kaiser

i love the "stack" of rocks. it has a 14t motor in it? seems a bit to hot to me. a nice 55t crawler motor would be your best bet if it's torque that you are after, but a 27t would have more tq then a 14t. are sure it doesn't have a 14 tooth pinion insted of a 14 turn motor?

bought my first plane today and flew it, what a fun time. hobbyzone champ, $85.00 usd ready to fly. i had a gift car so it only cost me 50 out of pocket. i flew for over an hour, it's tough, i crashed plenty. so eay to fly, helps build confidence to eventually move up to more advanced planes. i also took my two racers ( b4 & rc8be) to the track for some tuning, but the track was too dry so i flew instead.

another vote for the grasshopper, can't go wrong with one. it's the car alot of us 30 somethings started with and it's aged well.

as long as there are modern rc's vintage will live on. everytime i break out a vintage car at a race it spurs atleast one or two others to get into vintage racing. i love it when i run the jrx2 and the kids have no idea what it is, it's even better when i beat them with it. i make sure to always bring something vintage with me to a race, it's a great conversation starter and a way to meet like minded racers.

i run a 2pl. it has what i need. (3pl wasn't out yet) punch and speed i adjust on my esc's, but i guess it could be handy for mid race adjustments. the 4pl is sexy, but i'm not sure i'd use all the extras.

+1 about the hobbywing sensored xerun systems. i run them in my 1/10 race vehicles and they work great. btw, for those that have trouble fiitng an ez or xe run in thier car with the fan on, take the fan off! i don't have a fan on any of mine and they run cool. the only fans i run are on my race clod, i kept them on because there's tons of room. if you are running hot then your gearing is wrong. i've never had any cogging on my 60amp 8.5t ez's though. (my clod has two)

grounds for divorce? heck thats grounds for a 55 gallon drum and a 50 pound bag of lime.

i use the r603gf's. nice receivers. the rec gets current from the esc, so as long as your rec has bec you're fine with any receiver. the 2004gf is a 4 channel right? no need for that unless you use them. the 603's are 3 channel. i use the third channel to power my transponder.

i have never had cogging on my sensorless stuff. 35amp ezrun w/9t motor and 2 60amp ezruns with 2 8.5t motors. the rest of my stuff is sensored, but from time to time the sensor wire will come loose on my 2wd buggy and i still don't have cogging on that (xerun esc).

hogwash. the b4 is by far the strongest of the current 2wd offerings. proved week in and week out in clubs all over the world. i'd like to know where your us friend lives, because trf201's are non existant around here. i've seen 1 at a track since they came out and the guy had setup trouble. you can't just copy a b4 setup. the shock pistons, springs and such are all different. i am far from a great driver and i crash and hit things that would destroy a competitors car (fragile kyosho rb5 comes to mind), yet my b4 keeps going and going like the energizer bunny. go with whats supported, thats the best advise. and run the tires the fast guys are running.

true. i'll add that the factory setup in the b4 manual will get you 95% there on almost any track. add the right tires and you're right there.

+1 if you go with a tamiya the trf201 is the way to go. the zahak doen't have a slipper clutch for starters. if you want to buy second hand try to find a first gen b4, not the 4.1. the og b4 has better plastics IMHO and is more rigid. the factory team version is the stiffest. the most popular combination is a factory team b4 with the regualr plastic chassis. that way you get a bit more chassis flex yet the rest of the parts are the carbon versions. this is the combo i run and the car is great. the only thing that has ever broken on my ft b4 is the front shock tower, and that was only the tip and didn't prevent me from finishing a race. the 4.1 is a bit more forgiving and still a great car. remember that b4's need american tools. also i think the tamiya is almost a straight copy of the b4 anyway, so regardless you'll have a great car no matter what you choose.

