Bad 1st day with new T-Maxx

[chadds]

Well...I got my new Maxx yesterday (my first nitro), and got everything set-up and ready for break-in today. Well...break in went fine, I followed Traxxas suggestions as closely as possible. The only problem I had was trying to keep the truck from shifting in to 2nd gear during the 3/4 throttle, and full throttle runs. Other than that minor problem, break in went fine, and the truck ran great. I took it pretty easy on the truck for about an hour after that, and didn't make any carb adjustments. After that...I leaned the carb just a hair...I'm a total newb, so I didn't want to over do it. That small adjustment worked well though, the truck would pull wheelies easily, and still had a nice stream of blue smoke.

Now is where it gets ugly...I'm running around in my wide open yard just getting the feel of the truck, when all of the sudden...I have no control over the truck! It takes off...and slams right into the side of a shed and sits there revving WIDE OPEN. At this point...I don't know what the hell had happened. My electronics were totally dead. Plus...I had crash damage, I broke the front bumper, and front skid plate. Also...the motor shifted, and pulled away from the 72T spur on the transmission...and since the motor was still running...it flattened out all of the teeth on the gear.

Well...next, I take the truck in the house to see if I can figure out while my electronics died. First, I check all the wiring to see if something had been cut...all good there, next I pull of the battery cover, and that is where I find the problem! The battery holder that hold the 4 AA batteries simply broke! It cracked at the top...and came apart, causing one of the batteries to lose contact!

Needless to say...I'm pretty pissed about something like this breaking. If I would have done something stupid and crashed my truck, that would have been fine...but this should NOT have happened. This was a brand new truck, and I didn't hit ANYTHING with it before this happened. It was cold here today...which definately makes plastic more brittle...but it shouldn't just break without any kind of impact.

But...for the time I did get to run my truck, I definately enjoyed it, and I am hooked! It definately didn't take me long to have to start fixing things though!

I do need a little help from you guys on this though.

I'm going to replace the bumper, and skid plate with parts from RPM. For the battery holder...does anyone make a quality replacement for this part, or am I stuck with the Traxxas part?
Next, for the spur gear...what should I go with! The stock Traxxas, this gear from Kimbrough:
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXWH21&P=7
or this gear from Megatech:
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXESP2&P=7
I don't understand why this gear is so much more, since it is still nylon...can someone enlighten me? Or...should I skip the nylon gears, and go with this steel gear from Powerline:
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXADL4&P=7

I'm a little worried about going with steel gear...if something would get somehow jammed...I would rather a plastic gear get trashed, instead of transferring damage to the engine. Am I thinking correctly here, or just worrying too much?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Almost forgot something...when I replace the spur, should I replace the slipper pegs also? I've never had one of these apart before, so I don't know how tightly they are pressed into the spur gear. Would it just be much easier to go with the new pegs even though my current ones are only day old? Thanks!

Chad

 

[robmob]

Look into the Robinson Racing double disk slipper. You can get it in 72T with a plastic spur. The setup makes it real easy to change the spurs which can be bought separately. They also have it with a steel spur which is what I got.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXBJB6&P=7

As far as the battery holder. You should just go ahead and get a 5 cell 6V NiMH receiver pack. Here is the one that I use. It replaced the entire battery box and works great for bashing. It is from onlybatterpacks.com.

https://www.rcnitrotalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=3078&papass=&sort=1&thecat=500

BTW, the battery holder may have broke during the impact. When I first got my maxx, the exact same thing happened. I lost all control and watched it plow into a curb. Tested the reciever batteries and they were low. They were new but had been sitting aroung the house for a couple of months. I then installed batteries fresh from the store and had no problems. I have since switched to the pack shown above and also installed a failsafe.

 

[alkyula]

yes i would also go with a 5 cell nimh pack, not only will you get a rechargable battry, the nimh will give your servos a power boost.

in my opinion for a stock maxx a nylon spur is fine. id go ahead and replace the pegs with new ones..there cheap, jsut make sure you have good gear mesh, use a piece of paper and mesh it in with the gears, lock down and pull paper out..you should have good mesh then. but of course a RRP double disk slipper would be a great upgrade..although with a steel spur it would add a little more rotational mass, i dont know how much it effects a 2.5 but on my .21 it isnt noticable..peace--

 

[kwong2001]

You might wanna invest in a failsafe and throttle return spring. And maybe later get a rechargable battery pack.

If you still have the batteries you were using, check the voltage on them. They could have died and then on impact, the battery holder could have broken making it seem like that was the problem.

 

[Diver6127]

Don't forget to get yourself a failsafe. There's a few out there. I use the OFNA failsafe. Pretty small and goes for about $30-$45.

 

[chadds]

Originally posted by robmob
BTW, the battery holder may have broke during the impact. [/B]

The battery holder definatley broke before the impact. The batteries were brand new out of the pack this morning...and are still in the truck. I wrapped the battery holder up with electrical tape so I could test everything out after the crash, and those batteries are still working fine...so I'm at least 99% sure that the holder broke before the crash.

Thanks for the suggestions on the battery pack though, I'm definatley going to check into that! Defintely going to check into a failsafe too!


Chad

Hmmm...has anyone gotten anything from http://onlybatterypacks.com/ lately? I can't get the site up...and I want that battery pack!

