I feel your pain. I don't know if those parts are interchangeable, never had the Spartan

Well looks like I am destined to burn up the ESC and connectors lol. I have 6s at 65C. Oh well, gonna look around for a cheap Hobbywing ESC and put on some deans connectors, have them ready when the smoke pours out.

Esc
 

OOOOOOOOOOOHH! Love those Hobbyking ESC's. 45c on this boat.

A couple reviews mentioned the boat sinks if the lid is lost on a flip, so I filled both mine with pool noodles. Interesting fact to mention, if you look at the specs for the original Joysway Alpha 1000, under requirements is lists hull flotation needed. LoL.

Anyway, I'm a little confused on the battery specs shown in post 7 with recommmended measurements (144x51x27mm). The length of the battery trays certainly is not an issue, they are very long. The width doesn't seem to be an issue either. The height would be a limiting factor, but remains to be determined what the max may be. I saw the post showing 27mm tall max. I just test fit a 36mm tall 3s battery and seemed to have a bit of room to spare, as it was still sitting on top of the velcro strips. Have they changed something with the battery tray positioning to allow more room? Hopefully? Maybe they have moved them more towards the center/bottom of the hull...

Nothing has been changed, it not so much the Height. your only at 9 mm diff. its the WIDTH and LENGTH together that does it in this boat. A 168x69x26 is a lot bigger together than 144x51xx27 . You can squeeze in anything you like but keep in mind the power going to the esc and motor. I like to stick with the manufacturers recommendations. Some 3s batteries are diff. specs but I found on this boat you really need to be close for the room.

Hobbyking has these TODAY for $150.00 ARTR and $185.00 for the RTR + shipping from their US warehouse. Boy this really hurts the resale market!

WOW, I figured hey would drop sooner or later...I waited a couple days on ordering my second one but ended up with the same price. I'd be willing to bet they will clear them out now and discontinue. They seem to do that with a number of vehicles. Great price right before they sell out. Take a chance on waiting to order though.

kind of hard to imagine finding a better deal on a boat of this quality and capability at this price. It seems the only way to improve on it is to include a 180A ESC.

I had just purchased an ARR for $150 online and then had a friend in my rc boat club offer to sell me his, with batteries and a 120A ESC for the same price.

Now i just need to get the boss-wife to let me keep both.

Better grab and talk the wife into it. Because HK dropped the price to $150.00 the resale market went south. Just sold mine for $200.00 then he saw it on HK and bye bye. To keep it @ $200.00 had to throw in the batteries.