A few Crawler battery buying tips

[The DC]

Awesome thread,should be a stickey! Thanks for all the info in here,answered lots of my own questions (being a re-noob after years away from the hobby). Wish I'd read it before last week,but thankfully due to dumb luck,budget,and a trustworthy LHS (that I'd been loyal to for almost 2 decades including when I was nito RC before) I got what I needed to get started,and now I know more of what direction battery/charger-wise for my future needs (thankfully they sold me a well optioned charger that wasn't overly expensive too). Thank y'all

[bowman1314]

Hey guys! Just ordered a SCX 10 Jeep Rubicon an went to the Hobby shop today and picked up a Venom Pro Charger while i was there and had them to order a 2C 5800 mah Lipo and after reading on this thread wonder if i did right or not???? Ill be crawling some and playing around on trails,etc. an sometimes it maybe setting around a week or so. Any Comments???? Thanks

[Sheepdawg23wm]

Originally Posted by bowman1314

Hey guys! Just ordered a SCX 10 Jeep Rubicon an went to the Hobby shop today and picked up a Venom Pro Charger while i was there and had them to order a 2C 5800 mah Lipo and after reading on this thread wonder if i did right or not???? Ill be crawling some and playing around on trails,etc. an sometimes it maybe setting around a week or so. Any Comments???? Thanks

Some guys have different opinions but me personally, I never buy lipo chargers or lipos from my lhs. Hobbypartz.com or hobbyking.com has very nice lipos like the gens ace line at hobbypartz or the turnigy nano tech at hobbyking that from my experience with them are fantastic. Ive owned thunderpower, hyperion, max amps ect... And cannot tell the difference in performance. Maybe there is if you race, but for crawling, i cannot tell any better performance from those rediculously over priced lhs lipos. You can get 5000 mah 3s gens ace for about 45 bucks. Cheapest venom pack at lhs close to those specs is atleast double that. You can also get my personal favorite, a quad lipo charger from either site for about 90 bucks. Just throwing out my personal take on it.

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by bowman1314

Hey guys! Just ordered a SCX 10 Jeep Rubicon an went to the Hobby shop today and picked up a Venom Pro Charger while i was there and had them to order a 2C 5800 mah Lipo and after reading on this thread wonder if i did right or not???? Ill be crawling some and playing around on trails,etc. an sometimes it maybe setting around a week or so. Any Comments???? Thanks

You did fine.

As mentioned, you may get chargers or batteries cheaper elswhere, but I also like to support my LHS so I can just, "walk in" and buy something on Saturday so I can be running for a comp Sunday.

As to the Venom ProCharger, we have 3 (one is a ProCharger Plus), all are a few years old.

Yes, there are cheaper chargers outh there as well as units that charge more than 1 pack.

Our chargers run on AC or DC, come with multiple plug-in harnesses and a balance board.
Other units have you spend more money to get to the same point, thus the price difference lessens.

As to battery size, sometimes it's better to have 2 smaller packs than 1 large pack. Partly since if you kill a pack, you still have another.

I use www.CheapBatteryPacks.com for my packs. Never an issue and lots of options for a reasonable price.
Gens Ace and other seem to have a decent following for a lower price.

[bowman1314]

Thanks so much for the info.....

[5VoltDetonator]

Originally Posted by Olle P

5000 mAh should last you four hours (or more) of near continous crawl.
A smaller and lighter battery will provide better overall weight and weight distribution. 1500 mAh will last about an hour.

Originally Posted by Sheepdawg23wm

Some guys have different opinions but me personally, I never buy lipo chargers or lipos from my lhs. Hobbypartz.com or hobbyking.com has very nice lipos like the gens ace line at hobbypartz or the turnigy nano tech at hobbyking that from my experience with them are fantastic. .

I like Hobby King and Turnigy Nano Techs are great I have some 2S with a 65-130 C rating for racing my SCTE.

But now I want a 3S Turnigy nano Tech and I am clueless about what mah to or c rating to buy. I'm going to buy 2 batteries and I want them to last a full days crawling for an event like the G6 hammers. I have some 5000 mahs 2S that will probly last all day but others crawlers say they are too big.. I see you guys using 2000 mah or so but that seem like it will not last to me, especially on 3s.

So what do i need to crawl a scx10 all day on 3s using a stock esc and 27 turn motor for now and upgrading to a Holmes Hobbyesc and 27-35 turn later????

Thanks in advance for any help!!

[Olle P]

Exactly how much you'll need is impossible to foresee.
- A higher voltage battery contain more energy at the same charge capacity. If you keep driving basically at the same speeds as before a higher voltage battery will last longer.
- Higher voltage provide for higher top speed and power usage, which allows you to drain the same capacity faster if you run at the same throttle levels.

As I've understood it a typical full day's trail crawling consist of less than 50% actual driving time. Actual driving is also typically done at a fairly slow pace, even if much higher speed is available.
The best battery arrangement I've seen in a SCX10 is to have a two battery saddle pack style mount with the batteries on the plates between the front and rear wheels. If you pick batteries of a physical size that fit nicely in there you'll do very well! (Either a pair of 3S in parallel or a pair of 2S in series, provided your ESC can handle 4S.)

[5VoltDetonator]

Originally Posted by Olle P

Exactly how much you'll need is impossible to foresee.
- A higher voltage battery contain more energy at the same charge capacity. If you keep driving basically at the same speeds as before a higher voltage battery will last longer.
- Higher voltage provide for higher top speed and power usage, which allows you to drain the same capacity faster if you run at the same throttle levels.

As I've understood it a typical full day's trail crawling consist of less than 50% actual driving time. Actual driving is also typically done at a fairly slow pace, even if much higher speed is available.
The best battery arrangement I've seen in a SCX10 is to have a two battery saddle pack style mount with the batteries on the plates between the front and rear wheels. If you pick batteries of a physical size that fit nicely in there you'll do very well! (Either a pair of 3S in parallel or a pair of 2S in series, provided your ESC can handle 4S.)

Understood. I know people are getting 3s bats about 1800 - 3000 mah I just wasn't sure if 2 3000 mah would last all day? Only way to real way to tell is to try, I allways got extra 2s bats to keep me going but with less wheel speed. I will also look into mounting the bats on each side, I think I like that, do I need a plate or are people making there own?

[street.terror]

I run a pair if gens ace 4000mah 2s batteries in parallel in my scx. It has a cc sct esc and a 45t integy motor. It's a fairly light truck as far as a scaler goes and I never did manage to run out of power. If I had to guess I would say the truck was good for 4-5 hours depending on driving conditions

[Olle P]

Originally Posted by Olle P

The best battery arrangement I've seen in a SCX10 is to have a two battery saddle pack style mount ...

And here it is!

[rnemovr]

Some good info. Now where is best place to pick up a Nimh battery and charger for a Losi mini?

[jamesthe1v]

ok im studying and reading about lipos but still questioning if i for crawling i should get 1p or 2 p? i have a a variety of crawlers so which instance would i want a 1p and when would a 2p be better?
thanks in advance....and i see this is old thread thought if posted and answered here would keep good info alive and together

[Chris_The_Battery_Man]

2p is pretty uncommon these days. Id stick with 1p

[RS10XT david]

I have an RS10-XT that came with a 7.2v 1800aHr battery. I am told that I can get a performance boost using a 9.6v 3800aHr battery. Will the higher voltage cause any problems with the esc or motors?