e-maxx brushless recommendations
 

I am a new e-maxx owner of about 2 weeks and can't quit upgrading............so obviously brushless is the next logical step............i have some nice 14 cell 4300miah packs that are great, just this upgrade has broken both rear cvd, center cvd and rear diff spider gears.............those are now all upgraded to steel and a spool in the rear diff............now my dillema is which brushless system to go with...............I am not a skilled installer or solderer...........i mainly plan to bash so longer run time is an absolute requirement over stock..........but if i wanted to try and do a race just for fun i don't want to get blown away by nitro monster trucks, since in my area there are never enough electrics to have a monster electric class, I would have to just run with the nitro's..........i will say the speed even for the stock motors on good 14 cells is hard for me to control

hv-maxx -
pros - easy installation, sensored which will be smooth power when rock crawling type stuff, works well with existing 14 cell packs, pre-wired to the esc
cons - not as powerful as some of the sensorless systems, lacks low battery voltage cut-off if i run lipos in the future

castle creations momster mamba max - proposed 2000 watts might be too much for me, and seems to have endless launch delays

quark, plattenburg, lehner, fiago - i just don't have any idea what would be better and what about each is worth the money........the multiple combinations of speed control and motor is very confusing.....I don't want massive power if my run time is only 10 minutes..........any low speed cogging would just drive me crazy.........any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated.............

Well first off, welcome to the forums! I think what you would like would be something like a Feigao/Wanderer 10XL and Warrior 9920 or maybe a Quark 125. The Quark is the best of the 2 but obviously more expensive.

thanks for the welcome........well ok, can you elaborate as to why you think that is a good combo.........if money was no object what would be the best baterry/esc/motor combo available, and why??

I get the sense quark is prob the best esc.........maybe lehneror plattenburg is the best motor ??

would any of these systesm absolutely be as smmoth as the hv-maxx at very low speed ??

The Quark is a VERY smooth esc and with an XL motor there would be almost no cogging. However, if money were no object, the 1950/8 on 5 or 6S lipo with a Quark 125 would absolutely be the best.

i can testify to the 1950/8 on 6s lipo. it is very powerful, but i wish i would have known about the quark first. my bk 12020 does ok, but it seems like most of the power is on tap after 3/4 throttle. that makes it hard to control on the track. you can't go wrong with what squee suggested!

ok you got me thinking...........what is actually better between the 1950 and the xl..........also what would this do to my run times ?? I was thinking maybe the 8000 miah 3s lipo from maxamps would be the ideal battery !!

should i go with the ease of hv maxx?
or the speed or another setup such as...Feigao 540c 9XL motor+Warrior 9920 Car Controller...
would this be faster than the HVmaxx?

It would be WAY faster than the HV. The Feiga/Warrior setup is much better.

I appreciate your input but way faster and much better sound inticing, but it is hard to get a sense of how significant the difference realy is ?? Could you by chance offer some real world numbers such as actual top speed difference and actual run time difference ???

I would estamate around 40 mph +/- and about 20 minutes runtime. Both better than the HV.

9,8,7 XL whats the difference between the 3?

9920warrior & 12020 Warrior whats the difference

What difference are you referring to? Speed? Runtime? Overall? The main difference is how many winds it is. 9XL= 9 winds.

i don't want to knock the xl motors, but i think everyone will agree that the lehner 19 series are superior in every aspect except price. the xl motors are awesome motors for the money. i'm sure either way you won't be disappointed.

So 7xL is faster than 9xL?

It all depends on the cell count.

When selecting a motor you need to consider more than just the winds. A system like this needs to be panned out before you start buying. (trust me I learned this the hard/expensive way) Plan out what batteries you will be using. Look at the KV rating for the motor. You should shoot for a motor where the rpm on the batteries you are planning to run is round 75% of the max rpm limit of the motor. Much more than this can cause heat issues in the motor, less and you are not getting all of the potential out of the motor. Now you need to decide what is more important to you, Speed or run time. If you want speed you should select a lower wind motor that will rev a little higher. If you want run time, select a motor with a couple more winds resulting in slightly less speed, but more power and run time.

As for the esc... Don't skimp or you will just wind up buying another one later. If the power rating on the esc is close, my recomendation is to go with the next higher power handleing model. In my opinion this is the bigest mistake that most fist time buyer make. (Myself included) Thinking that they can ''get away with it'' and save a few dollars. Lets face it, its a big investment either way. You might as well do it right the first time and in the long run you will save money.

