Brought a 1/8 buggy to convert!
 

Finally caved in and brought a 1/8 buggy today :) Its a "Power Racing Swift", looks idential to a GS Storm in most ways. Very nice car for the price I paid (£100 new, its RRP is £279 RTR but they have loads of them at my LHS so broke one up and sold me a roller), even if it is a rip off car. I've seen this same type of car launched 25-30ft in the air time and time again so it can't be that bad.

Now onto business, its going brushless for sure, I've ordered a motor mount from Cold Fusion Racing that should bolt directly on give or take a pair of holes on the chassis, but I'm stuck on what to power it with.

I have some GP3300 8 cell batteries, so I was thinking, would using 2 of these to give me 16 cells power it nicely? What sort of ESC/motor should I go with? Was thinking either MGM or Warrior 9920, but if there are other options I'd love to hear them. I have no clue on the motor so any advise to use as a starting point would be brilliant. Should I use a S, L or XL can?

Finally, what sort of performance can I expect from one of these? Would 16 cell brushless keep pace with one fitted with a good .21? What sort of top speed could I expect with this car? I was thinking of maybe turning it into a truggy, does anyone sell adapters to fit Maxx wheels onto buggies?

Sorry for all the questions and the long post, but I'm totally new to 1/8 so am hoping you guys can help me out a bit :)

Cheers.

I will try a 7XL in my buggy, but you can always go for the high-end Lehners if you feel the need.
Even a feigao L should do.

The 7XL should do very well on 16 cells.

I had the advantage in topspeed and acceleration over a nice OS.21 powered buggy. On 14 cells already, and this was on my Revo.
The buggy had a huge advantage on tight tracks, mind you.
My guess is, a 16 cell buggy can be geared for 45-50 without worries,
and my bet is on the electric!


edit: forgot about the Lehner basic XL. They have a nice price, and should do the job perfectly.

You allready figured out a neat way to mount the batteries?

the 7XL is nice, but did you ever concidered 14 cells and a lehner XL2800 or a 9L? it's lighter and offers a better handling, because it's lighter. what gearingratio is used on that buggy? does it use 43/13 diffs and 51 tooth spur? you might need to choose your kv range of the motor depending on that.

For the batteries I was thinking of mounting them down the rock guards/side of chassis, is this a good idea? I have some RC10 cups from a previous project I can use to secure them down.

The manufacture's actually Nanda racing I just found out, distributed by Schumacher in the UK.

I was thinking an L Feiago, my budget could just about stretch to the Lehner XL if it would be a more powerful motor for the job (concerned about the thin motor shaft though).

I've not been able to find the internal gear ratio, I need to get the manual from my LHS tomorrow to find out. I know it has a hardened steel spur which could be a problem, it uses 4 screws to attach it directly to the center diff, I could measure how far apart these are if that helps.

I'd rather not go down to 14 cell, simply because I already have 8 cell packs so can use them in my 1:10 trucks still. I'm guessing the spur fitted to it at the min is around 55t or so.

16 cells is a lot for a 1/8 buggy. Usually 12 is standard. It seems like the highest loaded RPM you want for a buggy is 35,000RPMs. 30,000RPM is a great spot to shoot for. This will keep the whole system running well, and will still be very powerful. A 2000kv motor would put you in the good range for a 1/8 buggy.

Why so low RPM's? I thought the best point for brushless was to aim for about 40K RPM? Or is it the gearing limiting it?

I can fit 16 cells in with no problem, my concern is with 12 or 14 its going to feel underpowered. I'm used to flying my trucks around at 40-50mph, and would expect the buggy to do the same. Plus the guy who runs my LHS has a GS Storm that runs 70mph+ runs back to back (radar'd), I'd like to at least try to keep up with that in a straight line, although I know 60-70mph with brushless is going to be next to impossible.

I have a Lehner 2800xl in my Ofna 9.5, it's far from slow on even just 12 matched GP3300 cells.

