Posts: 104
Joined: 10/26/2002 From: Worcester,
MA, USA Status: offline
My wife got me one for christmas, but I haven't used it yet. I did pull it out of the box to see what it had in it and decided that I am replacing the stock electronics immediately. In place of the 19V system I am going to use a high torque servo, ESC, and my futaba 3PM system. I didn't get a close look at the motor, but it appeared to be a 540 size can, so if I can, I'm going to put in a 17 or 19 turn to pump her up some more. I like the model as the chassis is great looking and seems well suited to upgrades. Let me know if anyone has more info on it.
Posts: 104
Joined: 10/26/2002 From: Worcester,
MA, USA Status: offline
Hey there, I just completed a complete gutting and reconstruction of mine. I took out the electronics and motor, and rigged up a new modern system from parts of various kits. I used a great planes gear box (3:1 reduction) with a stock 20 turn motor to drive a belt system out of a HPI Pro3 (39tooth spur, 16 tooth pinion). I used a bunch of old stuff I had and a few parts from tower, but I'm happy to say, it runs like a champ. WAY FASTER than before. It will spin the track and donut around now, and jumps over snow banks well too. Only tough part is keeping it upright, as it has a tendency to dig in the track and roll... just like a real sled without the rider to counter balance it. I have a bunch of pictures of the build up if anyone wants to get an idea of what can be done.
Posts: 104
Joined: 10/26/2002 From: Worcester,
MA, USA Status: offline
A few notes. The toughest part was mounting the spur pulley to the hex shaped jackshaft that drives the track pulleys. I basically destroyed the stock gears to do it, including lathing down the stock spur gear with the hex center until it would fit inside a 1/4inch ID spur gear mount I had from a bolink digger. The lights I wired to an old reciever battery plug, so they light up off the reciever BEC power (this might be too much for them as one marker light already bit the dust). I used a LRP runner plus ESC for power, and mounted the battery in the back for weight. Just needed to make a battery extension to run from the rear to the front.
I was concerned while building that a belt drive wouldn't be up to the task of handling the torque needed to spin the track. Not the case at all. I can run it as hard as I want without the belt skipping or coming off. I had my gear box slide down in the adjustment track and the belt got very loose, but it still transfered power up to a certain point.
I calculated my final drive ratio to be 6.75:1. This is ok, but I am probably going to drop it even lower for better torque and less strain on the motor. I would reccommend a 13 or 14 tooth pinion for the gear box.
Overall, I am thrilled with how well my project turned out. The sled moves now like a real RC vehicle should. If I can just keep it on the track, it will be perfect!
Posts: 1
Joined: 7/13/2004 From: erie,
PA, USA Status: offline
I went the easy route and just put a bigger heat sink on the fets, were the steering rods hook on the skis I drilled the holes in closer to the screw for a little better steering. Any more and it spends most of its time on its side(rolls real easy). I put a good RS380 motor with a 3300Muf capacitor about an inch from the motor. I took the stock battery apart and removed the stupid thermal fuse and replaced it with wire. The battery died the first day I had the thing. I remaved the for show only rear suspension and added a couple of oil shocks so there is really some travel in the rear. If I can get pics I will post them. I like the belt drive Idea,I think I will do that when time and money permits. In all the sled is pretty fun. The 380 motor draws current from the steering so I have to let off the forward stick to get it to turn. Good Luck and have fun
Posts: 104
Joined: 10/26/2002 From: Worcester,
MA, USA Status: offline
Sounds cool.
My biggest priority was getting the steering and electrical systems working right, which meant a conversion from 19.2 to 7.2 volts. The steering servo I put in fit perfect with just some double sided foam tape on the bottom and top of it (there is a protrusion on the bottom of the black upper deck that holds the servo down when installed. The stock steering was so pathetic that I couldn't get it to turn around in my back yard. Now it turns as much as you could want. Having proportional steering and throttle is especially useful, as I felt with one speed it was very prone to digging a whole with the track if you tried to stop and start again. Now I can feather the throttle as needed to get it across a lot more stuff.
I am very curious what you did in the rear. The stock suspension is pretty useless, as it only compresses under tons of load. The front is too stiff as well, but as least it works from time to time. I'm thinking about making some discrete outriggers for the back end to help prevent it from rolling so much. I did notice though that the more I drive it the better I get as predicting its behavior and reacting. Having very fast steering helps a lot as I can turn into a slide or down a hill to prevent it from rolling sometimes.
Posts: 11
Joined: 1/16/2005 From: winslow, ME, USA Status: offline
hello... i'm new..... i have an electric snowmobile from radioshack.... it wont go fast.. i want it to hit good jumps and do a wheely on take off..... wut do i need?... i'm 14 so i don't go very much money..... i just bought a 1600 mah battery for it.....
< Message edited by Lightfoot -- 4/26/2007 7:34:13 PM >
Posts: 11
Joined: 1/16/2005 From: winslow, ME, USA Status: offline
when i got thought deep snow.. snow that is like 2-3 inches deep... the gears start to grind.. like the motor is spining but the track isn't.... you should know wut i mean if you look at the pic
Posts: 104
Joined: 10/26/2002 From: Worcester,
MA, USA Status: offline
Hi Derric,
Without examining that model closely, it's imposible to say what you would need. Take a look at the motor size, and whether you can swap the motor's pinion gear onto a different one. If you can do that, you may be able to buy a faster motor for it. Without seeing it I can't help you too much.
Posts: 11
Joined: 1/16/2005 From: winslow, ME, USA Status: offline
wut kind, size, and where can i get a bigger motor.... if it don't fit then o well..... i want it to go fast...... can you answer me why it grinds when it goes through snow..... it doesn't grind when i go on carpet or on ice.... just in snow..
Posts: 3
Joined: 1/21/2005 From: Jerome, ID, USA Status: offline
Hi, I'm a little late but I just found this site and wanted to show you what I did with my New Bright snowmobile. First off, nice job on your modification niceorange. I wanted to try to save the original gear drive to keep everything as simple as possible. For power I went with a Traxxas Stinger 21 turn stock motor. I re-drilled the motor mount holes so I could put in a fifteen tooth pinion gear. I was kind of surprised, but it is actually holding up very well. I've been running it for about a month with no problems. As you can see in the picture I rotated the drive forward to position the motor in front of the tunnel, for a lower center of gravity. This helped quite a bit and it fit like a glove with only slight mod. to the tunnel and the black headlight mount plate. Yes of course I changed out the radio system with all futaba and a LRP F1 super reverse ESC. I get a little more go juice out of a seven cell hump pack, instead of a six stick. Next was the suspension. I replaced the rear shocks with some old oil units I had lying around. The front track shock I attached in the same spots as the original. The rear track shock was mounted the same as the original (pretty good performance) until the C shaped swing arm at the bottom end snapped to much air, Ouch!. So I repositioned it (better performance), top end where the fake top out straps were and for the bottom, there is a hole in each slide kind of behind the "dummy" wheels. I ran a piece of piano wire through with some wheel collars on each end, and some heat shrink tube slid on to keep the shock centered. For the front suspension I added some aluminum strap "shock towers" riveted into the belly pan. The shocks came off of a duratrax MT. I Also tried to lower the weight of the battery by removing the circuit board cover and getting a little crazy with my dremel. I created a perfect size pocket so the battery lays flat on what used to be the floor of the radio compartment. All of the holes I made in the tunnel are sealed on the underside with polycarb pieces and epoxy. So yes everything still stays dry. Overall it runs very well. It could be geared up just a little more, But I like the extra drift ripping torque.
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