e revo progress

[entjoles]

heres some progress on my revo , still need to get another battery tray and mount them and wire it all up, thinking im going with 2 maxamp 5k packs for good weight dist.

[entjoles]

added up all my equipment and i added 35.81oz to my bare revo(2.24lbs)with the batterys weight, anyone know how much a bare chassis weights aprox.?

[entjoles]

or the roller with tires?

[jnev]

nice set up you have got there. Shoudl be pretty even in terms of weight on both sides of the chassis.

Sorry, since I don't own a revo, I can't take the weights.

[renny]

I have a question......
Why dose everyone always mount the ESC on top of the tranny?
I noticed that there isn`t to many people that made the rear shock platfourm that I have and it works well in keeping everything clean looking.

[BlackedOutREVO]

imo it makes ajusting pre load to hard with a plate over it... plus a simple l shape and ur done with the mount

[BrianG]

I have a question......
Why dose everyone always mount the ESC on top of the tranny?
I noticed that there isn`t to many people that made the rear shock platfourm that I have and it works well in keeping everything clean looking.

That is exactly why I went with a solution where the batteries are all on one side and the motor, steering servo, and ESC on the other. IMO, the ESC on the tranny makes it sit too high and will be one of the first parts to get crunched in a crash :eek:. But, as EmaxxRocks stated, putting iot over the rear (or front) shocks makes it tough to get to the adjustments or if you need to remove the shocks if you need to.

Then again, that's what is nice about doing custom conversions; you get to make them how you want. :)

[entjoles]

i did mainly for weight and ease of the build, and i did not want my body to stick up an extra inch, looks weird to me to have the body really high to clear the esc fan, but to each there own, and if i crunch it ill get a better set up with a small esc and senserless motor, but i may still build a roll hoop to protect it, have to see what i have for room under the j concepts body, any other thoughts or suggestions

[entjoles]

btw all my parts were made with just a dremal and a hack saw, no access to real tools

[renny]

Preload?????
Whats that?????? lolol
I have the purple 36 in lb shock springs in the rear and the preload colars set to max and it still bottoms out after a 6ft jump he he he ha ha ha


Just a side note.....
I was driving my truck on the road in front of the house about a week ago and you know the funny thing is that people actualy DRIVE on these roads OPPS......

MY little dodge got RAN OVER by a BIG dodge !@#$
impresivly enough the ONLY thing that WAS damaged was the body had some rather deep scraches THATS IT!!!! If only you guys could have saw that drivers face drop when I told him it was fine.

I guess the old saying still holds true......
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
needless to say after the quick inspection I keeped driving and I even let the real driver take it out for a rip because I think he was still in shock that my little truck was still in one piece

[luvsrc]

hi there where can you get a battery tray like in the pic?thanks

[entjoles]

i got this at fine design rc , but, there are other options that are available that are more reasonable , it was like $35 shipped and was suposed to be blue but i did not want the hassle of returning for a differant color, btw it is under the losi truck section, hope that helps

[entjoles]

heres some pics of the finished truck, almost, all i need is a body , mrc 989 charger , 2 maxamps 5k 7.2v packs , and some extended wheel base rear arms, thanks for all the help and inspiration , you guys are great and build some amazing stuff, hope i can build something else this summer, thanks for looking

[BrianG]

Looks very nice! How's she run?

[entjoles]

dont really know yet , i had to sell my other revo to fund my charger and batterys , so when i get the money from the auction ill get my stuff and let you guys know, although i did run like 2 months ago with cheap packs and i did not evan have enough punch to shift to 2nd gear, so hopefully the snow will melt and ill get this going

[BrianG]

The motor might not have enough rpm to get it to shift into second since the stock nitro engine gets upwards of 50k rpm. Try lowering the shift point a bit if you still can't get it to shift.

[entjoles]

cool thats a good idea, ill do it and see when i get it running

but i did shift into second when it was off the ground and freewheeling

the batterys i ran it on sucked, when i went to full throttle it would cut out , i tried it on 2 2k packs that were like $15 each so when i get my lipo it will be great, i hope

[BrianG]

Shifting in the air is a bit different since there is no load and the motor is more free to get to high speed. On the ground, you have more load and even some wind resistance.

Granted, good batteries can make a difference, but don't be surprised if it doesn't shift. And anyway, you probably don't want the motor to spin too fast since efficiency drops at high rpms. It might be better to shift lower anyway.

[entjoles]

thanks ill lower it for sure, is it possible to almost eliminate 1st by setting the shift point really low?

[BrianG]

I don't think so. I know if you shift it too low, the adjustment setscrew, spring, and little ball bearing in the clutch will fall out so be careful. I'm sure you don't want those parts floating around in there. :)

I removed first gear altogether because I wanted motor braking and reverse, so I never got to play around with it.

