Bad Article in Radio Control Car Action Buyers Guide
Has anyone else seen this article regarding hopping up RTR machines in the 2009 Radio Control Car Action RC Buyers Guide? One is a Losi 1/10 Scale Desert Truck and the other is ProBoat Apache 24 on pages 25-27.
The intent of the article is to see what it would take to double the stock speeds from these two RTR vehicles. I don't fault them for attempting modifications to attain more speed, but they appear to not be very informed about how to modify RC boats.
First of all they start by modifying the truck and the boat with the same equipment. They obviously only know how to modify land based RC vehicles because that is the hardware they use to modify the truck as well as the boat.
The upgrade hardware for both the vehicles is:
ESC/Motor : 1/10 Xcelorin Brushless 4800kv combo, LOSB9574
Battery : 11.1V 3200mah 20C Losi LiPo , LOSB9860
Prop: Octura x435 balanced and sharpened
So let me do the math for you: 4800kv x 11.1v = 53,280rpm which in my book equals =:flashfire:
I would doubt this would even last long in a truck.
For all of us that have modified our Apache's, we know that this boat doesn't handle well above 20mph. They have some how managed a "water skipping run" of 39.4 mph with the stock driveline on this boat and supposedly had it stay on the water! Even if they don't thrash the motor they would cook the battery that can only deliver 60 continuous amps to do that kind of speed for any duration.
My main complaint on this article is that it will get into the hands of newbies out there and they will spend $140 for the boat and another $250 in modifications and after 1 straight line high speed run, they will attempt to turn the boat and poof $390 to the bottom of the lake. (No floatation in a stock Apache)
Even if they could recover it, I doubt this ESC is waterproof let alone water resistant, so I would bet the ESC it toast.
The only warning the article gives is the following:
"At these speeds the vehicles became very "interesting" to drive. I must warn you: these modified vehicles are moving so fast that you must make sure you're fully aware of the limitations of your surroundings. That said, go have fun!"
Someone needs to thoroughly think through these articles before they get published. I would like to know if they even attempted to consult anyone before doing these modifications. I know this article would have never happened in RC Boat Modeler.
Ok, I will get off of my soapbox now. I feel much better.......well not really:cursing:
