Having a decent soldering iron is an essential part of the RC hobby. At some point you are going to need to solder a connector, or something, so you should probably get a good one. Is the new soldering iron from MaxAmps the one to get? Keep reading to find out..

From: MaxAmps
Direct Link: MaxAmps Soldering Iron

Specs-
100w Iron
110-120v
Length: 11 inches
Weight: 5.3 ounces
Cord Length: 4.5 feet.
Cost: $39

Note: This does not appear to be a branded MaxAmps item.

Build Quality: Out of the box everything worked fine and looked good. We set up the stand, got some water for our sponge, and plugged it in.

Testers: Brian, Wrench (Bill) (Several other random people we handed it to, to give a quick try)

Test Venues: Office, Work Bench, Track

Durability: We have been tossing it in the tool box for a while now, and have had no issues with damage of any kind.

In Action: We have used the MaxAmps Soldering Iron on several different projects now, and many occasions. It heats up quickly, and the 100w’s makes it a hot one. It has had no problem melting old solder from the factories on ESC’s or batteries, and is quick for little projects.

Our biggest issue with the iron is the weight. It’s noticeably heavier than any of our others here which can make things a little difficult if you have something small or precise you are trying to solder, you may find yourself fighting with the balance and weight. Or if you have a bunch of soldering you want to do, you are in for a real workout.

The MaxAmps Iron weighs 5.3 ounces (without the cord).
The Team CheckPoint iron weighs 1.8 ounces
Our generic RaidoHack weighs 2.6 ounces.

Besides the weight issue, it’s worked great for everything we have used it on, just keep it in mind.

As with all of our stuff, if you see us at a bash, stop by and check out the vehicles we have with us. We may let you take a test drive, and at the very least get you some stickers!

SUMMARY

Time To Bash – 8.0/10 – It heats up pretty quickly, but like most, it does take a few minutes.

Workability – 8.5/10 – The tips are replaceable, but MaxAmps does not list them on their website.

Car Show Rating – 7.5/10 – Pretty generic look.

Bash-A-Bility – 10/10 – We have been tossing it in the pit box, and it’s held up with no problems.

Usability- 7.5/10 – It works well, but the weight was a big issue for us as well as everyone we handed it to. The 100w of power is more than most, and awesome for those stubborn solder joints, but it’s at a cost of the weight.

Value- 7.5/10 – At $39 it’s in the middle of the pack. There are much more expensive, and slightly cheaper. You probably won’t find one this powerful at this price though.

Big Squid Rating – 8.1/10 - Tentacles.. If you need a heavy duty iron, this may be the one for you. The extra weight may take some getting used to, but it does the job well.

MaxAmps 100C Super Sport 2S Lipo Released
Hi, I’m using a team Orion 160a brushless sensored esc, with a redline 11900kv brushless motor, in a 1/10th scale car.
What speeds can I expect to get with this battery?
Eron L.

Cubby- What’s up Eron? Sounds like you have a spaceship fast 10th scale car, you running a Tekin 2.5 turn 11,900 kv motor in it and all. On a MaxAmps 2S you can expect your car to hit Warp 3 (approximately 39 times the speed of light, meaning it would only take .03 seconds to reach our moon). This is assuming your warp core is at full capacity of course.

But seriously… you didn’t give me what type of “10th scale” car you have, nor any other pertinent information, so I’m just gonna throw a random number right back at ya. How does 28 sound?

But super seriously, your top speed depends on several factors. The drag guys have hit 100+ on 2S, and one of our in-house guys has hit 87 mph on 2S with an Associated T4 truck. So… with enough work, tuning, and practice, speeds on 2S can get pretty burly. Here are some tips for ya Eron if you are looking to go fast on 2S regardless of what type of car you have…

Gearing is super important, especially when using an ultra high kv motor. GearChart.com should become your new best friend. Seriously, do not gear your car for 150 mph on 2S, stuff is only going to catch fire. Gear it for 30 and slowly work your way up.

Tires, tires, tires! Running high speed is all about the tires. You want enough traction to be drivable, but hard enough to not explode or turn into pizza cutters. Driving on ballooned tires at high speeds results in some very ugly things happening to your car. Total’ing out your car on every pass is not fun or cheap.

Monitor temps. You REALLY don’t want any fires or ruined electronics by making pass after pass when geared to the moon. Buy a temp gun and use it. When geared for high speeds you might only make 1 or two passes before you start to overheat your gear.

