Decisions decisions... Venturing to Electric

[cobra198]

Hey Guys,

I've been outta the game for a while, but just could never let go of my RC cars. Every once and a while I love firing them up and going bashing. Anyways, recently a friend of mine got an electric Slash and upgraded to a Brushless LiPo setup. After checking out his setup, I decided that I really like electric (I have a Nitro Tmaxx and a nitro XTM buggy). It requires much less messing around with tuning and doesn't piss the neighbors off with the noise.

I still like my nitro RC (so I dont want to get rid of them both) but would like to add an electric beast to the collection. Now I am trying to figure out which avenue to take. I have been traveling for the past four months and the bank account is a bit low, so I'm trying to do it on the cheap (atleast as cheap as possible).

I was thinking about 2 options and would like your opinion.

Option 1: Find an E Revo roller that is ready to go. I'd go brushless right off the bat, and probably wait to go lipo a bit down the road. This would be the easy route, cause I would just have to drop the stuff in. It would also proplly be more expensive, cause it seems like E Revo rollers arent cheap!

Option 2: I really love my XTM buggy. Has a good stance, I can jump it in the dirt as well as take it on the street (I like how it handles compared to a Monster Truck). I was thinking about converting it to electric. I saw a thread where someone converted there Nitro 1/8 buggy to brushless electric, but I couldnt quite follow the entire process. I would need your guys' expertise with the conversion, since I'm not quite sure exactly what I would need.

So, with those choices what do you think I should do? If you have another idea I'm open for options, but remember I'm trying to do it on the cheap!

Thanks for the help!

 

[sweetdiesel]

An e-revo roller runs $250 on ebay. If you want to go electric on the cheap (and with reliability) I would convert your XTM. Here is what you need

Motor mount - fine designs makes one for the XTM, email them for pricing, should be around $50

Battery tray- $40 from either fine design or rc-monster.com

Motor and ESC- lots to choose from here but a good value package is the Mamba Monster Max system with a 2200KV motor -$270

4-5S lipo pack with at least 5000mah rated capacity and 20C cont. discharge - $150+

Lipo charger- Also lots to choose from here-expect to spend about $150-200 for a good charger and power supply.

All told expect to spend at least $650 to make the jump to electric.

I'll be starting an Ofna Hyper 7 conversion this week or next so stay tuned for the project thread which will detail everything you need to do. You can also get some good reading from my first conversion that was done a couple years ago. Keep in mind that brushless gear has been dropping in price so don't expect to pay the stupid high prices I did back then.

https://www.rcnitrotalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43335&page=7&highlight=brushless+truggy


If you want specific suggestions for batteries, motors, ESCs, and charging systems.... do a search, lots of good info on what is currently available.

 

[cobra198]

Thans for the quick reply. Just checked out your thread, and I must say... impressive to say the least!

I do like the idea of converting my xtm. My only concern is the fact that it seems like a trickier process than simply slapping exerything on a roller. That list of parts doesn't seem bad at all. I thought it would be worse than that. So it will all just bolt up to my existing tranny? I'm guessing that I'll have to change out the gearing? I have also read that people do stuff to the diffs when they make the conversion.

I was checking out the motor mounts on fine designs. Are you talking about the Aluminum motor clamp mounts? Guess I need to decide on the motor that I'm going with before I make that purchase. (Just thought I'd ask cause other mounts I've seen look a bit different than just those 2 little clamp mounts).

Anyhoo, thanks again for the quick reply. Like I said, I really like the idea of converting the XTM. I am going to have to take abay steps though, so excuse all the dumb questions that are sure to come. I'm about to do some searching to educate myself, but would appreciate any input you can give!

Cheers!

 

[sweetdiesel]

The motor mount replaces the rear center diff bulkhead on your buggy, and what the motor mounts to. You'll need to email fine designs for the price, as it is not lised on their website.

Everything bolts into your existing chassis, one thing I forgot to mention is you'll need a couple pinion gears with a 5mm bore and mod1 pitch. They run about $13.00 from rc-monster.com. Get the super hardened ones, so they don't get chewed by your center diff gear.

In general people run heavier diff oils compared to nitro due to the higher torque of the motor. Expect to up the oil weight by at least 3K in each diff.

 

[cobra198]

Cool cool, thanks for the info. I just shot fine designs an email about the motor mount so we will see what they say. I found the pinion gears on RC-Monster, thanks for the advice!

