ORIGINAL: Raindrop
Hi,
I am new to RC trucks. I have recently acquired a Redcat Volano EPX 4wd truck which has a brushed 540 motor and brushed ESC. After running the truck for few hours I have question about gears, transmission and low end torque, so I am posting the question in this thread since this thread is about gears.
I bought the truck for my 8 years old to run in the backyard, so I did not need to run very fast. So I thought that a brushed motor would be enough for 'not too fast' driving. But I found that Bermuda Lawn is providing quite a challenge for the truck ( grass is not really TALL, but it is very thick, very well taken care of Bermuda sod lawn.). Truck was quite a bit slower in the grass as compared to on pavement and after just running for 2 minutes truck started to slowdown. I picked up the truck and noticed burning smell coming out of truck. I also found that motor and ESC were super hot just after 2 minutes of run time. I guess I need more low end torque.
Now I thought of adding brushless motor & ESC but then it may make the truck too fast for the kids. I was wondering is there any way I can change pinion/spur gear combo to give little more low end torque in exchange for top speed. Two diferent solutions come to mind and I want to get opinion of the experts here.
1) My truck comes with 17T pinion abd 64T spur gear. Redcat does offer a 14T Pinion gear, I can try putting in that 14T pinion gear with the stock motor to see if it can give some extra low end torque. Do you guys think it would make any noticeable difference?
2) I have thought of switching the ESC & motor for a 4-pole brushless setup. However since I do not have any personal experiance with different type of motors, I am not sure if a 1900kv 4-pole motor would give enough low end torque above what is possible with stock 540 motor?. Also if a 1900kv 4-pole motor would be too fast for this truck. I have looked yp and really liked the price of Turnigy 1/8th Scale 4 Pole Brushless Motor - 1900KV. What type of gearing set-up would you suggest for such a motor?
Any help would be great. Since I am new to all this, any specific product/gear recommendation or link would be great.
Thanks for your time.
grass is murder on any RC. even my brushless SC10 gets much hotter running on grass. Its a combo of tires not getting traction and the grass on the chassis making friction and requiring more effort to move over it.
gearing down the stock motor is not a bad idea.
Brushless would be better.....tho a 4 pole setup is not needed and could even damage the gears.
The brushless version of the truck has a 3300kv 2 pole motor. And that's plenty of power, trust me.
If the motor isn't toast yet, gear it down and raise the suspension as high as it will go.
A traxxas vxl system with the stock gearing should work.
It is hard to say for sure what motor/gear combo is best. When I try out any new motor/gear combo I use a duratrax temp gun ($20 on ebay) so that I can see exactly what temps the ESC and motor are hitting.
130 degrees is hot to the touch....but safe. 160 on the motor is safe...and much to hot to keep your finger on. your finger cant tell the difference between 160 and 200...but 200 will slowly kill a motor. $20 tool can save a lot of $$ down the road in motors/esc's
but for now, gear down and raise the suspension....or find some dirt, LOL