Max-U52

There's a couple more advantages to lipos. One is discharge rate. If you charge a nimh to full charge, the minute you take it off the charger it begins to lose charge. I've heard as much as 10% in the first 24 hours. That makes it difficult to charge batteries before a weekend event and have them all fully charged when you get there. Of course, a 90% charge still isn't bad and most people won't really notice the difference. It may shorten the usability of a 5000 mah nimh by 6 or 7 minutes, not really that big a deal, but the lipos don't lose charge like that. The next advantage is a bit more significant, and that's cost. For the cost of one 5000 mah nimh at my LHS I can get about five 2200 mah lipos. Yeah, I have to also buy LVAs but it's still a huge difference in price between nimh and lipo. Then there's the advantage that Jeff mentioned, and that's size. In the Panzer III there isn't a whole lot of room. I doubt I could get an IBU2 in my PIII with a nimh taking up that much space. My 2200 zippy compact runs the tank just as long as the 3000 mah nimh, but only uses half the space in the tank.

But Jeff is absolutely right - YOU HAVE TO HAVE A HEALTHY RESPECT FOR LIPO BATTERIES!! If you get careless they will bite you. HARD! With that said, any responsible adult that uses a decent amount of caution will find lipos perfectly safe to use, as long as you follow the rules. Never leave them unattended while charging, and make sure you have a metal box for charging, storage and transportation. That's why most lipo users have an old .50 cal ammo can. It's very good for storing and transporting lipos safely. I also use a metal box in a safe area to charge them, and I have a bucket of sand at hand, just in case. Jeff learned first hand that you do not carry them in your pocket, you put them in the ammo can, even just for the short walk to the car. And you have to keep in mind that a good deal of the horror stories you hear about lipos come from the flyboys, because lipos do NOT react well to crashes, or even rough landings. We don't have as many of those worries with tanks. So used properly, lipos are great, but it's probably a good idea to stick with nimh if you can. And one tip is, don't go for the 5000 mah right away. Look around a bit, and you'll find that a 3000 or a 4200 gives very good performance at a much lower cost. In my LHS, a 5000 is more than twice the price of a 3000. Before I buy a 5000 nimh I think I'd just buy two 3000s, and the final cost will be very close to just one 5000.