Aha, you have once again found the BigSquidRC mailbox department, congrats to you!

This week for something a bit different, I am going to start off with a little “Do you want the good news or the bad news first?” dealio. So what do you want first, the good news or the bad news? Well, seeing as how you really don’t have a choice, I’ll start with the good news.

The Good News- A brand spank’n new HPI Mini-Trophy Truck is sitting on my desk. Awwwww yes! Indeed it is a beautiful steed. It’s so pristine, never driven on a dirty track or jumped off the top of a drivers stand (yet!). My mouth is just watering…..

The Bad News- Brian says I can not even take it out of the box until he does the official un-boxing piece on it later tonight. Arrgghhhhhh!!!!!! (See the unboxing pictures HERE!)

The Really Bad News- For you moto guys, Josh Hill was seriously injured over the weekend practicing for X-Games. Josh, a factory L&M Yamaha rider, was working on pulling backflips and under-rotated, and well, he got slammed pretty hard- broken femur, broken pelvis, punctured lung, and broken arm among other things. Josh is one of the good guys on the AMA Supercross tour, sucks to see him injured, but hope he heels up quick and comes back riding faster than ever! Click HERE to see the TransWorld video on how Josh is doing.

Now on to your questions….
==========

Hey Brian ,
I’ve noticed the Tim Mohr video that you have written about at http://www.bigsquidrc.com/tim-mohr-record-long-jump-video/ and have a couple of questions , if they weren’t too much to answer it.

What kind of buggy/truggy was that , i’ve been leaning into the 1/8th electric scene , so am virtually open to market. If you could remeber the details that would be greatly appreciated since i might be looking to buy that specific model.

Thanks
~Pat

Cubby- I love stealing Brians questions. What’s up Pat? Tim is one of our contributors here, and Hot Bodies is one of his sponsors. I placed a quick call to him and he confirmed he was using a Hot Bodies Ve8 buggy. You can find more info on it HERE. He went on to say it was pretty much stock except for stiffer springs, stiffer shock oil, and a pretty burly power system consisting of a Castle Monster speedo, Neu/Castle motor, and a high cell count MaxAmps Lipo battery.

==========
Hi-
Cub Reorter what is the fastest rc car you have ever seen?
Garrett

Cubby- How’s it hang’n Garrett? The fastest I’ve EVER seen?? Wow, thanks for asking an easy question. Well if you include video that’s easy, Nic Cases speed run car on YouTube doing 160mph+. If you are talking seen with my own two eyes, that answer is also easy, that would be a guy that goes by the handle StingRay, watching his electric rail dragster go 100 mph+ in 132 feet. Both cars put anything you or I have driven to shame as far as speed and power are concerned.
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That’s it for this incredible edition of ASK Cub Reporter. We desperately need your questions (well, not really), so shoot’em to us at Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter

Aha, here we are for yet another week of the ever so scrumptious letters from you, our precious (and ornery) readers.

==========
Hi Cubby
When reading your review of the HPI Blitz you mentioned scrubbing jumps. Can you describe what that is?

Morgan W. Ellis

Cubby- Yo Morgan, thanks for reading. As far as your question goes, let me start with a bit of background on “scrubbing” a jump.

Scrubbing comes from motocross, and riders have been doing it for years. It came into prominence when a rider named James “Bubba” Stewart took the art of scrubbing to a whole new level, so you’ll also hear it called the “Bubba scrub”. You see, a rider can gain time on a track by using the scrub technique. While a normal rider may hit a 60 foot long triple jump and his apogeee (the highest point in flight) is 30 feet in the air, James Stewart might scrub the same triple and only get 20 feet high. Because Stewart was able to stay 10 feet lower, he’s in the air a shorter amount of time, and able to get his tires back on terra firma earlier and get back on the gas sooner. As a rider hits the face of a jump his suspension compresses and the springs on the bike will store that energy. On a normal take off all that energy shoots the bike/rider vertically. When you scrub a jump you lay the bike over and some of that energy is released horizontally, keeping you lower to the ground while still carrying enough speed to make the gap.

