madmax1965

venom_sc8e..........I have been reading this thread with interest as I am thinking about purchasing one of the Losi 5 and convert to E-power. I have been driving a converted 1/5th scale FG onroad car now for the past 5 years and have finally got the car so it handles well and has plenty of speed. I am using the Plentenberg BOLIDO 9hp motor in my car but could really use a smaller motor.

I think you may be over powering your setup and not only causing the cost to E-power to be high but the truck will be hard to handle if you intend on racing it. If you just want to run high power to mess around then you might be able to do that....but not racing. Actually 8s in this truck is on the edge of too much power.....I run 6s in my onroad car and it runs like a bat out of hell. If you go the high power route you must add to that a requirement for much stronger diffs, drive shafts, gears etc because the parts can not stand the power you are planning. In fact I have a "slipping clutch" in my car so I can hold it to the pavement. The slipping clutch will gradually come in once I am past 5000 rpm. With the clutch I can go from 26 volts to 34volts but no more.
Then there is another problem .....we have a clutch to tame the motor but I have lost the motor braking so I had to re-install the hydrulic brakes because using the motor as a brake also wears it out pretty quickly. This is due to massive strain from such a heavy car (11 pounds). Since most electric cars are direct drive using a slipper clutch decreased strain on the motor and allowed for smoother acceleration from such a powerful motor but I need the brakes.


I found that I must use 6000 mAh batteries and I run them in parallel to give 12,000mAh of use which equates to 20-30 minutes run time(a normal 1/5th onroad car main race). From what I have read there are a number of 10 pole motors which are lightweight which would work on 1/5th cars and trucks. One I have heard about is the Plettenberg HP 370. By using a 10 pole motor rather than the 6 pole I am using there is less resistance and the torque is increased. You can run 6s to 10s on this type of motor.

I would not spend extra money on batteries to over power the truck as you have too many problems which will come up. In no way would I go over 8s if I intend on racing the Losi 5. I would keep the Losi brakes and disable the motor braking.

I guess it all comes down to what you intend to do with the Losi 5 and how much money you are willing to spend. If you start out will a lower power....say 8s(or even 6s)....then see how the truck works.....if you still need more power then go to 10s......I think 10s is too much. Castle Creations set the conversion kit up for 8s and this was done for a reason.....because it worked in the many test they did.

I am in the process of switching over to 9s A-123 cells in my car. I will gain a little weight but I would only need one set of batteries as I can charge the A-123 cells @ 20 amps in the car.....never need to switch out batteries and takes only 15 minutes to charge the A-123s. The A-123s have less voltage than do the lipos so this is the reason I would run 9s A-123 cells. I am willing to take the extra weight to save on battery cost. I would lose some run times as the A-123 cells would give me only 4,500mah X 2+ 9,000mah rather than 12,000 in the lipos.