BL Revo or BL E-Maxx?

[Finnster]

Well, its easier to run BL in a maxx, as you don't have to "convert" it, make batt trays, etc, but the Revo is much better suited to handling the BL power. The maxx needs signifigant investment in driveline upgrades, while a stock Revo is pretty much good to go. If you get the RCM motor mount for Revo, its really easy to convert. You just need to make some batt trays and lock tranny in 2nd (to get motor brakes and reverse.)

Those batts are junk. If you get decent lipo packs, it will be a world of differnce better. i usually bashed ~45min-1hr on my 4S 6400 packs, with no real loss of power.

[zeropointbug]

Yes, a maxx truck can be had for a very decent price if you buy the right parts, and put the money where it needs to be. The differentials, and tranny is where the money needs to go first.

Then you most likely have a good radio I take it?

An entry level BL setup (but no slouch!) is a Mamba Max, paired with a 8 or 9XL Feigao.

For batteries, LiPo's are a good choice, but you MUST have careful attention not to abuse them, over-charge, over-discharge, stay within specified voltage limits, even then they can burst into flames for no reason (this is important). LiPo's have great power (decent pack), and have pretty consistent power throughout run, and looong runtimes.

The other choice for batts is A123 Lithium (Lithium Nano-Phosphate), they are a brand new chemistry stirred up by A123 Systems. Main aspects:
-Safe, intrinsically safe (peace of mind)
-super fast recharge of 15 mins, although 5 min charges are possible as well
-lot's of power, ~equal to equivalent mAh rating as lipo, but they can handle currents much better than lipo, again safe.
-Very consistent power throughout run, 100% power right up to a few seconds when they dump, it's very sudden loss of power.
-tough, the cells are made into alum. shells and can take physical abuse. Tough as nails as far as running them, you can over charge, over discharge, etc, with very minor performance impact (unnoticeable)
-Cheap, being half the cost of equivalent LiPo (capacity), as well as having many times the cycle life of lipo, expect at least 1000+ cycles (100%DOD), I have seen roughly 200 cycles come from lipo, that is, if they don't blow up before then...

I'm not trying to bash at lipo here, I'm just giving you a good comparison.

[jhautz]

The "easiest" conversion IMO is to get a Gmaxx G3R chassis for your revo. Its bolt on and lets you run an emaxx tranny with steel lidlers, no other mods needed. Downside is its almost $300.

The cheapest is to custom make some battery mounts and motor mounts for your stock chassis revo and run the stock revo tranny. But this does take some engineering/custom work skills.

The simplest bolt on brushless setup would be the emaxx, but like was metioned above. you will spend a significant amount of money trying to get th drivetrain strong enough to handel the brushless power.

I personally prefer the revo. but others will argue the maxx. Properly set up it can be one mean machine. But it takes picking the right parts and in the end winds up just as expensive (if not more) than the revo.

I highly encourage you to do this. Once you do no nitro will ever due again. A Mamba Maxx and an 8xl on 4s lipo will make you smile for sure!:027:

BTW: Welcome to the forum.

[jhautz]

Another option is to just sell your revo and watch ebay for a decent revo that is already converted. They pop up more often than you would think. This would probably be the cheapest route if you dont want to do the work yourself.