ASK Cub Reporter, 08.08.2013, Version- Random Answers To Your Serious Questions

Question for Cubby 🙂
Hi mate,
I have a rustler vxl that i have been slowly modifying. Its a good RC and all but i would like to have a little more performance overall for a reasonable price. So i was wondering what could be my options, change for new ESC and motor combo or just try with different motor than the velineon or maybe just keep the vxl setup lol.

Also, I plan on running on 2S lipo juice only and i bashing it mainly on dirt and gravel with small jumps and on grass. Can i really feel an improvement in performance by changing my current setup and still using 2S lipo pack? By the way you guys have great website, great stuff 🙂

Keep it coming.

Thanks Cubby

Bryan D.

Cubby– Yo to the yo Bryan D, thanks for the email, and thanks for the props.

So… you want some cheap performance gains, and you seem dead set on staying with a 2S set-up.

Running your Velineon system on 2S isn’t even close to showing you its true potential. While powerful on 2S, there is a lot more left in the tank it isn’t showing you. The cheapest way to get more power out of it is… wait for it…. yup it’s really cheap…. gearing. Robinson pinions are dirt cheap, like $5, yet going to a bigger pinion can gain you a lot more power to the wheels. For starters, buy a pinion 3 teeth larger than what you are currently using, bolt it on, and see how fast that feels to you. You should see significant gains in low end yank and top speed. However, any time you make a power system change, monitor temps closely. Check motor temps to make sure you aren’t over-geared and cooking your motor. You don’t want to see motor temps over 160 F.

Btw, if you’ve never tried 3S, you really should. While there might only be a third more voltage on tap, your truck will feel twice as fast, and if you pick up an affordable 3S Lipo it won’t be a huge hit to your wallet. Of course remember to re-gear for this change, you’ll want to start with the smallest pinion you can bolt on and monitor temps.

One of the other most popular mods regardless of vehicle is tires. Tires can make all the difference in the world, they can make an undriveable vehicle into one that can put down some pretty insane power. Tires aren’t exactly cheap, but they aren’t crazy expensive, yet because they can offer such performance gains they are generally a great bang-for-the-buck. Personally, if I had a mod’ed out Rustler it would be wearing a suitable set of Pro-Line shoes to make sure all that power gets transferred to the ground.

Scale and Short Course
Just read your latest Cub report, and I’m there with you on the “Keep Short Course Scale” argument.

I’m a very casual 40ish RC hobbyist over here in the UK, and I started out with the Axial AX10 simply because it looked scale. I wanted to get into racing, and although it was the HPI scale cars that attracted me due to their realistic appearance, I soon discovered that everyone is racing the odd-looking “jelly mould” cars. The blobby body and dish wheels put me right off.

I eventually gave buggies a go, again I’d been put off by the non-scale look of them, but I actually found it to be great fun and I’ve stuck with it. So Short Course is my holy grail – scale appearance AND off-road fun! I’m building an SC10 4×4 right now, and rest assured I will NOT be putting dish wheels on it – actually I’ve bought a set of Proline beadlocks for it (I’ve even got a set of soft compound “treaded” tyres for bashing). I’ve also built an Axial Exo and although no-one seems to race them, you’re right that the tyres in that kit perform well AND they’re scale.

As much as the buggies are fun, I find the scale-appearance vehicles far more interesting. The silly thing is, it’s just a body shell and wheel design that we’re talking about – but the “racer” mentality of doing anything to shave of a fraction of a second is dictating that we should have slippery, unrealistic designs; if they put me off for so long, I can only assume they’re doing the same to many other people…
Cheers,
Andy

Cubby– Ya know Andy, there are a whole lot of “very casual 40’ish” hobbyists out there (including me.. LOL), welcome to the club.

IMO, scale looking vehicles leave a positive and relatable impression when seen by non-hobbyists, where as a typical UFO looking rc race machine simply leaves them with a “WTF” look on their face. I base that opinion on constantly questioning muggles out in the wild when I run into them at rc events. And while some hobbyists may argue “OMG, we don’t want every Tom, Dick, and Harry in our hobby!”, we are playing with toy cars for goodness sakes, something that should be open to everyone. And…. the more Toms, Dicks, and Harrys we have in our hobby, the more raw cabbage the manufactures have to play with in designing the uber cool stuff that the more hardcore guys like running.

Also… scale isn’t slow, no matter how tightly that bunches up the panties of the hardcore racing crowd. Scale can be just as fast as UFO, and it does it with a whole lot more style. The hardcore racing crowd is really good at two things- 1. resisting change, and 2. complaining (also my specialty.. LOL). They will come around eventually, but sometimes I wonder if they resist change so hard (like they did initially with brushless and Lipo) simply because they are jealous the “bashing” crowd latched onto it first. The bashing crowd jumped all over scale appearing vehicles, and the racing crowd simply can’t stand following the bashing crowd yet again. Just say’n….

That’s it for this weeks ASK Cubby, shoot me your questions/rants/meltdowns to Cubby at BigSquidRC.com. Hit the big-time get a free sticker pack, be named “letter of the month” and get a free T. Oh and… making our front page will make you the coolest guy at your local bash spot, just say’n.

YOUR Cub Reporter