First run with 8s
 

Well I just finished the first run with the 8s in my Stampede. My soldering connections worked fine, none of them got hot or melted.:D
Running on 7 cell with a RX pack(4 AAs till I get the adapter to charge the 5 cell RX packs I bought that were suppoesed to come with one:M: ), running 14/84 gearing that front sure didn't want to stay on the ground.:) Before with the aluminum front brace it would barely pick up the front end without a receiver pack. The RX pack will be getting mounted right in front of the shock tower. Couldn't get any reading on the venom speed metter for some reason but it is most definitely faster than it was. I'm actually half tempted to try the 7 cell 1900MAH NICDs just for the heck of it.:D


Just one question though, seemed like the motor ran a little on the warm side for the gearing, read 125-130 on my temp gauge and the 7 cell pack GP3300s read 160-165. The motor passed the 5 second test as did the battery but I'm wondering how much more I can safely go on the temps?

And thanks to Mike for helping me decide on the right motor and ESC and anyone else that helped me.:)

The motor temps sounds ok. The battery seems way too hot. How are they built? If it is a cheaply built GP stick pack then rebuilding it to side X side with probars should help lower the temps on it.

I used to run a stick pack back when I bought my first brushless(Novak SS) . The battery used to get really hot. I rebuilt it to side x side and it was fine. Now I only use hand made packs.

I run my lehner 5300/9918 in my bandit right now , and with these side x side packs , the battery gets warm only. The motor gets hot though but it stays within a safe range.

I agree with rccarnut on this one. The motor temp is fine, but the batteries are either very cheap packs or they have poor solder connections or both. You will likely see a performance increase when you fix the batteries. Those cells will not last long at those temps, either.

Well that is the first pack I've soldered so I still need to get the hang of soldering batteries. I got more batteries to solder but I think I'll use this first pack to get a bit more pratice rather than screwing up all the batteries I have. I was actually quite impressed with run time as well, seems about the same as I was getting with the 7 cell 1900 stick packs with the 17 turn I had in it before.

I can make custom packs as well. Just something to keep in mind when you need batteries.

Soldering batteries takes a little practice but is easy once you get the hang of it. I use a 60 watt weller chisel tip for soldering batteries, works really well. You only have to hold it on the battery for a couple seconds to get the solder to melt. If you heat up the cell for too long you will ruin it.

GL

Yeah the trick to a good solder joint is a good soldering iron and as little contact time with the battery and connector. And a good quality soldering iron is probably the way to go as well...

At this point I'm leaning towards the batteries I bought being cheap junk. I soldered up another set of 6 cells and the solder connections are about 10x better and with less solder. After a running it's about 150.