New E-Revo - first impressions

[VintageMA]

I went by the LHS today and picked up the e-Revo. They had what seems to be a pretty good price @ $439.

Some pics to follow, but here are my first thoughts out of the box:

1 - Springs/shocks - comes with 40WT and pretty soft springs. As others have mentioned they seem a little soft. I am going to run it for a bit before adjusting and take it from there.

2 - Battery Trays - I don't think people are going to want to run pack that are 30mm high - they will just fit and with no air circulating they will be really high. I put a Neu 3900 3S pack in one side and it fit very nicely. I think the limits for a battery pack are going to be:
48-50mm wide - there is a little extra space in the battery door when it closes
25mm high - This is the highest I would want to go for the pack to be snug but still allow airflow.
160mm long - if you stick with the 25mm height there should be no problem fitting a pack this long.

I think and 3S 5000mAh Neu or TP pack will fit very nicely on each side. I am going to be getting the TP eXtreme V2 3S 5000 mAh packs that measure 25x48x160 and run one on each side for 6S total.

3 - Motors/ESC/Radio/Receiver - Haven't even run them (and never will) - pulled straight out within the first hour out of the box.
-Motors are brushed motors and seem beefy, but I just have no interest.
-ESC - seems solid, but once again no interest.
-Radio/Receiver - AM radio - crap - replaced with React right away.

4 - Radio tray - very nice design for an electric vehicle. My Nomadio V2 receiver was a snug fit but it went in there perfectly and there is a nice cable management system going into the tray - I'll enjoy my receiver not getting filled with dust and dirt. Ran one servo into CH1 and the other to CH3 and just bound them together on the radio - very simple to accomplish.

5 - BL motor mount - the only pinion I have is a 24T 32P pinion and I had to dremel out the lock nut area to allow the motor to move far enough away to lock it in place. Once I can figure out all of the gearing I will pick up a few more pinions of more appropriate sizes. I'll be keeping an eye out for when the single BL motor mount option part is available.

6 - Servos - hey they are digital and waterproof - I'll stick with them for a bit until they die or prove to not be strong enough at 125oz each.

7 - Diffs - Haven't pulled them out yet, but they are definitely not filled with oil out of the box and will need to be - will have to search the threads here to figure out what to try out first for front/rear diff oils.

8 - Transmission - it's a 1 speed tranny from what I can see with motor braking.

This is my first Traxxas and I am definitely concerned about the plastic CVD driveshafts - they just seem pretty cheap and I expect them to break very fast - I will be surprised if I am proved otherwise.

I expect to have a lot of fun with this truck, but am still craving to do a 8T or XT8 truggy that I feel will be a more "precise" instrument.

More to follow when I get batteries to run it - might not be until later next week.

[VintageMA]

First pics.

[VintageMA]

More pics.

just a quick question but how do they wires for the batterys come out of the casing??

[e-mike]

wowamazing set-up !!!

I will comment on the sliding driveshafts I have in my converted 3.3 Revo and they are surprising strong they are holding up in mine the diffs are usually the weakest point

[VintageMA]

Originally Posted by drkros3

just a quick question but how do they wires for the batterys come out of the casing??

Take a look at the middle pic above your post. There is a notch in the upper right corner of the battery tray where the door closes. Looks like it will fit 13GA wire pretty easy, but I did a test fit on a Neu pack with 10GA wire and it was snug - I would be concerned with rubbing and would dremel out a bit.

[VintageMA]

Originally Posted by azjc

I will comment on the sliding driveshafts I have in my converted 3.3 Revo and they are surprising strong they are holding up in mine the diffs are usually the weakest point

Very pleased to hear that - those driveshafts were one of the things that has prevented me from picking of a Traxxas in the past. Well - that and the fact that it's just more fun to take your time a full conversion and really make it your own. The e-Revo is more of a drop in upgrade.

I hope the diffs will hold up - flipping through the manual said that front and back are filled with 30,000 wt diff oil. Spinning by hand it doesn't feel that heavy though.

[VintageMA]

For those interested in spec'ing things out with the speed calculators here are the stock specs.

Tires - 5.75" diameter
Tranny/Diff ratio = 5.22
Stock Spur gear = 68T 32P
Stock Titan Pinions = 19T 32P

My setup is looking to be around 34-35 mph on 6S with a 24T pinion.

Will start running it with the 1515/3D (1360kv), but also have a 1515/2.5D (1650kv) that should pull it up to ~43mph on 6S with 24T pinion.

This isn't going to be a speed vehicle though - more of a beatable MT - so 35 may be just right with the power available to get around bumpy hilly terrain.

[lincpimp]

The revo spec driveshafts are very tough. I have beaten all of my maxx and revo trucks and have never broken a revo spec slider. The old skinny emaxx sliders are crap, but the 3.3 maxx sliders and the similar revo sliders are very strong. I have not really found any benefit to running cvds. My driving may be better than most, or I may jus be lucky....

[Jeremy1976]

Very nice! I just won a lightly used MM and usb cable on the bay. I am going to be running that with my Neu until my MMM comes in.

I have to agree the driveshafts are very tough. Remember Traxxas beat the snot out of this thing on 6s and it held up nicely to it. That is what caught my attention is it was designed around a good BL system. I do agree on the battery compartments. I have to send back my Maxamps 2s 8k packs to have the wires ran on the side. Its either that or dremel out the vents and run the cords through that. I really would like to avoid the dremel on this new Revo.

Originally Posted by VintageMA

Take a look at the middle pic above your post. There is a notch in the upper right corner of the battery tray where the door closes. Looks like it will fit 13GA wire pretty easy, but I did a test fit on a Neu pack with 10GA wire and it was snug - I would be concerned with rubbing and would dremel out a bit.

i see it now. thanks!

[JThiessen]

WOW. Except when I've been in a store, I've never seen a Brand Spankin New RC before!
Nice.

[TDC57]

VintageMA,
Great report!.. I didn’t know they were out yet!, I've owned several Traxxas 3905 trucks and they last and taking a beating so no worries their.

Your running a Neu 1515 3d and 6s setup is the exact same I have on my GEVO so I’ll be extremely curious to see how it holds up under that kind of punishment?, I'm assuming that your diff will be the first to go followed buy the trans, not including all of the plastic parts you'll be breaking along the way.. (Good times!).

Do you know what the weight is??

That’s a cool new toy you’ve got there.. Congrads and thanks for the great update, I'm looking forward to your future posts.

Have a great one

[mkrusedc]

Thanks for the report and the batt sizes. The biggest problem seems to be the battery compartments as far as their limited size and the durability of the compartment door.