Hi Danny,

What are the Dimensions and Weight of the Budget minded 4s lipos you guys are testing currently?
Are they any smaller than the Race Formula 70C 6500mah?

Pretty much the same size as it's a 6500mAh and it's also a bit heavier than our 6500-70C-4S pack.

1/8th guys I need your help. I've been thinking about doing a lower weight pack for 1/8th. Problem I feel is that going to low in mAh will cause to much wear and tear on the pack as the IR will be higher if the cells are smaller.

With the current 4S packs are you guys running the strongest motors ?

Is it easy to make runtime with a 4S ? If so how much left in a 6500 pack after a full race ?

Thanks.

Danny,

I bought two of the 6500 4S packs when they first came out but I got them for 1/8th electric late model (oval racing: full throttle 80-90% of the way around the track).

For 1/8th buggy off-road, I have been running Thunder Power 4200/4300 mAHr packs for 3 years now. Our max race length is 10 minutes and I can easily get 18 minutes out of these when practicing so I have no worries about them. This is with either a Tekin 2050KV buggy motor or a Castle 1800KV 1512 motor (1.5Y - no longer available). A friend I race with uses ProMatch 3800 4S packs.

My experience is just with buggy, not truggy, but I think my friend who runs the 3800 pack in the buggy also runs the same pack in his Truggy powered by a Castle 1717.

So I think there is a use for lower capacity, lighter packs.

Well I pushed it to the limit by accident.
Running MBX6T-Eco, HW 150A, T8 1900 on large fast flowing track. 38 Sec fast lap. Outdoor Clay at night (high traction)
I forgot to swap battery between last heat and main. With warmup laps I ended up running close to 16 minutes. I noticed early in the main that I needed more power on run up to the big jump.(not yet knowing i did not put a fresh batt in) Power faded on the last few laps but still held a podium spot. Did a lap after race and hit LVC @ 3.2. I put about 5200mAh back in it. I normally never hit LVC but I was testing, yeah that's it I was testing :)
Great packs, great punch. Weather has been bad here hope to test some more this Saturday. I may try to bump to a 2200 motor.

I will say that I have always had at least 5000 packs for 1/8 EP and they have always been plenty. Ran PNB 30 minute E-buggy. I think this was first e-buggy at PNB 2009, if my memory serves me well. Had a mandatory batt swap and I swapped at 15 miniutes, This was a Losi 1.0 with CC 2200 combo. I personally would not want anything smaller for 1/8. I think if you are running a smaller kv motor on 5 or 6s then you can get away with it as it would be more efficient. I quess you could use smaller capacity/lighter battery for say a 6 minute qualifier but with a 1900 or higher motor I would not run one for a main.

I think 5000 would be the minimum if running 1900+ motors. The 6500 gives me comfort.
How much weight savings and capacity are we talking about?

Edit: I forgot about DO. not many 1/8 EP DO here. but.... they would be 4 minute heats and 4 minute mains so a smaller pack would make sense for this application.

Just my 2¢ and I expect change back :)

Todd G.

Danny
with the 6500 test pack i got from you with a 1750kv geared up to keep up with the 1900kv guys I am only putting back 2000mah after a few minutes of warm up and a 10 minute main. Battery is just above ambient temp and punchy the whole main. Im sure my set up I could safely do a 20 minute main.

So runtime isn't an issue anymore. I remember hearing how it was hard to make runtime in this class. Guess I need to get out of my batt cave and go to the races. lol


I'm clueless when it comes to motors so what options is out there ? Are most of you guys running milder motors on 4S or are you running the fastest one ?

I want to release a lower IR 2S pack with lower runtime as lower IR comes at the expense of mAh since the surface area of the cell is limited by the case and rules. I was thinking that maybe this style cell could be used as a 3S pack. I think the weight would be around 450 grams. On big tracks with high bite I would imagine a hotter motor setup would be required which would use up more of the packs mAh.

Guess if we do release this 2S style pack I can have some 3S built for those who may want to test this option and see if it makes sense.

Danny,

I have been running 1/8th ebuggy over 3 years. I initially just ran it as a second class, but this year nitro buggies started disappearing in my area. Now it is my primary class.

Started with 808e and was one of first people in US with one. It was very light (almost every lightweight part). I ran 4s 5000mah packs but they puffed after a few months on large outdoor track with large straight 30+ second laps with 12 minute mains. I cannot remember how much the packs would take at the end of the races but they would get down to 3.5 or less per cell. I next purchased some Protek 5400 4s which I used until I retired this buggy. Packs are still in good shape and I lend them to a friend to run from time to time. He has a HotBodies D8 Tekno conversion. I put one on a charger after a 10 minute main on a small technical indoor track (18-19 second lap times) 2 weeks ago and it was at 14.8 volts.

