(In a world were everything is not perfect) That old saying comes to mind when I am trying to find the right LiPo balancer and lead to match my expensive battery pack. I often ask myself, why so many different leads and balancers . Let’s use one common lead and end all the headaches. At least two or maybe three different leads on the market would be fine. Better yet, how about a company that could make balance and charge leads for everything. Man, that would make things easy.   For the most part I have found a nice little balancer that seems to get the job done and is well within anyone’s budget.  The Electrifly Equinox LiPo cell balancer from Great Planes (gpmm3160). (click image to go to product site)  

What make this little rascal unique is the fact that optional leads are available for a variety of batteries.  Be sure to check it out, You might be glad you did.

SPECS:   

• Compatible Input Devices: LiPo Chargers and Dischargers ONLY(operation based on nominal cell voltage of 3.7V per cell)
• Cell Balancing Range: 2-series to 5-series LiPo packs (7.4-18.5V)
• Max. Charge Current: 3A (over 3A requires special harness
• Discharge Termination: Auto-cut based on individual cell voltages, 2.75V per cell in Quick-Balance Mode, 3V per cell in Interface Mode (with separate Discharger)
• Quick-Balance Mode Discharge Current: 120mA per cell
• Overload Protection: 7.5A auto (spade) fuse
• Dimensions: 3.23 x 1.57 x .59 in (82 x 40 x 15mm)
• Weight: 1.55oz (43.8g)

With the outdoor racing season almost behind us, I started to look for a positive note to end the season on. I had heard through the grapevine that Greg Vogel had his hands on the new Jammin x2 truggy. (A full review in the Oct. 2008 issue) I got in touch with Greg and we discussed the new features of the truck and it didn’t take long before I was at fever pitch. After weighing in on all the options, I did not like the idea of parking my trusty Jammin X1 for many reasons. This happens to be a hand-me-down from David Baker. How can I disperse of something so rich in RC history.  With a little research I was able to get the part numbers and information that I needed to convert my X1 over to the nimble X2 racing machine that Greg had boasted so much about.   During the transformation the new X2 chassis is the eye candy and what makes the new design work. It’s lighter,narrower and longer. One other notable new feature is the  center spur gear. A new gearing ratio driven by a smaller spur gear allows the engine to move more towards the center of the truck. The end result is a truggy with everything pulled towards the inside and pushed towards the front. The big bore shocks are standard equipment on the X2 but I had installed them on my X1 a few months back.   While I used my own choice of parts, the results are close to the same. 

New longer and leaner chassis.              New parts waiting for some attention.

Here is a current list of part #’s that I used to complete the X1 to X2 makeover.

• Chassis (ofn41041)
• Chassis straight brace (ofn41042)
• Chassis braces (ofn41034)
• Fuel tank (ofn41037)
• Center drive-shafts (ofn41044)
• Stone/mud guards (ofn41033)
• Center differential mounting post (ofn40512)
• Brake cams (ofn40547)
• x2 Hot Bodies 43t bevel/ring gear (c9010)
• x2 Hot Bodies  10t bevel/pinion gear (c9009)
• x2 Hot Bodies 50t spur gear (c8182) 

New Chassis, braces and mud guards.

The finished project. 

Yes, I love the Jammin .21 engine! During the build, I did come across some time consuming areas. By using the Hot Bodies pinion gear which is longer than stock, I had to remove about 3mm from the end. I used a bench grinder and kept it cool during the process by dipping the gear in water. You don’t want to see any discoloration in the steel.  I used the Hot Bodies gears since I had them laying around. You can avoid this step by using orginal Jammin X2 gears. With the truck complete, I now have my goal set for this weekends race. I will give a full report on how the truck compares to the older X1 and provide a setup that will hopefully deliver the potential that the Jammin is capable of.

For a complete review of the new X2, checkout the OCT. 2008 issue of RC Driver.

The weekend of  June 14-15 2008 was the first round of the North East RC Pro series at CRC in Rome NY. Many racers arrive for the race Thursday night so they can hit up the track for practice early Friday morning. I carpooled up with RCD Contributor Kevin Trudel in his Dad’s caravan; we set up our tent that Thursday night, took a quick look at the track and returned to the van only to find it dead at exactly midnight; Friday the 13^th had struck us.

            Practice went well as I dialed in my Team Associated RC8 for the Expert Buggy class, my Mugen MBX5T for the Expert Truggy class and my Traxxas Platinum Edition Revo for Production Monster Truck. Ed Bridges from EB Mods/ Trinity set me up with an Extech Engine for both my Truggy and Buggy and these mills exhibited awesome power.

            Saturday’s qualifying was intense, if you made one mistake, you could count yourself out of placing high in qual points. By the end of the day I was sitting in the B’s for Buggy and Truggy and in the A for Production Monster.

