Questions about truggy conversion
 

Hey guys,

I've been messing with my Muggy for a couple of months now and have come to the conclusion that it will never be what I want it to be. I went out and got a new truck today. Although it wasn't my first choice, I got an 8ight T. I wanted a Mugen, but my LHS doesn't stock parts for it, so I got what they do stock parts for. I know that it couldn't possibly worse than the Muggy, so it should be an improvement.

Anyway, I want to take a fresh approach with this conversion, so I was looking for some ideas.

The first question is how do I mount the motor? I could move the steering servo to the left side of the chassis and mount the motor toward the front of the truck on the right. Or I could put the motor on the left. Or I could put the motor on the rear right. What would make for the best weight distribution? I know that I want to run a single pack, either 4S or 5S lipo.

The next question is about the center diff. If I do wind up doing a 180 with the diff to mount the motor toward the back, I don't want to cut a new hole in the chassis. If I just shim the diff up, will there be any drawbacks.

The last question that comes to mind is about chassis flex. Not 5 minutes after I bought the 8ight, I started talking to this guy who was telling me about all of the after market crap he put on his truck to stop the chassis flex. Everything from aluminum stiffeners, to extra braces that bolt to the chassis. From what I could see, the 8ight is built pretty well. It has a really thick 7075 chassis and I could hardly get it to flex by twisting it. Is there a flex problem with the 8ight? Are there any upgrades that would be considered necessary?

I'm sure that I'll have more questions later, but that's it for now.

Thanks.

Mike is suppose to have motor mounts anyday now for the 8ight. his mount will raise the diff a little so you wont have to cut a hole in the chassis. I plan on running the truck the same way as my buggy (motor on the right behind the servo and single 5s on the left side).

as for the chassis flex, you could get the aluminum chassis braces.

gixxer, do you mean to say that your motor will be mounted on the forward portion of the chassis with the battery on the opposite side? That sounds like a good setup.

What does "anyday now" mean? A week, two weeks, more? I haven't even taken the truck out of the box yet. I promised myself that I wouldn't until I had the Muggy ready to sell. When I get that out of the way, I'll be pretty impatient about getting the 8ight up and running.

http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6650 here you will find info on mikes 8t. Mine will be done the same way. from the email I got yesterday mike said we should see them on the site in another day or so. I really hope he is able to finish them and put them up for sale that soon because I have been just looking at my truggy for weeks already. :(

The lower weight should help with the problems you were having with your mm too. I believe mike said his truck is just under 9.5lbs with a 4s 5000mah pack.

That's good news. I'll keep an eye out. I did order a Quark and it should be here tomorrow. I hope the caps that I ordered come in too. That way I can get the Quark ready for installation. I still haven't decided on a motor yet. I have a 1515 2.5d coming in, but I'm not sure that's what I want to run. I ordered a 9XL to try out. If I like that, I may just keep the 2.5d. If it's too much, I'll let the shop sell the 2.5d and order a 1.5Y.

I do have to say that I'm really starting to like the lower kv motors. When I first started in all of this, the speed was what got me hooked, but now that I'm used to it, I'm ready to start concentrating more on my driving. The lower kv motors really take a lot of the worry out of running these electric setups for extended periods.

BTW, I'm planning on running 5S. I really like the idea of running a lower kv motor on higher voltage with less current draw. Even with all of the stress problems I was having with the Muggy, my cheapo truerc ($180 pack) never broke a sweat and the system was pushing enough power to blow out the front diffs. If I can keep running the higher voltage, I may never pay more than $200 for a battery pack again.

right now I am still running a 9xl in the buggy. It is more power then I need to race with though, but fun for the house. I picked up a 1512 3d (1700kv) motor that I will try in the truggy. I am also thinking of picking up a 1512 2y (1400kv) or 1515 1.5y (1500kv) motor.

Then you're thinking along the same lines that I am. I talked to Mike a while back about the Neu motors, and he said that although the 1512 might be enough, he'd definitely recommend the 1515 for a truck, for cooler running and more torque.

yeah thats what I was thinking but since I already bought the 1512 I will try it. If it runs hot I will just put it in the buggy and order the 1515 for the truck. actually the reason I ordered the 1512 3d was because everyone was out of the 1515 2.5.