Here is a vid from when it still had the center slipper in it, and I blew my brother's 10-turn B4 away.....complete with both buggies wheelying! Oh yeah, and the weird noises are from the camera man, he's got ADD or something and always has to add some kind of "flair" to each vid. :D

I've seen a few folks post now about getting the motor mount from Cold Fusion, but I haven't been able to find their site. Would someone please post a link?
The only site I've found says they're closed.

40,000RPMs is the most efficient for the motor. At least for racing, 30-35,000 RPMs is all you need. You could try it with a motor that will go to 40,000 loaded. I can tell you my own experience with this. I run (not right now, though) a Feigao 8L on 4s Lipo. This pushes the motor to about 40,000RPM loaded (if not faster). With this setup, the motor and Warrior 9918 both got hot. When I downgraded to 3s Lipo, the whole system ran so much cooler, and I didn't have to give the motor time to cool off. With 3s Lipo, the 8L was spinning at about 32,000RPM. For my next setup, I am thinking of using a Feigao 7XL on 4s Lipo. Loaded, the top RPM will be about 32,000, which is perfect. And because the motor is so powerful, I could gear it to give me good speed without it overheating.

If you want to push the motor to 40,000RPMs, then I won't stop you. I am just sharing information that not only myself, but others that have run 1/8 electric buggies have found.

MetalMan, I appreciate your advice, I'm just trying to work with what I have (batteries), and can't really afford to purchase the wrong wind motor the first time around so double checking and doubting everything before I commit to anything.

I'll probably end up with the new MGM 16 cell controller so I'm hoping heat won't be too much of a problem with the controller, I may step the packs down to 14 cells, we'll see how it goes.

Do you think it might be a good plan to aim for around 38,000 to 40,000 unloaded? With the heavy load of a buggy it'll probably bog down to somewhere between 30-35K RPM?

Would the 8XL be a good motor for 16 cells on a buggy? What sort of top speed do you think it might reach without loosing too much acceleration?

Thanks for all the advice guys.

The 8XL should be a good choice for 16 cells. It should be able to take you to 50mph with acceleration still much greater than a nitro (what we usually expect from brushless).

I am with batfish. Could someone PLEASE point us to the right website. Don't make us beg. :)
I will probably end up with a 9xl on mine. I think I am going to try a 14 L first. I have both motors so no money to try.

You have to be a member on http://www.radiocontrolzone.com , but here is the link:
http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/s...d.php?t=203863

If we could get mike to get some or get flm to make some up as well. thanks metalman.

That is pretty simple to make. 1/2" is thicker than it needs to be as well, though it appears as though two screws through the bottom of the chassis are all that holds it on(which is fine, if the screws are big enough).

I have a question. Where does every one get the metal from to make things? I give it ago if had some metal. I think they are 5mm screws in the bottom.

home depot or lows has a desent selection just kinda expensive since they dont sell all that much.

www.onlinemetals.com has what you need. E-bay is a good resource as well.

I get my sheet aluminum from Speedy Metals on Ebay. It costs ~$21 with shipping for me to get a 1/8" thick x 6" wide x 48" long sheet of 6061-T6 aluminum. This is what I used to cut my buggy's chassis. They also sell other aluminum, like a 1/4" thick x 2" wide x 48" long sheet of aluminum, which is what I used to make the motor mount on my buggy.
http://stores.ebay.com/SPEEDY-METALS...toreviewQQtZkm

Thanks everyone. Have to keep all of the above on my list. I can see some fab work in progress now.

Batfish sorry I must have missed your post. I'm dealing with them directly by email as their sites down at the min.

So 16 cell nimh, with an MGM 16016 and a Feiago 8XL would be a good setup? Would this setup move accross to a truck like the Emaxx if I got bored with the buggy? Would the 7XL be more powerful?

MetalMan, does your chassis have a front kickup? If so how did you get that into your custom chassis?

16 cells with an 8XL and MGM160amp could be moved over to an E-Maxx.

My chassis requires a front kickup because of the way the steering plate was designed (with a bend in it). I got kickup on my custom chassis by marking where it was on the old chassis, and then I bent the aluminum in a vice. I matched the angle of the kickup to the stock chassis until it came out right, and what I have now works just fine.

