rccars4scott

iTrader: (55)

I have recently switched from nitro to electric racing and have been having a great time. I have been considering converting my SP2 to brushless and lipo's. I have been looking at Fine Design's power package that is installed in the Losi monster truck but have not decided yet. My question is this, has anyone converted an 1/8th scale buggy to electric and if so, what kind of system did you use? Also, how does the performance compare to a good nitro engine (say a P5)? This car will not be a basher, strictly a race car. Thanks for your help.

Scott

dirtracer1

excellent question scott.....i wish i had an answer for you, but instead, i've got another question.......does anyone make a ready made conversion to convert an 1/8th scale to electric. if not, someone should.

downunder23

hi this forum cought my eye as i was browsing by and these conversions interest me also i think its a good idea....though the torque of a nitro is addictive and hard to leave behind for an electric but they do offer good power and top speed. still just one thing is the weight of them is pretty heavy to account for the 2 lipo packs.
i did some research on them and there are a few ppl who convert them for you and who are converting them, them selves.
from what i know the best brushless system to use would be the hacker motors the c50 is ment to be high end and there are a few cheaper alternatives from hacker aswell, aswell as lehner motors make good systems.
ive heard of ppl using nemisis blue or black motors which im not exactly sure of fegeo or fegao is the manufacturer i think maybe feigao im not sure of the spelling but is what alot of ppl are doing is putting a emaxx or tmaxx motor mount to the centre diff so its a direct drive from the pinion to centre gear mesh.. they also recomend using a plastic spur or centre gear im not exact and theres a certain pinion you use for the conversions do a couple of searches on google im sure youll come up with something. heaps of advice available you just gotta look..... hey i found it so it shouldnt be to hard.
its either the premade motor mounts u can use by emaxx or you can make ur own custom out of alluminium like alot are doing...
i think you have to remove the brakeing system as the brushless motors and speedos have there own brake system.
there is a speedo called a worrior somthin orather ive seen ppl using other wise theres combos you can but from those manufacturers i mentioned.
finedesign have some i think.
i was talking to a guy who had a hacker c50 or b50 or somthin and he said that the hackers arnt as good as lehner cause he used both and the lehner was better in his opinion so hmm hope this helps.
i was going to convert my inferno mp-6 into brushless untill i smashed it up so there goes that idea................
look around see what you come upwith and let me know how you went.
hope this helps.

RoostAZ

Well I hope I can help a little. I have been researching these brushless/LiPO conversions and am going to convert a nitro monster truck soon enough. I have found some great websites and here is one I got from RC Car Driver's electric Revo, http://www.rc-monster.com/ they put two 2cell 8000mah 7.4v LiPo's in that revo, each pack $110. Plus a gnarly Quark Monster Controller that is about $280 and a feiago motor. There is some crazy over the top systems you can do, but what I think I am going to do is get a novak e-maxx brushless controller, some sort of feiago or "exotic" motor like that, or just the motor the esc comes with. and dual 8000mah LiPO's. Although there are some way better esc's. you can get. I have heard fine designs conversions are crap, and they are INCREDIBLY overpriced, I mean $1350 for a converted LST2. You can do the conversions yourself so much easier, the way I think of it is the only hard part is finding an endbell/pinion gear for the motor to the nitro tranny, and fine designs carries tons of different shaft size gear endbells that will work, get one of those, and start scrambling through your random parts bin and start fabbing some parts. It'll be fun! BTW the brushless Revo ended up doing 48mph and running for about 25 minutes, outstanding power and since it's electric I can just imagine how fast it got to 48! Basically, go on www.rc-monster.com and try not to go too crazy because they have some over the top stuff there!

downunder23

from what i know you can get the brushless going close to the speed of a nitro you just have to look for a great brushless engine like lehner go to lehner.com but be prepared to pay top dollar for the top motors lehner have they should get you going as fast as a .21 nitro. with top lipos the higher the grade lipo packs the faster it will go....i think....

downunder23

just thought id let ya know theres a hacker c50 brushless for sale here on rctech on the for sale forums check it out second hand would be the way to go........

