newbie looking for advice/help

[auxiliary]

without going into too much detail here...

i was an rc enthusiast a long while back and i'm trying to renew my love for the hobby.

i have an rc10 b3 that i purchased i think about 3-4 years ago with a futaba sport radio and esc that i got about 12-14 years ago with a tamiya kingcab. i have a dynamite 1700mah battery that works ok.

i currently get about 10 minutes of run time on a 20 minute charge. the motor i have is the stock motor that came in the b3 kit, i believe it's a reedy.

my charger is also 10 or so years old and is an astroflight model 114 ac/dc 6/7 cell charger.

what i'm basically looking for help on is this...

i'm currently looking at a traxxas revo nitro truck so that i can get alot more speed and run time. i've always thought that gas was harder to manage and a pain but i really would like more run time.

do you guys think spending $450+ on a gas setup would be better then buying a new motor, battery or two, charger, and possibly a new radio/esc to support a new motor/battery?

can electrics these days have good run time with decent speed or is gas still much faster with longer times? sorry if this is asked alot, i haven't used the search feature and there may be posts about this type of thing already.

thanks in advance for any information you can give, i have read some of the posts about 3300, 3800, 4200mah batteries and this sounded promising. i wouldn't be against spending 450 on the revo kit but if i can save money and only spend 100-200 to get a new motor/battery or whatever that would be awesome.

thanks again.

[kawasakirider]

Well an electric car if you buy all the high tech stuff and al that will keep up to a nitro but u have to keep charging electrics. What do u plan on doing with your new rc? Off road with heavy duty bashing or mostly on road with a bit of offroad or something? The revo would be good for medium duty bashing and good high speed the savage has decent speed and is basically indestrctable according to the owners, the revo and savage are worth every penny imo i started rc in december last yeart and i started with a ofna hyper 7 tq sport buggy that i got new from my lhs. I have had problems but it has been fairly user friendly, I am going to my lhs tomorrow to order a savage 25 Limited Edition and that will be my last for a while and i will slowly upgrade both of them. I don't think if you have a bit of mechanical knowledge and some common sense you will have to many problems. What you also need to consider is part support, what does your lhs ( local hobbie shop ) stock the most parts for because waiting for a 2 dollar part for 3 weeks is damn annoying it has happened to me 2 times but only because my lhs isn't the best. At the end of the day if you don't drop a revo off a 10 story building i think you will be ok but the most durable truck is the savage, I think you will be happy with either one and i will say it again I think both trucks are worth every penny.

Trent

[highroller]

A new charger would be my first suggestion, a true peak charger that will fully charge whatever type of battery you have. Next would be batteries, with the introduction of 3700, 3800 and now 4200 MA cells many matchers and online sites are cutting the prices on leftover GP3300 and IB3600, plus myself personnally don't always buy the first batches of cells when they first come out - cells usually have some improvement as more batches are produced. For bashing the radio and esc may still be okay. Motor depends if it the Rage version or older, what condition it is presently in - cheapest thing to do is clean it very good - install a new set of brushes in it and see how it goes or go with a complete new motor. To maintain any type of battery regardless of use - a discharger (string of lightbulbs) and device to discharge cells lower in voltage before charging (pack or tray equalizers, single bulb or discharge resistor).
Plus if you decided to go the gas route, the radio especially servos might not have the torque needed and would need to be upgraded so that might add some expense, don't forget fuel and glo igniter.

[auxiliary]

here's some more information. i'm a light hobbist and i like to drive alittle onroad but mostly offroad. i'm not a hard driver i'm the kind that likes to go out for 2 hours on a weekend and drive around in dirt and have a good time. i'm certainly not a hardcore user.

the motor i have should be in perfect condition, it's only been used about 6 hours run time since i bought it 4 years ago, there was a long time when the car was put away and i just now brought it back out.

does anyone have information on runtime of current good sized batteries vs nitro? i'd like numbers of minutes... i know my car will currently run 10 minutes on a 20 minute charge, that doesn't seem like a good ratio to me. how long does 1 tank of gas run for?

the revo looks like a beast for what i do, which in turn i think would make me want to go out more. the idea of charging a battery for 20 mins to drive for 10 just makes me want to put the car away. that's really why i started on all this.

i like the idea that the revo kit comes with everything i need, my lhs sells the revo with fuel, batteries, charger, and everything for $480. i just got alittle scared reading the online manual that talks about motor break-in, making sure you never run out of fuel while running, and other possible damage the revo can take. i guess that goes with the territory though.

lol, i'm not trying to have you guys here make my decision for me, just trying to weigh my options vs cost. i know the revo will be fun and sounds like it's not too hard to keep up and it's $500 or so. the electric side sounds like it would be better then my current car having greater run time and better speed for about $100-250 depending on what i get?

could anyone give me a minute estimate if i was using a trinity oc27 motor, with say 3300mah batteries?

thanks again guys. i'm liking this forum already.

[SquirrelNutz]

OMG man!!! PM me if you need more help than this since I sometimes dont check the threads that I have posted for updates.

Brushless!!! Im more of a nitro guy than electric. But, I raced electric for years. It was hard to convert over to nitro but I did. I love them both. I left electric becuase of brushed motors and came back for BL.

Brushless accellerates alot faster than nitro, quieter, and is FASTER than nitro. nitro is going to be the area that delivers more torque and hp. so, application based... get a nitro monster truck (like the revo) over a electric MT (though there is nothing wrong with a electric MT....they just suck compared to the nitros).

Now, take everything that you have on the b3 and take it off. DO you want solely speed for onroad or do you want some torque?? This is just my recomendations. Get a nemesis 6s motor and BK esc for strict speed. that will get the b3 well above 60mph. if you want faster than 45/50 mph with more torque than you know what to do with.... get a Lehner 4200 XL (The XL is a E-Maxx monster truck sized motor). I have a 4200 XL in a buggy of mine (XXX4g+) and I run it on 6,7, and 8 cells. amazing speed on all three.

the next step is to get rid of the 1700mah pack. goto cheapbatterypacks.com and get a custom IB3800 pack or buy the cells loose. you should boost the run times up to 25 to 30 minutes (what I get) by switching to quality cells and also cells with a ton more MAh.

nitro run times vary. big block engines suck more gas than small block engines. there is also fuel tank size. the average nitro runs about 20 minutes. it is all relative. the revo will come with a DVD that will explain break in and care of the truck in detail and show you on the vid. if you are not scared to tinker and possibly mess something up and learn from it, nitro may not be the thing for you yet.

electric or nitro have their pros and cons. i do both. i love both.