These brushless systems are fantastic if set up well and frustrating if they are not. It is a critiacle balance between, motor kv rating, motor size, esc Amp rating and the voltage you plan on running, and tie all of this together with the budget you have.

Summary / My recomendation. It sounds like you are planning on running 14cell NiMH, so pick a motor that is on the conservative side of 75% the motors max rpm. You can always add an extra cell or 2 to the system later if you want to pop the speed up. Then get the best/highest amp rating esc that you budget can handle.

These are rules of thumb that I have been learing over the last year or two. Nothing written in stone and there are way more experienced peole on this board than me, but this is my $0.02.

If you don't want the fun/challenge of figureing all of this out and understanding it all, then get the HV. All of the thinking is done for you, its a simple out of the box solution that will bump you up from stock. You woun't be slapping the nitros around with the HV, but it will be a ton of fun.

I know, long winded.... I have that habbit. Sorry.

BTW... I agree with everyone else that has answered this. I love the Quark. Gets my recomendation.

Out of all that the thing that stands out the most is "You woun't be slapping the nitros around with the HV" and that means...i dont want it, i want something thats fast enough to beat nitro's, but when i want i can just go run it around bashing ...so my questions is...if i add more batteries,will the runtime increase as well as the speed?...cuz im thinking of getting the Feigao 540c 9XL motor+Warrior 9920 Car Controller (if thats a good setup) cuz itsa about the same price as the HV

how many cells are you going to run? from what i hear, quark is good, better than 9920 which is what i run. it works great, but the quark would be better. what you pay is what you get...if you have the money, get the stuff! You are right, the HV......you can get a better, faster system, and slap some nitro at the same price. I slap my buddies savage pretty good with my 16 cell, 9920/10xl. he never thought it would, but it does quite well actually!

I would spend the extra $$ and get the Quark. I have both the 9920 and the Quark . If your spending that much on a system. Do it ight the first time. Quark Is way better, It handles the load of a monster truck much better than the 9920 in my expeiences. I overheated the 9920 much easier than the Quark. I started off w/ a 9920 and a wound up replacing it w/ the Quark. 9920 is the minimum you can get away with on a monster. And BTW. Also get yourself an Ultimate BEC while you are at it. http://www.rc-monster.com/proddetail.php?prod=6vubec Takes a huge load off of the controller. Saves tons of heat. Come to think of it. I dont even think you can use the built in BEC on either of those controllers at 14 cells.

Edit: Besides the load handeling its much smoother on the throtle and brakes than the 9920.

Yep, he will need the UBEC, or an rx pack, but a ubec is much smoother!

Hello all, nice forum. I hope you don't mind but I would like to kick this horse again, lol. My plans:
Feigao 9l, 9918, 2 2s2p 6000mah lipos, fan, UBEC.

Uses: Bashing around and beating up on neighbors nitro
Wants: Fast!!! runtime better than stock (15+ mins)
Setup: Pretty heavy (lots of shinny stuff), CVD's--stock gears and boxes

Thoughts? Opinions? Recommendations? Greatly appreciated!

I would run an XL motor on maybe 5S LiPo.

9918
 

i have a 9918 and 9l with a gmaxx chassis and i can run with a stock revo on my ok batterys.i would say in the 40 mph area with a 16 tooth pinion and the temps stay down.good luck.

I'd have to reiterate here. The 9920 is the basic minimum controller (same as the 9918). I would go better, you will in the end anyway. If I had the money now, i would go with...1950/8 with a quark controller (80)? 3s2p...IMO, or something close to this...it's a more efficient set up and probably more dependable. But I'm no expert....i currently run 9920/10xl, like it, but again, would go better now....

power output from the motor seems a bit confusing, so far i think it is as follows:
hv-maxx - 375 w
castle monster mamba - 2000 w
plattenburg - 1000w
wher would feiago and lehrner fall in this list ???


also it seems running a 12000 miah 2s lipo would give longer run time than a nearly equal weight 8000 miah 3s...........so for absolute max run time it seems hv-maxx would be the best on this list ???? plattenburg and castle would be faster but not actual longer run time for bashing ??? Just checking if my logic is correct ??

