Well, for the first time in my life I'm buying a 3s battery for a ground vehicle. I've never had any use for anything more than my 5000mah 2s packs from SPC...however, the Digger is just...slow.

There's no real way around it, on 2s it's just slow. It's still fun, and drives like I think a real monster truck does...but it just doesn't have much "oomph."

I started wondering while driving it if it was basically setup to be run on 3s from the factory. There are several things that make me feel that it was...

1. The battery tray was set at the factory in a way that would hold a battery that was significantly thicker than my 2s packs. I had to adjust it way down to get it to hold the 2s in there reasonably tight. So I think the tray was designed to hold a 3s pack.
2. When driving it for nearly 45 minutes of almost continuous full throttle operation, in about 80 degree weather, when I got done the motor was MAYBE a couple of degrees warmer than ambient. So even after all that driving, I wasn't making the system work at all.

After finding the temperature of the motor in particular I started looking around. Out of the box the truck has the smallest pinion that Axial makes for the truck...the 11t pinion.

So, these things all put together lead me to believe that the truck was supposed to be running 3s right from the get go.

I'm WAAAAAAY too lazy to put the effort into tearing it apart to put a larger pinion in there, so I just went ahead and ordered a 6400mah 3s pack. SPC was sold out of most of the reasonably priced 3s packs, so I headed to Amazon and just got a Venom pack. I had a gift card so it ended up being dirt cheap. If the truck runs way more like I want it to on 3s, I'll snag a couple of SPC 3s packs when they're back in stock.


Overall I enjoy the truck...I'm just hoping that the 3s packs really wake it up.

It should say in the manual what the ESC can handle. My Honcho was 2s only but I scored a couple of AE-5 ESCs that handle 3s.

What turn motor is in it?


#CamBrady2017

Originally Posted by Brake Weight

It should say in the manual what the ESC can handle. My Honcho was 2s only but I scored a couple of AE-5 ESCs that handle 3s.

What turn motor is in it?


#CamBrady2017

It'll handle 3s for sure.

It's got a 27t motor in it. Not really designed for speed, obviously, but for a monster truck it should be faster than a Honcho or a CC01.

A little off topic but the AE2 esc can handle 3s too, as long as you're using a bec. I run 3s exclusively on my crawlers. My dcx10 II is using the AE2 on 3s. I even managed to break off the heatsink, and it still runs s fine.

Back on topic. I wonder if axial learned their lesson with all those 20t motors that would easily over heat in the wraith, or perhaps they just had action of 27t motors on the shelves, from the discontinued ax10. In my opinion an Mt should be fast. Id go straight to brushless power if it was me. Maybe 1900- 2100, on 3s or even 4s.


Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by waitwhatsthat

A little off topic but the AE2 esc can handle 3s too, as long as you're using a bec. I run 3s exclusively on my crawlers. My dcx10 II is using the AE2 on 3s. I even managed to break off the heatsink, and it still runs s fine.

Back on topic. I wonder if axial learned their lesson with all those 20t motors that would easily over heat in the wraith, or perhaps they just had action of 27t motors on the shelves, from the discontinued ax10. In my opinion an Mt should be fast. Id go straight to brushless power if it was me. Maybe 1900- 2100, on 3s or even 4s.


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Yeah. I don't need it to be a super speed demon, but a fat guy like me shouldn't be able to keep up with it while running!!!

I'm going to try the brushed on 3s and see how I like it, and if I need to I'll go brushless. I've got a 2800kv system I could use that would probably work really well on 2s.

I think the problem with making it too fast will be that I'll quickly be faster than its handling can cope with, if that makes any sense. It's too heavy, bouncy, and tipsy...making it a 35+ MPH truck will most likely result in a lot of time spent on its lid.

Yeah it's design will limit its speed, for sure. Let us know how the 3s goes.

Originally Posted by Gimpdiggity

Yeah. I don't need it to be a super speed demon, but a fat guy like me shouldn't be able to keep up with it while running!!!

I'm going to try the brushed on 3s and see how I like it, and if I need to I'll go brushless. I've got a 2800kv system I could use that would probably work really well on 2s.

I think the problem with making it too fast will be that I'll quickly be faster than its handling can cope with, if that makes any sense. It's too heavy, bouncy, and tipsy...making it a 35+ MPH truck will most likely result in a lot of time spent on its lid.

Can you put a gps or your smart phone with a gps app inside the truck to see top speed with 2s and 3s? I'm interested in buying one but I want to know how fast it really is.

Thanks

Originally Posted by buildem336

Can you put a gps or your smart phone with a gps app inside the truck to see top speed with 2s and 3s? I'm interested in buying one but I want to know how fast it really is.

Thanks

I'll see what I can do.

I got mine last week. I will be running it at Trigger King events in Sport Mod class which is limited to 17t brushed motor. To get rid of the drag brake I put a Sidewinder 3 in it. Also went to the 16t pinion. Both test run on 2s

SMT10 Before & After (10 min 14 sec)

That's a nice power increase there Gramps.

That's pretty close to what I'd say the speed is on 3s with mine.

By the way...is that track in your yard? If so, that's pretty nice for a backyard track!!

Originally Posted by Gramps50

I got mine last week. I will be running it at Trigger King events in Sport Mod class which is limited to 17t brushed motor. To get rid of the drag brake I put a Sidewinder 3 in it. Also went to the 16t pinion. Both test run on 2s

I got mine last week as well, and found it to be boringly slow, even with the 16t pinion on the stock motor. I like the improvement you got switching to a 17t motor... I was thinking I was going to have to go brushless to get the speed I want.

Look at the Traxxas 550. It's a long can 12t motor but only good on 2s. No 3s.


#CamBrady2017

I do not own an SMT-10 yet but do want to get one. I actually run two 2S packs (4S) 14.8 volts to twin 540 stock cans in my TXT-2. I installed some fans and they keep the motors from generating any heat. I have been running this setup for the past 18 months and it has gobs of power and respectable speed. So you can push these motors if you take a few precautions.

Photos of motor fans

Has anyone run there's on 3S yet?
Is the stock Digger capable of handling the 3S without risking anything stripping or overheating?