Stock 2 Week Old Spartan Burst into flames

[wolfpack]

I bought a spartan about 5 weeks ago and kept it stock, except I upgraded the motor cooler cause the stock rubber one leaked. the castle speed controller burst into flames, and melted, burning the motor and the hull and top cover. Partially burning the motor train holder. the good news is the boat does 50 onthe stock prop with my gps in it on a prior run. But after that the new castle equipment caught fire.

I sent pics to spartan and they made me return the boat even though it was burnt, on my shipping dime. I still have not heard from them and its beeen 3 weeks ish.

Also, I have a friend who hogged out the prop, and like the stock rudder, the water flow stops when turning counter clockwise (just like it does in the spartain advertisement video) or going fast in a straight line on some occasions. This is a fun boat at times, but plan on stoicking another large chunk of change in it by upgrading the motor, speed controller, etc, etc as they cannot handle lipos (even though the box says to use them). Still the temp cutoff should have worked nonetheless, so dont rely on that either. Its a fun boat, but plan on expensive additions when you get it, or look at a different boat instead.

[Diesel6401]

I bought a spartan about 5 weeks ago and kept it stock, except I upgraded the motor cooler cause the stock rubber one leaked. the castle speed controller burst into flames, and melted, burning the motor and the hull and top cover. Partially burning the motor train holder. the good news is the boat does 50 onthe stock prop with my gps in it on a prior run. But after that the new castle equipment caught fire.

I sent pics to spartan and they made me return the boat even though it was burnt, on my shipping dime. I still have not heard from them and its beeen 3 weeks ish.

Also, I have a friend who hogged out the prop, and like the stock rudder, the water flow stops when turning counter clockwise (just like it does in the spartain advertisement video) or going fast in a straight line on some occasions. This is a fun boat at times, but plan on stoicking another large chunk of change in it by upgrading the motor, speed controller, etc, etc as they cannot handle lipos (even though the box says to use them). Still the temp cutoff should have worked nonetheless, so dont rely on that either. Its a fun boat, but plan on expensive additions when you get it, or look at a different boat instead.

Traxxas would save face if they quit advertising 6s. Stuff wouldn't burst into flames all day every day. 50mph is not a tough task, sadly people focus on speed and not making a reliable running boat. Simple running 4s and 5s on the stock setup will greatly increase the reliability of the boat, but it won't go 50mph so people don't do it. I wish you luck in this hobby, if you get another boat that is more reliable you will be having a whole lot more fun. Good day and welcome to OSE

[wolfpack]

I have been flying r/c planes for years, and this is my first venture into a boat. the spartan is ok, but if I was to do it again i would have pciked a differeent model, because the stock spartan cannot do 50 for very long before it explodes even with the current castle motor and speed controller. You have to put 300 plus hundred more dollars into it before you have a reliable boat,and for that money you are better off buying a fiberglass hull from a different manufacture vs. the plastic spartan cheapie hull. If I was to do it all again I would not buy the spartan. It cannot perform as advertised out of the box in many ways.....

[GeoVW72]

I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm just tired of people ripping on the spartan because everyone else does.
To the OP; can you clarify what you were using battery wise and that we are talking about a current gen boat(castle esc and motor). Same questions as Joe on the traxxas forum.

My friend has a good analogy for boats; "A hole in the water that you pour money into". That's full size boats, r/cs just take all your time in maintenance. After every session with the boat you have to remove the flex and clean/dry, and re-lube.

I've had the spartan almost since it was released and I've gone through my fair share of power systems. (4 motors, and I thought 3 escs) I never had any catastrophic failures that caused anything to go aflame. I've had the v1.5 system(castle motor/traxxas esc) for 4 months and haven't had any issues beyond the norm of what is expected when things get dunked. (ie. cleaning/dying out the motor, replacing bearings) Still have the same hull and hardware that came with it. I'm out on the lake almost everyday, running; 4s, 5s, 6s, gpsed from 35mph to 53mph on the stock drive and prop. The spartan has it's share of flaws as a beginner boat, but just calling it horrible without saying why isn't really helping.

Geo

[wolfpack]

I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm just tired of people ripping on the spartan because everyone else does.
To the OP; can you clarify what you were using battery wise and that we are talking about a current gen boat(castle esc and motor). Same questions as Joe on the traxxas forum.

My friend has a good analogy for boats; "A hole in the water that you pour money into". That's full size boats, r/cs just take all your time in maintenance. After every session with the boat you have to remove the flex and clean/dry, and re-lube.

I've had the spartan almost since it was released and I've gone through my fair share of power systems. (4 motors, and I thought 3 escs) I never had any catastrophic failures that caused anything to go aflame. I've had the v1.5 system(castle motor/traxxas esc) for 4 months and haven't had any issues beyond the norm of what is expected when things get dunked. (ie. cleaning/dying out the motor, replacing bearings) Still have the same hull and hardware that came with it. I'm out on the lake almost everyday, running; 4s, 5s, 6s, gpsed from 35mph to 53mph on the stock drive and prop. The spartan has it's share of flaws as a beginner boat, but just calling it horrible without saying why isn't really helping.

Geo

I have owned real boats all my life, my entire family has, so I am very familiar with boat = break out another thousand.