Valentin.H

iTrader: (117)

any brushless that would work for a emaxx (novak hv bl) would work for the 1/8th scale...its basically just making/finding a motorplate and bolting everything on..

nichocgn

iTrader: (2)

I know that Starluck RC has been helping some guys on other boards do some conversions. With the right setup they can be up there with a nitro.
You are still looking at some bucks. Biggest hit is the batteries and the chargers. Even though they will last a long time it would be like buying a years worth of fuel at one time. Biggest issue I have read is the runtimes and heat. I have yet to hear of somone consistently getting 15+ min run times in most conditions. I think you will see it in the next year but the weight of an 1/8th is just a lot to move. I want to say braking is causing some of the issues. Thought one person left the nitro brakes on theirs and it helps.

TonysScrews

iTrader: (13)

There is a guy on the UE forums that converted a Mugen MBX4 buggy to brushless. Since you get rid of the motor, pipe/header, throttle servo, brakes, fuel tank, clutch/flywheel assembly, and RX battery pack, you actually lose a ton of weight off the car. I think he used a Hacker C50 and his had two 6-cell packs. It was just a tad over 7 lbs. With the new lightweight LiPo's out there, it could be much lighter. He made his own mount and used a lightweight plastic spur gear. It came out very clean.

Do a search on the UE forum for brushless buggy.

R40Victim

iTrader: (1)

The only one I've seen in action was on a video(kinda cheasy, the car would dissappear for several seconds, then fly by the camera, typical basher type video). Pretty impressive performance from what I can tell. With Li-po and a creative layout, you could get the weight down pretty low, and have a pretty fast car. Electric cars, brushless or other wise, make all their torque from zero RPMs, and taper off as the RPMs imcrease, so they should be faster off the line. That'd be perfect for tighter tracks like ours. In fact, there was a guy running a brushless powered e-maxx, who kept winning against the nitro guys. They threw a fit and banned him from using that truck... I wonder how long it'll be before several systems become available for the 8th scale buggies, and truggies...only a matter of time...

Valentin.H

iTrader: (117)

if you go on the ofna forums, and search it, i think there is a guy that posted about his hyper7 converted into electric. used a hacker bl system, and used 2 6cell stick packs. super quick too...imagine if that was with a molded plastic chassis

glassdoctor

iTrader: (4)

I have a 777 converted to BL. There is a lot of indo on mine and a couple others at radiocontrolzone.com under the brushless forum.

I would recomend you do your own conversion if you want to do it right. Don't just put a motor where the .21 was and slap the batteries out on the side skirts. That's what msot of the conversions are like, but if you put a little more effort into it you can have the batteries and everything fitted onto the main chassis.

Mine is a pretty clean setup and it wieghts exactly 8 lbs with a pair of 7.4V 6000mah maxamps lipo packs. That's with a Mtroniks truck speedo and a Hacker C50 motor.

Here's the most recent pics when I blew a speedo...(they fixed it for me n/c) in this thread: http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/s...d.php?t=222647

thecman26

iTrader: (112)

I just got my Oct R/C Driver mag today, and inside is a lipo/brushless conversion for a revo. It looked sweet, and from the article, it hauls balls! It blew the foam insert out of one of the rear tires... Thats some snap! I think it was a gorillamax conversion? If a twin 2 cell lipo/brushless works in a Revo, it should pull a buggy just fine, as far as kits out there??? It might just be a one off custom fab job for ya... I am sure it can be done, and I hear you can get 20 to 45 minute run times to boot!

downunder23

aw i dunno about 20-45 mins of run-time from what ive heard they only go for 15-20 mins with 8000 mah matched packs or even lipos besides the amount of heat the motor and speedo generate that would be too long before a cooling rest. my bet is youd end up with a heap of burnt out motors and/or speedos going for that long flat out.

R40Victim

iTrader: (1)

That motor mount looks a little sketchy, does it move around at all?