Brought a 1/8 buggy to convert!

[Rtsbasic]

Finally caved in and brought a 1/8 buggy today :) Its a "Power Racing Swift", looks idential to a GS Storm in most ways. Very nice car for the price I paid (£100 new, its RRP is £279 RTR but they have loads of them at my LHS so broke one up and sold me a roller), even if it is a rip off car. I've seen this same type of car launched 25-30ft in the air time and time again so it can't be that bad.

Now onto business, its going brushless for sure, I've ordered a motor mount from Cold Fusion Racing that should bolt directly on give or take a pair of holes on the chassis, but I'm stuck on what to power it with.

I have some GP3300 8 cell batteries, so I was thinking, would using 2 of these to give me 16 cells power it nicely? What sort of ESC/motor should I go with? Was thinking either MGM or Warrior 9920, but if there are other options I'd love to hear them. I have no clue on the motor so any advise to use as a starting point would be brilliant. Should I use a S, L or XL can?

Finally, what sort of performance can I expect from one of these? Would 16 cell brushless keep pace with one fitted with a good .21? What sort of top speed could I expect with this car? I was thinking of maybe turning it into a truggy, does anyone sell adapters to fit Maxx wheels onto buggies?

Sorry for all the questions and the long post, but I'm totally new to 1/8 so am hoping you guys can help me out a bit :)

Cheers.

[Dafni]

I will try a 7XL in my buggy, but you can always go for the high-end Lehners if you feel the need.
Even a feigao L should do.

The 7XL should do very well on 16 cells.

I had the advantage in topspeed and acceleration over a nice OS.21 powered buggy. On 14 cells already, and this was on my Revo.
The buggy had a huge advantage on tight tracks, mind you.
My guess is, a 16 cell buggy can be geared for 45-50 without worries,
and my bet is on the electric!


edit: forgot about the Lehner basic XL. They have a nice price, and should do the job perfectly.

[Serum]

You allready figured out a neat way to mount the batteries?

the 7XL is nice, but did you ever concidered 14 cells and a lehner XL2800 or a 9L? it's lighter and offers a better handling, because it's lighter. what gearingratio is used on that buggy? does it use 43/13 diffs and 51 tooth spur? you might need to choose your kv range of the motor depending on that.

[Rtsbasic]

For the batteries I was thinking of mounting them down the rock guards/side of chassis, is this a good idea? I have some RC10 cups from a previous project I can use to secure them down.

The manufacture's actually Nanda racing I just found out, distributed by Schumacher in the UK.

I was thinking an L Feiago, my budget could just about stretch to the Lehner XL if it would be a more powerful motor for the job (concerned about the thin motor shaft though).

I've not been able to find the internal gear ratio, I need to get the manual from my LHS tomorrow to find out. I know it has a hardened steel spur which could be a problem, it uses 4 screws to attach it directly to the center diff, I could measure how far apart these are if that helps.

I'd rather not go down to 14 cell, simply because I already have 8 cell packs so can use them in my 1:10 trucks still. I'm guessing the spur fitted to it at the min is around 55t or so.

[MetalMan]

16 cells is a lot for a 1/8 buggy. Usually 12 is standard. It seems like the highest loaded RPM you want for a buggy is 35,000RPMs. 30,000RPM is a great spot to shoot for. This will keep the whole system running well, and will still be very powerful. A 2000kv motor would put you in the good range for a 1/8 buggy.

[Rtsbasic]

Why so low RPM's? I thought the best point for brushless was to aim for about 40K RPM? Or is it the gearing limiting it?

I can fit 16 cells in with no problem, my concern is with 12 or 14 its going to feel underpowered. I'm used to flying my trucks around at 40-50mph, and would expect the buggy to do the same. Plus the guy who runs my LHS has a GS Storm that runs 70mph+ runs back to back (radar'd), I'd like to at least try to keep up with that in a straight line, although I know 60-70mph with brushless is going to be next to impossible.

I have a Lehner 2800xl in my Ofna 9.5, it's far from slow on even just 12 matched GP3300 cells.

Here is a vid from when it still had the center slipper in it, and I blew my brother's 10-turn B4 away.....complete with both buggies wheelying! Oh yeah, and the weird noises are from the camera man, he's got ADD or something and always has to add some kind of "flair" to each vid. :D

[Batfish]

I've seen a few folks post now about getting the motor mount from Cold Fusion, but I haven't been able to find their site. Would someone please post a link?
The only site I've found says they're closed.

[MetalMan]

Originally posted by Rtsbasic
Why so low RPM's? I thought the best point for brushless was to aim for about 40K RPM? Or is it the gearing limiting it?

I can fit 16 cells in with no problem, my concern is with 12 or 14 its going to feel underpowered. I'm used to flying my trucks around at 40-50mph, and would expect the buggy to do the same. Plus the guy who runs my LHS has a GS Storm that runs 70mph+ runs back to back (radar'd), I'd like to at least try to keep up with that in a straight line, although I know 60-70mph with brushless is going to be next to impossible.

40,000RPMs is the most efficient for the motor. At least for racing, 30-35,000 RPMs is all you need. You could try it with a motor that will go to 40,000 loaded. I can tell you my own experience with this. I run (not right now, though) a Feigao 8L on 4s Lipo. This pushes the motor to about 40,000RPM loaded (if not faster). With this setup, the motor and Warrior 9918 both got hot. When I downgraded to 3s Lipo, the whole system ran so much cooler, and I didn't have to give the motor time to cool off. With 3s Lipo, the 8L was spinning at about 32,000RPM. For my next setup, I am thinking of using a Feigao 7XL on 4s Lipo. Loaded, the top RPM will be about 32,000, which is perfect. And because the motor is so powerful, I could gear it to give me good speed without it overheating.

If you want to push the motor to 40,000RPMs, then I won't stop you. I am just sharing information that not only myself, but others that have run 1/8 electric buggies have found.

[Rtsbasic]

MetalMan, I appreciate your advice, I'm just trying to work with what I have (batteries), and can't really afford to purchase the wrong wind motor the first time around so double checking and doubting everything before I commit to anything.

I'll probably end up with the new MGM 16 cell controller so I'm hoping heat won't be too much of a problem with the controller, I may step the packs down to 14 cells, we'll see how it goes.

Do you think it might be a good plan to aim for around 38,000 to 40,000 unloaded? With the heavy load of a buggy it'll probably bog down to somewhere between 30-35K RPM?

Would the 8XL be a good motor for 16 cells on a buggy? What sort of top speed do you think it might reach without loosing too much acceleration?

Thanks for all the advice guys.

[MetalMan]

The 8XL should be a good choice for 16 cells. It should be able to take you to 50mph with acceleration still much greater than a nitro (what we usually expect from brushless).

[coolhandcountry]

I am with batfish. Could someone PLEASE point us to the right website. Don't make us beg. :)
I will probably end up with a 9xl on mine. I think I am going to try a 14 L first. I have both motors so no money to try.

[MetalMan]

You have to be a member on http://www.radiocontrolzone.com , but here is the link:
http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/s...d.php?t=203863

[coolhandcountry]

If we could get mike to get some or get flm to make some up as well. thanks metalman.

[RC-Monster Mike]

That is pretty simple to make. 1/2" is thicker than it needs to be as well, though it appears as though two screws through the bottom of the chassis are all that holds it on(which is fine, if the screws are big enough).