Newbie questions Tamiya Racing Fighter

[ChuChu]

Hi,

As in Topic, I am newbie and just bought Tamiya Racing Fighter. I need some tips for now and probably even more in nearest future.

I have plan to use model once/ twice per week on gravel.

1. I read about LiPo and NiMh batteries. Because of safety reasons and low maintenance, I think I prefer NiMh. Are those batteries totally safe? Should I store them just in cool, dry place or to be 100% safe it is better to put them to e.g. LiPo safe bag?

2. I have Torque Tuned 540 engine. If I put e.g. 3300 battery for how long it will last? 15? 30 minutes?

3. Is it better to have one battery around 5000 battery or two around 3000?

4. I bought cheap 1$ ball bearings with rubber seals to replace standard plastic bushing. I assume that grease inside is not the greatest. Is it worth to remove factory grease and put some light one? I have quite a lot experience from cycling but weight and usage of bike is different.

5. Racing Fighter has somehow sealed gerbox. Is it worth to remove both or at least one ball bearing seal to reduce drag?

 

[tntpoof]

nimh batteries can fail from charging at to many amps dropping a fully charged battery lipo is safe when proper charging storage technics are use and a fireproof container like a military ammo box or a bat box

 

[bill_delong]

1. NiMh will take about an hour to charge and will not hold voltage well under load with a comparable C rating of about 5C when compared to modern LiPo packs in the 120C range. This means that a NiMh battery will immediately start losing top end speed and progressively lose speed over a typical 10-15 min run time depending on how much time you spend driving full throttle.

LiPo batteries will take about 10-15 min to charge and will maintain the same top speed for nearly double the run time of NiMh before it abruptly shuts off with a LVC (Low Voltage Cutoff) making LiPo far more practical with current industry standards.

LiPo's are only dangerous if you mishandle them, easiest thing to do is monitor the IR to be safe, more info here:

• Which charger is the best?

NiMh can also be dangerous is mishandled:

2. I have Torque Tuned 540 engine. If I put e.g. 3300 battery for how long it will last? 15? 30 minutes?
Answered above

3. Is it better to have one battery around 5000 battery or two around 3000?
I would get the highest capacity you can afford and have as many packs that you want to run, NiMh takes about an hour per pack to charge so plan accordingly

With LiPo you can get away with just 2 packs and have the second pack charged in equal time that it takes to drain the first pack so you can run indefinitely all day long without any breaks other than the time it takes to swap batteries out

4. I bought cheap 1$ ball bearings with rubber seals to replace standard plastic bushing. I assume that grease inside is not the greatest. Is it worth to remove factory grease and put some light one? I have quite a lot experience from cycling but weight and usage of bike is different.

No, keep the grease, periodically inspect by removing the seals and when it starts to turn black is when you want to flush and pack with fresh grease where I prefer white lithium grease from Lucas Oil

5. Racing Fighter has somehow sealed gerbox. Is it worth to remove both or at least one ball bearing seal to reduce drag?

No, the performance gain will be negligible and will increase the maintenance cycle because dirt will collect faster without the seals.

If you want to boost performance, consider LiPo instead of NiMh which will boost your top speed by a minimum of 5mph faster than NiMh


*** SIDE NOTE***
I race 13.5T Stock where there are many speed secrets we use to improve performance. We run "AVID Aura Ceramic Bearings" which have a metal shield on one side which is exposed and the rubber seal is removed, then we use 2 drops of Trinity Perpetual Motion to lubricate the bearings. While this yields optimal performance in the form of Faster Acceleration, it doesn't improve top speed. This just helps us get from one corner to the next faster on a race track at the expense of having to pull all the bearings, clean (using WD40 Dry Lube) and lubricate every single race day to get this competitive edge

 

[ChuChu]

LiPo seems to be good upgrade, but still with my electric abilities I am sure that one day something will go wrong

Thanks for explanation!

 

[Greywolf74]

LiPo seems to be good upgrade, but still with my electric abilities I am sure that one day something will go wrong

Thanks for explanation!

Just got to be prepared for it.

 

[bill_delong]

Nothing wrong staying with NiMh, just know that is ancient technology and extremely limiting with its capabilities, the argument for "safety" is moot provided you follow basic guidelines:
https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-304a-safety-concerns-with-li-ion#:~:text=Quality lithium-ion batteries are,ion on most current models.

I have seen a handful of LiPo fires first hand and in every incident, the batteries were improperly used due to the following 4 scenarios:
1) Only use LiPo mode, majority of fires I saw where guys boosting their packs in NiMh mode which caused the fire
2) Use a charger with a capacity shut off so if you accidentally charge a LiPo in NiMh mode then it will shut off before risk of fire
3) Use a charger that provides IR readings and discard aged batteries with IR that is fading
4) Discard a battery with any signs of excessive swelling

That's pretty much all there is to using a LiPo safely

I get nervous when a guys says his LiPo is 5 years old and works great... I can guarantee that the IR is faded and the pack needs to be replaced.

 

[ChuChu]

I did small shopping but I am not sure about servo.

I ordered:

https://www.srt-rc.com/index.php?id=66

Is it not too powerful for DT03?

Should I buy high torque servo saver in that case?

 

[Greywolf74]

If your radio has end point adjustments you can just use that, if not then you can buy a servo saver

 

[ChuChu]

I ordered Sanwa MX-6. I hope it will be good...

 

[Greywolf74]

I ordered Sanwa MX-6. I hope it will be good...

Its one of Sanwas entry class radios but Sanwa makes good stuff!