True scrubbing in rc does not (and can not) happen, there just isn’t any way for us to lay our buggys horizontally upon initial take off. Scrubbing in rc normally refers to not hitting a jump perfectly square. If you hit a jump perfectly square you will get the maximum amount of vertical rebound, making for the highest arch possible. If you hit the take off face slightly off axis, not all the stored energy in your springs is released at the exact same time upon take off, making for a slightly lower flight, saving you time. When you see an rc racer scrub, they almost always land a bit sideways, which can be an advantage if there is a corner immediately after the landing jump. But landing a bit sideways takes a lot of skill, sometimes a small amount of counter steer, and a good set-up to not traction roll. Currently, Billy Fischer, Ryan Maifield, and Frank Root are some of the best drivers at using this technique. Check out THIS VIDEO of Fish and his Losi 2.0 working on scrubs.
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That’s it for this week Cub fans, shoot us your questions, funny stories, taco’ed chassis, and yes, even your questions to cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter

It’s about time we get back to some actual rc questions don’t ya think? So here we go….. Dear Cub,

How do I glue up new tires on my Nitro 4Tec?
Jeremy

Cubby- Oh geezuss, here we go, another person that has only owned RTR’s and has zero clue on how to work on anything. If lil’ Jeremy had ever built a kit, he’d already have this knowledge in hand. Ya know, RTR’s sure are convenient, but us long term guys knew they were going to dumb down the hobby.

Anyways, even a brain dead lab monkey can glue tires, and it’s really pretty self explanatory. You mount up the tires the only way they will fit, then glue the rubber tires to the rims where they touch. HERE is a short vid from the good guys at Pro-Line to get you going.

Actually, gluing tires can be a bit complicated. Some tires are directional, some have a lot of mold release on them that needs to be removed before the glue will work properly, and there are tons of tricks to be done with the rims and inserts. Jeremy, watch the vid then I’d suggest the best way to learn is how I did, by just going for it and making a few mistakes here and there.
———————————-

This is for Cub Reporter
What would you recommend as a servo for my new Associated RC10B4.1?
I read your column every single week.
Skeeter

Cubby- LOL, “Skeeter” has to be the funniest “name” ever, you guys are killing me. I can appreciate the humor of coming up with funny names and all, but Dayyumm. Thanks for sending in a question “Skeeter”, but please keep all bodily fluids to yourself. Thanks, all I can think of right now is THIS.

What was the question? Oh ya, a good servo for a B4. LOL

The AE B4 doesn’t require much in the way of torque, 80 oz or more will slam those little front tires with authority.

Hitec used to never get any love, but that’s changed in the last few years. Instead of being know more as the brand to buy when looking for “affordable” servos, they are now the brand to buy period. Their moderately priced gear is very good, and their uber stuff is the best money can buy. So here’s my recommendation- the Hitec HS-965MG. It runs about 70 bucks, has a tough metal gear set in it, has .13 speed, and over 100 oz of torque at 4.8 volts on input. I’ve used this servo and it’s a great combo of price, toughness, and performance. And it’ll also work great when you put it in a short course truck, which is just a matter of time.

——————–

That’s it for this week, submit your silly nicknames and questions to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter

Yes indeed, another week, another edition of ASK Cubby. Btw, as I was walking down the halls of the ultra luxurious BSRC offices last week, one of my co-workers had the nerve to say, “Cubby, all the questions you post can NOT be real can they?”. Well folks, yes indeed they are. Truth is stranger than fiction, even the Cubverse.

==========

“I am looking for shock covers for my redcat racing rampage MT 1/5 scale truck. I am looking for the 4 shocks and the air filter cover also. If you need to know I am in Lake Havasu City, AZ 86406
Johnsbox”

Cubby- Hummmm…….. Where do I even begin here? First off, I feel sorry you actually busted out your wallet and paid good American money for a Redcat. I only say this because every time I see a Redcat at the track, it’s broke, usually in more than one spot. Also, the owner of the broken truck typically has a “I am SO F#$%^d” look on his face because he knows spare parts are gonna take months to get.

Anyways, I am glad you are looking for shock covers and an air filter cover, but don’t come looking for them from me because I don’t have’em. Who do you think I am, Cubby-sells-hop-up-parts-for-junk-trucks.com?? I think not. Give that giant hunk of steaming s^$! Redcat to the a$$hole neighbor next door, then go out and buy a decent rc truck.