Actually, a sensorless system such as the Lehner would offer maximum runtime. The HV is less efficient. I'm pretty sure that the XL Feigao motors are around 1800 watts and the Lehner more.

ok, i understand the better efficiency, i have heard someone say hv around 85% efficient, and the plattenburg and lehrner 93-95%, that is a little better, but with a 5 fold increase in power how could that little bit of efficiency make up the difference in run time ???

some of the difference is in the build quality and materials .

ok, between plattenburg and lehrner which do you think is better and why ????


lets say with a quark 125 runnning either lehrner or plattenburg, could you run 2s 12000 miah lipo for decent runs and longer run time, then switch out with a 6s 8000 miah lipo for more speed if needed ??

A Lehner is alot better. For one thing, the Plettenburg is a 4 pole motor. And, even being a 2 pole motor, the Lehner is smoother. When you say 2S, you mean 2 2S in series for 4S total right? You can't just jump from 2S to 6S with the same motor. Thats like going from 7 cells to 20 with the same motor. Not to mention, on 2S, a motor wouldn't spin fast enough. Thats if it can run on 6S safely anyhow. Stick with 5S or 6S. That extra 1S will make 5+ mph difference.

yea, sorry...........I meant two 2s packs for a total of 4s............its just that looking at maxamps.com he seems to have some nice packs for the e-maxx that fit into the stock battery tray, just a bit taller, so have to get a batterystrap in place of the batery bar, and on 2s 12000 lipo is basically the same weightand size of the 8000 miah 3s packs.........so the idea of being able to drop in a pair of 2s 12000 miah packs for bashing a longertime would be great, then if wanted to race or really show off drop in the 8000 miah 3s pack pair.......just wondering if this kind of flexibility is realistic.......i have plenty of money lol, so from what most are saying here i would be happier with the lehrner motor over the plattenburg..........

yes! i think i recognise you from over at traxxas. there is a guy there that swears by his hv and probably someone that swears by his pletty. the guys here are giving advice from their own experiences. plettys require esc's that can run 4 pole motors, so you are limited there. stick around and more people will give help, i'm not real good with plettys.

If you run a 6s system like a 9 or 10xl. You would get a good run time with the 8000 mah packs. I am not srue how long you want to run.
If you want a lehner the 1950 8t works wonders on 6s lipo. I get pretty good run time on it as well. I have heard good things and bad things on the pletts.
I like the 2 pole motors for have more esc choices and the 2 polers are easier on the esc.
I get close to an hour with 8000 mah pack on 1950 8t motor.

Could he go with a Lehner 1940-6 or 1940-5 non high amp versions and run it in the standard triangle config for the 4s setup and then switch it to the star config for the 6s setup?

With the 1940-6 That should give him around 38,600 motor rpm in the 4s/triangle setup, and 33,800 motor rpm in the 6s/star setup. Or with the 1940-5 it would have around 46,400 motor rpm on 4s/triangle and 41,600 motor rpm on 6s/star setup. None of these are perfectly ideal, but it could allow him to be able to have some flexibility in his setup.

The Lehner non high amp versions of the motors can be set up to run at 2 different kv ratings depending on how they are wired. Could this be setup to be 5.5mm gold plugs that could be switched around to work in the 2 wiring configs?

I dont have a lehner motor (yet:dft012: ) so Im not sure how hard it is to switch from triangle to star config, but theoretically it should be possible to do this right?

to coolhand's point above... Im not sure how long you want to run. I have the quark 125 and a 9xl and 5s 8000mah that I easilty get a good 45min of bashing time out of. I just got a 6s 8000mah setup, but havent been able to run a whole pack yet so Im not sure what the run time is. Should be pretty close to the 5s though, maybe just a touch shorter.

Actually, it should be alonger than the 5S setup.

ok, thanks. I do like the 5s best, now the 9L is rated at 68 amps, and the 4400mah 5s is rated at 60 amp constant, 80 amp burst for 10 secs, so my question now is will this battery get hurt in this setup, or do I really need to spend another 90 bucks to get the 6600mah 5s rated at 90/120 amps? thanks!

I am obviously no expert, but in the long run you are almost always happy to have more miah, unless you are particulary concerned about weight...........

weight is a little issue of course lighter is better, but mostly I want to make sure the battery will live and the money, it's always about the money!

oh yeah, what lipo saver would I use for the 5s? I have not seen one for that many cells yet, not that I know of anyway! I would also like some gearing suggestions--again I'm just bashing, do not know where to race anyway! I would like to go fast and I am planning on keeping the 2 speed tranny to so low speed power and high top speed should be capable in one setup, that's what I'm hoping for anyway--Barndog says he gets 40ish with 16 tooth pinion, is that with the 72 spur?

did I stump everyone, lol...about the amp load and gears?