New E-Revo - first impressions
 

I went by the LHS today and picked up the e-Revo. They had what seems to be a pretty good price @ $439.

Some pics to follow, but here are my first thoughts out of the box:

1 - Springs/shocks - comes with 40WT and pretty soft springs. As others have mentioned they seem a little soft. I am going to run it for a bit before adjusting and take it from there.

2 - Battery Trays - I don't think people are going to want to run pack that are 30mm high - they will just fit and with no air circulating they will be really high. I put a Neu 3900 3S pack in one side and it fit very nicely. I think the limits for a battery pack are going to be:
48-50mm wide - there is a little extra space in the battery door when it closes
25mm high - This is the highest I would want to go for the pack to be snug but still allow airflow.
160mm long - if you stick with the 25mm height there should be no problem fitting a pack this long.

I think and 3S 5000mAh Neu or TP pack will fit very nicely on each side. I am going to be getting the TP eXtreme V2 3S 5000 mAh packs that measure 25x48x160 and run one on each side for 6S total.

3 - Motors/ESC/Radio/Receiver - Haven't even run them (and never will) - pulled straight out within the first hour out of the box.
-Motors are brushed motors and seem beefy, but I just have no interest.
-ESC - seems solid, but once again no interest.
-Radio/Receiver - AM radio - crap - replaced with React right away.

4 - Radio tray - very nice design for an electric vehicle. My Nomadio V2 receiver was a snug fit but it went in there perfectly and there is a nice cable management system going into the tray - I'll enjoy my receiver not getting filled with dust and dirt. Ran one servo into CH1 and the other to CH3 and just bound them together on the radio - very simple to accomplish.

5 - BL motor mount - the only pinion I have is a 24T 32P pinion and I had to dremel out the lock nut area to allow the motor to move far enough away to lock it in place. Once I can figure out all of the gearing I will pick up a few more pinions of more appropriate sizes. I'll be keeping an eye out for when the single BL motor mount option part is available.

6 - Servos - hey they are digital and waterproof - I'll stick with them for a bit until they die or prove to not be strong enough at 125oz each.

7 - Diffs - Haven't pulled them out yet, but they are definitely not filled with oil out of the box and will need to be - will have to search the threads here to figure out what to try out first for front/rear diff oils.

8 - Transmission - it's a 1 speed tranny from what I can see with motor braking.

This is my first Traxxas and I am definitely concerned about the plastic CVD driveshafts - they just seem pretty cheap and I expect them to break very fast - I will be surprised if I am proved otherwise.

I expect to have a lot of fun with this truck, but am still craving to do a 8T or XT8 truggy that I feel will be a more "precise" instrument.

More to follow when I get batteries to run it - might not be until later next week.

First pics.

More pics.

just a quick question but how do they wires for the batterys come out of the casing??

wow:surprised:amazing set-up !!!

I will comment on the sliding driveshafts I have in my converted 3.3 Revo and they are surprising strong they are holding up in mine the diffs are usually the weakest point

Take a look at the middle pic above your post. There is a notch in the upper right corner of the battery tray where the door closes. Looks like it will fit 13GA wire pretty easy, but I did a test fit on a Neu pack with 10GA wire and it was snug - I would be concerned with rubbing and would dremel out a bit.

Very pleased to hear that - those driveshafts were one of the things that has prevented me from picking of a Traxxas in the past. Well - that and the fact that it's just more fun to take your time a full conversion and really make it your own. The e-Revo is more of a drop in upgrade.

I hope the diffs will hold up - flipping through the manual said that front and back are filled with 30,000 wt diff oil. Spinning by hand it doesn't feel that heavy though.

For those interested in spec'ing things out with the speed calculators here are the stock specs.

Tires - 5.75" diameter
Tranny/Diff ratio = 5.22
Stock Spur gear = 68T 32P
Stock Titan Pinions = 19T 32P

My setup is looking to be around 34-35 mph on 6S with a 24T pinion.