==========

“Who proof-read the Blitz ESE review? There are so many grammatical mistakes in the first few paragraphs that I couldn’t read it anymore and just clicked away.
I love the site and everything, but come on, please get an editor!
Thanks
Bryan”

Cubby- Ya know, we get between 1 to 5 of these emails a week, so I figured it was about time to post one. In fact yes we do have an “editor” of sorts, but honestly he’s too busy jump’n cars off the roof to really read anything. Additionally, yes, we hired a “proof reader” of sorts that I’ve written about in a previous ASK Cubby column. While her job is to proof read, I don’t even know if she can read at all. All I know is she makes a damn fine cup of coffee, she looks really hot, and she isn’t a big fan of wearing bras in the summer. I guess I could proof read what I write, but quite frankly I am far too lazy to do it.

==========

That’s if for this week folks. Send all your questions, ruthless bashing, iPhones hacks, and pictures of naked farm animals to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter

Welcome back to this weeks ASK Cubby column. This week I present to you an early leader in the “email of the year” competition……

“Hi
I bought my Alpha from microtechracing about 6 weeks ago and put it into my new EU took time to run it in on bench and track following instructions,, when to my horror the engine blew in the middle of the straight at torbay this sunday on inspection it looks like the conrod but will know more once stripped, every one at the meeting was shocked as many have bought the green alpha and some have the gold one as well so they eagerly await your comment as do i, this car driven by my very talented 9 year old had won three trophies the day before and was lying 7th on the grid in the a final with 2 qualifying heats to go of the swords, he was well in the lead on the 3rd and bang the engine went, he and i were devestated and so were many others our day was ruined and the weekend was ended on a sour note,
so what have you experienced with this issue so far, i might add that my son is a top driver and most people who beat him are top adults no kids, he lapped the rest of the field twice in frankley a few weeks ago with this car and engine racing all kids in a junior competition with the first time on this track so we know what we are on and we are very dissapointed, try telling a 9 year old he cant race the finals because his brand new engine has broken, neede to add al that so you know where i am coming from, we al eagerly await your comments, we all eagerly await to see what you as the importer is going to do about my predicament, i have not yet spoke to microtech but will do i had been advised to speak to you first by some sponsored drivers, yu might say what is this customer actually wanting to hear, well i would like you to replace the engine or at least the parts or come up with something good to win my custom and confidence back and i might add many others are going to ask the question, what do i tell them, i look forward to your reply or call me on ********

Dave–
Many Thanks”

Cubby- Wow, that’s a lot to wrap my head around, but I’m stoked you are eagerly awaiting my comments. LOL.

So your kid was hauling a$$ and then his nitro engine go boom? Why do I not find that surprising. You see, I’ve been a long time electric racer, and for good reason. With electric you just plug it in and either goes, or it doesn’t, none of this half a$$ stuff that nitro likes to pull on ya. And, if my electric burns up half way through the race, at least it leaves a big cloud of smoke hovering over the track, which is a cool show for me to watch, and something for a bunch of marshals to start yelling “DUDE YOUR CAR IS ON FIRE!!” at the tops of their lungs, which is always great fun to hear while on the drivers stand.

Anyways, I have nothing to do with Alpha, or Microtechracing, but if that engine did come from me, I’d tell ya you should have known better than actually buy a nitro engine from an electric guy like me. But, I’d so totally hook your 9 yr old kid up with a full electric factory drive, because he so totally sounds like the fastest kid to hit an rc track since Dakota Phend.

Finally, a warning- if I hear about you making that kid drive nitro again, I’ll be forced to find, then thrash you. Remember- friends don’t let friends drive nitro.

==========

That’s it for this week, submit your questions, letters, RA requests, broken sensor leads, tar balls, DSM2 receivers, and meandering rants to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter

A day late, but back better than ever (not… LOL)! I’ve been working on our Blitz ESE test this week and missed my deadline for Ask Cubby, but here ya’ll go…..
==========

“Dear Brian & Squiddy,
I wanted to let y’all know, “great job on your editorial reviews.” I love going to your page every day and reading BigSquidRC, keep up the excellent work. I respect your views and opinions a lot,
especially from fellow bashers! Since I’ve been reading your web site I have learned a lot of things! Also I’ve started a project on a 2wd Traxxas Slash and recently just finished it (most of my
idea’s came from your site), I thought that I would share a couple of pictures before I went out completely destroyed my project Slash. “lol” I want to apologize for the lack of a BigSquidRC sticker(s)
in advance.
J.P.”