Chad

 

[SuperMaxx97]

if it was me, i would get ahold of traxxas. that shouldnt have happend. if u are just driving around in ur yard, and it all of a sudden take off, u hit a shed, and ur truck is screwed. then u take it apart and it is becasue the battery wire broke??? i am pretty sure u can break one of those wires too easy. or atleast ii havent

bryan

 

[robmob]

http://www.onlybatterypacks.com/

Site works fine. You forgot the www.

 

[chadds]

Originally posted by SuperMaxx97
if it was me, i would get ahold of traxxas. that shouldnt have happend. if u are just driving around in ur yard, and it all of a sudden take off, u hit a shed, and ur truck is screwed. then u take it apart and it is becasue the battery wire broke??? i am pretty sure u can break one of those wires too easy. or atleast ii havent

bryan

I'm could call Traxxas...and I would hope that they would replace everything if I explained what happened, but I'm not willing to lose the truck for a few weeks for them to fix it, and if I have to fix it...I would rather replace the parts with something a little better quality than the Traxxas stuff. I still may call them to let them know what happened...but I doubt it will accomplish much.

Also...you said about the wire breaking...it wasn't the wire that broke. It was the actual plastic box that cracked. It cracked in a corner and lost contact with one of the batteries.


Robmob...just tracked down one of those battery packs on Ebay...getting it now. Thanks...that looks like a great upgrade!


Chad

Originally posted by robmob
http://www.onlybatterypacks.com/

Site works fine. You forgot the www.

Must be my server giving me some problem...I still can't get it. Just picked one up on Ebay though....it's the same one. Seller is onlybatterypacks-com. Thanks again...I think I'm gonna go with double disc slipper you suggested too.


Chad

 

[SuperMaxx97]

O!!! sorry, i thought u said that a wire broke!:trashed: ya i dont think that traxxas would do much anywayz.

besides it is better than u go and get more stronger parts.

bryan

 

[bashmaster]

this has happened to my friends t-maxx while we were out bashing one time and mine another time. i have no clue why for both cases,

firends crash- at full throttle he lost control the servos held their last command, strait and wide open, the truck hit the brick wall of my house just as it shifted into second, busted chassis and bulkead, 2 Arms and bumber mount all smashed.
the truck flipped over and the enging reved to unbeleiveable high rpms and i had to put my foot over the exhaust to stop it. I've never seen a tire baloon that bad before.

MY crash
wide open down a street, 2nd gear, lose of control, truck catches a root of a tree getting a bout 10ft air and landing on its wheels, stripped a spur, and killed a clutch, AND then it landed the crazy jump and luckly slammes into a nice cushony hedge across somebodys yard, thank goodness it wasn't a persons car because it would have totaled both the car and my truck.

 

[30%NitroBoy]

Originally posted by Diver6127
Don't forget to get yourself a failsafe. There's a few out there. I use the OFNA failsafe. Pretty small and goes for about $30-$45.

I'm assuming your reffering to the Ofna "MICRO" failsafe.....my buddy @ OFNA sent me a free one for "evaluation" and so far so great...tiny ass little thing too. They for $29.95 retail around here. I'll post a review on it after I've had it for 4 months for some real long term testing.

Peace

 

[SuperMaxx97]

30%nitroboy, u think u friend can hook me up with one of them littel things?

bryan

 

[chadds]

I'm getting a failsafe with my other new parts. I ordered the Ofna unit. In this case, a failsafe wouldn't have helped me though would it? I'm thinking this since I lost power because of the battery case breaking. Is this correct? Thanks

Chad

 

[SuperMaxx97]

actually i think that it would have. cause when my friends battery's died the engine was back to idle and he couldnt do anything with it. so i am pretty sure it would work(not positive tho)

bryan

 

[hpiracer]

i think that i wouldnt work doesn't the failsafe only work when there's power? if it works with three batts why can't the servo work ?

 

[30%NitroBoy]

Originally posted by SuperMaxx97
30%nitroboy, u think u friend can hook me up with one of them littel things?

bryan

Not to further deviate off subject....your a funny guy Bryan. Keep being you and you'll be a cool bird when you get older bro.

Peace

 

[SuperMaxx97]

lol, i dont know if i was trying to be funny but o well!LOL ya back to the subject here, but like i said i think that it would work but not positive.

bryan

 

[wdavidhicks]

If you lose power you lose power. Most failsafes will lock to a predetermined setting (full brake, eh?) on detection of low receiver battery power or loss of signal. But if there's a complete loss of power then your only hope is the mechanical saviour: the throttle return spring.

Yes, Chadds, the failsafe wouldn't have helped you here.

 

[30%NitroBoy]

Originally posted by wdavidhicks
If you lose power you lose power. Most failsafes will lock to a predetermined setting (full brake, eh?) on detection of low receiver battery power or loss of signal. But if there's a complete loss of power then your only hope is the mechanical saviour: the throttle return spring.

Yes, Chadds, the failsafe wouldn't have helped you here.

Yep, and this is why you need as much redundancy as possibe. A good fail safe and a PROPER "spring mod". My last nasty wreck wouldn't have been saved by any failsafe on the market but it would have been saved (or more survied to some extent) by a spring mod.

Peace