First up this week are a couple reminders. Looks like BigSquid’s next Li-po battery shootout starts testing next weekend. Venom vs Checkpoint vs Common Sense vs JBG vs Zippy vs $9 Ebay pack vs Hong Kong mystery pack equals one hell of a battery shootout.

Second reminder is that the annual April fools edition of THE Cub Report is coming up soon, so if you are in the industry, PLEASE consider the date before your lawyers contact us. Thanks!

Need more proof the rc hobby IS headed to the mainstream? Spike Tv has been giving all kinds of loving to the rc industry lately, including a 30 minute segment on the HPI 5B on their Powerblock Horsepower show. When was the last time rc was given 30 full minutes on a “mainstream” cable channel? Awesome to see, and thank you Spike and HPI!

Want even more mainstream rc? Justin Barcia-Barcia-Barcia won the Supercross Lites Class in Toronto Saturday night, his first Supercross win ever. What was on the back of his helmet? A HUGE RC10.com sticker that got some decent tv time! Way to go Justin and Associated!

In last weeks Cub Report, I mentioned that it was only a matter of time before a marshal is seriously hurt or killed by an 8th scale. Well one of our readers sent in some pretty gnarly pictures of what it looks like to get rocked in the face by an 8th scale truggy. Some of you southern racers might know a fella by the name of Trent Dill, he races and does race promotion down in the Alabama/Florida area. Here’s what happened to Trent in his own words….

“So I was helping turn marshal during practice. I had just relieved a kid that was pretty young and I didn’t think it was a good idea that he be out there turn marshalling for the 8th scale nitros as young as he was. So I got out there and got into that zone and things were fine. The race director called the track to go cold. Well of course you have those guys that have to get just one more lap in. Well I bent down to marshal a buggy and on my way up I got clocked in the face. Luckily the safety crew was there, unfortunately I WAS the safety crew. I am honestly glad it was me that got hit instead of that kid and I gotta say thanks to Tommy Whalen and John Greene. Tommy gave me a ride to the local ER while working EMT duties on myself, and John Greene took up donations that were given to our local make a wish foundation. Also don’t let me forget Mike at Caster Racing for doing the same thing. I hope some good came out of it for somebody.”

The first picture of Trent’s face is from 12 hours after being hit, the second one is about 36 hours later, and the last one is about 2 months later.

So why don’t we be proactive here? We can prevent injuries like the ones that Trent suffered. We can step in right now and make sure nobody ever dies while marshaling rc cars. Why should we wait for the first death before we make changes? Why should our hobby wait for the insurance companies and lawyers to FORCE the changes upon us? Too many industry types, sanctioning bodies, and race directors have kept their heads in the sand too long, just hoping the first death doesn’t come at one of their events. It’s time everyone pulls their heads out of the sand.

Till next week, support your local tracks, bash spots and your local hobby shops.

YOUR Cub Reporter

Ask Cub Reporter, A Weekly Advice Column- 01.20.2010
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First off a couple quick notes. If you have a question for the “Ask Cub Reporter” column, just shoot’em to cubby at BigSquidRC.com. Secondly, the “Ask Cub Reporter” segment is for all questions, from Formula One, to Supercross, to how to set the mesh on your E-Maxx, so feel free to ask Anything.

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Hey there Cubby,

I am in no means new to the hobby. I got my first truck, a Stampede, when I was seven. But I recently put together an Axial SCX-10 kit. Since my first and only electric truck is my stampede. And my newest stick pack is 5 years old, I’m in a way very out of touch in the electric scene(only things I’ve driven in the past few years are a T-Maxx, Savage, And my truggy. I have the an ax-1 ESC on it that I borrowed from a friend (the ESC from the TR version) and I really wanna go LiPo. I just need ya to point me in the right direction for a pack thats not a 5000 mah, 22.4v beast. Just a cheap reliable pack. Thanks a lot bro.
Cenzo Reyes
from Chi-Town