Cubby- Nice pics of your Slash JP, but there is no excuse for not having BigSquid stickers plastered everywhere from your Slash, to the front door of your house and 1:1 ride.

And JP, you sound like a true Core basher- you build up a way super dope project just to taco it out jumping it off the roof of your house. Our kind of guy for sure.

==========

“Hey,
My name is Jeff, I am wondering if you’d like to exchange links with JustAreaRugs.c0m? If so, please let me know and we can go from there.Thanks for your time.
Cheers,
Jeff”

Cubby- Jeff, Brian said I couldn’t post your email, but I decided to give it the green light. I mean, I really don’t think our readers have any idea the crazy emails we get here, and I’m all about giving our readers the full scoop. You aren’t going to see RedRC or RCCA posting a readers email like this one, but at BigSquid we don’t hold anything back.

With that said, Jeff- I’ll be checking the mail every day for an uber new silk rug for under my desk, and I’m thinking Brian digs some sort of leather, both types I see listed on your site. And ya, thanks in advance, my lil’ piggies are looking forward to it!

==========

That’s it for this week ya bunch of dirty skallywags. Send in your strange links, home made ice cream, lightly used underwear, and mouse eradication tools to cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter

OMG, is it already Thursday? Welcome to yet another platinum plated edition of ASK Cubby.

==========
Brian,
your cub reporter is the biggest f#$%ing idiot on the internet…… he doesnt know sh%$ about anthing…Lenny

Cubby- What’s up Lenny? So you consider me to be the biggest idiot on the Entire internet? The internet is a big place, with literally millions of idiots mashing the keys on a daily basis, so that’s really say’n something. But thanks for reading and I’ll work extra hard to keep my place at the top! LOL

==========

Hi Cubby
I just got my first rc car. What is the best way to make it go fast?
Thanks a lot
Del

Cubby- Hummmm, how nice of you not to list what kind of rc car you have. So I’ll just have to guess. LOL

If it’s nitro- I HIGHLY recommend the 4lb Craftsman sledge hammer. The hammer features a double faced forged head, precision ground face, poly handle with fiberglass core, and a comfortable shaped handle. I recommend striking your nitro 10 times every time you think about trying to start it, or 200 times (or until perfectly flat) if you try and it doesn’t start. Trust me, it’s the best thing you can do for a nitro.

If it’s electric- The best way to make any electric fast requires 3 parts. Part 1- Castle Monster speedo. Part 2- Castle 2650kv motor. Part 3- MaxAmps 6S Lipo battery. Trust me, that power system will make pretty much any electric rc RIP.

==========

That’s it for this edition. Send in your questions, lies, obituaries, and/or strip bar funny money to cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter

Welcome back to yet another fabulous edition of your letters, and my butchering of the English language….

==========
“To the gents at Bigsquid,
I have a Turnigy Lipo that is all puffed up. What should I do with it?
Collin – Bonnyrigg UK”

Cubby- Hey what’s up Collin? Thanks for writing in.

So you have a puffed Lipo and you don’t know what to do with it. Here’s the scoopage, just follow the three D’s….

Discontinue use- Why? Because there is no “fixing” a Lipo that is puffing, it’s venting internally, oxygen gas is actually being released but trapped inside the cell packet. The battery will only get worse, and even if it’s not dangerous at the moment, if you keep using it the pack may rupture unexpectedly and become so.

Discharge- Discharge your Lipo at a LOW rate, at or below 1C (if you have a 5000 mah battery, a 2 amp discharge for this purpose would be great), and discharge it as far as you can. Below 3 volts per cell is just fine. The more energy you can remove from the pack, the safer it will be. Once fully discharged, remove your connector and put heat shrink tubing or electrical tape over the end of the wires to prevent them from dead shorting the battery.