Like I said above this was the new hull design and the new castle gear. I ran mostly 6s like the box says, and traxxas has themselves quoted that the boat was designed to maintain 6s speeds constantly. But in my experiance it does not. I was running some at 50 mph and some slower to cool things down, as the boat pushes water through the cooling system when you turn clockwise, but as you can see in their own video advertisement the water flow slows or stops when circling the other way. Either way the temp cut-off should have kicked in. I am convinced this was not a heat issue, but that the speed controller burst into flames as I saw a flame shoot out of the sealed top of the hull when the boat stopped. Upon disassembly the speed controller was completely melted and the hull burnt - especially the lid. It was a mess. I have quite a few other things to do in life rather than bash spartan electronics, but I thought others should know.

On the positive side traxxas wrote me back saying they are replacing the hull, lid, speed controller, motor, etc, but I do not have the boat back yet. If anyone thinks the castle stuff is really good you can buy it from me when I get the boat back..... cause its going up for auction asap. I will keep the boat hull, but the motor and esc will be sold. Boat is to arive this week december 14th. BTW, I take care of my stuff, relube the shaft after every other run, etc. I have been flying RC airplanes for a long long time.

[Brushless55]

its crazy to me they keep having issues with this boat still today!
and its been about a year now since it came out...

[wolfpack]

hey GEOVW72, every notice that your link to Traxxas no longer works???? That is because the traxxas' moderator took it down. I posted that the boat caught fire, and did not bash the boat at all, I only briefly stated facts. but traxxas took down the link. They also removed my reply to someone else where they asked about reliability and I explained to them that my ESC caught fire, that reply was deleted by traxxas as well. I guess the boat is really a good one- just ask traxxas or read their forums, LOL. Its all good, everything is fine, buy one,,,, hahahahaha. What a joke.

I carefully only stated facts....no bashing on my part, and traxxas removed the thread. So now the only place to state the truth is here, outside the traxxas forum. So lets see if the google search engine will pick this up - traxxas spartan r/c boat sucks, breaks, catches fire, new castle electronics ESC motor bad, piece of junk, do not buy traxxas spartan, do not buy spartan, get a fiberglass boat instead as they are better, read the above posts before you buy a traxxas spartan. etc, etc, etc.

[Brushless55]

hey GEOVW72, every notice that your link to Traxxas no longer works???? That is because the traxxas' moderator took it down. I posted that the boat caught fire, and did not bash the boat at all, I only briefly stated facts. but traxxas took down the link. They also removed my reply to someone else where they asked about reliability and I explained to them that my ESC caught fire, that reply was deleted by traxxas as well. I guess the boat is really a good one- just ask traxxas or read their forums, LOL. Its all good, everything is fine, buy one,,,, hahahahaha. What a joke.

I carefully only stated facts....no bashing on my part, and traxxas removed the thread. So now the only place to state the truth is here, outside the traxxas forum. So lets see if the google search engine will pick this up - traxxas spartan r/c boat sucks, breaks, catches fire, new castle electronics ESC motor bad, piece of junk, do not buy traxxas spartan, do not buy spartan, get a fiberglass boat instead as they are better, read the above posts before you buy a traxxas spartan. etc, etc, etc.

bro, this is the biggest reason I'm no longer a fan of traxxass
they cover up the truth all the time

[JT13031]

I have a Castle equipped Spartan. It was my first venture into RC boats, bought it in October I think. I easily had over 50 runs on it before the small lake near me was drained for the winter. I only tried 6s for about a minute and thought it was a waste over 5s. I mostly run on 4s though and I'm happy with that. I don't need 50+ to be happy, I'd rather be able to make turns. Am I saying that this is the best boat, NO. I wish I had done a little research before my purchase and ordered a MG. However, I do feel that the Castle motor and esc are good pieces but may be better suited to a different boat or at least not one that every newb wants to push to the ragged edge.

[wolfpack]

I have a Castle equipped Spartan. It was my first venture into RC boats, bought it in October I think. I easily had over 50 runs on it before the small lake near me was drained for the winter. I only tried 6s for about a minute and thought it was a waste over 5s. I mostly run on 4s though and I'm happy with that. I don't need 50+ to be happy, I'd rather be able to make turns. Am I saying that this is the best boat, NO. I wish I had done a little research before my purchase and ordered a MG. However, I do feel that the Castle motor and esc are good pieces but may be better suited to a different boat or at least not one that every newb wants to push to the ragged edge.

I think the speed controller is underrated for the 6s's. That is why mine melted. The motor looks like it can handle it. I am going to add under the hull pickups for water intake as the rudder intake is too iffy. I guess the thing for me is if you need to add 400 bucks to make this boat go 50 mph it should say that on the box. Something like "dont forget you need to add 400 dollars into this product and an amazing amount of time to make the hull go straight and not chine at 50 mph, maybe get your engineering degree first and then attempt to make the changes over then next 4 months, and please let us know what you did to get it there so we can tell everyone on the traxxas board that 50 mph is possible" lol.

The boat is fun, but it should not have to be rebuilt to get it there imho. False advertising for sure.

[Jeepers]

well one would think Traxxas would go back and redesign the entire boat to keep up with their own speed claims, I mean they have designed what... 3-4 boats in what.... 15 years yep lots of experience there.

[Snowride]

I ran my boat all summer after upgrading even before it hit the water. Honestly the boat has been practically flawless. Traxxas should have taken note from real world people with real world experience and made the proper changes. I take no credit for putting this together as most came from Jeff and a few others. At the time I purchased an extra ESC and an extra motor as I was assuming I would have issues at some point, they are still in new packaging! Here is a link to the bullet proof build. http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...-Spartan-Build

[Fluxn81]

Great, I just ordered a Traxxas Spartan thinking all the problems were worked out. I guess I'll post up when it sinks.

[bigwaveohs]

They should stick to RC cars...

[Brushless55]

They should stick to RC cars...