Is the new Traxxas helicopter and quadcopter really a good thing for our hobby? Why would they put those things out on the market when they don’t know anything about the air?

Aaron G.

Cubby- Yo what’s up Aaron G? Thanks for the email and a Happy Thankgiving to you and your family.

Are the new Traxxas air products “good” for our hobby? I am going to define “our hobby” as being surface rc, and it could be good for us. If they sell a zillion of’em that should pad their coffers enough to actually rework their older, tired, surface platforms. But… I’ll tell you a little story here. I was talking with one of my local hobby shop owners, a truly hardcore surface guy that has been running a hobby shop since the very beginning, and when I asked him basically this exact same question he simply rolled his eyes. He’s tired of Traxxas putting out new model after new model taking up more and more of his sales floor. He related to me that at this rate Traxxas product would push every other brand out of his store in just a few years. But he also related that he is sick and tired of it, and with Traxxas releasing air product, that was a type of “final straw” to him, and he doesn’t plan on stocking it. I wonder how many other LHS owners have elected to sit this one out? If it is not on the shelves it can’t be sold.

So can their air gear be good for the surface hobby, certainly it could be if the sold enough of them, but only if LHS owners chose to support them.

And why would Traxxas even put out air product? Only Traxxas would know the actual answer to that one. I can only wildly speculate that the reason was very simple, $$$$$$$.

YOUR Cub Reporter

* 100 watts of power
* Removable tip
* Heat resistant handle
* Comes with stand and sponge
* Sturdy construction
* 110-120 AC
* Length: 11 inches
* Weight: 5.3 oz
* Cord length: 4.5 feet

Street price is $40 and they are available right now. Hit THIS link for more information on the official MaxAmps website.

Looking for more MaxAmps product news? THIS is the link you want.

For those of you following the online series from MaxAmps. The third episode of MaxAmps Battery Boss is now up and available for viewing. I think in the next episode they need to show how Austin gets IN the car.

Looking for more MaxAmps news here on BigSquid? CLICK HERE.

Have you read the BigSquidRC MaxAmps multi-voltage pack review? You can check it out HERE.

I was reading your review on the new Pro-line transmission. I sent some questions to Pro-line yesterday regarding the problem I have been having with my standard Rustler gears. I was hoping you might be able to shed some additional light on the subject particularly since you have done the vigorous field testing. I got a little of mixed messaging so I wanted to forward you our email conversation which outlines the Q&A so far. By the way, my car is the electric rustler model #3705 with upgraded castle 4 pole motor #1406, running on a Venom 2S lipo 8.4v 5000, spur gear #86 with #22 pinion gear.

I appreciate any input you can offer.

Greg D.

Cubby- The above email is in addition to a series of emails we received between Greg D and Pro-Line customer service. To bring everyone up to speed, Greg had been bashing his Rustler for a couple months on a Castle 1410 using the stock tranny, then all of a sudden it started eating up the “top gear” on every run. Because Greg mentions “spur gear” separately during his emails, I’m going to assume he isn’t blowing up spurs, but instead he’s blowing up the top shaft gear.

The Magnum 272 tranny on a Rustler 3705 certainly has faults, but overall it’s solid and has proven capable of handling a 1410 on 2S. The fact Greg was able to drive it for a couple months with no issue eludes to this. The fact that he now blows a top shaft gear on every run leads me to believe one of these two things has happened- 1. the tranny case is cracked, or 2. the bearings on the top shaft are bad. If the tranny case is cracked it will allow the idler and top shaft gears to separate, causing the weaker of the two gears to be destroyed. The same can happen if the top shaft bearings are bad, but bad bearings will also cause the pinion/spur mesh to change, typically causing the spur to get eaten up before the top shaft gear. So if you are looking to fix the stock tranny I’d recommend grabbing the top shaft and trying to wiggle it around. Look to see if the top shaft wiggles because of bad bearings, or if the entire tranny case flexes because of a crack.

But my real recommendation is this- Buy the Pro-Line tranny! It’s worth a hundred bones on trick factor alone, but more importantly, overall it is better in every way than your stock tranny.

Many of your reviews seem overly positive such as the max amps power supply which had been said is good value when it would be possible to get one that is 15amps or higher easily for less money than that price.