No matter what, I'd make small adjustments and see what works the best. You might find that you don't need first gear at all. :) And if you do go the single speed route, you can install the close-ratio gear set so second gear won't be quite so high.

[entjoles]

thanks for the advice, ill be careful, and maybe lock it later but for know i want to try the frt and rear mechanical brakes

[BrianG]

Your motor will probably stay cooler with 2 speeds and you'll have even better low speed performance, especially since you're using a sensored setup.

And even if you lock the tranny, you can still use mech brakes if the ESC has the ability to disable motor braking.

I've looked at the 2 speed clutch and there is a little round plastic plug that acts like a thread locker for the set screw. If the set screw loosens beyond this point, then it may loosen while running and fall out. Once you get the shifting where you want it, it might not hurt to use a little lock-tite on the set screw...

[entjoles]

cool , if i need more speed i can always change to standard or wide ratio gear sets and then locktite it , maybe ill adjust it a little , but running cooler sounds good to me, i have the novak lvc on it and want to run about 15-20 minutes bashing at a time and dont want to worry about it getting to hot, but it is probably ok, its geared 15/40

[BrianG]

I'm running a 10XL on 14 cells with the tranny locked into second with the wide ratio gear set and 40T spur/ 14T pinion. My motor temps are about 130 after some hard running. The HV motor is a little smaller lengthwise if I see it right so a little extra cooling might be nice.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[entjoles]

yeah i want it to run as cool as possible, and get around 30-35 mph, btw what is a good temp range? 120-140

[entjoles]

good looking truck btw , must be a handfull

[BrianG]

Thanks. It is kinda heavy with all those cells, but I plan on getting some lipos soon. I think the 5s1p 10Ah cells from maxamps should do the trick and be lighter to boot. And they would fit perfectly too. :)

[squeeforever]

Brian, I'm thinking of the same packs for mine. :) Our setups are gonna be somewhat similar. I'm gonna be running a MM, 4S 10ah cells (not sure if I'm going with a 2p yet), 7XL, 2 speed, center diff, rear brakes, etc.

[BrianG]

Great minds think alike I guess. :)

[BP-Revo]

Brian, I'm thinking of the same packs for mine. :) Our setups are gonna be somewhat similar. I'm gonna be running a MM, 4S 10ah cells (not sure if I'm going with a 2p yet), 7XL, 2 speed, center diff, rear brakes, etc.

2P 10ah? Dude that'd drive for like 2 hours... I almost want to build a truck just for that purpose. You'd probably have to change bearings before batteries LOL

You could run a whole track day on one pack.

I was running at the track with my 8K's and I got off the track ~3 times during the one run to check motor temps, slightly adjust setup, and help my buddies out. When my pack finally dumped I said "Finally...first pack change of the day" and some guy nearly fell off the drivers stand. He was running GP3300's and a low turn motor and was getting barely 10 minutes a run and I just got like 45 lol. He thought I was changing packs every time I got off.

[squeeforever]

Yea, thats the goal. Break it before you have to charge it. :p I rarely make it that much runtime before something desides to go wrong for some reason. :032:

[BrianG]

I had a similar thing happen when running my Jato on the 2s2p emolis (5.6Ah). There was another guy who swapped his NiMH batteries on his rustler (IIRC) three times before mine finally dumped. He asked what the heck kind of batteries I was running. :)

On my Revo, I get about 13-15 minutes of runtime. Not too bad, but I'd like more. I don't necessarily want 2 hours of runtime - I'd get tired of running that long lol. And I think my Tx batteries would die first! :)

[entjoles]

with my setup and 2 5k lipo , what kind of run time do you think i can get before cut off? 25-30 minutes

[BrianG]

Runtime is sooo hard to guess at since driving style, track conditions, how much time you spend at top speed, etc, makes so much difference.

When you say 2 5k lipo, do you mean 2s1p 5k lipo?

[entjoles]

my novak system is a 14.8v system so ill be using 2 2s packs @ 5ah , hope that helps

[BrianG]

At a very rough guess, I'd say 20-25 minutes. But that's based on my Revo with 3.3Ah NiMH cells and different system.

[entjoles]

cool thats great, ordered charger, mrc 989, parts list is shrinking:027:

[BrianG]

So, how close are you to completion?

[entjoles]

basiclly done ordered charger(new to electric), just need my batterys(maxamps 5ah 7.4v packs) body (j concepts custom painted) and some extended wheelbase rear arms(traxxas) and test and tune suspension, then ill probably sell the hvmaxx and get more power, but i think it will be good for a while as long as it holds up, (hvmaxx 4.5 is off ebay for about $200 used)

[squeeforever]

Entjoles, I would definately go with the Tekno rear arms instead of Traxxas. There much stronger.

