Serpent 960 going E powered. Need advice.

[Semi Pro]

well i can tell you from my serpent that a 1518 isn't going to fit with mechanical brakes, I'm pretty sure you are going to be limited to motors around 60mm long

personally i would run a pair of 6cell35c 2500mah packs, one per side with the 2250 of 2650kv motor

longer shaft will solve afew problems but i think your going to create side loading if the shaft pulleys get to far away from the bearings

I think I have something figured out in regards to the motor mount that will be able to fit even the 1518. Right now the way things sit the 1518 is only 2-3mm too long to fit but I think that I should be able to gain that space with my mount I have kind of figured out. Not saying I will be using the 1518 but I would like the option to do this. I want to see and try and run the 1518 on 8S just out of curiosity. T make this work the main thing I will need to do is move the brace that sits just in front of the motor about 10-12mm forward to make enough space. The only thing that worries me if I am going to be able to get right gearing in there. The motor has to sit quite a bit away from the rear axle to clear the brake disc. I think I'll be right though.

The braking servo will be moved to the the center of the chassis right next to the ESC. The Rx is going to be a Spektrum micro so that will fit just about anywhere. Batteries are going to the sides and that is pretty much going to be that. I was thinking a lot about this and seems like the most sensible option if I want to have a decent capacity vs C rate.

Front worries me the most. I hate the thought of not having any front braking but if I lock the front diff then that means the front and the rear will be locked. Wont that make it handle like a pig? Not sure as I have no prior experience on these type of cars but it worries me a little.

So far I am pretty happy with this car. Everything seems nice and good. I have two spare chassis including one LCG chassis as well although they wont be much use to me. I have three sets of wheels (two new and one set near new on the car), crappy body that is still usable but also a new one unopened and a whole box of spares (lot of them new). All for $350 which I think it isn't too bad.

I want to make the whole chassis out of carbon fiber which will include the side pods for the lipos. This will be later on as I just want to get the car going first and anyway I might have to drill a few holes in the chassis. I am betting that I might make a few revisions in regards to what I put where so I might as well hack up the aluminum chassis and get everything sorted on there. Transferring the final layout onto the carbon fiber chassis should be easy then.

Anyway itching to get this going but I have to do a bit of a clean up in the garage first. In a haste to fix up a few RC's and sell them off the garage looks like a bomb went off in there. I want to start this project in a clean environment so it might be a few days till I start on it. Super excited about this and I think it will be awesome car.

Thanks for all your help Semi Pro. You have been a big help. I am ditching the idea of moving the center belt out further. Sounded OK at first but for all the effort and all the mucking around just to sit the lipo in the chassis it really isn't worth it. The setup few of you guys are running and that is enough to convince me. Not sure on the lipos though. Two smaller 6S packs in parallel or two bigger 3S packs in series. I think I will get better CG with two 3S packs but guess trying both couldn't hurt.

I have a day off Friday and I think I will just do a light rebuild/clean up/adjustment of the front and rear ends and then start from there. Watch for the build thread and pics coming soon. All input and criticism is welcome.