I still don't understand the reasoning behind converting the 5b to a brushless vehicle beyond noise reduction.

Converting nitro makes sense to me because:
-Nitro is expensive, $40-50 a gallon
-Nitro motors wear out somewhat quickly
-Carrying a glow starter and a tuning screwdriver and a fuel bottle around sucks
-Nitro is particularly messy
-It's easy in a nitro sized vehicle to get vastly improved performance from a brushless setup for a similar cost to nitro.

It's just not the case with the 5th scale gasoline powered RCs. Sure, gasoline is loud but it's way more durable/reliable than nitro and WAY cheaper to operate.

Why converting gasoline to brushless doesn't make sense to me:
-Same performance. I haven't seen a brushless 5b that was any faster than a gasoline 5b with a pipe. Hell, brushless actually seems slower.
-Much more expensive. Gasoline is really cheap, huge batteries/motors/escs are not.
-Much less runtime. I remember the guys on the Baja forums saying they were getting 40 minutes of runtime on a single tank.

I guess there's a uniqueness factor to it, it's fun to see the conversions. But personally if I had a 5b I'd just run gasoline. I don't feel like battery tech has come far enough to make anything above 1/8th scale make sense price vs performance wise.

1/5th large chassis fits alot of lipos for true HV setups. Gas is fun and cheap but its weed whacker loud. Setting up a true brushless 1/5th onroad with front and rear disk brakes would be sweet too

just were have you seen brushless 5B's running around? If it was done by Fine Design then yes it was probably not that fast and not that great. Stock 5B's only run around 40mph out of the box, you know brushless will be faster then that top end and take off, no way a gas will hold a candle to brushless. I'm talking neu 2215 on 37 volts, not a 1515 size motor.
lipos 220.00=10s 5000 zippy, I have seen cheap 100.00 esc work on the baja from across the pond. BL is so much cleaner to work on and bring into the house for those really bad repairs.

Now I am thinking of a conversion for the baja...

Wondering about a few things. How are the pinion gears held on on the stock clutch setup?

Also, since it is 2wd, I wonder if a 10-12s setup with lipos capable of 100amps would do, along with a 100 amp or so plane esc? That would be about 3.5hp factoring in around 30% loss. Is that enough? I can't imagine the 26cc motor being good for much more than that. 40mph is fine for me, I am in no need for huge speed with this beast.

How about a pair of 1521 motors? I know pairs are usually frowned upon, but I have everything here to do it, save for some cheapy speed controls.

What is the gear pitch on the 5b pinion and spur? Looks big, like 1.5 mod???

Yup, it's Mod 1.5.:yes:

Maybe I was wrong on the quality of the KM Bajas, then...though I'm sure I read of one guy having issues. Still, I'm not sure I'd buy one. IMO, it's clearly an HPI design, but I don't know...it just doesn't sit well me me.

Back on track, though...I can't believe Chris Fine is still in business! Castle should stop supplying him with ESCs; the number of them that his customers have blown because of them being used in the wrong app, or over-voltage like in that ad, must be huge. It'll be giving them a bad name.:whip:

I've only seen brushless 5Bs on youtube and I haven't been impressed with any of them. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong ones :intello:

The Neu 2215 is $425... You said it would be good on 37v, how much are we talking for the rest of that setup?

I agree that it's cleaner and not as noisy. But when you're talking about battery powered vehicles the cost for performance ratio gets pretty bad when you start making them big. Currently, the way I see it, is that brushless can't hold a candle to gasoline in terms of value for 1/5 scale.

this is one of the more impressive brushless baja's ive seen, looks to be a fair bit quicker with better acceleration that stock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=IT&hl=it&v=b9cp_d71MkI

look at his other vids as well, i believe that he is a member here.

ps, the vid gets good at the 5 min mark!

I wish MR Fine was a better businessman and more honorable, I'd like to buy more lehners but will not buy through him

What the hell is that stuff on the front of the motor?

It appears there is a sandwich baggy in-between the motor and the motor mount to seal the holes in the front endbell. :mdr: :lol:

Speechless.

lmfao ! didn't you guys tell him to take the zip-lock baggy off once hes done grinding the flatspot on his shaft. Lets send im a link to Arctiks article, help him get started without the hardware section of the local 99c store.

I sent a message to Dan on ebay about this abomination, outlining all the shoddy features and general lameness- he just replied:

out of curiosity, why did he say the aluminum is fine? Meaning on the buggy itself?