Does anyone know of a good way to put curved bends into 3mm aluminium.It's for the upper plates i'm making to adapt LST bulks to a thuder tiger EB4 S3 box section chassis,i need to put S-bends in them.Only thing i can think of is bending it over a suitable radius steel pipe,maybe with some heat.Any ideas?

Last time I tried bending some aluminium (approx 3mm thick) it cracked along the outer edge, the second time I heated it up with a blowtorch and tried, but it still happened. I think I might have been trying to do it over too small of a radius. For the motor plate on my RC10GT I did it over a slightly bigger radius, it still cracked there but not as bad as the first two, so I braced it against a bulkhead and had no problems with it so far.

Yeah, i think i'll just have to experiment a bit.I know you have to be careful how much you heat ally or it cracks.Trouble is i have to get a pair of s-bends in the front plate,it has two step downs,bulk to steering posts and then steering posts to the chassis box section,all in a relatively short distance.Trial and error may be called for.

There's this T2 on ebay,what do ya reckon?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

They're cracking little trucks. I've been throwing mine over jumps onto solid concrete and on grass fields since I got it with no parts breakage (even with 8 cells and normal wheels when the cars doing easily over 50mph the time it hits the ramp, although I normally run oversize Masher 2000's on mine). I prefer mine to my T3, although its not quite as responsive its a lot more durable. For £55 shipped with the team shocks, cvds and ti turnbuckles you can't go wrong, it looks like new. I got mine for £41 shipped by Global Express with some spares, but it was more used.

If you get it, make sure a) your not going to be hit with customs (they'll be about £8 with the $60 marked value). and b) put nuts on the screws that hold the rear arm mounts on, otherwise you'll thread the mounts out when you start jumping it. Buy lots of RPM nylon parts for it as well, arms and bodyposts in particular.

Thanks man,i might have a go for that T2 then,looks like a straight example.

Good luck with the Swift,that was a blinding deal you got there,i've heard good things about them,they're great value.

Cheers man, hopefully it'll turn out really nice. Good luck with the T2 if you decide to pick it up.

Gustav. That is a good buy, they are tanks and can take anything you can throw at them.

Yeah,i think it's worth getting,even if i might not do much with it yet due to being a bit swamped with projects with other cars.I think the tranny should be able to be made pretty tough,there's parts available but i've been looking at getting gear cutting stuff for my lathe,it's more complex than stuff i do right now though but it'd be great be able to chose any car and make the tranny brushless proof.

This is totally unrelated(sorry) but on LST central today there was an article posted with spy shots of a mini LST.At first i thought it might be a hoax but the pics of it look identical to an LST but the shocks look like regular Losi 1/10 shocks and they look in proportion,in the way 5th scale shocks look on the LST.If it's real this thing will be the king of all mini trucks,i'd put money on that.
Any one else seen this?http://www.lstcentral.com/modules.ph...ewtopic&t=2475

I'd like to make this brushless proof.;)

Continuing to hijack the thread....I have a T2 with a Lehner 5300 in it, and it's one of the best bashers I have. I got it for $30 and it was in pretty sad shape, didn't even have the steering setup, but it did have Lunsford turnbuckles, so it was worth it. I put about $70 to get it where it is now, and it works great, handles the power of the BL just fine too.

Yes the hijacking,that's partly my fault,although the motor plate diversion was nothing to do with me.I kind of like it when threads take a few random twists before returning to the matter in hand.More casual like.Sorry though.

Rtsbasic,any time you want to return to the topic,we're ready to add as much confusion as you like.lol.

Do you know the diff ratio?It might be best to try to get a nylon spur on there or use an ofna diff unless you can get hardened pinions.

I don't mind the hijacking, I love my T2 but thought they weren't popular as you never see them mentioned on forums.

I'm not sure of the diff ratio, I need to find out. I'd like to stick with the standard center diff to save on cost, even if it means having to run hardened pinions. The ofna spurs won't fit onto my diff, I know that for certain. This is the part thats going to confuse and probably cost me quite a bit.