Ya know Cenzo, that Axial truck is one good looking truck, congrats on having one in your stable. So first off some facts for you and the others reading. The SCX-10 is set up to use a normal 6 cell Ni-mh Stick Pack, meaning two sets of 3 Ni-mh cells set side by side. That size of battery tray pretty much holds any standard 6 cell Ni-mh, and all the ROAR legal 2S Li-po’s out there. Next, the speedo that comes stock in the Trail Ready SCX-10, does not have a built in Li-po cut-off. What does a Li-po cut off do? It keeps you from running a Li-po battery down so far that it damages the battery. So to run a Li-po in your truck, you’ll also need one a Li-po cut off or warning device. Lastly, because you haven’t run much electric in recent years, you may not have a charger capable of charging a Lithium battery pack, so you might very well be looking at buying a new charger as well.

So what’s a cheap reliable battery for your Axial? If you want a good pack, todays Ni-mh’s put out good voltage, and have lots of capacity (lot of capacity means lots of run time). A Ni-mh weighs a bit more than a Li-po, so it won’t quite have the yank of a good Lithium pack, but that slight loss of punch might be worth the money you’ll save on a new charger and a Li-po low voltage alarm. So, if you go the Ni-mh route, I’d highly recommend the MaxAmps 5000 mah 6 cell Ni-mh Shotgun pack. It will fit perfect, has lots of power, and won’t break the bank. You can see more info on that pack HERE.

If you want to go the Li-po route to get into todays new technology, I’d recommend the MaxAmps 5250 7.4v Li-po, info HERE., in conjunction with a Li-po low voltage alarm such as this HERE.. The MaxAmps 5250 will give you extremely long run times, as well lots of rip snorting power. The low voltage alarm will warn you when you are about to discharge your battery too far and damage it.

Happy trails Cenzo, and be sure and shoot us some pics of your Axial when you get it good and muddy.

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Cubby,

I saw a pro racer throw his radio after his car broke in a big race in Ohio last weekend. Why did he do that?

Tony
Columbus

Well hello Tony from Columbus. So why did that pro racer guy throw his transmitter after his car broke last weekend? Well, I wasn’t at the CRCRCRCRC race last weekend, nor can I read peoples mind, so I am not going to speculate. What I will say is the racer in question is normally one of the cooler heads on the stand, and is normally a class act. If the racer in question (who’s nic name rhymes with fudge) did actually let his emotions get to him, I’d hope he’d openly apologize to the public, as that’s really the stand up thing to do. It would just take him a minute to post something on his Myspace page if he did actually lose his temper. If he didn’t, all the rumor mongers need to be forced to drink a full quart of carrot juice (ever try that stuff? OMG it’s horrible).

People look up to the pro’s, if they see some “big name” guy throwing a transmitter, they think it’s ok for them (or maybe even cool) to do the same. It’s really not that uncommon to see a 4PK flying across the pits, even at a local race, now days. Racers get too wound up, and there really are no repercussions for their poor sportsmanship. Local track directors never dock laps or throw people out at a local level, and at the national level, I’ve yet to see a racer penalized for turning a DX3R into a frisbee. Until the people behind the scoring computers get their sh#t together, we can expect to see more flying transmitters, trucks, fuel bottles, etc. At a regional or national level, if a racer did throw an item out of anger, then his racing privileges were revoked for a year or so, I’d bet we’d see far fewer outbursts like that. Just say’n……

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That’s it for this weeks edition of “Ask Cub Reporter”. Thanks for reading, and see you bright and early Monday morning for another exciting (LOL) edition of “THE Cub Report”.

YOUR Cub Reporter

Built from only the highest quality material comes the new 1s pack from Fantom Racing. Engineered for all 1/10th and 1/12th scale applications this high output 40c pack will scatter the competition! Already connected onto the 13 gauge wire is an ultra dependable Deans plug to provide a low resistance connection. Designed for traditional 4 cell locations and is ROAR approved this pack includes a “No Questions Asked” 50% off warranty for the 1st year!

