hour long mains??
 

my track is going to hour long mains for the nitro class, and since there isn't enough electric buggies to create a second class yet, we'll have the same time to pit as the nitro guys.

my question is, how do i pit for that? it's gonna take a few minutes to get a new battery in and out, and put the body back on. do any of you know of a quick release battery tray for a buggy?

any ideas?

your could try something like the erevo trays...

maybe buy an erevo chassis, cut off the trays, cut off the lip of the dirt gaurd on the buggy and try to mound them?

Or go w/ huge batteries?

Maybe mount a roll cage kinda thing to the inside of the body (for rigidity) and mount the batteries to the cage (when body is on they rest on the base of the buggy, but when the body is removed the batteries go with it. This way, if you have a few body systems you only need to unplug take out the body clips, remove body, put next body on,. put clips in, plug in, n go.
Would require a decent amount of work to get it functional. After the design gets worked out.... maybe custom battery trays are better then this overkill idea.
Design something and contact RC Mike, I am sure he could build it, for a price.

dont worry about quick release battery trays. standard tray with one thick velcro will do fine. It will take about 20-30 seconds to change the battery. If you can get your setup to last for 15 minutes thats 3 pit stops - 60-90seconds losts.

Nitro will pit 5-6 times with let say 5 seconds per pit stop thats 30 seconds.

You will have to make those 30-60 seconds lost on the track :)

Or if you can make 20minutes on one battery you should not worry at all.

In buggy it is just two body clips so it can be done really fast.

thanks for the response. i was also inclined to see if Mike could make me a quick snap battery box like the revo has. maybe i'll send him an email.

anyone have any other ideas?

that's also a good idea. i'll try some practice with that method...thanks

Maybe you could use some industrial strength velcro down the sides of the mud guards to hold the body on instead of fiddling with body clips. I would definitely run a 6s setup, to keep the heat down in those hour long mains. :intello:

yeah, that's a good idea...we're gonna be doing some practice time next week and hopefully we can get some good pit times.

i'm still kinda shocked about the 1hr mains. last year they were 20 minutes. i thought all the enduro nitro cross events were 1hr, but those were only a few times a year. :surprised:

perhaps they lengthened the mains to "keep nitro pure" aka no/fewer brushless?
I would hate to think how long of a race day that will be every week.... at my track, they run 10-15 minute mains and we are there for 5 or so hours of actual racing (does not include practice). I will admit the track I go to, everyone is a bit laid back.... but still, if you run 3 mains (biggy, truggy, monster) that is 3 hours just for the mains, no qual, no b mains, ect.

I still have yet to find a setup that makes 20mins without stopping. Running in the pro class 15mins is about it for a 4S 5000mah setup. The other setups get to heavy....maybe some of you have proven 20min setups?

Use a mega 6pole motor, with ~1300-1400kv, on 6s 4000mah. This should yield some pretty long runtimes. (have yet to try it but will soon)

Spare buggy? JK

I have seen the Flux doors used on a truggy, that might be an option. I think the best mod for this would be a way to eliminate the body clips. That would be the most time consumed.

After that I would say looking into an easier strap set up, like a buckle from a backpack or maybe strong magnets for the body and strap.

Maybe see if castle makes a conversion for your kit and get it so you can run two packs in parallel for longer times.

I was thinking about trying a 6S 4000mah batt...only weighs 589 grams, and a 1515 3D. My 4S 5000mah setup with the 1515 1Y is awesome.....but 15mins or so is about it.

What size is the track and what are the conditions? On an outdoor track thats 200x150 I get 18-19 minutes of runtime with the tekin 1900 on 4s 5000. On an indoor track thats about 85 x 50 i get 25-30 minutes of runtime with the same setup. Ive also done a couple of 30 minute mains on the outdoor track against nitro, placing 1st and 2nd. I velcro the body to the mudguards and servo brace. Takes about 20 seconds (maybe even less) to change a pack with 2 velco straps holding the battery on the losi tray.

not sure if anyone mentioned this but something i did with my stampede was use a strap to hold the front of the body down so that there is only one pin in the rear. trim a hole through the body to fit the strap in and just strap it to the front skid plate. when you take the pin out the back you can fold the body up and switch out packs. If you get good enough velcro like others said then you can just velcro the pack in and it will be fine. Worst case scenario is that you try this method out and realize that this will not hold the lipos in. They are not heavy batteries and will not have alot of force trying to pull them out.

If you do not want to try the velcro on the batteries just have one good strap around them like others said and the swap should be extremely quick with only one pin on the body and do the above mod like i said.

I did a pitstop in my first main with my truggy, took about 25 seconds and my friend had never done anything with my truggy before he did this swap. honestly the biggest concern wasn't the body clips, it was the battery connector. He had a hard time getting the deans together quickly and didn't get it in all the way and a lap later it came unplugged, switched tp traxxas plugs after that and no more problems with them coming unplugged. To make the body clips a non-issue he put several spares on the brim of his hat so he didn't have to look for the ones he took off, just grabbed a new one if they weren't right there. I also raced Mod Truck with my E-Revo in the RC Pro series, 30 min main and a pit stop was required for electric. I had a friend do the swap for me that had never touched an RC before that day. E-Revo requires 2 seperate battery swaps essentially and was done without removing the body and took about 30 seconds.

The key for getting the best runtime is to gear your truck/buggy for the track. You don't want to gear any higher than necessary, you can have a slightly slower top speed than nitro and still have faster laps because you will have instant speed and torque out of the corners. I wound up gearing for about 36MPH on my home track and could have easily done a 15-17 min main on 5s 4500mah in my truggy