i take everything with me except a soldering iron (my track has a better iron then i do). there's been too many occasions that i have needed something i left at home, so now it all gets loaded into the car. my tool box (plano 777) holds most of it. anything else (boxes of parts, tires, etc...) stays in the car unless i need it. i find that i tend to help alot of new people and kids, they always break and rarely have the tools or the parts to do it. i like to see everyone have a good time and don't mind helping. this past saturday for example i was the only guy that had a camber guage.

remember heat can demagnetize the motors, so if you keep overheating brushed motors then get weaker (slower). if you overheat a brushless motor it dies, most of the time, melts down inside.

dan, once you get this all sorted and get your brushless system you are going to need to keep an eye on motor and esc temps. otherwise you'll be back here the next day asking why it doesn't work anymore. speed runs can kill a motor quick (and we all know you want to go fast!) , blasting full throttle up and down the street, over and over. get yourself an infra-red temp gun, they are pretty cheap, i think mine was $15 bucks. you want to keep the motor under 170 degrees f. i prefer under 160 myself. check it often in the first few batteries to make sure it's not over heating. i killed a small bl system in a car similar, by screaming up and down the street.

FWIW my brand new hobbywing 2250kv 1/8 scale motor died after 2 batteries, the sensor bolts backed out and fell into the rotor. this is the first hobbywing failure i have expierienced. nothings perfect. esc, won't work either now. i just needed to say that after i "bashed" castle earlier in the thread.

today has been hectic. we just had our memorial day holiday and i took an extra day off. so i've been off for 4 days, away from the computer too. on saturday i planned to race my brand new associated rc8be for the first time. i never made it to the first heat. the sensor on my new 2250kv bl motor came apart in practice. i was still able to race, but i raced in 1/10 scale (ae ft b4). came in second overall. but today was the first day i had to get my motor fixed under warranty. or should i say start the process. i'll have to send it to china. thats going to take a while, so i ordered a tekin 1900kv motor and some pinions today so i can race this coming saturday. it's going to be a busy friday evening/sat morning in order to be ready for the first heat @ 12 noon. i must say though that during practice, not one car could keep up with me and the 2250kv beast. i must have been near 50mph at the end of the big straight. this is the first ever issue i have had with a hobbywing product, while i was working on my car a guy showed me his tekin motor that the same thing happened to earlier in the day. so it's par for the course i guess.

having owned both i say hornet. the frog should be the better car....but it's not. the frog frustrates while the hornet pleases.

i can't say for sure, i do know that they guys i know that have had issues are not noobs and know all about gearing and what it takes to run safe. it's been esc failures. around these parts you never see castle on 1/10 race cars, most people are running sensored now, novak, tekin, speed passion, and hw xerun. in 1/8 you still see some castle, but even 1/8 is going sensored with tekin and hw xerun. hpi has had terrible luck with thier rebranded castle systems, but i'm convinced that it's mostly due to them using systems to small for the applications. the flux's have a bad rep for esc's.

ever wonder why so many people say that castle's customer service is excellent? because they have needed it! lol just about every racer i know used castle at one point or another and switched due to failures. just say'n.

yes, i now run 2 15t pinions. top end has increased and i still have the tq to spin it around if i need to. i may try a pair of 16t pinions in the future. right now it's outdoor 1/10 and 1/8 season so i jsut use my clod between round for fun. once fall winter hit's i'll be racing my clod indoors monster jam style again.

you're right. you'll only see high amps at take off, aka a spike. the other reason to go for the 60's / 8.5t's is the full 540size rotor = mucho torque over the 380's.

for batts i have a few different ones that i use. none of them have overheated or been stressed. all of them are 30c or more. of course the 50c 5000mah has the most punch and is the pack i race with.

answers in quote. i think you are overthinking the whole thing to be honest. i almost went with the "good ole 9t / 35amp combo" but spent the extra $$ on the 60's for peice of mind and efficency.

thats my truck in that thread. ask away. it was easy and the truck flies! i used the 60amp 8.5t versions because they are efficient. temps are very low and runtimes are long. it was very easy to do as well.