Will start running it with the 1515/3D (1360kv), but also have a 1515/2.5D (1650kv) that should pull it up to ~43mph on 6S with 24T pinion.

This isn't going to be a speed vehicle though - more of a beatable MT - so 35 may be just right with the power available to get around bumpy hilly terrain.

The revo spec driveshafts are very tough. I have beaten all of my maxx and revo trucks and have never broken a revo spec slider. The old skinny emaxx sliders are crap, but the 3.3 maxx sliders and the similar revo sliders are very strong. I have not really found any benefit to running cvds. My driving may be better than most, or I may jus be lucky....

Very nice! I just won a lightly used MM and usb cable on the bay. I am going to be running that with my Neu until my MMM comes in.

I have to agree the driveshafts are very tough. Remember Traxxas beat the snot out of this thing on 6s and it held up nicely to it. That is what caught my attention is it was designed around a good BL system. I do agree on the battery compartments. I have to send back my Maxamps 2s 8k packs to have the wires ran on the side. Its either that or dremel out the vents and run the cords through that. I really would like to avoid the dremel on this new Revo.

i see it now. thanks!:mdr:

WOW. Except when I've been in a store, I've never seen a Brand Spankin New RC before!
Nice.

VintageMA,
Great report!.. I didn’t know they were out yet!, I've owned several Traxxas 3905 trucks and they last and taking a beating so no worries their.

Your running a Neu 1515 3d and 6s setup is the exact same I have on my GEVO so I’ll be extremely curious to see how it holds up under that kind of punishment?, I'm assuming that your diff will be the first to go followed buy the trans, not including all of the plastic parts you'll be breaking along the way.. (Good times!). :party:

Do you know what the weight is??

That’s a cool new toy you’ve got there.. Congrads and thanks for the great update, I'm looking forward to your future posts. :yes:

Have a great one

Thanks for the report and the batt sizes. The biggest problem seems to be the battery compartments as far as their limited size and the durability of the compartment door.

Damn that looks good. Pretty sure the REVO 2.5R came with 35wt shock oil. What rockers do they have? P1, P2, P3?

p2 comes on it but they also give you other rockers and 2 more sets of springs.

I have a near 4 year old revo thats approaching three years converted to brushless. I have a neu 1515/2.5d on 5s and the shafts are just beginning to twist. those revo shafts are the best thing to run Bar none

Looks great!!! Keep us informed...espically on the durability of the battery boxes

First battery box thought - DO NOT plan for 30mm high lipos. I stuck a small 4S pack in one side that measures 30mm exactly and it bulges the battery tray up on top and made the door a bit snug to close. There is enough pressure on the door being closed this way that I would be afraid that any body flex would cause it to break.

I'm going to stick with 25mm to be the max comfortable height.

what about length and width? Nice truck btw. Should be fun.

See #2 in VintageMA's orig post.....

:oops: thx dude.

30wt oil should be about std. You can go upto 50wt in the F, but w/o a CD it doesn't make a whole lot of diff other than for bashing. Lastly I had to run tan springs in the F (60wt oil) and silver springs in back. The rear is still soft tho. Your motor is more centered, so balance will be different.

2yrs on sliders and they are still fine. They are tough, just the u-joints stretch out overtime. Cheap to replace tho.

Trx has lame-o 4 gear diffs and always seem to need way heavier oil than their 1/8th counterparts. I saw some people use 120K wt oil in the front in racing nitro revos.

traxxas also puts a number rating on the springs...Does a higher number mean a stiffer rating?

I switched out the original springs for the ones that come with it for the long travel setup. Ran it on my little track and these seem way better! Also wish there was a bigger slot for battery wires coming out of the boxes, I'll be dremeling them a little. Got to make a trip to the lhs for a traxxas connector so I can put my mmm and 8xl in, can't wait to see how it does with that.

