roland1

... Ran my MERV today on 4S. Stock motor and esc. she does get hot! i never really got to do a full out high speed run, at high speeds i must have hit a bump or somthing and she cartwheeled and crashed, resulting in a broken rear axle carrier. 4S is funny. like having 2000HP in an S10 or somthing. you know its not a good idea.


I may try 2S in parallel with ataller pinion gear than the "high speed" merv gear.

Gatorb8

my 4S was totally in control but that may have something to do with the ESC curves, tames it a bit
2S parallel works great on the stock setup, maybe put the 23pinion in to keep it a bit cooler

J0EC00L

My Feedback: (3)

Dennis,

You catch my earlier post about how to "create" a locking diff in our differentials?

It may ne worth a try and is completely reversible. I didn't come up with it, I got it from another poster on the forums.

Joe

BigGrump

I certaintly did. It is so simple, I am kicking myself not thinking of it. Great temp. hint.

Dennis

Gatorb8

hey Joe,
how does locking the diff change the performance of the kit? corner better, traction??don't really know much about locking diff's
thanks

MTboy

Why not just put heavier diff oil in to tighten it up.

dacaur

While it makes the truck handle high speed turns better on the street, there are definite tradeoffs in doing this. Removing the droop WILL make the truck handle worse off road, and on bumpy on road sections. The wheels must be able to move up AND down, or you will lose traction every time you hit a dip in the road, since the tire has no down travel, the ground drops out from under it, and its no longer touching the ground, verses the normal setup, where the tire can follow the ground as it drops down.... the designers of these things actualy do know what they are doing... removing the droop might help out the truck in one thing that it was never designed to do, but it will destroy off-road handling.... Ideally, you want at least 1/3 to 1/2 as much down travel as you have up travel when the truck is sitting at ride height...

If that were true, I would still own nitro vehicles I had a couple t-maxxes and a losi LST XXL (awsome truck)... they were great fun, but I just got soooooo tired of the constant tuning. Once you tune it yea its set, unless the temp changes, or the humidity changes, or your elevation changes or you change fuel, or change glowplug, or.. etc....... The final straw for me was one day when I just could NOT get it to run for more than 30 seconds no matter What I tried, didnt change fuel brands (same fuel jug i used the day before when it ran great) or glow plug brands (tried 2 new glow plugs from the same pack) , it wasnt unusual weather, 75 degrees and sunny.... I said "screw this" and I sold all my nitros and have NEVER regretted it! These days with brushless and lipo, you can get nitro performance without the nitro hassle. As for storage charging lipos, well, my charger has a setting that will discharge it to the voltage I choose... easy as pie...

racemaxx24

Kinda curious as to what everyone thinks of [link=http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160543019173&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT]THESE[/link].

For $23, kinda hard to go wrong trying them. They look promising. Anyone got experience with them?

scoobyblue

hi fiend nice to find someone on line. man i got problems. just got mini vxl ervo. got it today. battery full charged and it wont go. hand con lights up gree. the esc lights up gren. the blak box lights up red. then the esc turns red light. and blak box keeps flashn a red light cont. p,ls help

dacaur

The toyz is a reputable place, I wouldn't hesitate to buy them. Just make sure you keep them OFF ROAD... thats why I dont like mini pin spike tires, I like to drive on and offroad....

gforce2448

My Feedback: (12)

I've seen many people use those tires/rims and they are pretty good. Really good deal for a set of 4 for that price. I run 2.2 pin tires but only on the track which I mainly do with my Merv. Because yeah on pavement they will wear to nothing quickly.

scoobyblue

thanks for info friend. i evn tried that aswell. and to no pravail. i don no wat to do now?

dacaur

In nimh mode the esc light should go green when you turn it on then go right to red, so thats normal, but I am not sure what the back box you are talking about is.... got a pic? or where is it located?

brianjskora

My Feedback: (3)

sounds like you need to set throttle endpoints. check your manual on how to do this and you should be all set. did you put controller on 70/30 by chance?