Discard- Get rid of that puffy pack. Most lithium based batteries are considered non-hazardous waste by the federal government of the USA, so we can literally just chuck them in our trash, although they can (and should) be recycled. So if you live in the states, you may be able to recycle your Lipo batteries at your local Radio Shack or even your local hobby shop. Collin, I do not have disposal information for Lipo batteries in the UK, so I’d suggest calling your local hobby shop and asking what they do with their old batteries.

==========

That’s it for this week, summit your comments, questions, objections, and reflections to cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter

Another week, and yet more fun with reader questions…

“This question is for Cub Reporter,Is it ok to rev my engine real high with the wheels off the ground?????
Xie Xie,
Wang”

Cubby- What’s up “Wang”? Seriously, is that your name or did you just sign “Wang” on your email as a cheap joke? Either way, your question is a sound one that I’m certain many a noob has pondered.

You mention the word “engine” in your email, so I’ll assume you drive nitro. In a nitro engine, I’ve seen people break cranks and rods by revving their nitro burners too high with no load on their engine. Now personally I have tortured several nitro motors, mainly after a crash where the nearest marshal was texting with one hand and smoking with the other, so I’d give my buggy the death/panic rev to get their achtung, and I seemingly never hurt any of my engines. So perhaps YMMV with this one on nitro engines.

For you flashlight drivers out there, electric motors have a different set of issues. When you hit too high of an rpm, whether it be under load or not, you can ruin the bearings that support the rotor, or worst case, shatter the rotor from centrifugal force. Some brushless motors now days are good for nearly 100k rpm, others much less. On normal cell counts you might not have to worry about hurting your motor from too high of rpm, but on higher cell counts you might very well be able to blow it up.

And you’re welcome.

==========

“Dear Sir

Browsing through the internet we find your contacts.

Happy Flower Racing were first introduced to the RC market at 2008, among all the RC On Road Cars manufacturers, Happy Flower is without doubt the youngest and the fearless. Read the rest of this entry »

ASK Cubby, A Weekly Q&A Session, Version 05.27.2010

We get letters, all kinds of letters here at BigSquid….

==========

“Just an FYI, in todays CUB report you wrote “Jess Alessi” when its
actually Jeff Alessi. The JBRL race was at ARC Raceway in SoCal… I was
sitting next to Jeff in the pits on sat and hes a good driver for sure.
Anyways, just thought id let you know about the typo!

-Doug”

Cubby- Thanks for the heads up on the typo, it seems the 85 year old former school teacher that we use to edit our columns is blind in her left eye and can’t see out of the right. But hey, she’s got a nice rack for her age, so she can keep the job.

But seriously, you pitted next to Jeff, yet you didn’t fill us in on if he’s gonna race any nationals this year (moto or rc)? Is he still dialed with the MotoConcepts crew? Where’s the pics? Where did he finish? What was he driving? Whoops, wait a minute, you aren’t on the payroll, LOL, but feel free to shoot us more info if you have it.

==========

“I would like to invite you to our track in Ohio. This track has been around for 18 years. It is in a city park, open to the public 6 days a week and on Saturday we have organized racing. We are the home track for Tamiya’s Ryan Lutz (when he’s not in California). This is also home to
one of your sponsors, JGBRC, he has supplied us with batteries for years. I go to your site everyday just to keep up with news and current events and it would be great if you could stop by and make some laps. I know you don’t like to race that much but if you are in the area I am sure you will have fun.
BIG STEVE FORESTER
RACE DIRECTOR
www.medinarcraceway.com”

Cubby- Ya, thanks for the invite Big Steve, and good to see you spreading the word about your track. Most of the BigSquid crew (ok, everyone except for me) pretty much considers formal tracks to be Kryptonite, but out next trip out your way we’ll have to drop by and bust out some laps.

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That’s it for this edition of “ASK Cubby”. Send your questions, hate mail, and lightly used underwear to cubby at BigSquidRC dot com.

YOUR Cub Reporter

“Are hobby prices going up because of lack of workers in China? I read that on a messae board.
Erwin”
————————
Cubby- Ya know, there is no doubt there are some weird things going on in that wonderful communist country called the People’s Republic of China. In recent months there have been 5 incidents of men grabbing knives/hatchets and going after school kids, which reminds me a bit of the period when our postal workers were wound a bit too tight. They’ve got a lot of people living there in China (over 1.3 billion, America only has around 300 million), and plenty of stressors as well. But of course that’s no reason for the prices of their goods to go up.

