Need advice on getting into electric. TC3?

[KC10Chief]

I have been racing nitro for a while, but nobody around here races off road in the winter since all the tracks are outdoors. I would race in the winter because I'm hardcore or just an idiot, but most people won't. My local track does have an indoor road track and it's electric only of course. I was wanting to get a Factory Team TC3. It looks like electric is quite a bit different than nitro. I have no idea what difference it makes to have a motor with 10 turns, or 15 rurns. Also, what is the difference between NiCD and NiMH batteries? I'm guessing it's the metal in them, but what does it do to performance? What kind of charger will I need? How many battery packs should I have? How about a speed control? What's a good setup for a TC3? Do they race stock and mod for road cars? Most of the people around here race the TC3 or similar cars. I like Associated vehicles and I like the shaft drive on the TC3. Don't bother trying to get me to buy something other than an associated vehicle. Could somebody give me the basic details I would need to know about electric to get me started? Like stuff about motors, batteries, speed controls, different kind of road racing, etc. Thanks for any info! Matt

[outsider]

Usually the lower the turn the more power you get and hiher rpms. Stock is usually 27 turn so check to see if they race stock or modified. NiCd stands for Nickel Cadnium and NiMH is Nickle metal-hydride. NiCd are usually lower runtimes like 1400-2400mah and cheaper and they charge differently than NiMH which run in the 2000-3000mah range. Both a good and depends on your price point. I have both. Nicad may give more omph at first and NiMH have a more linear power output. You should start out with 2 batt packs but you may want more as time goes on.

Charger? get a peak charger. it detects the peak voltage and stops charging so you dont have to watch it all the time. Duratrax makes the Intellipeak which are good and Novak makes some nice high end chargers.

That's about the extent of my knowledge :)

[Grizzbob]

Outsider's right, though I don't think a mod is a good idea at first(even if you're experienced in nitro). For Competition R/C, stock motors are much more common, & they're plenty fast there, since that track isn't all that big. As for batteries, I'd recommend NiCd's to start, I'm using 2400's right now & they work fine for all stock & any mods short of really wild mod motor(like 9 turns or less), or 8 minute races(which is what 1/12 scale cars run for), & they will last a good long time before they need replacing(whether NiMh's go bad quickly is still up for debate, it's still a young technology), & NiCd's can be charged by pretty much any charger out there..... :)

[outsider]

Another thing is that if you get Sanyo cells they are pretty much NiCd's. I think they even make 3000mah NiCd cells. Panasonics are also really good NiMH's. Also you should invest in a good soldering iron to make side by side packs. I use a 35watts and it is barely enough so 40watts and above. Duratrax makes a good jig and make sure you don't get cheap battery bars. Team Orion makes bars in copper, silver, gold and platinum. I use silve cause gold and platinum are just overkill in my opinion.

Sad to say I still use tamiya connectors :eek: but hope to transfer to deans this fall.

[HauntedMyst]

You've made a good choice in the TC3. It's 2 weaknesses that I can see are it's body mounts and the bumper mount. Get the body post set for the RC10L and use the collars to hold down the bumper. The next thing I am going to do is get the HPI body mount posts, the slide up and down the posts and have a nice cap.

Gizz and outsider covered batteries, and he's right, get a peak charger, a good one that will do any kind of battery, even your transmitter. As far as speed controls go, spend as much as you can. I personally like the Novaks, I've never had a failure with one. Some like LRP, but the one I had didn't hold up very well. I would recommend you just get the Novak Cyclone TC. Switch everything to Dean's Connectors right from the start. They have less resistance then the actual wire and make it super convienent to change batteries, motors, etc.

To be honest, almost everyone that runs the TC3 (the most popular TC at our track) runs the box stock set up! It seems particularly suited for our track, which is a paved last year parking lot with a twisty course set up on it.

We like the Orion Chrome Stock motor and are very happy with it. Stock spur, 26 pinion. I'm a Trinity hater. One of the guys running a brand new Trinity GM had it melt after 2 races!

Good luck!