Bought a new E-Maxx. Have no clue what it is. Help!
 

Hey guys i just bought a new e-maxx, and i no nothing about them. How fast are they? This one seems pretty slow. Also it wont turn side to side when its stationary. Any ideas??

Give us some info if possible and pics.

Is it brand new out of the box or just new to you? What color is the chassis?(black or gray)

I tried to add pics but the site wont let me. Chassis is black plastic, i think its older..

Well, if its the older model and its stock that would be your first mistake. Don't get me wrong, its a decent truck, but has is issues. The stock servo is worthless. Even if your running/moving the stock servo struggles. It's only 50oz/in which means its about 1/4 of what youd want ideally. And if they gave you Nimh or NiCd packs that are old and been sitting for ever that could be your next issue. Also the motors could be worn out too. But I would guess crap batteries first.
Cheap fixes that are direct fits
This is a direct drop in. The servo horn(the piece that goes onto the servo) is the same number of teeth. (different makes use 23,24 or 25. Your TRAXXAS servo is 25 as iis this one
http://www.valuehobby.com/radio-syst...hd-1501mg.html
VERY cheap, but reliable and over 200oz/in of torque
I would normally suggest lipo batteries. But being completely new maybe Nimh would be best for now.
With lipo you would need a LVC(low voltage cut off), new charger, change plugs.
Maybe put a "Wanted To Buy" add for some decent 6 cell Nimh packs with standard Tamiya style connectors. If your trucks all stock then it has the white plugs still. Maybe someone will sell you some decent packs cheap. Decent Nimh packs are expensive and arent worth the cost new.
I'll PM you. Check your messages at the top right corner for PM's! I'll help ya whener you need.

you need 10 posts

do you have a link where you bought it from

No i bought it locally off Craigslist for $50. Its nothing special, and i figured i couldnt get hurt for $50. It has 2 titan 550 14v motors. I need new shocks and batts. i believe

Read everything in the following link, maybe even check out the manuals. When your done, you'll know a lot more about your new E-Maxx then before. :)

http://traxxas.com/products/models/electric/3903emaxx

sounds like he has a 3906 which from my reading can handle brushless power very well. I did find a link to 2 motors for like 89 that dbl the power of stock ill see if I can find it for you.

Thanks for the quick responses everyone!!!! :nod:
TOMTOMTUNING, the link you posted is very informative, but i believ that truck is newer. My truck has 14.4 v operating system. I just purchased 8.4 v batterys. Will this harm the system?? Thanks

For $50, you definitely didn't get screwed.

Check out the E Maxx forums on Traxxas.com, too, there are a lot of very experienced guys on that forum, too.

There are a ton of Maxx guys on beatyourtruck.com, too.

Nothing wrong with RCTech, don't think I'm telling you not to come here, there are a bunch of guys here, too, that know their stuff.

But there is no such thing as too much information when you are trying to figure out what you've got.

+1

I like rctech 99% of the time people will give you meaningful info. For $50 you got a super deal, just read around check out the traxxas manuals to learn your truck inside and out. There is also a rookie thread so you can ask questions without someone giving you smartass useless info. You got a badass truck, I hope you enjoy it and welcome to rctech :deathstar

If your truck has a black chassis, then you have a 3906 e-maxx. All the 3906's are the same except the earliest versions used narrow a-arms which are hard to find now, and the least desirable. They went to a widemaxx version later and you can always upgrade to that if yours is the narrow.

The 3906 e-maxx is a pretty good truck. I have owned a few of them.

They are very reliable with stock power. Should go about 25mph and the low range is nice off road. If you go brushless, the driveline will suffer. You'll start breaking shafts and with enough power, the diffs will give up too.

There is a fix, but it involves spending around $70-100 on ebay to upgrade everything to the new brushless driveline.

Another bad thing is the 3906 wont easily accept lipo's or 7 cell NiMh batteries without some modding or different battery straps.

The orange 14.4v EVX esc will work fine on 16.8v. Most say it is more reliable than the newer EVX2. However, on 16.8v you may notice the truck cuts out at full throttle until the batterys start to run down some. This is just a built in function of the ESC when it knows it has more than rated voltage. Once the batteries run down a little it will quit cutting out.

The transmission alone on a 3906 e-maxx will fetch $50, and the whole complete rtr truck will bring $150+ in decent shape. You got a good deal no matter what. Also, everything on the truck can be upgraded to the new version, however its normally cheaper to sell the 3906 and buy a new version than it is to upgrade the older truck, so keep that in mind.

As for the steering, thats normal. The servo isnt the strongest stock and the servo saver is a bad design that flexes too much, but it usually works ok as long as the truck is moving. The newer e-maxx has a much nicer steering bellcrank setup you can upgrade to for about $15 if you decide to keep the truck.

Hope this helps!

Thanks everyone! i already purchased the upgraded steering servo mentioned above. SO if im understanding you correctly i will be able to use the batterys (8.4v) with this truck? Obviously i have to remont them. I ordered an extra set of a arms already lol. Maybe i think its slow because i bought a new tmaxx 3.3 last year, and that thing was a beast! I disliked it because i kept destroying driveshafts ( seriously, i would put a new one in and the first take off would twist it in half right at the ujoint) and the Nitro was a lotta upkeap. Now im very machanicly inclined ( i own a 04 gto, 03 cummins, 89 camaro i put a diesel in, and a 70` ss nova) all of whitch i do my own work on. I can do anything i need to this truck, but i dont know much about the electronics of these trucks. So the electronics are what i need help with. What would be the advantages of going brushless? Thanks again guys!! this is a great forum


Also can someone give me a rough estimate on what it will cost to go brushless, for everything i need? Thanks

Here is a picture guys
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/...2_17_26_39.jpg

It allegadly has "homemade" batterys

speed and effieciency