Broken RC-M battery tray
 

Hey guys, I was driving my truggy yesterday, pulled in to check temps and noticed my battery was moved back about 2cm. The entire back of the tray broke out. I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, and no jumps either. It was just on the street, and the worst crash I had was the truck just flipped over onto its feet again. Here is a pic of the tray:

The same thing happened to mine. It tore the end just like yours. It happened in one of the jumps and I didn't even flip it or anything. I was just surprised that the truck just stopped and I was thinking it might had been the MMM going bad.

Did Mike replace yours?

Maybe it's just the picture, but it looks like the sides of the trays are much thinner than they use to be. The sides of mine are almost 4mm thick. I have one of the FP 5000mAh trays that I bought about a year ago. Or, maybe Mike has been using a different material?

My tray is much thicker looking than the broken one in the pictures and its holding up great, seems plenty strong.

The tray walls have gotten thicker over time, but we have probably got 1000 or so trays out there(average about 50 per month). Some of these will break, but it is not what I would call common. Return the broken tray and we replace it for 1/2 price(with a thicker-walled tray if deemed necessary).

Great! Thanks Mike! Should I send the velcro straps with it as well?

You can send them with the tray and we will send them back. Or, wrap the velcro straps around your chassis brace so you don't lose them. :)

Also, I doubt the broken trays described here actually broke during the described activities. A rolling truck won't likely brake the tray unless there is a big, heavy battery in it that is pretty loosely fixed and can slam back and forth into the tray walls. Most likely scenario would be that the trays broke the previous time out when the user "porked the landing on that big jump" or "nosed the big triple at 30mph", but didn't notice(or completely break) the broken tray. I haven't broken a tray in 2 years - I don't crash a lot, but I do crash - and sometime pretty spectacularly!
Getting a tray that fits the batteries is a good precautionary step. Cinching the velcro straps down tightly is also wise practice. A small pack in a big tray that is loosely held is a recipe for failure - there is a lot of inertia when a pound+ of mass is slammed into the tray end. Of course this isn't good for the battery, either. :)

The battery is heavy- a 6s 4900. But, the tray is the correct size (48x168mm) and the battery straps were cinched as far as they'd go.

Yep, the tray is the right size - probably cracked on a previous run with a more serious crash, but went unnoticed. I wasn't implying that you were guilty of any of these things, either - I was only trying to discuss "what not to do" and likely causes of failure to help avoid any future failures from new and existing users. :)

My battery is huge too. Polyquest 5S 6K. I'll shipped mine once our ship gets back inport in about a week (we're somewhere in the Pacific Ocean right now).

That is probably what happened. A hairline crack formed from a previous crash and the tray gave way under normal driving. I will ship the tray tomorrow- do you want me to put a note in the package saying why I sent the tray back? Or will you know by seeing that it is broken?

Please include a note so everything is clear - I tend to email and converse with LOTS of people, so without a note I may be temporarily confused. :)

Will do- thanks Mike!