatever else CC brings out for one of my other baja's but I have one car prep'ed and ready to start doing the conversion on.

I just got an e-mail from Kershaw Designs stating that his conversion is in stock and ready to ship

You may be right, Thom! The kit is designed to use the new Ice Monster.

Oh well, just got my 2220 back from Neu, totally rebuilt. For those who have never seen the 2200 series, here are some pictures.

Holy Shiz !
The soda can certainly puts it's size in perspective.

You just couldn't let it be could you. You had to go and buy a bigger engine than mine (2215) - lol.

Looks great. They sure are impressive those Neu 2200 motors!

Mike - what's going on with the kit? I'd really like to know what's going on with it all. Thanks.