I noticed my truck was running a bit slower lately, and running a lot hotter.  I thought there was no way I burned up my Speed 480, that thing could run all day long on 6 cells without breaking a sweat.  Especially running 60/18T gearing.  But my run time went to crap, and I have no speed.  And it happened rather quickly, one pack ran great, the next was slowing down quickly.  So I pulled the motor out and checked it out thinking maybe the comm needs to be cut or the brushes changed out.  Which could be true, but what I did notice was very surprising.  The wires on the ends of the armature, towards the front of the can, were all damaged.  The 480 has some rather large vents on the top of the can which not only let in air, but lots of rocks.  So what happens when a bunch of rocks come into contact with a spinning coil of wires over and over?  Well the wires get munched, and are possibly even shorting out against one another.  So I hooked the motor up to my Intellipeak and sure enough, under no load at 5V, the thing is drawing over 5 amps!  And it's not spinning worth beans.  So in the end, the motor didn't burn up, but the rocks damaged the coils on the arm, rendering the motor useless.  So what's next?  Well I dropped in a GWS 370 motor for now, and geared it 60/12T, because I can't keep going through motors like this.  The first motor I ran was a Graupner Speed 300 on 55/15T gearing and it lasted all of about one battery pack before it began whining like a slaughtered pig and gave up the ghost.  I'm planning on going brushless here pretty soon too, so we'll see what happens with that.

Today is Labor Day.  I rested from my labors and drove my truck most of the day.  My backyard track is killer to drive.  Even though I only have two jumps, I finally figured out how to hit the one jump and completely launch and land on all four tires.  I suppose it depends on the angle of the jump, but for this jump I have to keep the throttle pegged while in the air.  If I let up on the throttle, it goes nose down quickly.  The track is pretty technical, and so far my truck is too fast for it, but when I'm coming down the wall, around the bend and into the 1-foot jump (when I hit it just right) I can drift around the whole corner and nail the throttle right as it's coming into the straight just before the jump and launch it almost 10 feet to where I crash into the slide on the kids playground.  It doesn't get much air, maybe 3 feet, but it gets some distance.   I burned through a bunch of packs today, this truck is getting beat to snot!  But it keeps on running.  My Speed 480 is up in the 155º F range, which is getting up there, and my battery pack was sitting at around 135º F.  Of course in AZ, it's 91º F right now, so it's just plane hot anyway.  I may need to gear down to drop the speed a bit, and give me a bit more control on the track.  Oh and, Happy Birthday Jamin.  Your present is in the mail...

I figured out how to install my HS-81MG today and it completely rocks.  I made a small drag link out of carbon fiber and installed it to the original aluminum servo arm that comes with the Hitec servos.  I also made a cool little servo clamp to hold that servo down.  So far it works great.  I can turn the tires full tilt each direction while just sitting on the carpet.  It's pretty nice.  That servo has 3 times the torque of the AE servo or the Hitec HS-56 that they recommend which is suppose to be a drop-in replacement for the kit.  I don't know about anyone else, but this kit should have been designed to work with the HS-81 from the start.

I just placed an order from RCBoyz.com for a bunch of stuff.  These guys carry a great selection of stuff and their service is par-none.  I should get the stuff in a few days, including the sweet new MIP Super Diffs.  These things are made out of metal, so they shouldn't break or tweak.

Stupid plastic differentials.  The dogbones keep popping out.  I thought I'd fixed the problem with a small zip tie, but it ended up just destroying the diff end completely.  Now I'm running two-wheel drive which isn't all that fun.  At least I can drive it, and it's better than front-wheel drive. 

Jamin and I drove our trucks most of the day today.  Out behind my house there's a dirt bike track of sorts that the local kids built.  It's got some sweet, huge, jumps.  This little truck just loves to get some serious air.  My Speed 300 motor burned up in about a run-and-a-half.  Not what I would have expected.  So it's time to up the juice to 480 power!  Hey, it's the only other motor I have lying around.

Just bought a Team Associated RC18T 1/18th scale truck.  This thing is so cool!  I'm going to make a web page about all the stuff that I do to it.  Should be fun.