Hobbico Starter
 

I bought a Hobbico Torque Master starter a couple of months ago And haven't really used it. I was starting a new LA 46 just now and noticed how weak this starter is. You can easily hold it and stop it with your hand by just grabbing the metal cone. I thought my battery might be weak so I opened the hood on my truck and used that battery. Nope, no better. This is a brand new starter so the contacts shouldn't be dirty. Do I have a defective starter?

Also I read here about buying an 18volt battery from Harbor freight and increasing the power of the starters. Has anyone done that and did the battery come with a charger? Thanks for your help.

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

If it doesn't zing over well on your car or truck starter you have a starter problem or you better have some friends handy to push if you plan on going anyplace soon in your truck!!:) I changed my battery to the HF 18 volt and it cost an extra $5.00 for the charger. It is a fast charger though, takes between three and five hours to fully charge your pack. So it is a total of about $15.00 to go to 18 volts with a charger.

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

Hey Gene

Thanks for the wing jig. You said you wanted it longer, what part. I tried the HF 18v and didn't have any luck with it. Sold them at a swap meet

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

Ratshooter Like GB if your starter is genuinely weak then its likely The starter or excessively long and small cables they come with. Another possibility is the clamps themselves on an a corroded auto battery terminal, for that to work the teeth in the clamps really have to be buried in the lead just like jumper cables.


As far as using eighteen volt drill batteries and even more voltage, absolutely they work and work well when compared to the typical 7 to 9 AH gel cell that is sold to newbies for flight boxs and using a power panel with an excessively long cable. That 'standard' set up that is pedaled to all the newbies is very weak and not good for much more than say a 55.

It is all about expectations. What I am taking about is Power and the ability to turn over bigger engines

What I am not talking about is the abilty to go days without charging. You still have to charge the battery every day you go out just like you do the typical flight box gel cell.

The Harbour freight battery is still serving me well on seven of my starters and almost every one in our club.

I would never go back into the ice age using 12 volts ever, All ya really gotta do is charge 'em.


John

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

Thanks for the replies. The battery in my truck is new. I have a new riding mower and I have been using the 12 volt battery out of the mower for a starter battery. I like the 18 volt idea and the fact that its portable. John it looks like you made the adapter to connect the battery and the starter. How are the two attached? It looks like you made rails on the wood block that slide over the rails on the battery.

This looks like the battery you all are using. Which charger did you pick for the battery?

http://www.harborfreight.com/catalog...8+volt+battery

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

Yep, the one on the left, it went up 5 bucks and the charger went up 50 cents.

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

Thanks grey beard. I knew which battery from the other posters pictures but which charger should I get? The $4.99 or the$5.49?

I went and sanded the alligator clips to see if removing the chrome plate from the inside ofthe jawswould give me a better connection and more power. It didn't. I don't remember being able to grab the old Pylon Sullivan starter I had long ago and being able to stop it. It sure seemed like it had a lot more power.

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

I have one of those hobbico starters.  I remember it being weak on a 12v bat (wouldn't turn my OS 91 4 stroke).  I put 2 7 cell NIMH car packs on it for 16.8volts and it turns my OS 91 4 stroke very well.  When I end up transitioning to larger engines I will probably put a 18 or 24v pack on it.

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

67031 charges in three to five hours. Even with the full length cord your car battery should have really given your starter a zing. My starter is a cheapo and with a fully charged 18 volt will roll over most DLE 30s. You may want to open up your starter and check it out, shoot it up with some electric terminal spray cleaner. A good starter will get with the
program on a 12 volt auto battery. Your charger is having a problem of some sort.;)

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

John,,

you have a serious starter fetish. You really need some help!!!!!! In all my years, I have never owned that many starters, much less at one time.

But what you is true.

Frank
AMA 5810

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

Hmm care to get me going on fuel pumps?

Oh, oh forgot me old stand up starter. does that count also?

John:D

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

Where's the foot pedal for the stand up starter?

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

No foot pedal all thats required is to push the spinner nut into the cone a bit, no hands. the front support truss is articulated and that rear angle brace is a telescopic unit with a set of contacts. You can see the two wires that go to the contacts about three quarter of the way down. The box contained a tractor wet cell.


It was built by my flying bud long ago and he is passed on now. He was heavy into free flight hence the stand up and I was heavy into Ukie So we would pit for each other and it worked pretty good for Ukie too.

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

I have one of those and thought the same thing, then when testing it by holding the cone, melted the wires to the power panel.  I replaced the wires with 12 gauge from the battery to the panel and now it will spin up my DLE20 without a problem.  Changing the wires from those thin 18 gauge to 12 gauge made a huge difference in the starter.  The one I have is made for the power panel with the coiled cable and banana plugs.

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

acdii I like the idea of heavier wires. I hadn't thought of that. I have some 12ga wire already. My buddy has my starter right now and when I get it back I will swap out the leads. I don't like the curly cord anyway.

Thanks gray beard for setting me straight on which charger to get. I don't actually have a charger yet. Like I said Iam using the battery out of a riding lawnmower. It starts a 12 HP engine justfine.I did take the starter apart and looked to see if anything was messed up. Nope it all looked fine. And like I stated in the first post it is brand new. I still have the box it came in sitting on my work bench.

This starter reminds me of the "monokote" iron I bought from Hobby People many years ago. Nice iron. It came from china and would just barely get hot enough to stick downiron on plastic. It wouldn't remove wrinkles or do any real shrinking. I finally just threw it away.

