XV-01 - first time drive experience

[smirk-racing 253]

Thanks to all the advice on this forum, I finally got an XV-01. As promised by all the folks here, the XV-01 was:

-- lots of fun

-- different

-- shockingly durable

I tend to overpower my RCs, so as soon as I got the chassis (used, built up by someone else, in somewhat rough shape), I dropped in a 4-pole Castle motor (3800 kv), a Hobbywing Max10 SCT ESC, and 3s lipo, and got to work. I also went from the included 21t pinion to a 31t pinion (rather sizable increase in top speed - I'd say about 40 mph at this point although I don't the GPS unit handy). It is a small and light chassis (well, not compared to touring cars) so the 1800 and 2200 mah lips I had lying around last at least 10-15 min each (under intense conditions). I have larger packs but so far have not needed anything more.

 

So far, all of my driving has been on pavement (maybe 5-10 packs) and the tires are just about worn down. I'll get some more sets, and perhaps even experiment with foams for dedicated on-roading. Does anyone use foams on these chassis just for on-road?

 

It is a lot of fun to drive, handles pretty sharply, but I'm having trouble with a "pull" to the left when I give it full throttle (at any speed). If I roll onto the throttle, it works fine, but if I'm aggressive, it will pull left. I don't quite know what might be out of alignment because it seems to track just fine when I'm running up and down the street and NOT slamming onto the throttle.

 

The motor and the ESC can go to 4s, so that's probably going to have to happen very shortly... ideally with the GPS attached.

Anyone know if there is a 48p pinion I can buy for this? I think it came with a mod 6 pinion (not quite compatible - makes a lot of gear noise).

Here are some pics:

 

 

 

 

 

[nbTMM 433]

Pull issue might be due to wheel alignment? I notice mismatched wear particularly on your rear tyres. Another thing to check is that it isn't the steering servo itself steering when you punch the throttle. Weak BECs, batteries and/or cheap servos are known to cause problems when accelerating hard due to electrical noise from the motor and/or voltage drop at the battery. This is easy to test - hold the car in the air and punch the throttle, check that the steering servo doesn't jerk to one side. Sometimes a "glitch buster" capacitor connected to the receiver can help, but hardly ever fully cures the problem in my experience.

Gears should be 0.6 mod unless the previous owner has fitted a 48dp spur. If the spur is the standard 0.6 mod one, excessive noise might be caused by the mesh being adjusted too tight, or just worn out teeth. Otherwise, 24t and 35t 48dp pinions are about the same physical sizes as the 21t and 31t 0.6 mod pinions you currently have. Just about any 48dp anodised aluminium pinion will do the job, they are fairly standardised. Make sure it has a 3.175mm (1/8") hole for the motor shaft, as 48dp pinions for 5mm shafts exist as well.

[lowspot 299]

If you lock the front diff should help a lot. I'm doing speed-runs and moving to one side while accelerating with over powered cars is always an issue.

 

[dc-arena 81]

Nice! I still need to build mine. I read that the new Castle motors don’t fit due to how the wires come out of the motor, they interfere with the motor mount housing. Do you know if your Castle motor is a new one?

 

 

[smirk-racing 253]

25 minutes ago, dc-arena said:

Nice! I still need to build mine. I read that the new Castle motors don’t fit due to how the wires come out of the motor, they interfere with the motor mount housing. Do you know if your Castle motor is a new one?

 

 

When I bought this car, it came with a very old 2-pole Castle motor. 

 

The motor in the picture is newer, maybe 2 years old. 

 

Both were fine.

 

So I can’t say if there is some even newer version of Castle motor that doesn’t fit, but the two I tried fit with no problem. 

 

[Big Jon 684]

That's a lot of power!

Any common bolt-on 48p spur will fit.

I'm really not sure about the pull under acceleration. One of the reasons I like mine so much is how straight it goes. How's the side-to-side balance?

[smirk-racing 253]

On 9/22/2019 at 2:40 AM, nbTMM said:

Pull issue might be due to wheel alignment?  Another thing to check is that it isn't the steering servo itself steering when you punch the throttle. This is easy to test - hold the car in the air and punch the throttle, check that the steering servo doesn't jerk to one side. Sometimes a "glitch buster" capacitor connected to the receiver can help, but hardly ever fully cures the problem in my experience.

Gears should be 0.6 mod unless the previous owner has fitted a 48dp spur. Just about any 48dp anodised aluminium pinion will do the job, they are fairly standardised. Make sure it has a 3.175mm (1/8") hole for the motor shaft, as 48dp pinions for 5mm shafts exist as well.

nbTMM - thanks! Great tips. I will need to tear it down and inspect carefully for wheel alignment - it tracks straight and is responsive/crisp when I turn normally - it just kicks way out to the left when I punch the throttle. Will keep looking for the issue.

I also tried punching it in the air, and the servo seemed fine.

On 9/22/2019 at 2:49 AM, lowspot said:

If you lock the front diff should help a lot. I'm doing speed-runs and moving to one side while accelerating with over powered cars is always an issue.

 

Thanks lowspot. I think for now, I will reduce power (not sure I've ever said that before!) and aim for a rally style set-up. I am ok giving up the speed runs (had that bug a few years ago, and got my spots on the speed run list).

On 9/22/2019 at 7:33 PM, Big Jon said:

That's a lot of power!

Any common bolt-on 48p spur will fit.

I'm really not sure about the pull under acceleration. One of the reasons I like mine so much is how straight it goes. How's the side-to-side balance?

Big Jon, it might be too much power. I am going to drop down to finned 540 (i.e. a 380) brushless motor to see how that goes. I am still experimenting with which lipo to use. Surprisingly, some really small lipos from my 1/16 vehicles (an 1800 and a 2200 mah 3s) last quite a long time. I think they might actually be too light... I'll need to break out the scale to see.