            Sunday was a beautiful day for the mains; however the weather conditions were much different than Saturday. I went out for my buggy main only to have the engine lean bogging on the bottom end and wasn’t able to get it totally dialed in before the start of the race. The engine eventually blew the plug and took away my hopes of bumping. Truggy however was a much better, I was able to retune the engine before the race and jump out to the front of the pack early on. Contributing RCD writer Matt “Chewy” Ciechowski was leading the race with my truck a few turns back in second. Chewy’s truck then blew a steering servo and I went on to win the B and bump up into the A.

            Production Monster was the first A-main up and I was sitting second on the grid, however TQ had broken his truck in warm-up, so I got a great start and lead the race from start to finish, also winning by several laps over second place. My Revo was absolutely dialed!

            Truggy A looked like it was going to be a bust early on as I wrecked a few times in the first few laps leaving my truck in dead last, almost about to get lapped. But I tightened up my driving and concentrated on maintaining a good pace and keeping the truck together. Then some of the top qualifying drivers encountered issues with their trucks and I started to gain positions. By the end of the race I had put my MBX5T into the 2^nd spot and that’s where I finished. It was an awesome weekend of racing, the Calandra’s/ CRC always put on a great show and I can’t wait to attend another race at their track.  

Photo By: Oompa

The venue was the first race of the season at Wolcott Hobby in CT.  I was thoroughly excited to fully test out the Lightning Pro Evo 2.  Before bringing anything it to the track, I’ve become extremely meticulous to ensure everything was assembled correctly from the factory (i.e. loctite on certain bolts, ends points set correctly, inspection of all 3 diffs, etc).  Needless to say, the entire buggy was bolted together with surgical precision.  The front and rear diffs came pre-shimmed from the factory which eliminated any backlash of ring and pinion gears.  the inner hinge pins were secured with both e-clips and set screws through outer CNC brace.  All of the metal-to-metal contact screws already came with a touch of blue loctite, Thank You HB!!  After a short time of searching, I couldn’t find what the diffs were originally packed with so I started with a base of 5k-7k-1k.  I’ve run with this combination before and the results after pumping through a few tanks of fuel were more than satisfying.  The next area of inspection was the shocks.  I was struggling to get the feel I was looking for, so in anticipation of the “soon to be released” HB Big Bore shocks, I had a set of Jammin’ laying around that I mounted.  I now felt prepared to conquer any obstacles in my path.  Before the event I had roughly an hour for practice.  I went out 2 separate times at about 7 minutes a piece to get a feel of the track and performance of the buggy.  Word cannot explain how easy the EVO2 was to drive.  Qualifiers started at noon time and I felt more then ready.  My fellow contributor Matt Ciechowski was there to lend a helping hand.  I was in the lead from the first to the 4th lap.  My buggy flamed right after the big kicker before entering the front straight.  Upon further inspection I found my pressure line was completely severed from the exhaust.  Because of the barrage of entries, we were scheduled for only 2 qualifiers.  This was make or break on the field of 65 buggies.  The track had it’s share of ruts and bumps around the apexs of most turns so I knew it was going to be tough.  Start of the second qual and I was out front again.  This time around there was no excuses and my motor purred the entire run which placed me in the 8th spot in the A main.  The rough track handling of this Pro Evo 2 was unmatched.  I could take the line that most driver’s dreaded and still made a smooth landing on the backside.  Ultimately I finished 8th overall after a 20 minute main and I was more then impressed with Hot Bodies’ masterpiece.  I figured it wasn’t too bad for the first time out.  More coverage of this buggy to come!!
pics by sk3racin

There’s little doubt that we will see at least two production electric 1/8-scale buggies before summer even starts. But even we here at RC Driver are pretty much in the dark about the final designs. One thing’s for certain, though, and that is that in order for any electric buggy to work as well as its nitro counterpart, it has to have at a minimum the following features: a center differential, and, mechanical disc brakes. I’ve had some experience in this area, and I can say without question that applying ESC brakes through the center diff is nowhere near as efficient and effective as braking done with discs. Also, braking using the ESC is a major source of heating, and is often why some brushless ESCs go into thermal when used in 1/8-scale vehicles or even monster trucks. Of course I’m approaching this from a racer’s perspective. For bashers, I doubt the difference in braking performance will be as much of an issue. Lastly is the delivery of power: I have maintained since my comparison between an electric and nitro Losi 8ight that unless a significant drivetrain and suspension change is made, simply bolting in a high-torque electric power system into an existing buggy platform will drastically upset handling and traction. I proposed an intermediary clutch system (which we’ve seen in Tekno RC’s new Revo electric conversion) that would reduce the instant-on torque delivery of an electric motor. Brushless buggies (and truggies) are on their way, and they may even mount a significant challenge to nitro. The question is, will they get it right? 

