Losi Trail Trekker Battery Life and Upgrade

[markj42]

I just bought a Trail Trekker, and I love it (while it lasts). Being new to rock crawlers, I wasn't sure what to expect for the "extra long run times" promised on Losi's web site for the stock 4.8V 220mAh battery. I'd read elsewhere you can expect at most 20 minutes of run time... I'm getting maybe half that. My questions:

a. What should I be getting in terms of run time? I'm curious if my experience is unusual and if perhaps I got a bad battery with my vehicle.

b. When I charge the battery, if I don't use it right away, does the charge bleed off on its own? If so, how quickly? I wouldn't think so, but I'm just wanting to be sure my run time issue isn't a me issue, because I'm charging the battery and then it's a day or two sometimes before I get to run the vehicle.

c. When I'm charging the stock battery with the stock charger, it gets hot... hot enough that I can't touch it while charging. Is this normal?

d. If I want to upgrade my battery to something with more mAh, what would you recommend that will still fit? And for that battery, what charger (or will the stock charger still work)? And will I need a different connector to hook it up?

Thanks in advanced for putting up with the newbie questions.

 

[JustForFun]

I found a Losi Trekker battery upgrade here, its a LiPo upgrade package which provides more run time, holds a charge better AND doesn't have the memory problems that NiMH have. Note that the Trekker *is* LiPo compatible.

Bastens LiPo 7.4V 300mAh upgrade battery and balance charger kit for the Losi 1/24 Micro SCT Truggy / Rally / 4X4 Trail Trekker

Cheers "thumbsup"