Yours faithfully an avid reader

Lars

Cubby- What’s up Lars? Thanks for the email.

Yes indeed, there are lots of power supplies cheaper than the MaxAmps 12 volt 47 amp unit we reviewed a few weeks ago, absolutely no doubt about it. However… I don’t know of a cheaper “name brand” power supply that has the output capability of the MaxAmps for a lesser price.

15 amps might be plenty of output for most folks, but more and more people are charging multiple packs at a 2C (or higher) rate. Also, more and more people are charging 4S-6S packs at the highest rate they can get away with. A normal 12 volt 15 amp power supply just doesn’t cut it in those applications, they simply run out of juice.

To boil it down, we stick to our review of the MaxAmps power supply, it handles the monotonous daily task of powering multiple battery chargers of ours without fail. It does exactly what it’s supposed to do without issue, at a reasonable price. That’s a winner to us.

But… if you do run across a power supply with higher output at a lower price (that isn’t being sold on flee-bay by one dude out of a garage) feel free to shoot us a link.

Hey, question for you guys.
I m building an fpv (first person view) truck and would like to find what radio system will have the most range. I did read your article, but my question is: Have you ever range tested the spektrum DX3R/pro? They run on DSM2. No big deal right?
Spektrum’s “full range” DSM2 is advertised to go on average 1km+ …and there are guys all over the fpv flying forums CLAIMING 4mi ranges!!!
Proof of the longer range can be seen if you search long range summit fpv or fpv tonka summit on youtube. The guy is using a spektrum dx8 and ventures quite some distance!!
Thank You!!
MaxxMaster

Cubby- Yo to the yo, what’s up MaxxMaster? Hey, ya want a free T-shirt? Shoot Brian your snail mail as I’m proclaiming yours as the “letter of the month”. Don’t forget to include your size.

Have we ever range tested a Spektrum DX3R Pro? No we have not, so I will not speculate on its actual range. However…. I did run one for a couple months. Range was fine at the track, but when doing high speed runs on open pavement its range was shorter than the guys I was running with (who were using Traxxas and Futaba radios). We never stepped off any distances, so I can’t quote you how much better, all I know is I was always the guy doing the “walk of shame” to get within range of my car.

So… what I’m going to recommend to you is this- from our first hand testing, if you are looking for maximum range with a surface intended 2.4GHz radio, that would be Futaba. Also, we’ve got our second 2.4 GHz radio shootout right around the corner, and of course we’ll be posting range tests on a new batch of sub $200 radios, so keep an eye out for that.

And lastly… driving via FPV IS the future of rc. The “powers that be” in rc have yet to push it, but it is how we’ll be driving in the future. It’s simply more realistic and more exciting. Best of luck with yours, they are good times.

That’s it for this week, submit your questions, suggestions, and whatever else you have cooking in those brains of yours to Cubby at BigSquidRC dot com! Make the front page get free stickers, be letter of the month and get a freebie BSRC t-shirt to cover you bod.

YOUR Cub Reporter

Let me get a little old biz out of the way. Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned that one of our interns helped out a big league rc manufacture at one of their booths but he didn’t get paid? Well, he finally got a check in the mail. Needless to say our intern was totally stoked, and it’s nice to see the big guns taking care of everyone.

You may or may not have known, but we busted out what we called “Review Week” last week. Monday started off with a bang- “Mini-Z” Greg’s review of some Atomic Mini-Z motorcycle wheels and Brian’s review of the HPI Bullet MT Flux. Tuesday we posted our ARRMA Granite review (if you haven’t checked out the torture video yet you are missing out). Wednesday we went live with our MIP Pro4mance package for Losi Ten SCTE review. Thursday brought our review of a Pro Match Racing 5200 mah Lipo battery, and Brian posted his MaxAmps 12 Volt power supply review on Friday to cinch things up. All in all, 6 reviews in only 5 days, we certainly hope you enjoyed reading them. And while it may have only taken you a couple hours (tops) to skim over all 6 reviews, it goes without saying that we had a lot more time than that in them. Just looking at the MIP review, we easily had 50 hours in it, and that’s exactly our job. Totally up all 6 from last week, and well, it’s easy to see all of us have been quite busy. We do all this to save you a lottttt of time, and hopefully to help save you a lot of money.

