what to buy.
 

ok, i have a e-maxx with gorillastraps ready for my to get some 7 cell batts but other than that it's stock and pritty muddy lol, i also have a rustler with a mm7700 but only on 6 cells right now and a traxxas wheeliebar. i also have a t-maxx2.5 with a new 3.3 engine and lots of stuff to go racing. i have a decent bit of money right now and i'm really strongly thinking about getting 2, 7 cell batts or a 2c lipo right now. should i get the batts right now or something elts? if i get the batts i'm also going to haft to get a new charger(mine's in really bad shape) to go with them and what batts should i get?? i'm going to get some matched packs no matter what though.

I recommend a great charger no matter what whether you get that and the li-po or just the charger. It's the one thing you want top of the line for sure.

Go Lipo! :p

would the lipo's go faster than the matched 7 cell packs? i'm also thinking about the superbrain 989 charger or somthing like that.

Lipo's are just plain all around better IMO. Depending on what you ahve, yes, they would be faster, pack more of a punch, lighter weight, and last longer. I would never go back to NiMh batts unless I had to.

The 989 would be a GREAT choice IMO. I love it. It's small, comes with a power supply, and can charge almost anything.

ok, now just to get the money for them lol

Make sure to protect those lipo's from damage....especially if you're a "basher". Li-Po's don't like physical abuse!

Unless you buy Trakpower packs, which are just as durable as NiMh packs IMO, maybe even moreso.

I saw that a lot of the peeps over at BYT recommend Apogee packs for bashing.
What do you guys think / recommend?

Are you referring to the LiMn (Lithium Manganese) cells?. Safer than lipos, but a bit on the pricey side IMO. How about A123 cells? Those are safe as well and durable to boot.

And the A123s are much more tolerant to overcharge and overdischarge, and they can be charged in 5mins. if you had the appropriate charger :).

aren't the A123's rated at 6.6v? how does that work?

So far that's the only issue I've heard people complain about is the low voltage of the 123 cells (3.3v per cell vs. 3.7v per cell) and possibly the issue of the A123 specific charger.

They still seem like a pretty good option especially for bashers!

Yeah, if you're bashing, you might want to try something that is more damage resistant. Over the last couple of months, I've destroyed a good $1000 worth of lipos. I don't know. I've seen and watched videos of some of the tracks that you guys get to run on across the rest of the country. These tracks have very wide lanes of travel and don't look very technical. Our track is very tight with a very narrow lane of travel. When running the track with my friends, crashes are inevitable. I've tried to learn from what has happened and have had to take measures to protect the batteries. This has included putting a front on my battery tray that rises up to match the height of my battery pack. This is because, on a hard frontal impact, the top cells in the tray were getting deformed on the battery strap.

For bashing, a better approach would be to use tougher batteries. Lately, I've been considering going to the A123 cells just because they are tougher.

Well, if high C rates aren't needed, you could try emolis if you want the 3.7v nominal voltage. They are metal cased like M1 cells, charged just like lipos, and are rated for 2.3Ah but only at ~12C IIRC. If you use a 2p arrangement, you can get discharge currents of ~60A, which is fine for smaller vehicles, or maybe higher voltage/lower current setups.