[entjoles]

cool ill check them out, did not know they made em, i live under a rock you know lol, thanks ill check em out

[entjoles]

thanks they do look good, ill get those instead

[entjoles]

just a quick update, got charger and ordered body(jconcepts) and ext. rear arms (tekno) and ordered batterys( maxamps 7.4v 5000mah x 2) will test asap and let you guys know how it works out..

one quick ? though, i cant seem to figure out the final drive gear ratio when compared to the emaxx, diffs are the same and i think the close ratio 2nd gear is the same as the emaxx, but how can i figure out my gearing , just check the emaxx recomended ratio and then try to match it? i am running 15/40, thanks for any help

[BrianG]

I have the various gear ratios for the Revo at my R/C Calculations site (link in sig).

[entjoles]

thanks, it looks like i dont have to worry about getting to hot, if i understand the final drive ratios between the two correctly

[entjoles]

here is a bash body i painted this weekend

[jnev]

Looks good. Now time to get it dirty!!:027:

:005:

[Sylvester]

Nice! Looks similar to my old revo, that body lasted 6 runs ;)

[entjoles]

i hope this one lasts longer than that! i have a jconcepts body coming too , but that one i decided to let someone else paint

[Sylvester]

I have to say, even for bashing, the crowd pleaser is a VERY durable body! Took every roll, hit, jump i could throw at it!

[entjoles]

yeah i have had good luck with them also, and once i put on the wing i have to throw away bodies just so i can get a new one, lol

[Sylvester]

Only if they sold seperate wings :p lol

[entjoles]

packs are in , went for a spin and it was pretty good, took out the throttle splitter and went with servo mixing so channel three is brake only , any way a few problems, it diffs out the front bad, may need thicker fluid up front, and in diff, or back to no center diff will test more, novak lipo lvc worked good except it cut off and i came in and the packs were at 7.4 each(started at 7.65 didnt charge to begin with) so i switched the splitter and set up the 3rd channel , and went back out because the voltage looked good, ran for 5 more minutes and cut off again, this time one pack(the one with the 4s lvc) was at 5.9 ouch, and the other was at 6.7 so that sucks but im charging the lowest one right now and its going good, charging thru the balancer @ 4amps seems to be charging great (thought id charge at a lower amp till i now im doing it right) but now im going to lower shift point a little and test more tomorrow, but im pretty excited, ive wrote more than usually

[entjoles]

will post pics later of the batterys on the truck, but any one have an idea of the diffing out problum, should i put thicker fluid in the front and the center? new to diff tuning and dont know what to do, maybe just go back to no center diff and then ill have reverse

[entjoles]

correction on the reverse, i mean i may be locking it in second to be able to have reverse via motor

[entjoles]

here they are mounted

[squeeforever]

You don't have to get rid of the center diff if you lock it in 2nd. Try thicker fluid in the center and if the front starts to unload on one side or the other in a turn, the go thicker in the front. Theres a sticky about diff tuning basics.

[entjoles]

thanks , i just remembered that i have not changed the diff fluid since it was installed, (ran like 3 gallons thru it) so ill tear it out and put in like what it came with 500k i think , probably doesnt have any left in it, thanks for the help, i still am gonna run it tomorrow anyway, cant resist, goes pretty good, i was impressed, now i just need to get it to stop diffing out and should be cool

[entjoles]

just switched to 300k in the center diff, seemed to help some but i think im going to put heavy fluid in front, like 50k (30k now) and get some new hpi road tires, now i got proline cf and they are not belted so that could be a big part of the problem, but anyway just ran it with charged packs and the lvc kicked in at like ten minutes of running, mainly speed runs in short grass, not the best runtime but once i get another set of batterys itll be ok, id say its in the 30 mph range easy maybe more, so far i am pretty impresed with this set up, but then again ive never witnessed high end , plus i have not driven it since thanksgiving so happy to be running

[entjoles]

would heavy springs in the rear help any? i have the collars run up all the way and 50wt oil

[squeeforever]

It might help a little since if the springs are to weak in the rear the rear will squat and let the front balloon. It's really a game of trial and error.

[entjoles]

thanks ill just keep trying diff things and enjoy the fact that its finally running, on the bright side i have no spur gear wear, i was a little nervous about it cause if my mount was off to much it would probably eat gears

[entjoles]

well i ran about 20 min today with 300k in the front diff it helped alot, anyway just wanted to post temps, 100f on the batterys, 105 on the motor and after 3 speed runs the esc got up to 135f so looks like its ok, may go to wide ratio on the 2 spd

[entjoles]

i think im done with the center diff in the stock trans. it just will not distribute power like i want just a fyi for those of you who want to try this set up , i think it sucks,lol, but i think many of you probaly new that, any way after a little track time today i think i need to get rid of the center diff, but may go with the slipperentual