Merc4Stroke

Hey Guys,

My question is about 1/8 scale nitros that have been converted over to brushless.

What are the hot conversions?

I was talking to a guy at the local track last weekend, and he was telling me about his rig for the outdoor track. Well, with my not having any experience with 1/8 scale, he rattled off a name of a buggy, but it didn't sound familar.

I understand, you should run what the LHS supports for parts, but I was wondering about the likes and dislikes of the conversions you guys put together. Who makes kits, motor mounts, and what size motors are, ect.

Thanks for your time, and explanation on this subject.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone and your families!

Mike De

guver

My Feedback: (325)

some of us did duratrax raze buggies. not the greatest inmop. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_62...tm.htm#7011454

BigTb17

Merry Christmas to you too Mike!

Many manufacturers are jumping in with brushless electric specific 1/8th scale vehicles. Savage Flux, 8ight E, RC8-e, a couple different Ofna cars, etc. However, there are people converting just about everything out there to electric (I've recently seen a few 1/5th scale conversions)

I recently did a brushless conversion of an Associated RC8B. It's a 1/8th scale buggy that is sold as a nitro kit. I bought it for the purpose of converting it to brushless. I haven't run it yet, but so far the quality, fit and finish seem great. I've always been a fan of Associated stuff, and that certainly hasn't changed after building this car. We'll see what happens when I actually run it.

Since Associated actually makes a version of this buggy specifically for brushless now, I used the motor mount from that. However, many companies make motor mounts, as well as complete conversion kits. RC-Monster is one of the big names that seems generally well respected for mounts and conversion kits.

Castle Creations has the Mamba Monster Max (Often just called the Momba Monster, or the MMM) brushless motor/ESC system specifically for 1/8th scale vehicles, and it's one of the more popular systems out there. It's the system I went with (for a couple reasons). It had problems early on when it was released (with the ESC). I think the problems are mostly corrected at this point, and according to Castle Creations they are continually working to improve reliability in hard use (i.e. abuse) situations.

The Tekin RX8 system also has a decent reputation. There are a number of nice things about the system. It is a bit more expensive than the Castle setup, and there seem to be less of them around, so it's harder to find feedback about it, but it's out there if you look hard enough.

Hobbywing makes a couple 1/8th scale EZRun systems. Depending on where you find them for sale (I've seen them for virtually the same price of the Mamba Monster a couple places, so check around), they are potentially much cheaper than other options. The EZRun brand seems to be gathering increasing support among it's users, and you can probably find a lot of people who would recommend it. I don't know one way or another about customer support with this system though, so ask around if that matters to you.

I've honestly seen plenty of enthusiastic reports of great results with all the systems. And I also seen reports of problems, failures and dissapointment with all the systems. So it's not very clear cut whether one is definitely better for you than another.

Merc4Stroke

Well said Big T. I'm mainly an Associated guy also. However, being that I have virtually no experience with the larger scale, I was open to everyone's opinions.

I was wondering about the electric RC8, if it's just a normal RC8 with the conversion done for you, or if it's a different car.

I'm somewhat planning on picking up a roller off ebay and adding parts as my checkbook allows. There's a little over a foot of snow here, with another good dose forcasted in the next few days, so I don't need anything in running order for a few months yet. It'll be a while before the outdoor track is ready to go. lol

Thanks again for shedding some light on the subject.

Guver, are you telling me that you're not real impressed with the Raze? What don't you like about it?

BigTb17

The RC8e is basically just an RC8 with the Associated conversion kit already installed. Most of the parts are the same. The only reason I went with the RC8B (nitro version) and converted it myself is because it came with some Factory Team hop-ups that the RC8e didn't (there isn't a RC8e Factory Team version). I didn't buy the whole conversion kit either, I just bought the motor mount (and the spacer for it) from the electric kit.

The Losi 8ight is a popular conversion, as is the electric specific version. I have no experience with it directly, but a lot of people really like it.

guver

My Feedback: (325)

Yes, it seems cheap and somewhat weak. Mines not real fast yet, but that's my fault since I put in the power I wanted.

losifiend

I did a Losi 8 with the Losi conversion and a Mamba Monster 2200KV combo on 4S with 13/48 gearing. My brother tried it and had me build him an identical one.

rebuilder

These three systems will give you a big grin.....................best out there in my opinion:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXVJN3&P=ML

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXVHA5&P=ML

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXWZJ7&P=7

10x8

Gday Mike De,
Happy Christmas & New Year to you and your family too. Good on ya mate.
Have a look here: http://www.radiocontrolzone.com/show...169853&page=18
I couldn't be stuffed typing it all out again + I have written there forever. I started you out on the last page of a nitro forum. I am hooppjs, electric fun starts on page 16.

See ya

Peter

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

If you are doing a nitro to brushless conversion, I would have to reccomend a 1/8 buggy or truggy. They simply have the strongest driveline and can handle the power better than most anything else IMO.

Merc4Stroke

Can you guys shed some light on the "throttle servo" in a conversion for me? Does the servo stay in to run the brakes, or does the breaking become part of the motor/esc duties like on a regular 10th scale?
If the servo stays in for breaking, how does that get tied into the receiver with the esc?

That might be a really stupid question, but I thought I heard somewhere that the servo stays in for breaking.

Thanks for your time.

genitor

Some ppl leave it in for brakes but it is not necessary, the motor and esc can take care of the breaking. As to how to hook it up if you do leave it in, i don't know.

SyCo_VeNoM

depends how you convert it
some people who converted savages leave in the 2 speed and need the throttle servo to brake it cause the 2-speed can't reverse. (well it will reverse if you change the idler gear like I did)
some people like the mechanical brake more also cause I've noticed sometimes the ESC one can stop too hard and put unwaranted strain on the drive shafts and whatnot. Hell if I brake on my savage I converted the thing flips over and goes fliping for 5-10 feet cause the ESC stops it too hard


and if you wanna leave it in you need a servo Y-splitter one goes to the ESC one goes to the servo

andersonwal

also if u do a mechanical brake econversion, u need completly turn down your braking power from the esc. mechanical brakes take some of the strain off the esc and lower the operating temps of the motor and esc.