Pro-tips for general driving (reducing damage etc)??

[Fiend]

Following on from Jam Racing's great motto:

....so try not to hit solid non-moveable objects with the truck.....

I was wondering about other general driving principles to avoid damage, excessive wear - I'm particularly interested in driving to avoid "hidden" damage, i.e. to diffs, gears, clutch, motor, electronics, etc... (breaking plastics seems to have more obvious causes e.g. said lamppost )

I've been warned:

"Don't fully submerge it in water" - ooops nearly did that this recently... I'm guess servo and receiver are fairly well protected, but motor and particularly ESC are more vulnerable to water??

"Don't land jumps on throttle" - was warned this by LHS owner, and also read posts on here implying the same. This is to avoid mashing diffs, right?

But I'm wondering about avoiding:

Driving at very low speeds (i.e. below walking pace) - seems to make a grating noise, not sure what this is but it sounds like it should be avoided??

Excessive braking - I'm guessing this could wear the clutch quicker?? I'm trying to avoid it except in emergencies (imminent lampposts etc).

Very steep hill starts - could this put too much strain on the drive train??

Any other good / bad practises??

 

[olds97_lss]

Avoid running in tall grass.
Avoid over/under gearing (geared too high/low) for your general driving.
-- having your rig geared high speed for pavement running, then driving in grass/hilly areas is hard on the clutch
-- having your rig geared so it hits top speed in 20 feet may be fine for grass/crawling, but lends to over revving the engine if not careful
Don't land jumps while on the throttle.
-- Only takes 1 WOT landing to blow diffs, axles, trans gears. Backflips are cool... but can be expensive if your not careful.
Don't overrev when doing backflips
-- high rpm while in the air is hard on the engine and tends to blow tires apart

 

[Fiend]

Cheers man, useful stuff. In general I avoid tall grass as it's boring as f**k anyway

Is stock gearing good for general bashing (i.e. not focusing on one particular style like crawling or speed runs)??

 

[olds97_lss]

Yeah, stock is usually a middle of the road gearing, unless it's traxxas, they tend to gear high.

 

[Firedcylinder]

1. Don't crash.
2. Remember this truck has the power to weight ratio of a hand grenade. Don't over cook it.
3. Don't crash.
4. Don't play in areas where there are other people/obstacles/debris. Less targets means less of a chance of crashing.
5. Don't crash.

 

[olds97_lss]

So... what your saying is... randomly crash into stuff? LOL!

 

[Fiend]

Good tips. I'm still struggling with points 1, 3, and 5 though....

 

[Fiend]

If you're having to pause in the field to do a bit of tinkering (not full on repairs), is it logical to keep the car turned on (but transmitter off so you don't accidentally circumcise your fingers), to keep the ESC fan running high and keep it cool??

 

[Firedcylinder]

If you're having to pause in the field to do a bit of tinkering (not full on repairs), is it logical to keep the car turned on (but transmitter off so you don't accidentally circumcise your fingers), to keep the ESC fan running high and keep it cool??

You should always have your transmitter turned on when the truck is on for safety reasons. Turning the truck off even though the ESC may be hot. It will cool off quick enough.

 

[Jam Racing 1]

If you're having to pause in the field to do a bit of tinkering (not full on repairs), is it logical to keep the car turned on (but transmitter off so you don't accidentally circumcise your fingers), to keep the ESC fan running high and keep it cool??

if just tightening a wheel or something simple it is probably best to leave the transmitter on as well to avoid an errant signal making your rig energize without you doing it......

 

[Fiend]

Okay that's interesting, cheers.