SPECIFICATIONS:
* Capacity: 5000mAh
* Voltage: 1-Cell (1S) / 3.7V
* Continuous Discharge (C-rating): 40C Continuous (200 Amp) / 80C Burst (400 Amp)
* Weight: 146 grams (5.15 ounces)

TYPICAL TURBO 35 READINGS @ 35-amp DISCHARGE:
* Average Voltage: 3.68v
* Average Runtime: 504 seconds
* Internal Resistance: 3.5

Drop by Fantom Racing for more info and look for the on the shelves soon!

It’s finally here! Probably one of the most anticipated articles we have ever done! The LiPo Battery Shootout has officially been posted and is ready for your reading pleasure! We can’t thank the people that made this happen enough! Special thanks to Cubby, Bill “Firesprink”, Jim, Josh and Tim Mohr! You guys rock!

DuraTrax has just announced their new 2500mah 7.4v LiPo Packs that can be bought with standard or Traxxas connectors. They come in the same size and shape as their NiMH packs, and are wired for balancing.

G-day mates, and welcome to another sensational edition of The Cub Report.

So Horizon has released full info on their entry into the short course market, named the Strike! So what’s the scoop on the Losi Strike? Well, it’s modeled more after a Traxxas Slash than an Associated SC10, featuring a Spektrum radio and a mid-mounted motor. Bashers praise the added ground clearance and protected motor, but racers scoff and wonder why they didn’t base it off the race oriented XXX-T. I tend to think a bit deeper. It’s easy to see why it’s more basher based, as Horizon distributes a lot of Traxxas and AE product, so they have sale distribution numbers on both the Slash and SC10 to it’s dealer network (and see the Slash crushing the SC10 in sales). Money is the name of the game, and basher oriented is pwn’ing. I also feel it’s a shame that Gil and Jr aren’t around their namesake anymore. Had a person with the last name Losi been designing the new Strike, it would have been innovative, had more performance, and been cooler overall. It would have brought more to the gunfight. As is, the Strike is a fine looking truck, but one who’s platform doesn’t really have anything new or outstanding to offer. Bringing nothing big to the plate is not a good way to enter the short course arena.

A quick note to the guys at AKA Tires- you’ve proven you can renovate the 8th scale tire market, now please start designing cars, the hobby needs you. Thank you.

Now, to bring you up to speed on what went down last weekend at the BigSquid headquarters. I was part of a 5 man crew who worked their asses off for YOU last weekend. I woke at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning, and finally saw my bed again at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning. The 26 hours in between was devoted to BigSquid’s first annual Li-po shootout. We put in the elbow grease, the blood, the sweat, and the tears, to test 11 different Li-po’s for your reading pleasure. Of course a full shootout report is on the way, but till then, here’s a few thoughts. We were really lucky to have such good people on the test team, all hard workers, with testers ranging from bashers to pro drivers. Testing is a PITA and really not much fun, but our entire test crew worked their butts off, and did all testing in such a manner to ensure each pack was treated equally. They all went the extra mile, and should be complimented on their hard work. Lastly, I’m not going to reveal any winners here, but I will say I was impressed by the entire bunch of batteries submitted. Li-po quality has come a long way in the last year, and we didn’t experience any problems with any of the packs.
There was no cell puffing, no overheating under heavy loads, just trouble free performance.

Once we get the entire Li-po shootout written up, it’s our goal to continue doing shootouts as often as we can. If all goes well, the next two shootouts we want to do are a short course truck shootout between the Traxxas Slash, Associated SC10, and the Losi Strike, then a battery charger shootout including as many chargers as we can get our hands. Lots of hard work for sure, but we hope you’ll appreciate the effort.

