Electrics w/ Mechanical Brakes...
 

I just recently added mechanical brakes to my electric buggy and I am really liking it. A whole new world for setup, adjustment and control. :D

I was wondering how many of you guys are doing the same thing and/or found any tips and tricks with using them on an electric buggy that might not be immediately apparent to a mechanical brake noob like myself.

I have currently dialed out all of my motor brake and enjoying cooler motor temps as a result, but am curious if a combination between the two (motor/mechanical) would at all be useful? Any thoughts?

As always...gracias!

I prefer mech brakes on some tracks, while motor brakes on others. It all depends on the track layout/etc. I find that if a track as little/no hairpins I will go with motor brakes just for the extra control.

Something I have played with is running both but disconnecting or backing off the adjustment on the front brake. That way you can still add some rear bias to get the car to rotate. I prefer to run only mechanical brakes for the reasons you stated but this also works.

Another advantage to running both is that the mechanical brake usually is more sensitive to adjustment so I found if I got out on the track I could vary the amount of rotation just by adding a couple of percent on my brake epa.

While I agree brake bias does help turn the rear end around. If you can't seem to do it via chassis set up/ suspension or diff methods but if its as good as all the techno conversion people and others who have systems with it claim, why aren't very many to any top 20 drivers using it and manufactures other than HPI even touching it. You'd think "performance above all" manufacturers like x-ray, serpent, mugen losi and kyosho might have one of their cars with this feature, but none. why?

And I've heard cost, but if HPI can put it in thier buggy and it still is cheaper than all the rest it must not be that.

Main advantage is cooler motor. I can go just as fast with motor brakes. But some guys coming from a nitro background struggle with it. It's just a nice option to have.

i just run motor brakes and just tip the trigger there strong !
i still new to 1/8 e coming from nitro.

to me i got into "1/8 e truggy" to have less hassle and less things to go wrong so im not running any extra servos for mechanical brake .

i only use the brakes while in the air if needed and if im on a big straightaway going into a turn .

the slower turns i just roll into them than get on the throttle .

Well I agree guys. Mech brakes do make it run cooler but if you don't have a heat issue then its a mute point.

Alot of my E buggy counterparts locally tend to run 5000mah at 40C+ and their packs weight almost 600g. I'm running 4000mah at 25C and that affords me less weight or stress on the motor and less amps, so I run cooler than them by about 20deg on average. 40c is more powerful than my 25C but since im 170g lighter than them my car gains agility and acceleration to compensate. Thats just a strategy I've chosen. They also have their transmitter throttles at 150 and I keep mine at 100-120 and I keep up with them just fine.

I do agree the brake bias is good for turning that rear end around but now we get into driving styles. Do you like to head in tight brake, whip the rearend around kind of turner or do you like to go wide keep your speed up and do a wide to tight in rounded higher speed turn? I tend to be the latter and so I don't count on having alot of rear end slide.

Even with all that said, I can still get my rear to slide around alot if I play with rear droop, diff oils and/or sway bars. They all have profound effects and I can get the same effects with out adding more gear to the car.

Thanks for the responses. I have chosen to go the mechanical brake route primarily due to heat issues. My car is running 350g - 400g heavier than others (mainly due to batts...this I can address to some degree as I move forward) so starting and stopping that much extra weight really heats things up. Motor temps were in the 200+ range routinely...now it stays in the 160's. Big improvement.

There are two places at my local track that have a steep off camber turn right at the end of a high speed section or jump where you need to get really hard on the binders . I found that setting greater rear brake bias in this situation can help out quite a bit. Of course its a trade off though, since what works in corner doesn't necessarily work in another and vice versa.

I know this is an old thread but my question is directly related to this topic:

Is it possible to run mechanical brakes while retaining the forward/brake/reverse functionality that a normal electric setup offers? The problem would seem to be getting the brake servo to disengage once the vehicle has come to a stop; perhaps someone has already solved this problem?