We continue to receive emails about the pot I stirred regarding the state of on-road rc in America. Of course us BigSquidRC guys aren’t much concerned about the racing side of on-road, but the everyday bashing side got use to talking amongst ourselves last week. The normal routine around here is to get really tired of working about 2 pm (who am I kidding, it’s a lot earlier than that… LOL) in the afternoon, so we grab some gear and hit the pavement for a couple hours of bashing. It’s not uncommon to see “Wrench” Bill driving an HPI Savage XL nitro truck, to see Brian wheel’n a Thunder Tiger MT4, or myself driving a Losi SCTE. However, one thing you will not see us driving is a touring car. Why? Because you really don’t want to be the guy out bashing with us in the parking lot with a TC. You show up with a TC and you are instantly the guy we want to smash, crash, and spit out the back of our trucks. Oh and, our bash sessions almost always end up being a jump contest, and while we’ve hucked plenty of touring cars, it’s never pretty, and quite frankly the ROI on jumping a TC 15 feet in the air is Very low.

It’s clear to us whey touring cars aren’t popular bash-mobiles, they are too small, and they simply drive like crap on normal streets. Each little rock and road joint ends up causing an unwanted trip in the air or flip. So what would the BigSquidRC crew do if we had to create a “bashing” on-road car? Well, I think it’s already been done, and it doesn’t look, or drive, anything like a normal touring car. Wayyyy back last August we reviewed a conversion kit made by ST Racing Concepts that converts a Traxxas 4×4 Slash into an on-road car. The converted “car” maintains all the marvelous wheel travel and good handling traits of the Slash 4×4, yet it looks like a road car. I’ve seen Adam “The Intern” huck the STRC conversion off big ramps without issue, and when you get slammed by a monster truck it lives to keep on fighting. Now that is what on-road bashing should be about.

The “big” manufactures have yet put out a production car like the STRC conversion (an on-road car that can be fun in real world driving conditions), but IMO that is what it’s going to take to put on-road back onto the bashing map. Nearly every manufacture already has a 4wd off road platform to build one off of, but who knows if they’ll ever gather up the gumption to bust one out. I have to think that one gnarly, burly, on-road car that can bash and huck with the best of them would have to be a good seller.

We are also talking about fixing the racing side of on-road, but the only conclusion we came to involved the rule book, gasoline, and a match.

That’s it for this week gang, support your local hobby shops, tracks and bash spots!

YOUR Cub Reporter

Red Budddd! Oh yea, there was also a little mx race called the Red Bud National sponsored by Red Bull over the weekend. It’s an annual 4th of July party with a little mx tossed in, and this year saw Monster/PC/Kawi/Traxxas rider Blake Bagget pwn the little class, and Red Bull/KTM rider Ryan Dungey do the same to the big boys. At least James Stewart was back on track to make things a bit more interesting, and while he didn’t win, he put in solid laps and looked like he was having a blast while doing so.

The Chicago round of the TORC series is nearly here, and like last year, there is some big news regarding the event. TP199 (Travis Pastrana) will be making his debut in the Pro2 class at that event (last year James Stewart was the big news). If you know anything about Pastrana, you know dirt off road is what he grew up doing, so he should put on one hell of a show with all that power beneath him. BigSquid will be there to view all the action, and we hope you make it out as well.

One quick note on the uglier side of rc…

A couple weeks ago one of “our guys” was asked to work a booth as a weekend gig for one of the big names in the rc biz. Our guy, who is only 17, was totally stoked and agreed. To date he has not been paid (as he was told he would be) nor did the company take down his contact information to compensate him at some point in the future. I guess the moral of the story here is- when some big-shot rc company asks you to work for them, you might want to get your compensation up front.

And on a different note…

We’ve got a surprise kick’n for you guys this week, something we haven’t done before that should turn out pretty cool. Check the front page on Wednesday to find out what we have cook’n.

I know you guys love reviews so we’ve got a few good ones coming up in the next few weeks. Our HPI Bullet Flux review is coming along now (Hooray for parts!), as is our Traxxas Funny Car review. We’re also doing a mini-review on the MaxAmps internal plug Lipo packs. So yea guys, we’ve got some interesting reviews headed your way in the near future.

That’s it for this week folks, support your local hobby shops, tracks and bash spots.

YOUR Cub Reporter

Want to read our review of the MaxAmps 24 volt power supply? Click HERE.

Looking for more MaxAmps news here on BigSquid? CLICK HERE