One last note- the ROAR 8th scale off road nats are at Chicago’s own Leisure Hours Raceway this week. So if you are in the greater Chicago metro area, venture over to Joliet and watch the best racers in the country duke it out. All the big names are here, so if you’ve never seen the Tebo’s, Maifields, Pudges, Gosches, Wheelers, and Fischers race in person, it’s worth your time, even if you don’t race. All their talent behind the wheel is mind boggling, and the racing at the top is incredibly close. And of course, BigSquid will also be in the house for race coverage.

Till next week, support your local hobby shops and tracks!

Your Cub Reporter

By now you have all probably heard about our upcoming LiPo pack shoot out, well I wanted to just give you a little teaser with the packs that we are testing!

We are getting some really interesting results! Looking forward to sharing them with you all in the near future!

Welcome Squid fans, to yet another riveting edition of THE Cub Report!

Rc’ers are still talking about ‘The Hack’. So what was ‘The Hack’? Well, it went down at the ROAR electrics nats last weekend in Nebraska. In the first A-main of 2wd Mod Buggy, Maifield and Tebo were running first and second. On the last lap, Tebo pulled a spectacular pass for the lead by jumping over the top of Maifield. The next corner, which turned out to be final turn on the track before the loop, was a fast sweeper. Ryan Maifield tried to force a pass there, but got in to Tebo, causing both to crash, letting the uber affable Ryan Cavalieri take the win. Remember me bitching about one lined tracks a few weeks ago? The Omaha track, like 99.9999% of the tracks in the country, was extremely one lined. The only option to get by another driver of similar speed was to take a big risk, or wait for them to bobble. In the Maifield vs Tebo case, Ryan made a bad decision and tried to pass where it was simply impossible. A true “hack” is classified as being intentional, and I have no doubt that Ryan wasn’t trying to take out Jared. Many people are flipping out that Ryan intentionally took out Tebo, but their crashing together dramatically decreased both their chances of winning the 2wd mod buggy title, and in fact, Cavalieri ended up winning the overall.

ROAR has started trying to enforce a more strict “rough driving” penalty. Once again let me appeal to the tracks, as contact will always be a factor the more one lined a track is. Btw, I heard ROAR’s enforcement is partially due to me talking about how nice the RC Pro Series is because they constantly monitor rough driving. If The Cub Report is partly responsible for this, I’m very flattered, but something they should have been doing without constant prodding.

So, several of the racers at the ROAR electric nats left their trophies behind. A racer leaving their trophy on their pit table, or throwing it away, is the worst insult a racer can impose on an event. One of the head cheeses at ROAR went on-line after the event to cry about the racers doing that. They also post veiled threats to unnamed racers that because they chose to leave their trophies behind, it will be held against them in the future. First off, racers only leave trophies if they feel like they’ve really been sh*% on, and it takes a lot for racers to even consider leaving trophies behind. Secondly, like I’ve mentioned in previous editions of The Cub Report, the sanctioning body at a race is there for two reasons- to provide rules, and to provide officials. It is not appropriate for a sanctioning body to make veiled threats to unnamed racers on internet message boards. It only proves how unprofessional they are. If the sanctioning body truly has an F’n problem with a racer, suspend their membership, ban them, whatever, just don’t cry about it on-line.

So Horizon has been getting their butt kicked on new truck sales. You see a kid walking into a hobby shop with $200, you see him walking out with a new Slash. Well, last week Horizon released a teaser on their upcoming short course truck under Losi badging. It’s about damn time they jumped into that game, and very unlike Horizon to be so far behind in a product segment. Let’s hope the extra time it took them to jump in results in something truly spectacular, like electric 4wd with working lights and a chrome package.

Btw, I am constantly begging Schumacher to use their proven Cat 4wd platform as a base for a gnarly short course truck. So far, I’ve been deprived. I guess I can keep dreaming about throwing a massive 3S Li-po roost off all four tires of my brand new Schumacher short course truck at all the lesser 2wd’s. I love to dream.