Sunday April 20, 2008 was Wolcott Raceway’s official opening day and trophy race for the nitro off-road season. Before going to the track, I had a decision to make and that was what buggy to run, I have a Team Associated RC8 built and my Jammin X1x ready to go and after going back and forth between the two; I decided to load up the X1x because I had already practiced with it on the track. My Revo 3.3 also made the trip to the track. With only an hour of practice, I was able to get one tank in on my X1x, the first round of qualifying would be practice for the Production MT class. My X1x powered by an EB Mod V-spec, Byron Gen 2 Fuel and outfitted with Futaba FASST 3PK radio was working well. After the first round of qualifying I was sitting in the bottom of the A main. Although my first heat of Production MT was practice for me, I won the heat and received several compliments on how well the truck ran. The second rounds of qualifying were much more difficult after the tracks jumps and turns blew out. I didn’t have as good of a run in buggy and two drivers moved to the A and bumped me down to first in the B. In production truck I won with another good run with 7 laps in 5:00.54; just missed 8, which was pretty cool since the buggies and truggy’s were laying down 8 lap runs. In the B main I lead the race in the beginning, middle and towards the end, my engine flamed out. My pit guy Kevin Trudel got it fired up and I quickly motored back to the lead to win and bump up into the A. Production MT was the first main up and I took off with the lead and never looked back. My Revo 3.3 was running great and when the race was over, I finished two laps above the field. I was rushed to get my X1x out in the A and didn’t remember to swap out the plug from the B. After the start, I moved up several positions in the race, but early on, the engine flamed again. Frank got the engine restarted, but it only flamed again a few laps later. I pulled the buggy from the track rather than have everyone run around with my buggy getting it restarted. Upon inspection of the plug, the coil looked angry and was the culprit behind the stalling. Overall it was an awesome day of racing and was lots of fun hanging out with Frank, some of our contributors such as K-True, D-Go and Chewy as well as many other racers that traveled from CT and neighboring states.  

Yesterday (Sunday) was Wolcott’s official opening day, and the track was packed with 140 entries in the 1/8 Buggy, Truggy, and Production Monster Truck classes. I ran my Associated RC8 and the new Traxxas Revo Platinum Edition, while Greg ran his Jammin’ X1X and Revo 3.3. I managed one session of practice with the Revo, then decided that was all I needed…Well, not really; I spent the morning de-moth-balling my nitro stuff and didn’t have time to hit the track until the qualifiers. The track was super-rough and challenging, but my RC8 felt really good for having sat in a box since last season. The EB Mods O.S. Vspec engine fired immediately and ran perfectly all day (with one plug swap). The Revo was working well, but flamed in both qualifiers after sitting upside down for too long. I bumped to the A-Main in Prod. Truck, and bumped to the B to the C in Buggy. I ran about fourth in Prod. Truck until a flameout, and was into the top three in the B Buggy main until I broke the rear hingepin plate (I was still using the original, non-changed parts). I have all the updated RC8 bits, which I’ve already begun installing, as I can’t wait to hit the track again. A lot of guys are trimming the outer rows off their front Crime Fighter tires, so I tried doing this, and I really thought it smoothed out the RC8’s steering response, and made it more stable through bumps. My RC8 is still pretty-much bone-stock, so I’ve already begun downloading the setups from AE’s website.

Photos by SK3racin

Outdoor racing season has arrived (finally) here on the east coast, and with the weather getting warmer, I’ve begun to ready my rides for action. This season, it looks as if Production Monster Truck is going to be really popular, especially with the new Traxxas Revo Platinum Edition hitting the track. I’m all set to race mine (hopefully this weekend), and I think I’ll also compete in the 1/8-buggy class with my Associated RC8. I got to run this buggy a few times last year, before the weather turned too cold, and I can’t wait to tweak it to the latest team setups.

On the horizon are some very, very interesting new releases that will surely shake up outdoor racing as we know it. I know of at least one manufacturer who is coming out with a full-production, electric-powered 1/8-scale buggy. Add this to the electric-conversion kits that are already on the market, and we may very well see the creation of an entirely new category of racing. Will track operators simply incorporate the electrics in with the nitro? Or will they have to let them run separately. As technology slowly narrows the performance/duration gaps between electric and nitro, which class will win out in the end?

Okay, wait til dark and head down to the local parking garage. Convince the security guard to let you set up a few bottles and presto! Judging by the start of the vid, a few of the bottles may have been emptied on site. (thanx Jeff) Mario Theme Played with RC Car and Bottles

OFNA has a neat set of hex drivers that make building a whole lot easier. These drivers have a quick change end that fit into a ratcheting handle offered by OFNA or a standard hex adapter handle. The ends are a standard 1/4in. style that allows them to be inserted into electric screwdrivers. I’ve been using these for a few years and haven’t broken a tip. The part numbers are 10312 for the standard set and 10311 for the metric.