Off to a rough start.....

[GTRhino24]

Well, my wife surprised me with a new Spartan for Christmas to help get me into the hobby. It was in the water for 3 seconds before the ESC fried two battery packs. Needless to say, it was an unimpressive start. The new Castle setup is supposed to be tough, but I must have gotten a bad one. My LHS should have it back to me in a day or so and they were shocked that it happened.

I know the Spartan isn't ideal, but I think I can probably make it work for now. I want to run stock NiMH for a few months to get the hang of things and move to LiPo. I can't own anything without modifying it, a quick look at my Glocks and it's apparent.

I've ordered for the Spartan so far:
- dual intake rudder
- large diameter water lines
- XL aluminum water jacket
- adjustable trim tabs

So my question is, with the upgraded cooling system, what is the most performance I can safely get out of the Spartan with the stock ESC and motor? I know Traxxas says 6s, but I could be happy with mid/high 40s.

[Chilli]

Sorry your first experience was a bad one. We've all had days like this!!

Have fun moding the boat but be carefull if you add power as this hull cant take too much more power than she comes with. I've seen a few fractured hulls in rough water. Also be carefull with prop suggestions. A person may recommend a prop that he says runs great, but he may only make a few speed passes and bring the boat in. The same prop will fry your gear if you try to run it for five minutes.

If you like to tinker and you decide you're into the hobby, it will only be a matter of time before you will want to build your own boat. In the mean time, you have a nice boat to learn set up. Play with the CG, Props and hardware to see how it effects the boats hanlding.

[GTRhino24]

Thanks for the kind words. The worst part is that it was a gift from my wife for the "guy who has everything." She took it harder than I did. I have a feeling that this is my kind of hobby even before my boat has touched the water (10 secs doesn't count). I started handloading for my 10mm Glocks this year (that ammo is hard to come by) and just like RC, you have to start small and work up. Otherwise, you could be missing some fingers. There is so much information here that it's a bit overwhelming when you just want to add some spice. Hopefully I'll have my boat back after Christmas so I can install all the cooling mods and get it wet.

[dag-nabit]

Run 4 or 5S and you will greatly reduce the chances of frying the the electrics compared to running 6S. Also, good advice on staying conservative on prop selection. Keeping the prop close to stock dimensions and running 4 or 5S will greatly improve the chances of getting extended trouble free running.
Kevin

[GTRhino24]

Got my boat back today. The LHS said that there was water in the ESC which is impossible since the boat moved 5ft in the water before dying. They said that Traxxas reluctantly warranteed the ESC swap. I call BS since I know that the boat never moved under it's own power and certainly didn't move any water through the cooling lines. Sure, there was some water in the hull from the 15 min it sat idle until I retrieved it. Regardless, it's back in working order so I took everything apart until the new large cooling lines and jacket show up from OSE. I also got comped some better batteries since Traxxas hadn't sent replacements for the stock ones yet. Now it's just a waiting game until all the parts show up. From opening the box to actually running the boat will be about 2 weeks and $175 in modifications. I sure hope it's worth it.

[Fluxn81]

Wow, 4 days?

[GTRhino24]

Wow, 4 days?

You mean it lasted four days or it only took four days to get it back? It lasted like 4 seconds after the first set of packs were plugged in. It was fixed in about 3 days by my LHS because we (my wife called them daily) were all over them about replacing it. Traxxas supposedly overnighted the ESC from TX. They didn't send a set of packs though which was to my advantage since they replaced them with some 4500mah ones instead. I have to give it to Oak Mtn Hobbies. They really made it right even though it wasn't technically their problem. A case could be made that it was dead on the shelf though.

[Fluxn81]

You mean it lasted four days or it only took four days to get it back? It lasted like 4 seconds after the first set of packs were plugged in. It was fixed in about 3 days by my LHS because we (my wife called them daily) were all over them about replacing it. Traxxas supposedly overnighted the ESC from TX. They didn't send a set of packs though which was to my advantage since they replaced them with some 4500mah ones instead. I have to give it to Oak Mtn Hobbies. They really made it right even though it wasn't technically their problem. A case could be made that it was dead on the shelf though.

I'm impressed by Traxxas that it took 4 days, but it sounds fishy. Every dealing with them that I've every had or read about, Traxxas has always asked for the item to deem it their fault before sending anything back. I'd say your lhs is the good guy in all this. I'm glad you got it all squared away.

[GTRhino24]

Well, good news! My shipment arrived from OSE and some other Ebay sellers today so I totally reworked the cooling, checked the electronics, and set it up for it's first run.
Here are some pics of my cooling setup.
IMG_3564.jpg
IMG_3553.jpg
IMG_3546.jpg
IMG_3549.jpg

I picked up a dual intake rudder, OSE cooling jacket, large tubing, large bulkhead fittings, and large water outlets. All of this before it's second maiden voyage.

It ran perfectly for 2 sets of batteries so the new ESC fixed the issue. Both outlets flowed extremely well. Everything stayed nice and cool. It picked up about a teaspoon of water over the course of 15 minutes or so. Looks like the bulk of it is coming from the stuffing tube bushing so if anyone knows an easy solution to reduce the leak I'm listening. A few weeks and I'll be looking to go Lipo. I'm sure I'll need plenty of input since my LHS doesn't seem very well versed in boats.