Spawn issues.... Motor related..

[mattlosch]

I've had my wraith for about a month now.. It's a spawn not that it matters.. First things I did was aluminum links and steering. Weighted the wheels, moved battery forward and lowered it. Wheels great for me.. Also running 5000 2s 20c batteries.. Well I have motor issues.. After about four batteries the stock motor smoked.. Knew that was gonna happen.. Upgraded it with a tamiya superstock 23t motor as recommended from my local hobby store.. Motor kicked butt!! Stripped idler gear almost instantly so I replaced with rbr metal gears.. The motor fast and I loved it. Not even thru my first 5000 2s the motor smoked and was 100% done.. This was a combined trail and crawling situation at our local crawling place.. I wasn't happy to say the least.. When I replaced the motor I also replaced servo with a hitec hs-645mg that I had from a previous rc.. Well I thought maybe something was bound up.. Pulled motor, and everything rolled free as it should.. So I went back to hobby store and bought a 35t integy.. This motor is slow! Can't even do cookies anymore.. Crawled good today but about halfway thru the second battery it started smoking so I shut it off immediately it smells horrible... What could be causing this.. Everything spins freely and nothing is bound.. Running stock gearing and I'm not driving it dumb binding it up or anything...

[mattlosch]

Possible esc issue? All times these motors have smoked I've been playing follow the leader with scx10 and wraith.. All were shocked when mine randomly goes up in smoke for no reason..

[crawllife14]

It might be the esc but it could probably be that you were going too slow or something and the motor got too hot and it burnt up. Thats what happened to mine

[mattlosch]

I mean the 23t motor makes sense was always to loaded going that slow for stock axle gears.. Was fine when I was just bashing. But the stock and the 35t getting hot aswell? Seems odd to me

[Revoasian]

Hmmm, definitely have some kind of issue going on there. You should not be burning up that much motors in a short time. I have almost the same set up as you, with weighted wheels. 8oz each up front and 4 oz each in the rears, running 18.5 Ballistic sensored brushless motor with goat 3s esc, geared 88/15. Rock crawling mainly with some trailing, going on 2 years and haven't let the Genie out of the motor yet. Hope you get it figured out.

[mattlosch]

Well thats the thing is it should last.. I don't wanna go to brushless and have same issue

[Revoasian]

Agreed! I hope others can chime in on here and help you out. Possibly an esc issue but its hard to say, I don't think so. I know the gearing is horrible for crawling and slow trailing, and will contribute to heating issues on your motors. If your doing high speed driving and bashing than you should be fine for the most part, that stock gearing will suffice.

[mattlosch]

Maybe it is gearing related but I didn't think it would be this big of a issue out of the box

[Skullsplitter]

Hi! I've burnt maybe 5 brushed motors, from 27T to 55T, using stock AE2 esc, castle bec and 2S Lipos. And running with stock 20T pinion and 80T spur gear.
It happened always during some competition where I had to go very slow.
I decided then to change and went to 16T pinion with 93T spur gear and 45T brushed motor. It's slow, very slow, now. But has a lot of torque, and during slow drive on rocks or trail, it doesn't burn anymore.
If 93T spur is too much, try 87T or 88T spur. Or, if yu have a bec,with that combination, use a 3s Lipo to gain some extra speed.
Hope it can help!

[hatefulboy]

Usually over heating is caused by a gearing issue. If you are running stock gearing that needs to be changed. Run a smaller pinion on the motor. I'd try to drop two teeth, run the truck, if the motor is still real hot, drop two more teeth. Keep repeating til motor stays cool.

[Jtroutt19]

The spawn does not run 80/20. Stock spur/pinion is 56t/12t. 32p Gears as well.

[Jrgunn5150]

Originally Posted by hatefulboy

Usually over heating is caused by a gearing issue. If you are running stock gearing that needs to be changed. Run a smaller pinion on the motor. I'd try to drop two teeth, run the truck, if the motor is still real hot, drop two more teeth. Keep repeating til motor stays cool.

^^ This. Ultimately Harley's little guide is just a rule of thumb, your mileage may vary.

The basic electric gearing rule of thumb is, hot motor, over geared, hot esc, undergeared.

[mattlosch]

Originally Posted by Jtroutt19

The spawn does not run 80/20. Stock spur/pinion is 56t/12t. 32p Gears as well.

So where should I go from here? Try going to a 80/20??

[mattlosch]

Just confirmed I believe mine is 56/12... Should I go to a bigger spur? Sorry I'm pretty new to all this gearing on these little things.. I'm use to 1:1 stuff lol

[hatefulboy]

not sure on 32p stuff but, shoot for a 5:1 gear ratio. 60/12, or try 56/11

[Jrgunn5150]

Originally Posted by mattlosch

Just confirmed I believe mine is 56/12... Should I go to a bigger spur? Sorry I'm pretty new to all this gearing on these little things.. I'm use to 1:1 stuff lol

Bigger spur, or smaller pinion. You can buy selections of pinions at your LHS for a few bucks, where you get like, a 10, 12, 14 or whatever.

At some point, clearance becomes an issue with either.

Gearing is basically the same as 1:1's, put 5.13's in your street car and it will scream up to 50 mph, then tach out, run hot, basically suck. Put the same 5.13's in your Jeep on 35's, and it'll be glorious. And again, it all depends on your usage, but you seem to be a real crawl-oriented guy.

[floridaboy]

If this helps you out i also have a Spawn. It has 56/12 gears stock. I changed the pinion gear to a 10t and have been running the stock motor for some time. If really push it climbing the motor only gets warm.

[mattlosch]

I'll go to the lhs tomorrow and try some diff pinions. Stock is 56/12 so I'll get a 10 and try that out. I really think my issue is gearing related and trying to do serious crawling is just over heating the motor.

[mattlosch]

Has anyone ran 3s lipos on stock wraith esc? Was wondering if that would give me the little extra speed I want out of this 35t motor but keep the 35t for crawling.. Kinda a best of both worlds thing

[Jrgunn5150]

Originally Posted by mattlosch

Has anyone ran 3s lipos on stock wraith esc? Was wondering if that would give me the little extra speed I want out of this 35t motor but keep the 35t for crawling.. Kinda a best of both worlds thing

That's exactly right, and it works great. Just move your jumper plug on your ESC.

I hated both my SCX10 and Wraith on 2s, 3s made them like whole new trucks!