A bedtime story with a happy ending
 

:dft009:

Well, after a couple of months of saving and spending I finally got everything put together and made my first run with the new set up, but first a little history. I came to this forum a couple months ago because I was not happy with my HV-Maxx system and wanted more. After lurking around and reading numerous threads it became oblivious that people here had a lot to offer in terms of how to set up a killer truck. So I joined and began with the questions and got great advice from many people and I thank all who helped and continue to help. My new additions include the following:

BK9920
Warrior 8XL
UBEC
Dimension Engineering LVC (thanks metalman this thing works great)
Strobe slipper clutch
Mod 1 spur & pinion 14/51 for now will be trying a 16 soon.
Lipos 5s 3700Mah will be experimenting with different brands and sizes.

All this was assembled to what I already had:

Torpedo chassis
UE 8 spyders and racer x suspension
MIP bones
And much more

After spending countless hours trying to decide how and where I wanted to mount the lipos I came up with a cross chassis design (see photos), which seems to give good balance to the truck.

As anyone who’s made wholesale changes like this knows there can be a tense moment or two when you finally get ready to make the first run, i.e. did everything get soldered in the right order and are all the parts installed correctly. So I plugged in the battery, got my programming beeps and replaced the jumper. Now I’m ready to put rubber to the pavement but I live in Seattle and it’s been raining non-stop forever it seems. Finally I get a half-day and things dry out enough to see what the new setup can do. I’m happy to report that I had a successful test run, great acceleration and the top speed was scary. I didn’t push it to hard since it was the maiden voyage and I was running topless:dft002: . Battery temps were a very cool 75° but motor and esc were a little higher than I would like 120° - 125° especially considering I was running topples :dft002: and the air temp was about 40°. Question, will taller gearing bring up the battery temps and lower the motor esc temp? What is an unhealthy temp for motor and esc? Thanks for enduring my story, I just felt a need to share my experience and thank everyone. BTW I got about 20 minutes runtime, so I’m pretty happy with that.

http://photobucket.com/albums/a156/scott711/

Very Nice!

Did you rubberize the battery holders? What was you process? I was thinking of platidip over aluminum.

I hope the rain stops I'm going steelhead fishing in Coos Bay OR in a couple of weeks.

Again, nice work!

Cheers

Excellent work! Truck looks great,layout/battery mounting looks spot on,looks very well balanced.

The fact that the esc is getting up to a good temp along with the motor suggest that it's not undergeared.Your battery temps are low just because it was easily handling the current draw.The best thing would be to add a fan to the esc for when you go to the 16T.
Good info on temps from Batfish here http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/show...ghlight=160%2A

Wow, that LVC is really small! Nice truck BTW. Your idea for battery mounting looks very good.

That look pretty awesome. Nice work.

nice truck that lvc is small

Nice truck!! who am i to disagree with the size of that LVC..

Nice truck. Is that the LST/TNX crowd pleazer body? I'm considering getting it for my xtreme BL chassis, and after seeing those pics it doesn't look too big.

Nice Ride - I would suggest - if you plan on jumping that ride of yours - support the motor leads from the controller. I have (on one occasion) from constant jumping and landing - shorted out one of the windings to the motor. Needless to say my wires have a support on them now.... Huge LVC i might add :005:

I used 3M linerless electrical tape, it's rubbery feeling and very stretchy and comforms to anything. I also used it to re-wrap the esc after I got carried away tearing off the shrink wrap. I still have not had a chance to make more runs cause I don't get home untill dark and it just keeps raining. :mad:1

Good luck fishing, I've only been steelheading a few times and they always elude me:030:

I will try the aluminum and linerless ideas. I think custom is much better than prefab.

I hope to connect with some steelhead on my fly rod. Should be good fun. If not, fishing is better than working!
:027:

where did you buy the LVC?