what battery are you using

[vintagerc10]

since i've pretty much completed my rc10 to rc10t project, now its time to bash. I have a few old nicd batteries which i know are junk and have one venom 3000 nimh, which isnt great.

i need to pick up a few decent and cheap packs (nimh - not ready for lipo) for some back yard bashing. What do you recommend? I've read great things about the enery-g cell from promatch, but what about the tenergy ones on ebay? read the 3500 and 4500 are ok if rebuilt.

opinions? comments? suggestions?

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

I only have one NIMH pack and it's a Venom 3000mah 7-cell and I agree that I'm not too ompressed. My 15 year old 1400mah scr packs seem to do just as well. I pretty much jumped from NiCad to Lipo, but I've read good things about cheapbatterypacks.com. The only problem I had is that they were out of stock on just about everything when I checked. That's probably a good thing in a way. Other than that I see Tower run a good sale every once in a while on different NIMH packs. I was in Radio Shack and they sell a 6 cell NIMH 3000mah pack for $25. I almost picked it up just to have another pack, but changed my mind. Although...ususally Radio Shack brand stuff is pretty good as far as most items. Might be worth a gamble.

[civilguy]

Tenergy 3500 nimh packs were great 2+ years ago. I have a couple that I still use to race and they are zippy even today. BUT back then Tenergy was using 14ga wire (I think) and they have switched to smaller 16ga stuff. That plus the 3800 cells being junk made me leave nimh technology (except for those 3500s which are terrific). I would think if you can still get the 3500 cells and are willing to wire them better they will impress you.
I have found the nimh technology to be aggravating tho.

I do run Tenergy's 2300mah nicds and those work great for the vintage buggies-- plenty of runtime and the sport pack ones I got still had the meatier wiring. Plus I've built a few packs with loose 2300 nicds.

Good luck!

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

Just for giggles and the sake of boredom I went to cheapbatterypacks.com and went to custom pack. I built a 6 cell pack with 12ga wire and a Dean's connector using Elite 3300 cells and it was $24 + $7 shipping. Not too bad. Now keep in mind I have never used them, but just heard good things...

[MOmo]

Cheapbatterypacks.com is a local guy to me.

I met him a few years back when he was getting started. Good guy. Does alot with Crawler stuff now, but still does make decent packs. Im exploring getting some Saddle packs for my BJ4WE. Also depends on if my motor builder, Banzai, ( http://www.banzaimotors.com ) comes out with a saddle lipo to go with the stick lipo they already offer.


MOmo

[Jason Pelletier]

http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_info.php/products_id/30549

Hands down this is a awesome pack. I use this pack in my rb5 and it is dialed for 2wd off road. I have used this pack to get to Mod a-mains around the NE for the last 6 months.

It has crazy runtime and incredible punch.

pair it with the hobby city turnigy and you have yourself a awesome combo for $125 bucks.

http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=7028

[PBR Allstar]

Just go Lipo, you wont regret it and you wont turn back. Do some reading first and learn the do's and don'ts. They will far outlast any Nimh pack and pay for themselves the next time you need to buy a battery, not to mention you will see a speed increase over the duration of your run (lipo's have a very flat power delivery curve unlike a nimh pack which has very linear power deliver) as well as longer, more consistant run times. If you're gonna bash with it I recommend getting a low voltage cutoff (novak makes a nice one for under 25 bucks), lipo's do not like to be over discharged. as far as batteries go The SMC packs Jason mentioned are good, I have a couple myself, but for the money the Yeah Racing packs are the way to go, the cells are the same manufacture as the green cased SMC's and they run about 30% less in price than the SMC's for the same mah rating.

http://www.ultralinehobbies.com/index.php?p=product&id=559&parent=72

Dan Filbert that runs ultraline is a great guy. He imports all the Yeah Racing stuff directly from Hong Kong.

[robsdak]

i just use team Orion 3000. good quality packs and run times.

[Kyosho Fan]

For those of you looking for a deal on sub-C NiMH batteries... run far away if you see this manufacturer:



I converted one to a 6-cell and found the end battery to be a SC1500... a far cry from 3800. I suspect the other cells are in fact NiCD of even less capacity. I get maybe 3 minutes out of them after several conditioning runs.

I've alerted eBay but I have little hope that they will do anything. Everyone selling these are in HongKong and are distributors, not the manufacturer.

Edit: see the proof here - http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3549/3477448474_e879cd25fa_b.jpg

[Chewbacca]

Oh man stuff like that really PI$$ES me off.

You hear about these rip-offs realy often lately. There just was an article in the German computer mag "c't" about chinese ebay shops selling "NEW" external 1.8" usb HDDs from samsung and toshiba. Turns out the drives inside were out of used / defective ipods. The seller also reacted agressivly to bad ratings on ebay up to call in the middle of the night.

The problem is (at least with me) that you tend to get blinded by these cheap prices. I think ebay should react quicker on these sellers. they're flooding the bay with junk, and nothing is done about it.

Sorry about the off topic rant...

[badhoopty]

Just go Lipo, you wont regret it and you wont turn back.

ditto. make the initial investment on a good lipo charger that will last you awhile and start getting lipo packs.