E-Maxx Motors?

[stone_solutions]

New to this forum and wanted to ask a question. I just ordered a E-Maxx for my wife since she wasn't into nitro fully. I was wanting to know without going to a brushless motor, whats the best motors that I can put into this truck, this truck will be pretty hopped up and will be used for her to race mainly. Any help and links to where I can pick these motors up from or information on which are the best for racing. Also any input on what batteries setup to go with would be great.

Thanks
S-Solutions

 

[El Pirata]

Novak Brushless. I heard tale of a single Novak Brushless that blew away the dual motors that come stock.

 

[Çh®i§tiªñ]

.....without going brushles..... otherwise I would say to go with a Hacker!!!

I dont know on the non-brushless side.

 

[militarymaxx]

Having cut my R/C teeth on electric and then switching over to Nitro, my knowledge is definately electric based. There are many brushless motors out there Novak being my personal favorite. Brushless can be very, very expensive. If you find a deal that you can't believe, you're not getting what you think. The last time I priced a dual Novak brushless system, it would have run about $900. Unlike the brush type motors, your Titans for example, can be used with just one ESC. Brushless require one per motor. Are brushless better ? Oh yeah !!. Tons more torque, gobs of speed, and longer run time (brushless make better use of battery power than do brush type motors). Oh yeah, let's not forget maintenance. There is none. They're also sealed from the environment. I hear tales of some of the electric guys over in the Traxxas forums doing close to 90 mph (GPS confirmed) with a dual brushless system. I've seen videos of tires pancaking to the point of coming off the rim from so much force. Torque - electrics in general will outpull a nitro (nitro's have to build RPM's where as electrics have it there immediately), and the torque of a brushless will have you upgrading your entire drive train with something other than plastic. Yup, metal all the way through. So add that to the already steep price. So, if you interested in setting some R/C land speed record, go for it. But for putting that power to ground on a track, forget it. Nitro or electric - putting all available power to ground will always be a challenge.

 

[robriguez]

As Military mentioned brushless can be very expensive. Not only do you need one ESC per motor, you will most likely need a matched pair.

Another factor for brushless is the type of sensor built into the motor. In my experience and from what I've seen on the web there are 2 types. With sensors and without. The ones without usually have higher rpms and better power output but can be twitchy off the line and at low speeds. The ones with will run much smoother and have a very even power band. Almost the same amount of tourque regardless of RPM.

Becuase there is no commutator or brushes in a brushless motor setup, the ESC has a small processor chip built in that "senses" when an electrical power needs to be sent to the windings to make it spin. Even the fastest processors get bogged down at super high rpm.

The sensorless motors rely on electrical wave feedback (i forget the proper term) to tell the ESC when to supply power. Its more of a mechanical way of switching power between windings. So there is no bogging down at super high rpm but performance suffers at the very low end and at low speeds. I would say from Zero to about maybe 5Mph. From that point on its all go babie!!!!

One last thing so also keep in mind.....all that power eats batteries like crazy. All off the brushless systems I've seen are running no less than 20 cells in an E-Maxx.

Check out a bunch of Brushless E-Maxx vids here.

And here is more info with tons of links to other brushless sites.

I've been wanting to get a dual brushles E-Maxx for a long time now. As soon as I have the $$ I'm getting one. Those sites I listed also have links to custom E-Maxx Hopups to alow lighter chassis, lower CG and more cells.

Good luck.

 

[militarymaxx]

Great points Rob. I think stone has alot to think about. I will add one more thing though. Out of all the guys I know that have gone brushless, the majority of them have had nothing but headaches and failures with them. Even with the high end units.
Matching eveything up, ESC/motors/batteries can be very difficult.
And when you spend all that money only to find out that things aren't compatible, it can be very discouraging.

 

[stone_solutions]

OK, this has been alot of great information. I have also read about so many troubles with brushless and the cost is kind of crazy too. What options are there out there for a Non-Brushless motor setup and what's going to be the best for my money without going to a brushless setup. Thanks again for all the help on brushless setups but I am really looking to see what's out there without dropping $400 on a brushless setup and just dropping in some replacement motors.

Thanks
Stone

 

[robriguez]

Even if your not going to go brushless Novak is a very good name brand.

 

[El Pirata]

If you are going brushless they are a good name too.

 

[militarymaxx]

I had searched for the bigger better faster replacement for the Titans and after many months of research, talking with tons of folks about the Reedys', the monster mayhems, the monster maxxs', all the modifieds you can shake a stick at I came to one conclusion...........the Titans are hard to beat. They're cheap to replace and with the proper battery setup (14 cells), they rock !!
The only thing I don't like about them is they are sealed and can't be rebuilt like a conventional can motor. If, and I say if, you wanted to go with something else, I can recommend the Monster Maxx Pro's (2 of them for $96 at Tower Hobbies). Get yourself a Super Rooster ESC (around $120 at Tower Hobbies). The Super Rooster has no limit when it comes to the number of turns for a motor. Before you make the jump to a different motor/ESC combination, try the stock Titans on 14 cells. Going from 12 cells NiCd to some GP3300 7 cell NiMH stick packs was incredible. Remember, NiMH have longer run times than NiCd, but not the punch of NiCd. Keep things cool. Get rid of those Tamiya type connectors that came with the E-Maxx and switch to something like Deans Ultra connectors (don't forget the charger also). They are a zero loss connector. The tamiya ones are known to melt under use. Get some heat sinks for the motors, they help too. Get yourself some different gear setups also, different spur and pinion sizes. The local pulling record here is 220 pounds on the sled with an E-Maxx running monster maxx pro's, 14 cells, a 72 tooth spur with 9 tooth pinions. Top speed is like 0 MPH, but the torque is off the scale. Sorry for the long thread. Let us know how things turn out.

 

[imnotsure]

I have also done a little research on this what I learned was the same as mm said. Every place I asked said the same thing that you read above. The bottom line is spend(x) amount for brushless or go to the 14 cells & that I would not be disappointed.