Next, I purchased the MBX6 eco as soon as it came out. I have only ran a 1900kv in it. It was slightly heavier than my 808e. I raced it until last month. Have been through a bunch of packs with this car. I run 2x2s in it for balance. I replace them about every 6 months or when they start to lose punch. Had some 5600 proteks puff that were not very good rated packs (they did not sale those very long). I have some 5800 promatch packs (integy I think) that were good and I still use them for practice. Last I had 6600 nanotechs which lasted all summer and are still useable with no puffing but their IR has gone way up and punch is lacking. Surprisingly, they still discharge just below 6600 from full charge and were closer to 6800 when new.

I just purchased and built a TKI3 and converted to electric. I have a 1900kv in it. I have raced it 2 weekends on an indoor track which it performed well. I ordered 4 x 7200mah 2s high IR from you but have not had a chance to try them yet. I will give you some feedback when I do. I think the extra mah will help when summer comes. This car is heavy!

When I first started racing ebuggy, I had motors turned down and tried to make them feel like a nitro buggy. I now run them wide open and tuned with timing advance for temps of 160 degrees. This is far more demanding on the battery and chews up some mah for sure. My heavy car that is properly setup will run with or gain on the light cars down straights without a problem.

I know a lot of people go over board lightening their cars. I have before. On a smooth track they are great, but once the track starts getting blown out or rutted up, a light car becomes a handful, imo. The battery is one of the easiest places to lose weight on an electric car, but you are sacrificing consistent voltage from start to finish in a main.

I posted my progression of cars to show I have gone from light to heavy. The batteries I purchased have always increased in mah as the technology improved. The 7200 I just ordered may be overkill.

To answer your question, I think around 6500mah is idea. I can run a whole main on good size tracks with only a small drop in punch from start to finish. More important I am turning the same lap times at the start and end of race - all I really care about. No one should be at risk for over discharging in a main with a 6500. I have ran up to 15 minute mains. The 6600 are the only ones I have not puffed. Weight is not always a bad thing and these cars have more power than you can get to the ground.

People running 1/10 scale 4 pole motors small batteries in super light cars is not the norm, but I have seen a few. I have never seen any be competitive.

Thanks for the info.

Swelling/puffing has allot to do with how the packs are used and what materials they are made with. One misconception is that all Lipos are the same and come from the same place but that is far from the truth.

I jumped on 1/8EP early on. of course I wanted the fastest motor, a cc2650. Way to much motor and very inefficient. Drop to a 2200 and it was perfect for large tracks and 4s. Because they were having to run with nitros and the longer mains drove everyone to smaller motors and 5 to 6s batts to get better run times. Since the classes have developed that is not as necessary as it was.
I like running 4s batts. To me 1700 to 2200 on 4s is perfect for large tracks.
On 3s I would guess the 2650 would come back in to play but runtime might suffer. Now as a basher I could see a market for 3s. As a racer I have never used 3s except in my TX.

We do,have an indoor track that run 8's but for saftey reason they are limited to 2s and a1400kv.

I ran a 2650 in the summer of 2011 in my rc8be. I used a 4500 cheap battery & a 5500 expensive battery. Never had a issue with runtime or puffing from either. This summer ran a Tekin 1900 in my rc8.2. Easily completed 10 mins on the 4500 battery on a medium (29sec) outdoor track. If i went to a larger outdoor track I used my 5500 battery. Never put more than 3000mah back into the battery. Personally I never needed more run time with my 1/8 scale buggy.

Are you talking about 1/10 motor in a 1/8 car? I'm working on setting up a Hyper 10TT (Pretty light) with a 1410 Castle motor.

Danny,

I ordered a pack yesterday and will order some more in a couple of weeks. I can't wait I used to run your Ni Cads and loved them. Keep up the awesome work!

Just found your site and was hoping you could suggest a pack or two. I'm looking at getting 2 packs to use in my SC10 4x4 with a 5.5 motor for use indoor on med. size high bite track with 5-7 min. mains. These might also be used in my SC10 2wd. What I have now works good in 2wd but they got warm after 7-8 minutes with the 4x4. Currently using 2s 4000mAh 30c packs. I'm not a pro and I just bought the 4x4 from a guy at the track so I'm still learning how to drive one of these on the track. Of course I'm trying to keep the price down (around $30/pack) since my wife will tell me to go sleep in my "truck" if I start spending too much on my "toy".

As I looked at your site I saw a lot of packs that might work but I wondering what you recommend. I would like to stick to ROAR approved but that is not my biggest concern. Also wondering about how long shipping is if they are in stock? So after all that what do you Think?
Thanks for you time,
Mark