Got the chance to take the truck out for a little running today (only with a random 3S and a 4S pack - the 5000mAh 3S TP packs are on order from rclipos - Pat there is great, I ordered them at 1:30am EST last night and got a confirmation at 2am EST that he would ship them out on Monday morning). As all are saying the stock springs are WAY soft. Rather than wheelie on demand, it was flip the truck sideways on demand. :oh:

The stock spring are white Front and rear Green. As other already mentioned the springs that come with the 120mm Travel kit are silver (28lb) and blue (33.7lb) and I just installed them tonight. Truck feels a lot tighter just compressing the body on the floor.

With Neu 1515 and MMM the truck weighs in a 9.2lbs. With batteries weighing in at 1.7lbs for 2x TP5000mAh 3S the RTR weight should be 10.9lbs. For it's size it feels pretty light because of all the plastic.

I have to say the tires are pretty decent. I hope to get another chance to run it before the weekend once the lipos come in. Running with the 4S pack was pretty underpowered on a 1360kv motor, but I only took ~1,600mAh out of the pack in just under 15mins.

Will post a few more pics in a couple of day with the batteries to show fit. But here's a pic with a 4S pack that it 30mm high. 1st pic - door closed with no battery. 2nd pic - 30mm high battery door open. 3rd pic - 30mm battery door closed.

are you running the 1515 3d? if so what gearing are you running? I am trying to decide if I want to spend the extra on the 3d or just get a medusa 1300kv or 1500kv. Thanks

two 125oz servos not enough? lol, i have one im my evo and its fine even for racing, geuss its personal preferance huh?

Yes - I am running the 1515 3d. The only pinion I have it 24T and it gears out to ~35mph.

I can't really speak for the Medusa motors as I have never tried them, but people seem to speak very highly of them here.

I might end up going with a higher kv motor, or getting a smaller spur, but I am going to run this for a little bit before I decide. It's my first MT since my LST2 a few years back, so it's going to take a while to get used to such a big truck again.

Can't wait for someone to come out with a new chassis that takes bigger batteries.

I'm even considering buying the chassis for my revo. A123 are 65mm long, 26mm wide, so you could fit 4s (shotgun config) or 5s (same as 4 with the 5th going sideways at the end..if you get me :P) A123 packs in there without the doors, just some elastic or velcro straps to hold them in.

After running for a bit - 2x 125ox servos is just fine, speed on them is a touch on the slow compared with a $80-100 HiTec or JR but can't justify $150+ for such a minimal gain.

I'm sure it can be done - if you run the pack side-by-side instead of shotgun you could probably do 6S on each side (26*6=155mm long) with a custom velcro to hold it in. You'd be looking at about 1lb of batteries per side.

whats the spped on the 2070? .17?, just curious as i ordered some that are .13 @ 200oz, cant wait to see how they do

Not sure - haven't looked it up yet.

My experience on monster trucks has given me the impression that it's more about torque on the steering than speed. With the power and weight there is alot of pressure on the servos to hold and after destroying 4 traxxas servos I gave up. Granted they were the 2056's and not the 2075's but still. I also will not go back to plastic geared servos either. That's the disappointing thing to me about the 2075 specs is that they still use plastic gears, otherwise they look good.

thats the only thing i dont like, havnt stripped any in my revo yet, but now i gynxed myself lol

the 2075 servo's are 125oz and .16 sec. I am also debating if I want to change them from the start. I already have an extra servo so I would just have to pick up one more that matches.

I'm personally going to run the stock ones until they die if they die. I put too much money into my motor/esc/lipos to throw anymore at it. If anything I would RPM it all the way around.

Well, I got a HiTec 5955TG for my XB8 when I put it together and it has gobs of torque and plenty fast for a buggy (333oz. and 0.15sec @ 6v). So if I ever have a problem I won't be tinkering with a solution - I'll just be getting 2 of those for a massive ~600oz :mdr: @ the MMM 5.5V.