Insane speed has its' drawbacks!
Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 11:40 am
Yesterday (Labor Day) turned out to be a really nice day out. My friend came over with his RC18T and I had my M18, we went to the tennis courts in my complex for some bashing sessions.
...I brought my 3cell lipo pack and I had previously set the Mamba ESC for all super-aggressive settings so I can get max run out of my 6800.
We caught a break! the tennis court area became available (3 courts, side-by-side). Perfect opportunity to really open-up my M18 (with the 3cell Lipo pack)!!
Well, my speedlust has cost me!
- Even running 42t/17t spur/pinion, the length of 3 tennis courts (side-by-side, not lengthwise) still isn't enough to fully realize the top end potential of the 6800 with the 3cell lipo (man! that 8000 must be an absolute MONSTER!). By the time it's close to full speed I already have to slow it down (and by slow it down I mean STOMP THE BRAKES full force!)
- After a couple of high speed runs, the motor mount came loose and I lost 1 of the screws. I got lucky and found it and had to use threadlock to keep the screws from coming loose again.
- Since the Lipo packs aren't a direct fit in the battery bay area, I've been using velcro to hold it in. Running at the "regular" speeds, this method is perfectly fine. But running at high speeds, with all the jarring acceleration and braking the battery ends up coming loose and smacking against the steering rod.
- I'm running the Futaba S3102 Servo with Xray Servo Saver and medium foams in the front. At high speeds, trying to make hard turns results in way understeer (which results in some HARD HARD HARD!!! fence ramming ). Either the Servo doesn't have enough torque to pull the wheels around, or it does have enough torque but the servo saver is engaging (from such high forces on the steering) and causing the understeer.
- I'm glad I bought extra foams, all the hard starts and stops really puts a LOT of wear on the foams!
- The Spur gear is composite, but I'm running an alloy pinion. The pinion came loose on one of the high speed runs. A minor issue to fix, but it would've sucked hard if it threw the pinion and got lost.
Amazingly, enough after a few near-faint-inducing fence crashes (one of which was hard enough to wedge the car about 7 inches underneath the fence link), no serious damage was done to the car (I can't say the same about my shit marinaded undies though).
I've learned my lesson; The 3cell pack will now be sitting in the toolbox only to see the light of day when there's PLENTY of space AND a whole lot of padding in the run area. For all other occassions the 2cell Lipo and 6cell NiMH are actually a good deal more than adequate to get the job done!
...I brought my 3cell lipo pack and I had previously set the Mamba ESC for all super-aggressive settings so I can get max run out of my 6800.
We caught a break! the tennis court area became available (3 courts, side-by-side). Perfect opportunity to really open-up my M18 (with the 3cell Lipo pack)!!
Well, my speedlust has cost me!
- Even running 42t/17t spur/pinion, the length of 3 tennis courts (side-by-side, not lengthwise) still isn't enough to fully realize the top end potential of the 6800 with the 3cell lipo (man! that 8000 must be an absolute MONSTER!). By the time it's close to full speed I already have to slow it down (and by slow it down I mean STOMP THE BRAKES full force!)
- After a couple of high speed runs, the motor mount came loose and I lost 1 of the screws. I got lucky and found it and had to use threadlock to keep the screws from coming loose again.
- Since the Lipo packs aren't a direct fit in the battery bay area, I've been using velcro to hold it in. Running at the "regular" speeds, this method is perfectly fine. But running at high speeds, with all the jarring acceleration and braking the battery ends up coming loose and smacking against the steering rod.
- I'm running the Futaba S3102 Servo with Xray Servo Saver and medium foams in the front. At high speeds, trying to make hard turns results in way understeer (which results in some HARD HARD HARD!!! fence ramming
). Either the Servo doesn't have enough torque to pull the wheels around, or it does have enough torque but the servo saver is engaging (from such high forces on the steering) and causing the understeer.- I'm glad I bought extra foams, all the hard starts and stops really puts a LOT of wear on the foams!
- The Spur gear is composite, but I'm running an alloy pinion. The pinion came loose on one of the high speed runs. A minor issue to fix, but it would've sucked hard if it threw the pinion and got lost.
Amazingly, enough after a few near-faint-inducing fence crashes (one of which was hard enough to wedge the car about 7 inches underneath the fence link), no serious damage was done to the car (I can't say the same about my shit marinaded undies though).
I've learned my lesson; The 3cell pack will now be sitting in the toolbox only to see the light of day when there's PLENTY of space AND a whole lot of padding in the run area. For all other occassions the 2cell Lipo and 6cell NiMH are actually a good deal more than adequate to get the job done!