But, there is some truth to the rumor you heard. China pretty much makes everything for everyone in the world now days, and even their 1.3 billion people aren’t enough to make it all. Yes, China is starting to suffer a labor shortage (due in part to their governments stimulus package), and as that happens, wages go up, and when wages go up, the price of the finished products must go up as well.

So will this mean increased prices at your LHS? Perhaps not, and I’ll tell you why. It’s quite obvious a very large percentage of all our hobby goods come from China (ok, that was a massive understatement… LOL), but just like every other product in this world, there is always another supplier. The buyers from our large rc companies are a Very savvy group, if they can get the same build quality but source it cheaper from Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, etc, they will change suppliers just to keep your costs low.

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That’s it for this week ya bunch of crazy animals. Submit your questions, love letters, naked photos of your x(women only), and hate mail to cubby at BigSquidRC dot com.

YOUR Cub Reporter

“Hey guys. I’ve had this idea for many years now. Why don’t you see if you can team up with the X games to get some e-monster trucks (no oil spills now) going off the mega ramp. You could mount cameras on them and trail the competitors off the jump or you could use them as entertainment between events. You would reach a huge number of young to middle aged men. Perfect exposure for our sport!
Keep up the great work with the website!
Regards
Billy”
———————-
Well hello Billy, thanks for the kind words.

I like how you think. While some in our hobby prefer for it to stay small, I’d much rather see it go mainstream. Maybe it’s because I like to dream big, maybe it’s because I hate seeing my friends in the industry not getting paid jack for working their asses off. Maybe it’s because I just want to see more people enjoy the hobby I love.

X Games is as corporate/commercial as they come. It is, and has always been, nothing more than a great marketing tool for companies into “xtreme” sports. With that said, ESPN is very critical about what makes it on air. If you’ve watched it over the years, gone are many sports, while all the “big air” comps pretty much rule the evening prime time slots. Mommy and daddy mainstream are glued to their sets for one reason- they might be lucky enough to watch someone die tonight! The problem for us rc guys is- jumping a 6S HPI Savage Flux over an 80 foot gap isn’t going to result in any fatalities. No potential fatalities = bad ratings = no chance of rc making the big show.

In years past rc’ers have organized events in the parking lots at X Games. That was cool and all, and even exposed our hobby to thousands upon thousands of prime audience, but it’s nowhere near the exposure of being in the stadium and being broadcast into the mainstream living rooms. While X Games would be fantastic to be a part of, I think the ESPN people aren’t too keen on rc going prime time, at least not quite yet.

BigSquidRC has talked with the people from MTV, OLN, and ESPN about possible rc projects for their networks, and I’m certain we aren’t the only ones. HPI has been working with SPIKE TV for a while now, which is fantastic exposure for our hobby and they deserve huge props for that. As our hobby moves closer and closer to the mainstream I think you’ll start seeing unprecedented coverage of our hobby on tv, I think it’s just a matter of time. HPI, Traxxas, Associated, Losi, Axial and others are working their asses off to get tv coverage of our hobby, so it will happen, it’s just a matter of when and which channel.

(Click here to read the next question about ESC’s and batteries!)
Read the rest of this entry »

“Dear Brian,
First let me take the time to say, I really enjoyed the two battery shootouts. They were well written and I think by the second one you really have it nailed down with good testing criteria for each battery and being able to replicate situations so the testing for each is equal. One thing that really kind of bummed me out was that you DIDN’T test the Max Amps batteries. I know you stated in the article why you didn’t, however I just don’t think those were good enough reasons to leave them out of testing. Over time you’ve proved that your tests and product reviews are unbiased. I don’t think any of your readers would accuse you of being biased if they did well. I imagine that you guys didn’t want to include them because if they didn’t perform well that they may pull from being a sponsor. I know that’s a tough choice to make, but in the end, by NOT testing them, you may have done them an even bigger injustice because now people will run out and get the batteries that did well in your tests because they have hard evidence to base their purchase off of.
(continued…)
Ok, now I’m rambling lol but PLEASE include Max Amps in your next shootout and PLEASE do a Premium Battery Shootout so we can see if it really is worth buying one of these high priced, high mAh battery packs as opposed to the lesser 4000mAh and lower type of packs. Again, thank you for taking the time to read my email and take it into consideration. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email.