That Mamba Monster Max System is lookin pretty damn intense! That is pretty expensive, but I have heard great things. Since I am saving $$$ on the roller that I would have bought, I figure I can splurge on the Motor and ESC. I figure that will give me more power than I know what to do with!

I think I'm going to go start cleaning up the buggy and pulling off some of the stuff that I will no longer need. I will prolly do a bit more research before I start makin purchases.

Thanks again for the help, and ill let you know how it goes. Also, ill be lookin for your new thread on the conversion! Good luck!

 

[sweetdiesel]

The Mamba Max System seems expensive initially, but it has a Neu based motor (Neu 1512 equivalent) which normally costs about $225 just by itself. The Mamba Monster Max ESC costs about $165 by itself...so $279 for both is a great value.

 

[cobra198]

I guess when you put it that way, it doesn't seem so bad afterall.

As for the Pinion gears, how many teeth would you recommend to start me off? Looks like ill be running the MMM system with stock buggy tires to start me off (down the road I'm planning on making it more truggy like and putting on some bigger tires).

 

[sweetdiesel]

Get a 13T and 14T. You'll want to start off with the 13T to match stock gearing.

Down the road if you decide to run truggy wheels/tires, you'll need to run a lower gear ratio. There is a possibility that the motor/esc/battery will have enough juice to turn the larger wheels and tires by dropping a tooth on the pinion, but most of the time when you run larger tires and wheels you need to do more than just drop a tooth on the pinion. You'll also want to run a larger center spur and then run spacers underneath the center diff bulkheads to compensate for the larger diameter spur. You also have to run wheel spacers because the buggy arms are too short.

IMO it's more of a headache to try and convert a buggy to a truggy....I'd rather start with a truggy chassis in the first place if that is really the direction you want to go. They have longer arms and chassis and lowered gearing to start with.

 

[cobra198]

Great, ill get a 13t and a 14t pinion gear.

I was thinking of eventually making it a truggy, but maybe ill just stick with the electric buggy for the time being to keep things more simple. Once I get that tweaked, I can start looking at changing the gearing ratios, tires, and making it wider etc.

Thanks again for the info!

 

[sweetdiesel]

Let us know what you find from fine design with regards to cost of a motor mount and battery tray. Post it here so others can know in the future.

Good luck with your conversion!

 

[cobra198]

Let us know what you find from fine design with regards to cost of a motor mount and battery tray. Post it here so others can know in the future.

Good luck with your conversion!

Thanks agin, Ill post when I hear back from Fine Designs about the mount. I may have some more questions in the interem though. Started to strip down the XTM for a solid cleaning today, and ill prolly order the MMM combo tomorrow cause thats lookin like a winner!

Cheers

 

[BMILLER]

sweet diesel would not steer u wrong

 

[cobra198]

Hello again!

So let me pose this one to you. I was looking around the net (after what sweetdiesel was saying), and found this truggy roller for only 130. It looks like it comes with a bunch of the stuff I need, plus its allready geared like a truggy should be. Not sure what kinda quality it is but thought id see if any of you have heard of it. Looks like I would still have to slap my own tires, wing, and motor mount in addition to my motor, esc, batteries, and radio.

Should I think strongly about this, or stick with converting the XTM? Heres the link to the kit: http://www.rc-monster.com/proddetail.php?prod=RCMRC8Tchassis

By the way, I ordered my MMM kit with 2200kv motor and its scheduled to be here on the 23rd! Exciting stuff!

 

[sweetdiesel]

The kit you linked to is not a complete chassis. You will still need all three diffs, arms, shocks, steering assembly, cvds etc....basically you still need a Team Associated RC8 roller AND the kit to do the conversion.

 

[cobra198]

The kit you linked to is not a complete chassis. You will still need all three diffs, arms, shocks, steering assembly, cvds etc....basically you still need a Team Associated RC8 roller AND the kit to do the conversion.

Ah ok, thats what I figured! Seemed too good to be true. Anyways, now I'm just waiting on a reply regarding the motor mount.

Thanks for the info sweetdiesel!

 

[cobra198]

Thought Id post a few pics of the buggy before the conversion. Got her all nice and stripped down and cleaned today!

The Nitro Setup (A bit neglected when I took the pics - I know):

Stripped down:

And nice and clean, all read for the new parts!

Not too bad for a relatively quick clean job. Still just waiting on word about the mount. Once I get the motor, ill be able to start mocking up the configuration.