N-4-Speeed

I have an Ofna Ravager .28 right now and have a couple of pretty sweet places to run it, but they get a lot of dirt and sometimes mud everywhere. Like after one run my air filter is dark dark brown. From my understanding electric motors aren't sealed, so would it be bad to run them somewhere like that?

Longhair

Some off-road motors come with little filters that go over the air events but I never bother with them. I just stick to cheap (under $25) motors so I don't loose sleep over it.

If you have an air compressor then just blow out the excessive dirt while cleaning it.

number40

dirt and dust isn't good for anything
but it's the risk you take if you want to run in those conditions
the best thing I've found to use is special stretchy tape they use for wrapping race horse's ankles, just one wrap of it around the end of electric motor still allows it to breath yet keeps most of the harmfull elements out of it

ozium

Some Neu and Nemesis brushless motors have sealed cans. I think most manufacturers have some form of a sealed motor available.

Redvanmafia

most car and boat brushless motors are closed in, Alot of airplane heli motors are open cause there not gonna be runnin around in dirt/water/mud type stuff, Open cans promote better cooling, only were you can tho you dont want an open brushless motor running thru water and stuff, it'll last 15 seconds

N-4-Speeed

Does anyone know if the mamba/novak/velineon systems are sealed? I guess they wouldn't have to be completely sealed anyway; my servos are exposed and they're fine.

simplecj

Scary story but happy ending... I was driving my new Rustler VXL at this sweet little ATV tracked up area.... there was a 10 ft hill with lots of track going up it.... so I drove my car up it... and it disappeared... I ran up the hill... my car was not at the top... Where was it??? It had rolled, when I took my finger off the throttle, down and off the OTHER side of the hill and was now sitting with the back 1/3 submersed in muddy water... AHHHHHH!!!! I quickly leaped down into the mud and water getting covered to my knees, and tossed my car back up on the hill, climbed out, turned the car off and went straight home feeling like I may have just cost myself $150 for the ESC & motor.

Happy ending: I cleaned up the car and set it under a light for a couple hours, turning it every now and then to make sure all the parts got heated up reasonably to evaporate any water that got in. Took it out the next day and WALLAH!!! IT WORKS FINE!!!

Moral of the story: Don't drive around something if you don't know what is on the other side ANNNNDDD Brushless motors are almost all sealed in by the carrier bearings, which really saved my ***** this time!!! As for the ESC... I guess I'm just lucky!

Worried about dirt?? GO BRUSHLESS!

Krawlin

simplecj is right to a point with brushless motors. Yes, the cans are sealed, so 99% of the time, dirt wont cause a brushless motor any problem. HOWEVER... WATER AND BRUSHLESS MOTORS DO NOT MIX!!!! I am not sure the reasoning behind it or what happens, but if you get a brushless motor wet (as in get water inside) and keep going, as far as I know, it will fry the motor. On the contrary, brushed motors are not affected in the least by water. You can completely submerge a brushed motor in the water and keep running it and it will just go and go and go. Many people actually submerge their brushed motor in water and run them under water for a while to help break them in, but be sure you take apart the motor and dry it and oil it after it gets submerged or wet.

No dirt and brushed motors can be a problem. mainly because little piece of dirt can get between the brush and the comm, and the motor will have what is called a "hung brush". It usually results in extremely poor perfomance and can score the comm so badly that you would need to replace it. HOWEVER... it is rare to get a hung brush, so if I were you, dont even let it cross your mind.

N-4-Speeed

Cool, thanks for the help. What would you guys recommend for jumping (BIG) and running on relatively flat dirt? I like the look of the rc10b4 but dunno if it's tough enough. And I heard graphite shatters more easily than plastic so that might x out the b44/xxx-4 g+

simplecj

I'm happy with my Rustler VXL... does great in the dirt and for jumping... of course parts break, but then you replace them with aluminum parts and you're good to go!

Krawlin

And then the aluminum bends in a crash and you cant bend it back because it will just crack, and then you have to pay EVEN MORE MONEY to buy new aluminum parts. Stick with the plastic for things like suspension arms people, because in the end, they will cost you less overall.

simplecj

(sorry, I know this is a bit off topic...but I think it's an important point to make!)

That's why you don't go ALL aluminum!! You gotta choose what parts to have as your "breakables". In a hard crash, something's gotta give, you'd better plan for it to be something cheap and easy to fix. Personally I'm staying with plastic suspension arms and a plastic chassis. All carriers, stearing blocks, camber blocks and tie-rods are metal. Also, a major one is to replace the tranny box with an aluminum one with aluminum suspension arm mounts which are separate from the tranny box. The stock plastic tranny box is all one piece in the Rustler, break the arm mount and you have to replace the whole box which is both expensive and a lot of work!! By going aluminum on the tranny, arm mounts, the carrier bocks and linkage, you isolate the weaker plastic in the suspension arms themselves. If they break, they're both easy and cheap to replace at about $5-10 per set on ebay. (alot of people will sell their new plastic ones from cars they upgraded to composites or metal)

And, I also recommend upgrading to a large plastic bumper like the one from RPM, this will also dramatically reduce shock from both head-on collisions and cartwheels... DO NOT get the solid metal front bumper like the one from Integy, that's about the stupidest "upgrade" you can make because it's got no flex and therefore completely contradicts what a bumper is supposed to do; absorb the impact! Now I just need to find a good plastic wheelie bar that will do the same thing as the RPM bumper, but for the rear end. Another RPM bumper with some wheels mounted?? That could work!

I also dremeled out a bunch of the centeral part of the chassis to give the whole frame some flex or 'give' when I wreck it and it does like 10 cartwheels or whatever... I know, supposedly a stiff chassis provides better handling, but I'm not racing and I'd rather stay a bit flexible to save myself from replacing a lot of parts.