Snow testing continues today. I wrapped the lipos in 12'' party balloons and zip tied the opening around the wires making sure to stuff some petroleum gelly in there first. Then after I recharged the packs I smeared some petroleum gelly on the balancing tabs. No shower cap this time as I wanted to test the polyurethane coating I put on the ESC circuit boards and the servo casing.
yesterday night I sprayed the whole truck with a generous coat of silicon lube spray and let dry over night. This is just an attempt to protect the metal parts and screws from rusting too much. I ran the truck in the woods in 1 to 2 inches of snow, jumped some small snow banks, went through deep slushy puddles, the works. This is how it looked when the LVC kicked in.
Plastic doesn't like the cold. But this is the only damage after the test. I broke one of my old MT rims with Bowties mounted to them.
The balloons worked very well in keeping the lipos dry. One had a little rip probably due to the lipo moving and rubbing on the battery strap. But since the balloon fit very tight on the lipo, no water got in the small opening. maybe it would be better to have two balloons over each lipo. Or have battery straps that are less abrasive.
The ESC and servo performed flawlessly, even though there was a lot of packed snow, slush and water around them. After I blew the moisture off with compressed air, everything still worked perfectly, the ESC didn't seem to mind having some moisture left inside it and the servo did not behave erratically like it once did before. I'm glad it worked because I was quite nervous to head out in the snow again with nothing over the ESC, I was afraid to fry something. The temps were way down with all the liquid cooling provided by the snow. Barely warm to the touch.