ASK Cubby, Version- You Write In, I Slack Off

“Best of the best!!!

Dear Cub,

I’m looking for the gnarliest, fastest, off-road basher I can afford. I have a goal of $800 or less. ARTR, or Kit is fine with me. Something that can handle multipule large jumps, puddles, medium to tall grass, and has enough aftermarket support to upgrade/repair my investment. I’m needing some guidance with how many options there are today!

I’ve been a loyal squider, and if you could hook me up with a sticker pack for a Christmas present… I’ll be sure to show them off to the entire North-West!

Bruce”

Cubby- Hey ya there Bruce, thanks for the letter and I hope the weather in the Northwest is a whole lot sunnier and warmer than here in the upper Midwest.

While I’m sure you already know this, I have to say it for the noobs. What is the best $800 for me, won’t be the best for you, which won’t be the best for the next guy. Unfortunately it can cost some serious cash to try them all, so I am just gonna plunk down my fav 8th scale bash machine.

Right now I am favoring the… wait for it… yup, keep on waiting… the ARRMA Kraton. When I head to the track on practice days it can bust out fast laps, when I hit the parking lot or city park with the guys it can also go EPIC. Its center diff makes it easy to jump, it doesn’t have any massively glaring weak points, and being a Hobbico product, parts are fairly easy to find. I don’t change much on my personal Kratons- I switch over to a Castle Creations Monster X on a 2650 (I like/need the extra rpm) and bolt on some Pro-Line Badlands, that’s about it. The Badlands are my tire of choice for grass and loose dirt, while the 2650 makes sure I have more than enough RPM on tap for backflips and such. One last note, the stock servo is very good in the Kraton, but I switch mine out to slightly faster Hitec units just because I prefer to drive with quick servos.

So there ya have it, a Kraton with those mods will be right around your $800 mark. Get one, love one, have fun, and shoot me an email with pics jumping over your house.

“Lipo Granite

Hi there,

I was reading your fab review of the ARRMA Granite Mega Series and I read you drove it with a LiPo battery. Everyone who sells the Granite tells me the LiPo will wear out the motor Way faster. They advice against it!

What’s your experience? Is it really that bad for the motor?

Cheers,

Niels G.”

Cubby-Ya know Niels, retailers do have a point. Brushed motors do wear out more quickly on higher voltage (which makes me wonder why they don’t encourage you to run on higher, so they can sell you more motors & batteries!). And ya know, manufacturers really hate it when we run LiPo in cars/trucks that aren’t set up for it. However, we are very experienced hobbyists. We know when a LiPo is starting to get low and stop driving, and we have run so many ARRMA brushed products that we know long their motors last on NiMH compared to LiPo. For us, we are more concerned about the instant improvement in power than we are about longevity. We also know that not everyone has an extra $30 bucks laying around to buy another motor, so for those people, they should definitely stick with a NiMH.

Now… the reduction in life on LiPo does happen, but we’ve never found it to be dramatic. For instance, if simply running a LiPo reduced motor life from 100 runs to just 5, then obviously that is too much of a trade off. However, we’ve found that when run on a few tenths more voltage from LiPo, that the motors still had more than enough runs in them for us.

Btw, if you really want to improve the life of a sealed can brushed motor, break it in properly! Water dipping the thing to properly seat the brushes will go a longgggg ways towards getting its maximum life.

So there ya have it, another week’s worth of ASK Cubby. Get crazy and shoot me an email, thecubreportrc at gmail dot com. If your letter hits the big time you’ll get a free sticker pack, if I proclaim it “Epic Letter of the Month” we’ll even ship you a free BSRC t-shirt. Carry on.

YOUR Cub Reporter