Sincerely,
Scott K”
———————————-
I’ve omitted a large part of the email just to shorten it down a bit for our readers, and while it was addressed to our editor Brian, I think it makes a good “ASK Cubby” email.

First off, thanks for the props Scott, they are few and far between. Now to get to the crux of your email. Having a MaxAmps battery in one of our battery shootouts would be ratings gold. Out of all the emails we get, MaxAmps and Zippy are by far the two most requested brands that people want to see tested. MaxAmps is the biggest name in Lipo, and we’d love to see them in a future shootout. From speaking to the guys at MaxAmps, they put a tremendous amount of time into testing and building their batteries, and their reputation for customer service is a good one, all of which equals a great contender in a shootout. At BigSquid we have a great deal of respect for the crew at MaxAmps and we will not include them in a shootout without their permission. To the people that want to see MaxAmps in a shootout I would recommend giving them a call to let them know. They are good people there and I’m sure they’d like to hear your feedback.

The best thing about shootouts is that there are so many to do, many more than time allows. We’d like to do a 4S shootout for 8th scales, we’d like to do a shootout between sub $50 packs, and I’d especially like to see a shootout between former winners.

We’ve got lots of shootouts coming, with the next one being our charger shootout. It’s well underway and should be hitting the front page in about another week. Not only will we be testing how easy each charger is to use and it’s features, but also how long it takes to charge a pack (some are a LOT faster than others!) and the actual performance of the batteries afterwords. It should be groundbreaking and a good read.

Thanks for reading and submit your questions/comments and hate mail to cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter

“Cub Reporter, What is better a Traxxas Summit or a Traxxas E-Revo? Thanks.
Roger Blakely”

Oh yes, the age old question of what is better. Well both are Traxxas, meaning they’ll have good customer support, will be tough as nails, and most importantly, most hobby shops will stock plenty of replacement parts. The Summit is better suited to low speed action, can crawl up a snot covered water slide, and is fairly waterproof. The E-Revo, especially the brushless version, is a freak’n animal. It handles as well on track as it does blasting around a baseball diamond. To boil it down, if you are looking for 30 mph plus action, get the E-Revo, if you like driving in the mud and crawling over tough obstacles, get the Summit. And yes, you’re welcome.
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“What weight of oil should I use in the center diff of an RC8E?
Eddy The Slayer”

You have no idea how many times we get asked that question and the writer does not include what type of car they own, so congrats, you are above the curve on the RC evolutionary chart.

Ok, here’s the scoop. The weight you use will depend on how you like your buggy to handle, how much power you have, and how much traction is available. If you like pulling wheelies, the heavier the better, but you can’t steer while your front tires are staring at the sky. Too heavy of oil will also lead to your buggy being overly sensitive to throttle inputs while in the air. If you use too light of oil, when you punch it your front tires will turn into pizza cutters and you won’t accelerate very fast. If you are using huge 6S power you’ll need heavier oil, if you are using a softer power set-up, you’ll want to go lighter. If your track has a lot of traction you’ll want to go slightly heavier. So to finally give you an answer to your question, start with what your manual recommends then adjust accordingly. If you don’t have the manual, start with 5,000 and go from there.

That’s it for this week, submit your questions to cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter

“What are the max. charge rates for the batteries used for this competition? 1C? 2C? 5C? Recharging time is a consideration for many users and may be the deciding factor between similar-performing brands.

Regards..
Bob”

We shot Bob a personal reply, but his is a good question that perhaps other readers would like the answer to. During the Big Squid RC Lipo Battery Shootout 2, the max charge rates for each brand were…

Hyperion- 5C
Common Sense- 2C
Ace- 2C
CheckPoint- 1C
Venom- 1C
JGB- 1C
Winforce- 1C
Zippy-1C

For those that may not know- assuming a Lipo pack is fully discharged, a 1C rate will take slightly over one hour to fully charge the battery, 2C slightly over 30 minutes and 5C slightly over 12 minutes (depends on your chargers CV rate).

That’s it for this week, shoot your questions to cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter