SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

Ok guys I'm fairly new to the hobby and I went with the cheapest crawler to start out. The rockslide rs10 xt. This truck is amazing. My buddy however went a more expensive route and got the axial scx10 rubicon. Plus he had to buy the battery and charger so he was around 475 in. Factory speed controller got wet so he bought the traxxas xl5 speed controller. Then the motor went...so he upgraded from the 27t to a terra claw 20t. Burnt the motor up. Now he has a dynamite 55t and yep he burnt it up. Not doin anything tough runnin through puddles some mud here and there and crawling. I know he's about done with the whole thing so what could the problem be. Gearing? Maybe the battery? It's an 8.4v nm and I know it's not the battery that's supposed to come with the truck. Any help is greatly appreciated

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

im far from an expert on brushed motors.

is he cleaning the motor out after running through the mud?

dirty water and dirty mud (with lots of aggregate) will eat motor brushes, if you dont clean the motor out after a run, you run the risk of hanging a brush because of the junk in the brush hood keeping the brushed from moving freely.

im sure there are better guides, but heres a simple one i found on google real quick.

Properly Maintain Your Brushed Motor


i hate brushed motor maintenence… so what i would do is spend a little more and get a w/p sensored brushless esc and a brushless motor. you will never ever worry about a comm or brush again.

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

If he's running it through mud, the mud is getting in the motor or the gearing is too high. And he should be running a 7.2v battery. Higher voltage will burn up certain motors. Try a 17/87 gearing and a 35t motor. I have that in my scx10 and it performs awesome.

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

We ran the first two motors through my homemade mud pits in my back yard. He doesn't do the maintenance I do. I don't disassemble the motors but I remove them and run them through water to clean em. I was thinking battery and gearing. So smaller battery and I'll give that gearing you got there a shot. Thanks guys

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

For sure its the mud and voltage. Cheap rtr motors don't live long above 7v, and mud will kill any brushed motor if you don't clean them out.

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

A terra claw is never an upgrade.

They are geared a little high out of the box IMO, and like others have said mud is hard on motors.

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

I do clean them the mud is not the problem. The voltage has to be too high. And the cheap rtr motors have lasted on my rs10 and I run 2s lipo3000mah and nm1800mah at the same time. Literally batteries are tapped together. No problems.

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

:shock:
Wait you run a 2S LiPo and a NiMH pack both hooked to the ESC at the same time?

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

I run a pos throw away Axial 55T motor on 3s (11.1v)
Have run it for months (prolly 80+ batt. charges)
and... without ever cleaning or lubing it.
I even ran it thru muddy water a coupla' times.

I know it's gonna die one of these days...
but it's still rockin' after my neglect.

I'll guess mud/water and gearing is culprit.

I gear down some from stock... 87/14

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

You are one of the lucky ones....I too have yet to kill a motor - I kill servos instead.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _______________________________________________

Check the gear mesh when you install the new motors, make sure the gears have play between them....dont smash the gears together, you'll kill a motor in no time.

Couple that with high gearing and poor power ratings on the motor.....TOAST.

The 7 cell battery is what killed the stock AE-2 ESC, you can bet on that. If you're going to replace a motor with an "Upgrade" get one that is considered to be an upgrade and not a cheap replacement motor just to keep the cost down.

Get a rebuildable motor with a removable end bell, something in the 27-35t range, gear it conservatively (87/14), keep it clean and oiled properly and you should have little issue....gear mesh.

Bottom line, if you work the motor too hard, its going to get hot. Get it too hot and it will melt down. All the factors listed above as well as mentioned before me will kill a motor....sounds like you're into everyone of the contributing factors. Fun though isnt it?!

If, you keep burning motors, I'll take the rig - one less thing for him to worry about - :mrgreen:

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

not really lucky... or I'd have won the lottery ;-)

I purchased a cheap butt throw away motor for reason.
Reason: because I wasted too much time
on rebuilding motors back in the 80's during my rc racing days.

^ was critical then...
but not so much for a crawler.

btw... my cheapo butt motor keeps up
with all the peeps in my local group,
even considering their high dollar custom mtrs.

But yeah... I'm a servo killer like you.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _______________________________________________

That's a good point...
an overly tight gear mess will kill most motors quick.

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

Yes I do. And I have had not one problem except for motor screws bein stripped so every once in a while I'll get the gear squeal. Other than that nothing

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

Yeah I was concerned with the lipo and nimh at the same time thing. The lipo doesnt discharge the same as a nimh. Plus the esc either has a lipo cut off or not. Scary to mix in my opinion.

On the topic at hand, there are many posibilities, poor gear mesh, super high gearing, poor maintenance of motors. Make sure when the motor is out of the scx10 that everything spins freely and there isnt any drag in the drive train.

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

All I know is I turn my truck on and I can crawl or play in the mud for about 2 hours. When it does I take it apart clean and grease it and it's ready to go again for the next day. As far as the motor issue. Got a new 55t with a 13t pinion. Runs good right now. But they all did so who knows. Thanks all for the help

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

Are the batteries in series or parallel?

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

thats a cool idea hooking up lipo's and NiMh together....wonder how that works??? perfectly apparently.

:razz::???::badger::afro::wink:

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

That's a bad bad bad idea. Recipe for disaster right there. It is safe to run two of the same batteries together (such as two 2s 35c lipos or two 7.2v 5000mah batteries). You should never run 2 different batteries at the same time. Especially a lipo and a nimh, it's just not safe at all. I only run one battery at a time, always have, and always will.

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

I'm not sure which one it's called it's been years since my last electronics class but the leads are hooked up positive to positive negative to negative. And when I say I haven't had ANY problems I mean that in every way I can. A lot of people have said they have never heard of anyone mixing batteries like this and all have said if it works keep it up. So it's not that bad of an idea. I like to KNOW the limits of my equipment not what a label says

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

Well it's just not safe to run 2 different batteries at once. :roll: It's like race fuel. Ya don't mix two different fuels together. The 2 different batteries have different discharge rates and one will run out quicker than the other, therefore causing adage to the batteries and possibly to your electronics. Ask someone who has been in the rc buzz for many years. They will say the same thing.

Re: SCX10 gone through 3 motors
 

I can't imagine why anyone would want to run nimh batteries anyway. Still listen to cassette tapes too?