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Brushless conversion kits for Traxxas Slash

5K views 41 replies 23 participants last post by  LS6454 
#1 ·
Can any of you RC dudes recommend me a good brushless set up to convert my son's truck for the Christmases
 
#7 ·
If you are buying the system separate, I would not recommend the Velinion setup. It's just too expensive for what it is. If you are looking for something out of a local shop, you'll pretty much have to just go see what they've got. If you are looking to order online, then hobbypartz.com isn't a bad place to order. This link will take you straight to the motor/esc/programming card combos. 13.5 and 17.5 combos are both $120.

Honestly any setup should work fine, though if it's for younger ones I wouldn't go too crazy, no lower than 13.5T. Also, pay attention to the Turn rating, a 1/10 motor may not be a full 540 size motor even though it appears to be. Whole numbers (13T or 17T) are usually a smaller armature, and can usually be told visually by deeper fins on the motor can. Half numbers (13.5T or 17.5T) are true 540 size motors, and usually have smooth cans or very shallow fins.

Either way, I would definitely recommend Lipo. Hell, you may wanna do that first, since that will actually make the stock Titan a fair bit quicker on it's own, though it will also let you burn the Titan up quicker as well.
 
#10 ·
Thanks :thumb:

As for switching to Lipo first half the reason we want to convert to brushless is because of reliability of the stock system. In talking to the guys at a few hobby shops and my frsutrations with reliability (and my general troubleshooting and repair knowledge of RC shit) they suggested we convert to brushless as it is not only faster, but much more reliable than the stock traxxas crap. Your thoughts?
 
#8 ·
www.amainhobbies.com is good for pricing too. NiMh on brushless will fly. I 'trained' mine on NiMh before I trusted myself to LiPo.

But I ruined a LiPo. Expensive lesson.

Do you ever go to the track in GB?
 
#9 ·
Get some extra pinion gears and spur gears to keep on hand. With the higher torque, until you learn to control it you may strip them. Better to have them on hand than to have to run into Flint to buy them, or to have to wait to order.
 
#13 · (Edited)
#14 ·
You should be able to make the jump to Lipo and brushless right away, its not that hard to learn to drive over a slow truck. Make sure the body is in good shape because you are going to roll it a lot but other than that its not hard.

I went from a slow crawler to a brushless 4x4 slash and some nice big lipos and wow is it fun!
 
#15 · (Edited)
I've had about every type of RC rig over the past 20 years, and the only thing I would even consider running a brushed motor in anymore is a crawler.

I have had really good luck with Castle products. Their ESCs can be programmed on your PC, or you can get a field card and do it whenever. For a 2wd Slash/Rustler/Stampede the Sidewinder series do a great job. Reasonably inexpensive, and if you get the SW3 (the latest version), it is water resistant, which for bashing is very nice.

With motors, you don't really have to worry about the sensored vs. unsensored issue with what you are doing. With that ESC, any unsensored motor will work great. The stock Traxxas "blue can" one is a 3500 kV motor. You can get a combo with the Castle setup with 3800kV, 4600 kV, 5700 kV, etc.

What the kV value on a motor is is the RPM per input voltage. So, for example, if you run a 2S LiPo battery (LiPos are 3.7V per cell, or "S", the 2S is a 2 cell battery), and a 4600 kV motor, you will run 34040 RPM (4600 x 7.4). The motors with "turns" on them refer back to the days when all motors were brushed, and it referred to the way the armature was wound. They try to assign a turn value to brushless motors more as a reference. I'd still look up the kV ratings on all motors before I buy them to be sure. So, when deciding what to get, you have to decide where you will be running the trucks. If you have wide open space, and a lot of straightaway area, a higher kV motor will get you more top end. If you have a smaller area, or a small track, or indoor track, then the lower kV is a better option.

For my Slashes, I ran Sidewinders with 4600 kV motors and 2S LiPos, and they were plenty fast. My boys are 11 and 7, and they work great for them. If you want to share equipment, then just get a 3S battery for yourself, and you will get a 50% increase in your RPMs =)

I personally try to buy ESCs new, because enough of the used ones have been overheated or mishandled. Motors on the other hand I've bought used and had good luck. You can also look on eBay, etc, for some of the second tier vendors (TenShock, HobbyWing, etc) for motors. I run TenShocks in a few rigs and they work great so far.
 
#20 ·
I just moved up to a 8.5T Novak got it at tower hobbie for about $175. Im running it in my Losi 22 buggy now that thing is fast. if your new to the Brushless world i would stay right around a 13.5T or 3800KV they have more then enough power i run a Castle Side winder 3800KV in my SCT and it flat out mover i have to tune it down for the track you can pick that kit up for around $100
 
#23 ·
#24 ·
My 11 year old runs a Rustler VXL on Lipo's with not much problem... he has crashed it a few times and parts do break, but that's how he learns how to fix it..and upgrades are fairly cheap so as the weaker parts break you replace them with upraded/metal parts and then you find out what the next weak link is, etc. As you've already established, you can run the Nimh batteries just fine if you turn off the low voltage stop. We went Lipo for him not for speed, but for run time. It's amazing what kind of run time some of the Lipo's get compared to the charge, run 10 minutes, charge, run 10 minutes game I played when i was a kid!
 
#27 ·
Yes. Go with Castle creations, it's a well known company with a decent trade in program if you damage anything. Also the brushless speed control can be programmed and used on a brushed motor. If you use your nimh battery then program the speed control for them (no auto voltage cutoff).

If you want ship them to me for a disappearing act lol.
 
#36 ·
For just a beater/basher the Traxxas VXL system can't be beat....it is bolt in and operates the same way the XL5 brushed system runs. as long as your are using the Traxxas connectors the entire system will be plug and play with your current batteries. LiPo is the way to go, but if you are not ready to up grade the batteries you have will work.
 
#42 ·
I know you already bought a brushless system. I personally would have went with the VXL system as well. All the other systems mentioned are good systems. But your not trying to race or be competitive with your trucks. So the VXL would have been a perfect system for you. First of all its waterproof, Second its programmable without plugging it into a computer or using a field card. Just a simple push of the power button the ESC itself. Plus you could have put it on 50% power until you kids got use to the lipo power. Third its a plug and play system seems how its an actual Traxxas system.

Nimh battery's will work just fine with absolutely no issues on any brushless system. Its just some of those systems you would need the castle link or field programming card for other systems to change it over to a Nimh battery setup. With the VXL you wouldn't need any other extra devices to make that happen. And you don't necessarily need lipos just to achieve longer run times. A Nimh battery with a high Mah rating will give you the longer run times.
 
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