Gatorb8

Dennis,
were you able to use the alum washers when mounting those wheels, not many threads left on the axle

BigGrump

No, and none are necessary. The flared stock Traxxas wheel nut is plenty to grab the wheel itself. When I am feeling anal about it, I use a thin flat washer between the nut and wheel to increase the contact area to the wheel.

Those beautiful aluminum thick washers are great for another application, but not the Merv.

Dennis

racemaxx24

Well, RIP rear differential ring gear. A fresh 2S is all it took to finish it off. Time to shim them this time so it don't happen again...

Gatorb8

think I did mine in today also on 4S
after I put bigger tires on something was slipping and smelling, thought it was the slipper clutch so I tightened it up a bit, ran for a bit and the clicking started
how do i confirm it is the rear diff?
what shims do you use?
should i get some replacement diff parts while at it? if so, which diff parts?
thanks!

Gatorb8

took out the rear bulk head, the ring gear and diff gear have some bad teeth
anyway to prevent this?
do you guys tighten the bulkhead screw tight? mine could have been tighter but that seems to pull the rear blukhead halves apart a bit
I'm thinking it's better to have it tight and the gears meshed tighter....?


the merv was smelling like burnt plastic and the smell wasn't in the rear diff so I opened up the tranmission and looked at the slipper clutch, seems it melted the 50T spurr gear and the clutch plate, that made it direct drive and probably what crunched the gears in the rear diff, guess I got some fixin to do....
and......the bearing seal melted......

racemaxx24

Use the RC18 diff shim set. That's what i've read to use and installed in mine today. Hopefully that will help hold it together.

You should always tighten the screws tight. The skid plate plus aluminum bulkhead piece will keep the haves together.

MTboy

Mine so far.
Center diff
RPM arms and front knuckles
Response tire wheel combo
Tbone front rear bumpers
GPM shocks
GPM alum chassi braces

vwo4l

Been reading through this thread for the past week or so, just learning what to/what not to do.. My MERV just arrived from UPStoday! Also got the 2nd battery and both the series and parallel connectors from the USPS today as well. Already ran one battery through just to play around. I think I'm going to like it!

My plans for my MERV include sort of turning it into a Slash. Ihad actually initially wanted a 1/16 Slash, but the tipiness of it kind of turned me off, so a MERVit is with the wider stance and such. But, that said, I like the look of the SCTruck body and I think I'll eventually swap the body out with a Slash body. I plan to upgrade the wheels and tires as well, mainly just for looks. Other parts will stay largely stock unless replacements are necessary due to wear or breakage. I'm considering getting the T-Bone bumpers as well for that extra layer of protection.

I'm pretty novice at this currently. I haven't had an R/C car since I was much younger and those ones weren't even hobby grade cars. It's always been something I've been interested in though. Glad to finally do something about it. Also glad to be a member here in case I ever need to turn anywhere for help.

I've got a co-worker with a 1/10 Slash that he just upgraded with a new motor and ESC. He's actually the one I can blame for lighting the fire under me to make this purchase. Planning on taking our cars out to a local skate park and BMXtrack for some fun later this week. Pics and videos to possibly follow if we get anything worth sharing.

dacaur

Cool, I dont think I have seen a mini slash body on a Mini erevo yet...

MTboy

Welcome, I would say to go ahead and get the Tbone bumpers if your just bashing. It will save you lots as you learn to control the crazy power.

vwo4l

So, after day one, I've already learned how to glue tires. Well, I shouldn't say I learned just yet, but it's on there at least :-) After running the car for about an hour yesterday, I noticed the inner bead of the LR tire was coming loose. So, I went to the LHS and bought some tire glue and reglued the tire. I wasn't prepared for how quickly the glue sets. For some reason, I didn't expect it to be like super glue. So, the tire isn't fully seated in the bead in a few spots. But, it seems to be holding on pretty strongly. I guess if it comes loose again, I'll get another shot at it.

Last night I swapped in the speed pinion so I'm ready to try a couple of full speed runs today to see what it's like. I'll likely swap it back shortly though as I plan to mostly use this thing on dirt. I'm already looking into new tires though, these stock ones were spinning wildly on the hard gravel and dirt that we have here in CO. I guess it's either that or I need a bit more throttle control. Still getting used to that, I've never had an R/C that's so powerful before.