Originally Posted by
brenman
I want to upgrade to brushless in a 1/10 4wd buggy and I figure a combo would be the way to go. Motors and esc's matched for certain applications sounds good. In product desciptions I see them saying its good for 2wd buggys truggys etc. One I keep running across specifies 1/10 scale under 5 lbs. I might race after a lot of practice, mostly I'm wearing ruts over the bumps and jumps I've found in the yard. Any recommendations? budgets about 150-200 not including lipos. Would it hurt a brushless system to run on NiMH? lipos are coming but maybe not right away.
Is it absolutely positively necessary to run lipos, no. Will you be able to get good performance out the brushless system with nimh, that depends on what kind of power the system demands, and what type of vehicle its in. I ran a Novak GTB brushless system with their velociti 5.5 motor for several years using nimh batteries, and was happy with the performance. However, that was in an Associated T4 stadium truck. A 4wd buggy is going to be heavier and have more drivetrain resistance, with the addition of two more wheels to get the power to. Most brushless systems designed for 4x4 applications are going to be a lot more power hungry, to the point that nimh packs just can't provide enough, fast enough. I would switch to lipos as soon as your budget allows it, you will NOT regret it. Also, the price of running a lipo setup has really come down in the past couple of years. You can get a decent pack for $30-50, which is less than I spent on the last nimh pack i bought before making the switch.