All the pieces are in place, the Big Squid RC Li-po Shootout is gonna go off this weekend in Chicago. Yup, we’ve got the balls to do it, and yes, there were even a few manufactures with enough balls to submit packs. At this point, it looks like a real war is brewing. Thunder Power, SMC, CheckPoint, CORE, and more are ready for battle. We’ll be testing 10 packs total, with only ONE winner at the end. We’ve got 6 test drivers, ten ICE chargers, a half dozen power supplies, a CE Turbo 35, and a half dozen Slash’s lined up for testing. As a teaser, the testing criteria are- 1. Capacity, 2. Top Speed, 3. 30 amp discharge voltage under load, 4. Weight, 5. Price, 6. Fit, and lastly, 7. In Car Performance. Yes indeed boys and girls, we’re gonna make a bit of rc history this weekend, doing on honest shootout.

That’s it for this week. Support your local tracks and hobby shops!

Your Cub Reporter

Welcome to yet another incredible, inedible, Cub Report.

Product news of the week? The new Novak 1,300+ Sintered Rotors . Essentially, these new rotors have been put through a special process to give the magnet more strength. They sell for under $40. But ya know, brushless racing shouldn’t require a “hop-up” magnet, it’s brushless for hecks sake. Some idiots years ago started “stock” classes for brushless, which require racers gear the crap out of uber low kv motors just to get any speed out of them, which then requires rotor upgrades. Sad, very sad. Brushless motors can easily outpower any chassis, it’s just one of the beauties of that beast. Brushless racing should be about run whatever BL motor you want, not about hopping up too slow of a BL motor, buying the biggest pinion you can find, and making adapters so you can mount a smaller spur than was ever designed for your chassis.

I’ve got a challenge for track designers. Yes, every single Joe Blow that hits your track b%tches about everything. Yes, turnouts are spotty to poor, and you aren’t making millions of dollars running a track. But, I’m so sick and tired of one line tracks. Yes, it’s extremely hard to make an rc track with multiple lines, hell, nearly impossible, that’s why I’m issuing a challenge, not making a request. It can be done, I’ve seen it on rare occasions. So track builders, in your next track layout, try to make a corner with two fast lines in it, put in an option section, and put in a jump section with two distinctly different rhythms if you enter from the tight or wide side. One line tracks are boring, they suck, they breed hackers, and are just plain bad for racing.

The Li-po battery shootout is getting closer, and the buzz is growing bigger each day. The BigSquid staff is being rounded up, as are lots of chargers, power supplies, and soldering irons. This shootout is going to take a lot of work and time. I haven’t gotten the last count, but we’ve probably gotten close to a dozen packs now. We’ll have everyone from editor types, to factory shoes, to local bashers helping out. For the more technical data, we’ll have an actual engineer on hand. We are committed to two things for the shootout- fairness and accuracy. Hopefully it’ll make for some great reading for you guys afterwords.

Also of note from the shootout is a new found respect for one of the vendors that submitted packs. A particular company is stoked about the shootout, win or lose. If they win they will be stoked, if they lose, they are looking forward to improving their product to be better than the winners. Awesome attitude, one I truly respect.

By the way, most every vendor that has submitted packs has sent us more than just one. Most companies have sent in both their low end Li-po, and their high end Li-po for the shootout. So not only will you get to see a comparison of performance from company to company, but also between price points within one brand.

That’s it for this week, support your LHS’s and local tracks, even if they are all one lined.

Your Cub Reporter

Thought you guys might enjoy a couple of shots of the new MaxAmps Green Series Life packs out in actual vehicles! The LiFePO4 battery packs are a new safer type of LiPO that are engineered to not explode or catch fire from over charging. Thought I’d mention it, so if you have ordered them, you’ll probably be getting your packs soon.

I believe Cubby mentioned it a few days ago. We are starting to receive some new Li-Po battery packs for our first ever battery shoot out! I’m really excited about this! We hope to be able to answer a lot of those questions/emails we get all the time like, What LiPo battery is the best in my rc vehicle? or What LiPo will last the longest on a brushless setup?
It should be pretty interesting. There are a LOT of great battery companies out there to choose from!
It looks like we are already getting packs in from Thunder Power RC, CORE, Speed Passion, Scooter Motor Works, and True RC, so we are off to a good start! More details coming soon!

