Need help converting to Brushless
 

I've got a Savage X SS that i'm building and have decided to go brushless my main problem is that the only conversion kit i've seen to do this is at www.kershawdesigns.com and I thought that it was a bad design due to 1.) The motor should be mounted inside the TVP's for protection and 2.) the battery trays were too high and wold possibly get damaged easily in a roll over, plus they are plastic. I've been searching for a while now and have not been able to find any products at all to help me in my conversion. If anyone can help me it would be so awesome. Thanks for your time.

It seems like making the parts yourself is your only option. Serum will be able to help you more on the Savage than I can. I'm not really to educated when it comes to them.

Thanks, I've never worked with raw pieces of metal so I dont know how far fabricating my own pieces would get me.

Fabricating your own parts is fair easy.. All you need is a dremel, drill, jigsaw and some patience. most important thing is patience IMO.. A vice would be handy, but i must say i don't use it (simple don't have any) for my conversions.

To me, most of the fun and satisfaction of running a brushless conversion is from making it yourself. If I could have walked into a store and bought one prebuilt, it probably wouldn't have as much appeal to me.

Anyway, if working metal seems like it might be difficult, you might want to try working with carbon fiber. It is strong, light, and easy to work with common power tools. Just make sure that you take the proper precautions, so that the dust doesn't wind up in your eyes or lungs.

Although I'm using 7075 1/4" thick aluminum for my mounts now, I started using 3/16" thick 6061. It's plenty strong and very to work for a metal. I get mine from onlinemetals. Their prices aren't the lowest, but you can order cut pieces and it save some time. I think the last ones I got were 2 and 1/4" by 3". All I had to do was pop some holes for the diff and motor and do some drilling and tapping to mount it all up.

2Fast,
I was in the same situation. I opted for the KershawDesign format. One thing I can say is Dan over there is great to work with. The Battery trays are not that bad. I will be using them only for a little while until I go lipo and then it will not be an issue. 14 SC is a lot of weight. I had him lower the mount somewhat so that it sits a little lower.

Talk to him. He is a great guy that loves the hobby and will work with you on what you envision. I think it is only $10 more for him to design something specific.

Good Luck,
John

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...Kershaw003.jpg

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...Kershaw005.jpg

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q...Kershaw001.jpg

rckrwl;

Who advised you on that motor? invest in good batteries! you know, all the power from a setup comes from the batteries.

How is the controller holding up? using a stick transmitter or that device to use the stick controllers on a pistol grip receiver?

Can you believe, this is as far as I got. My Rock Crawling has taken off and I am in the process of setting up a club. More involved than I thought.

Batteries were a quick fix (4200 stick packs that I rebuilt) until I see what way to go. I really think it will be LiPo. Sub C's are too heavy.

The Phoenix on my bench test seemed to work fairly good but there are soo many f'ing settings that I could not get it set right. I will get back to it here soon. Running it with a Spektrum DX3.

Dan from Kershaw has been wandering too. Right now it is a shelf queen.

So what you're saying is that the mount is good but the battery trays are good but only if I use lipo's because of the weight savings? I've seen a savage run a Novak HV4.5 on youtube and it looked impressive, do you think this motor could really push this heavy of a truck? Also I've been seeing these brushless savages with the stock dual disk brake system still working, whats with that, I thought ESC's were able to control braking as well.

No...what I am saying is the trays are good for right now to mount 14 cells. When I go to LiPo, I will not use them. Serum is on this post. He can give you more info. Mine is a shelf queen right now due to the increased involvement in Rock Crawling.

John

Well yes they can. It will put more load on it though (heat). But if you use the stock transmission unless you modify you will need to use the transmission's reverse (if it has it) and brakes. Then people like rckcrwlr who are using a Phoenix which is an airplane controller. So it doesn't have a braking profile that would be very usable for a truck.

Yeah I plan on using the stock transmission, so I guess i'm going to need to keep my stock braking system, my problem NOW is that it may have a binding problem when I put on the battery trays. If there's a problem attaching a link to the brakes I will have to find an esc/motor combo that will do the stopping for me and as of now the only brushless motor combo with esc that offers a braking and reverse profile that i've found is the HV4.5 from Novak. I dont think the heat will be a problem when it comes to braking, the motor comes with a large heatsink and the ESC comes with a fan, I'm no speed demon I'd just like to have an almost maintenance free machine that'll be able to take a good beating.

Kershaw gives you spacers to shim out away from the brake. No problems there.

Just talked to Kershaw designs and he's willing to do a one-off for me if I give him the dimensions (and extra $$) which is too cool on his part. I was wondering what you guys think about a Quark 125B Monster Pro ESC and a Hacker C50-7XL with 6sLipo's? Good combo?

You can also contact Mike, he can machine you any part you like! (for a very reasonable price too)