Trac Power good, bad or ugly?

[Synergy]

I'm just about ready to take my vintage car racing and I think I'm going to go LiPo but I have a couple of noobie type questions.

I think I'm going to go with these as I have read good reviews, does anyone here have experience of them? Does the spec look OK?

http://www.modelsport.co.uk/?CallFunction=ShowSpecification&ItemID=29957

It states "Slot-in replacement for the vast majority of chassis designed for 6-cell sub-c nicd / nimh" so I guess these will fit straight into a Team Car and most other cars designed to run stick packs?

Can I run these through any normal ESC and brushed motor set up or do I need cleverer stuff than that?

I'm happy with all the charging and balancing requirements as I run LiPo's in planes and Helis but never had any involvement with them for surface use.

Thanks for any advice.

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

Definitely a good battery. Numbers look good and I have personally never read one bad thing about them. You would want to invest in a voltage cut-off such as the one from Novak. LIPOs will suffer damage and possibly go bad if the voltage of each cell gets too low. A lot of newer escs have it, but older ones do not. They are about $20-25US. The one thing that I have wondered about these when looking at them is the placement of the banana plug ports. They may line up with the battery cup hold-down which would make it necessary to modify the hold-down. Other than that I'd say go for it. I can't speak for the price without checking conversion rates, but it's a great pack.

[klavy69]

You should be able to run these batteries with any esc./brushed motor but like thumber said and you pry allready know since you run them in your non-surface rides that the lowvoltage cutoff is a nice piece of 'insurance' to have. I personally don't use them but I have also wrecked a battery doing just that. The cost of a shut off is less than most batteries...
Todd

[Synergy]

Thanks for the advice, I'm pretty sure I'm going to take the plunge and I will definitely invest in a low voltage protection device

I found this picture on oOple.com (courtesy of Jimmy) in their review of this particular battery, I think the mix of old and new looks super cool.

[Bormac]

Lipo is definately the way to go. No need to peak them at the track, you can have them charged before hand and there is no real loss in performance as they keep their voltage for extended periods of time. There's no need to discharge/equalise but instead you balance charge them once a month. Lighter and safer in my opinion too. No need to worry about saddle packs shorting against chassis componants,tools or each other in transit or your pit space.
Lipo cut offs are a must if you want to keep them in good shape for another days running. The small inconveniences certainly are made up for in both performance,reliability and ease of use.
Best thing to happen to the hobby in my opinion.

[vanpeebles]

Where are you racing in the North East?

[Synergy]

Thank you for your advice Bormac, I will follow it closely

Where are you racing in the North East?

I had no luck finding a local club (within an hour) running a specific vintage series or heat, so I'm just going to trundle down to Jarrow School and mix it up with all the B4s

This is the address:-

Jarrow School
Field Terrace
Jarrow
Tyne & Wear
United Kingdom
NE32 5PR

and here is a link with a little more info.

http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14287

Where are you located

[vanpeebles]

Bit far for me at the moment, I'm just in Durham

[Synergy]

Durham (Belmont School) that was one hell of a club back in the late 80s, did you ever go or was that before your time?

[vanpeebles]

I watched a few in the sportshall there as a kid!

[Bugle]

I've got one of those Trak Power 4900's and it won't fit in an RC10, it's about the same length as a pack of intellect 4200 nimh cells which are oversize sub-c's. I used a chopped battery cup and made a CF brace like a B4 one with a block of delrin screwed to it to stop the battery moving forward. Other way is to drill some new battery cup mounting holes forward of the originals.
Can't complain about their performance, goes great with my 5.5t RC10T.

[Synergy]

I've got one of those Trak Power 4900's and it won't fit in an RC10.

Mine arrived today and they won't fit in the flipping Astute either, I'm going to have to do some chopping and drilling

[tulsa]

anybody know if their 3200s are smaller in size maybe those will fit.