ASK Cubby – Your Write The Questions, I Make Up The Answers

“Lipo charger shootout

Have you done a lipo charger shootout for chargers with 2 outputs?

Thank you
Danny”

Cubby- Hey ya Danny, shoot us your snail mail so we can get some stickers headed out your way.

So… have we ever done a dual output battery charger shootout before? The answer is… yes, and no. We’ve only done one charger shootout and it included 6 different chargers. Yes, two of them were dual output chargers, and no, the other 4 were not.

However… dual port chargers are all the rage now days. With most people running more than one car (heck, most run 2, 3, 5, or even more!), most of the guys we see at bashes are running dual output units. Therefore, we definitely should gather up a bunch of two port chargers and see how they stack up now days. So thanks for the idea, we need to get to work on that one.

Thanks for the email and remember- go fast, break lots of parts.

“LiHV For Me

I have been wanting to “cut the check” as you say on some new LiHV batteries. Cubby, what have you found to be the upsides and downsides to them?

Happy Day To You,
Thomas R.”

Cubby- Yo Tommy, thanks for the email and don’t forget to shoot me your mailing addy for a way rad BSRC sticker pack.

Ya know… I still haven’t gotten that much time in with the LiHVs, but from what I have, here is what I think of them…

Upsides- Of course, more voltage, they simply rip. This is especially noticeable on “stock’ish” motors like 17, 13, and 21.5s. Even compared to a premium old school LiPo, a LiHV feels like you added several teeth to the pinion. In mod, or on crazy high output sensorless set-ups where you already have wayyyy too much power, the extra voltage does help keep temps down when using corrected gearing.

Downsides- The packs I’ve tried were slightly heavier than their “regular” LiPo competitors. So while LiHV puts out more voltage, you have to haul around more weight to get that voltage boost. And while the voltage increase still made my cars feel faster, the heavier weight can be a downside when casing jumps, hitting curbs, etc. Also, to get that full voltage increase of a LiHV, you’ll need a charger that accommodates them. A “regular” LiPo charger won’t fully charge a LiHV, so you won’t see the increase in voltage unless you use a unit designed for them. Oh and… of course most tracks won’t let you use them in competition (expect that to change soon!), but that doesn’t matter if you are just bashing.

So… if you already have a LiHV charger and run a lot of stock class motors, absolutely go ahead and cut the check, they really are noticeably faster than older chemistry packs. If you need a new charger and run a lot of mod/sensorless, you might not be gaining much by making the switch.

Holy smokes, yet another ASK Cubby is in the books. Yes indeed, you can shoot me an email- thecubreportrc at Gmail dot com. If you are lucky, I will actually read your email, and if you are even luckier, it will appear on the front page of BSRC for all the world to see. If your letter hits the big time you’ll win a BSRC sticker pack. Better still, if it is declared “Letter of the Month”, you win a free t-shirt.

YOUR Cub Reporter