I wasn’t going to post this story at first because everyone seems to be selling some brand of LiPo Charging Sack, but then I thought it wouldn’t hurt to take the time for a reminder. So Reedy has a new LiPo Charging sack. Their new Charging Sack reduces the risk of damage in the case of a LiPo battery fire during the charging process and is constructed using heat and fire-resistant material.

I just picked up a sack myself, and after seeing some serious fire pictures posted recently at my local track, I think a reminder to let people know to take the step and make their charging a little safer as well, especially at home!

NOW ROAR APPROVED!

Lighter than Ni-Mh with much better run times and performance, Racers Edge releases 2 new 5000 Mah 25c 2S1P LiPo packs available with either a Dean’s or a Traxxas connector. These packs use the same balancing connection as Align or Electrifly chargers! As always, be sure to use a voltage cut-off if your ESC doesn’t have one and ONLY A CHARGER SPECIFICALLY FOR Li-Poly cells!

Stop by Racers Edge or your local shop and pick one up!

From Team Orion comes their new Battery Safe! Designed to ensure maximum safety without the boring old plain looking battery bags.

This stunning design will look great in any pit but also greatly decreases the risks of fire damage and injury!

Available in two different sizes, medium and large.

Part numbers
ORI43022 Battery Safe (Medium)
ORI43023 Battery Safe (Large)

Check them out at Team Orion or your Local shop!

Lot of good stuff coming out of Racers Edge lately! Their new 35c Race Edition 4000 LiPo will surely make your racer scream! Featuring industry standard bullet ports, battery “bumps”, and comes with a Deans connector wire set complete with Align style balance plug! Be sure to use a voltage cut off if your speed control doesn’t come equipped with one ONLY USE A CHARGER SPECIFICALLY FOR LiPo cells!

Stop by Racers Edge or your local shop to get yours!

Got an Xray NT1? Looking for a LIPO receiver pack for it? Here is your new tray! Designed to offset the lower weight on LIPO and still maintain the outstanding handling characteristics of the NT1. CNC-machined, solid brass and coated black coated for protection the tray brings the weight to the lowest part of the chassis which makes for a more balanced ride effectively reducing traction rolling in high traction conditions.

Get a head start on the competition and jump on over to Xray to check it out!

Hey Aviator’s Love those long run times and lightweight flights? Great Planes has released their 20C 3200mAh Lithium-Polymer batteries for larger scale electric flights. The BP series 3200mAh packs feature Dean’s® Ultra plugs (female) and rated for 20C discharge. These packs are available in 2-cell 7.4V (6.9oz/195 gram) and 3-cell 11.1V (10.1oz/285 gram) styles.

Check them out at Great Planes.

We all know that we need to be a little more careful with our battery handling with LiPO’s. Venom wants to help keep you safe with their new LiPO Safety Charging Sack. They have both small and large sacks (stop snickering!) for your battery storing and charging needs. If you have made the jump to LiPO, you should probably consider grabbing a few sacks (ok..you.. I saw the smirk) for yourself. I have added them to my shopping list.

Reedy has just announced a new 35C 5100maH hard case competition saddle pack LiPo battery. The hard case is there to protect the pack, which is a great idea. I can see these things taking a few hits on the front of my crawler or something. The come ready for you to install your favorite connector. The price seems a little high at $189, but I’m guessing it will be much less then that when it hits your LHS! (Local Hobby Shop)

Ok, check these out! New from Team Checkpoint are these 7.4v 4800mAh Saddle Pack LiPo Battries! The press release mentions that they fix sedans and buddies, but I’m thinking these things would be sweet for RC Rock Crawling! You could balance your weight more precisely, just the way you want. Cool!
The full press release will be in the NEW Product Forum