can you lighten a converted Revo without compromise?
 

i have performed the mandatory trawle and search but found little if any related threads to my conundrum. i have a converted revo 3.3 with all of the mmm and neu goodies and have come to a point where i have noted the tremendous weight of the mighty beast. i trust that traxxas have built the revo ruggedly for what hell we throw at it, but can there be a way to lighten without taking away its ruggedness? sure the driveline is tubular and chunky and the solid suspension pushrods are nice and thick and the enormous bulky diffs so nice and strong to endure the BL punishment.

however it doesnt help with the whopping 5s lipo pack slapped onto its back.

what mods will allow its strength to be retained but rolling mass to be reduced?

FTR it weighs around 5 kilograms with battery.

any pointers welcomed.

123:yes:

There is only two ways to get under 10 pounds in an E-revo (even conversions) go higher kv and lower volt (22-2500kv and 3-4s 5-6000mah) or low kv and higher volt, but smaller packs (1100kv and 8s 2600mah) .The first option would be cheaper, but slightly less efficient, the second would be a bit more expensive but more efficient. The only esc i can think of off the top of my head would be an MGM, you would need a similar quality motor (mega/neu/medusa) and the only pack i'd trust in this situation (big truck small mah) would be mikes special lipo's. Mike only lists the packs up to 6s, but i'm sure he could get higher volt setups

I've seen people buy Steel Tony's screws for all high stress areas in the E revo, and 12.9 alu screws for the low stress area's. That only reduces weight a little though.
A single servo setup is recommended too.
A light tire and rim combo, summit/stock axles instead of CVD's if you have those.

Can't think of anything else right now :)

thanks fellas that offers some insight.

i have the 2200kv tekno neu motor and a v3 mmm, i run a 5s 18.5v 5000mah lipo with my setup. just recently i have (last night actually) just removed my mech brake and servo. i was 50/50 about going the motor brake, but time will tell if it was a good idea.

i did note the drive shafts to be fairly weighty as with the tyres, but i see these areas as non compromise areas as these handle alot of punishment. now i am just looking at weight distribution. trying to load all corners and front and rear as even as possible.

still looking at some hard anodized suspension rods, but i feelthis will only be good for one major collision and they will be hsistory. i slammed into a tree recently on the front left corner and aside from a broken A arm the rod was lightly bent, hardly noticeable. alloy is not so forgiving. still searching...

I've only heard very positive feedbacks on the red anodized hollow aluminum pushrods from TRX, and I recommend them.
They are much stronger than the steel stock ones and lighter.

on my converted Revo...I have titanium pins, turnbuckles, AL rocker posts, AL pivot balls, 3905 trans., which is a lot lighter than the stock 3.3 trans, AL pushrods,


http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20778

Are you running the forward only conversion with the tranny locked in 2nd to get rid of the mechanical brakes. All of items help reduce a lot of weight. I dropped quite a bit going to JD Carbon pushrods, tie rods, and hinge pins as well. Although the carbon pushrods and tie rods break too easily for bashing in my opinion.

Al pivot balls are a bad idea. I had them on my slayer conversion and they did not last 10mins...

Lighter wheels and tires are a great place to loose weight and gain efficiency. Some proline lpr wheels and tires will shave alot of weight, maybe a pound, depending on what you currently run.

A single servo is a good idea, and depending on what battery tray, radio box etc, you may be able to trim them up to reduce some weight. A good pic of you truck from the top would be handy to see if you have any excess.

The only problem, they break as opposed to bending like the stockers. I hit a small tree on my track one day and shut my day down, due to not having the spare there. if you have the steel they can be straightened till you get replacements

True, but the Aluminums will only break under much heavier impact than the stockers can handle. And once it's been bent it won't last very long anymore.

But true, IF they do break, they're broken... :)

You can bend steel back with little to no impact on how it will withstand future use. One of the many benefits of steel (I personally think that steel is a much better material for most stuff these days).

I would and do run the steel pushrods, mainly cause I have sheared off the threaded portions of the al tubez more times that I would like to think. I have even threaded the tube to use a m4 threaded rod, that cured the shearing issue, at least on that end, the other end sheared off the next time I ran.