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

+1

I agree with everyone so far about this subject.


My Hobbico Torque Master Heavy Duty Starter works great. I replaced my 15 year old standard Tower Starter this Spring because my old one was dying on me. I'm using a standard 12 volt Hobbico/ Tower battery and I'm on my 7th year with it. Since my battery is still holding charge and putting out the amps I need- I don't really have a reason to replace the battery in my box just yet.

I usually spin FS 120-150 with it without problems. But if I were to start running gas 30cc or 170FS on up with it, I think I'd go with a more powerful 18volt as well.

That's my take on it,


Pete

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

As a test I put an inline 20 amp fuse in, and as soon as I started to turn over the DLE20, it blew the fuse. These do draw some current!

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

The starters are designed for 12 volts. When we start adding more voltage you can over heat the starter if you keep rolling over a motor that doesn't want to start. I have used two auto batteries set up in series for 24 volts on a cheap stock starter and it really rolled over the Zinoah 45 but you didn't want to be rolling over the engine for a long time or your starter welded the switch and could over heat and burn it up.
When you change over to the 18 volts you want to roll over your small engines by hand and make sure they aren't flooded or you can break a crank or rod if the engine is locked up.
The HF battery is great but when charging you want to make sure you don't go over that five hours. The charger will cook the batteries if left on too long!!!!

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

Maybe that is what I did wrong on the charging. I used my regular charger and set it for 18v. It would not even turn over a 46 2 stroke. I now use a dynatron with a 6 cell lipo. I did have to go to sullivan's heavy duty starter switch. That starter is designed for 12 ro 24v. But when you get near the 24v you have to careful or you will weld the switch.

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

My assumption is that you indeed have a defective starter.  I had that exact starter and engine for my first plane and it turned my .46 LA over JUST FINE on my 12V field battery.  In fact, after the engine started running on its own it would slow down slightly when I pulled the starter off.  And I certainly couldn't stop the spindle with my bare hands.....there's my two cents.

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

My freind has a 4 cell lipo on his torquemaster. It starts my 91fx two stroke pretty easy. He also uses it to start a 120fs four stroke.

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

Like I stated earlier I still have the box the starter came in. I was looking at the instruction sheet to see if it had any details about the power of the starter. It didn't but it did have a phone # on it so I called. I spoke with a very pleasant CS rep and explained that the starter seemed weak. (I just started a new LA46 and had to remove the glow plug and spin it for a few seconds to help loosen it up so the starter would turn it.) He stated I should not be able to grab the metal cone and stop the starter from spinning. He said they will send me a NEW STARTER. WOW, how great is that? What great customer service. I offered to mail the old one back to him but he stated that wouldn't be necessary.

Needless to say I am very pleased and wanted to say thanks to Hobbico for standing behind their product.

At least now we know you shouldn't be able to hold the starter if its in proper working order.

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

Excellent RS and of course good on Hobbico. Now this is the perfect opportunity to move into the twentieth century Whoops, twentyfirst century:D

I highly recommend that you spend the Fifteen bucks (thats only a gallon of fuel after all) and convert the original torquemaster to the harbour freight eighteen volt drill battery. Going full portable.

By the way both of my torquemasters on twelve volt could be stalled by hand. Now one is on the eighteen volt HF battery and is excellent. The other is on the 24 volt Black and Decker drill battery and it is, well superb.

This is the perfect opportunity for you to actually make direct comparison.

Also if you use any of the inexpensive four button 7amp peak chargers that are all the rage now you can also charge the 18 volt HF battery too. This is what I do and charge the 18's with the same chargers that I charge the airplane packs and tx's. That HF charger is not a peak charger and must be baby sat.

The 24 volt pack no that is two much for the little four button chargers for that either the drills charger or in my case I use a rather expensive Venom four button 14amp rated for twenty cells.

I suspect RS if you snag this opportunity you will begin to rethink your flight line equipment. What ever you decide to do just 'Enjoy.


John;)

RE: Hobbico Starter
 

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RE: Hobbico Starter
 

Hello JohnBuckner. For the most part I don't even use an electric starter. I only bought the one I have so I could start my new Super Tigre 40 I put on my scratch built Sweet Stik. My buddy and I ordered two ST 40s from Tower for $75 each. There is a really good review of these engines on this site and that was what convinced us to buy a pair of engines. Well guess what. Neither engine could be started by hand. So to start my $75 bargain I had to buy a $30+ starter. Now that my engine is broke in it will start by hand (sometimes). Nothing makes me nash my teeth like watching a youtube video and some guy cranking away on an engine with an electric starterfor 20-30 seconds because its either poorly tuned or he didn't have the sense to prime it beforehand.

All my other engines will start in just a couple of flips. If my new starter works on 12 volts I may just leave it at that. I like not having a huge flight box and all the extra weight to carry. I am a minimalist kind of guy. And my St engine now starts with just a tiny bump of the starter. Its so quick to start you almost don't realize you even spun it with the starter.

But if I keep toting the starter to the flying field I will upgrade to a self contained starter and battery. Taking the battery out of the mower isn't hard and it fits right in a small ice chest I have so its easy to carry. But its way more battery than I need for this starter.

I have no idea what a 4 button 7 amp peak charger is. Can you post a photo or a link? And by the way you have a really nice starter collection.