I know hotandcold just set up his truggy (believe its a crt) with the 2y on 5s and said he liked it. He said it was geared for 36mph and got warm but not hot.

gixxer, what do you think about the Nue smooth can motors? Are the cooling fins really necessary?

i really cant answer that. I haven't even tried the neu yet. I am planning on waiting for the motor mount and trying it in the truggy. sorry.

Neu 1512 has plenty of torque for a truck and runs cool. My maxx will flips on acceleration if I am not carefull and its 14lbs (6.5kg)

14lbs? What do you have in that thing to make is so heavy. My Muggy doesn't weigh that much.

aangle, looking at his sig it appears he is running 16cells. that would probably add another pound over your lipo pack.

Well 16 intellect cells 2.3lbs
4 bigjoes on commandos another 4.4lbs


I used to have problems with tires becasue of all the power as Talons that I loved on stock maxx could not get a decent grip on gravel where I used to bash.

1512 is same amount of power as Lehner 1940 and 1515 compares to 1950 at least people say

My lipo pack is a 5S2P 8Ah pack and it comes in at just over 2 lbs. LOL.

I find this interesting, because I was on the phone with the guys at Quark yesterday, and the guy told me that my Muggy was too heavy for the Quark. That's one of the reasons that I got the 8ight.

Hey, maybe I could just put the Quark in the Muggy for bashing and run a MM on 4S in the 8ight with the 8XL.

well quark is originaly for 1/10 trucks

MM is also :)

When all my NiMh die I will get LiPo or A123 but now I have tons of them and they do pretty well

The Quark IS a 1/10 esc. That's what the guy at Quark told me anyway. He said that the 1/8 applications were for testing only. He went as far as to say that if you are going to run a Quark in a heavy vehicle, you really should put additional capacitors on the Quark to keep things cooler and to avoid blowing the caps on the inside of the controller.

BTW, does anyone have an idea of how well the 8ight T will stand up to bashing?

It's as tough as any other truggy imo.

Motors: another reason mike likes the 1515 is that he says (and I kinda agree) they are more smooth in the power delivery... not as jumpy as the smaller motor. But when you higher voltage.... and lower kv.... then I can't imagine a 1512 not doing just fine. The 8ightT should weigh in at 9-9.5lbs with a smaller lipo and still under 10lbs with a 8000pack. It's lighter than most truggies....

But the 1515 2.D is a great motor imo. On 5s you could drop the kv a little more... and go to a 1512 2Y if you like.

As for the conversion:
Be careful not to get the weigh shifted too far forward with the 8ights... they already have a forward bias and loads of steering (skatey rear) so if anything... see if you can get the weight back just a little. Also... a 44T gear won't require much milling of the chassis. My buggy is running a 46T and I didn't cut all the way through. I used a $9.99 pnuematic cuttoff tool with a 3" disk to grind out the slot. That worked awesome....

Thanks GD, that's just the kind of info that I was looking for and the sort of "quirks" that I'd rather find out about through the benefit of someone else's experience. :027:

IIRC, I believe that you found the 1512 to be more of a current miser also. From the numbers that you posted regarding the current draw of your setups, it might be worth going with the 1512 just for the runtime.

Like I said, Mike told me that he thinks the 1515 would be the way to go, but I have also heard others compare the 1512 to the Lehner 1940 line of motors. If this is a fair comparison, then the 1512 should be just fine. I'll have to think about it a bit more.

Arrrgh, I got the Quark in yesterday and get this...it's bad. Cogs like a Neu on a MM. I tried everything. If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all.

Actually, I put a MM, that I modified with 4 additional capacitors, and it just plain rocks.

I've also discovered that the 8ight isn't as bad as I thought it was. I spent some time tuning the suspension tonight and it's running OK. Zero bump steer, but it still pushes a bit. I'm going to try some heavier diff fluid in the center to see if I can get the front pulling a bit more.

GD, what springs are you running?

That sucks about the Quark, what motor are you running it on? What motor with the extra caps on the mamba, and what size caps?

I keep looking at the 8ight T every time I go to hobby shop, looks nice.