1/8 SERPENT buggy SRX8e guide

[mprudic0404]

Years went by as i worked crazy hours and missed much of life, and yet never lost hopes of getting a 1/8 scale 4WD racing buggy until 2018. Family and kids always take the center stage, but driving a 1/8 buggy was worth the wait and patience. Loving brushed motors and crawlers was always kept close ( thank you losi for the MICRO's , and SHAME on you for killing it ), but the bigger racing cousins was always such a far reach. Well I wanted to start a POST for ANYONE who raced or still does, and also happens to enjoy the 1/8 CLASS. NITRO or E-Powered, never fail to amaze with the power of a toy.



I bought a SRX8e in January with my tax check, then spent almost all year getting it to a happy point that I held so high.

I tried nicd's for months, with success and failure, as these really are the only batteries with endless current/power, but the capacity is not there.



Tekins RX8 gen 3 is a impressive ESC, and took all the power in stride. thermal limits were common, and ill never buy their Bluetooth again, but the ESC was worth its weight. i MELTED so many types of battery connectors in the testing phases, that i should have kept a spreadsheet of the failures. This wasn't a BLIND test or TESTING, as i am a electrical person in nature/work, and approached this with info from various tests and manufacture data including our very friend OHM.


back to point, if you happen to own a SRX8e or 1/8 4WD buggy, please chime in, and if i can share what i learned perhaps it'll lead to even better thoughts or innovations.



ill update this with posts/mods/fixes i have found that help this car.

 

[mprudic0404]

pic1,



anyone out there have a SPARE skid plate they would sell? this company is no longer making these ?
(these are the TRACER SRX8e SKID's )

 

[mprudic0404]

squezed in 50 tooth serpent composite spur gear coupled with 13tooth pinion. (stock is steel 44 tooth) Lighter rotating mass gear, titanium diff screws AND pins, coupled with a 3000kv 550 motor. Along with MANY other lightweight mods( the SRX8e is a stock HEAVY pig!!!) this thing FLIES! 4s 7500 batteries last little over 10 mins, and if your really hard on it, can get a thermal limit on the RX8 esc.

To fit the big spur, required a true extreme mod. first making 2.25mm carbon fiber shims under the diff supports. Needed CF as the aluminum shims i made got warped from the forces on the gear. I had to increase the upper support/cover height by the same. using the normal battery configuration gear cover, i cut it up and used the support braces as a shim spacer. To keep the rigid/strength of the saddle cover required 2.55 stainless washers (thank you dremmel) with titanium screws. end result is a now more spur gear choices.
Also added a easy way to remove the diff, as anyone knows these cars are a PIG to remove the center diff.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[mprudic0404]

Here is a good one. been playing with the buggy in the night hours with icy roads and such. today when on warmer grounds it started makin funny sounds after about 1 minute of drive time.

quick look showed the CENTER diff acting funny, so i pulled it out and found this!!!! (melted the diff housing!!!)

granted, its one of my fav basher rc cars, was quite suprised it failed like this. Could be my fault, or combo of few factors, but bummer. that housing alone is 20 bucks!!!

anyone have input about this failure?

my only initial thought is: very cold outside temps at night may have been too much for the STOCK diff fluid.

important info: this SRX8e has every screw switched to titanium, EVERY lightweight part serpent makes, and then to top it off, ive even modded a few parts to reduce mass and weight further. (if this was spec'ed at a pro race, it would be way under weight limits and require additional weight)
This buggy even has titanium parts that arent even availble or sold. (ive made a few myself)

quite odd that even with such extreme reduction of weight and mass it still did this.