Kraton Are castle electronics really an upgrade?

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I have two trucks that I run back to back, 1 with the arrma blx80 and the other with the castle sidewinder sct combo.

the blx arrma is more powerful but the castle system has much smoother throttle transitions. also the brakes are immediate with the castle where as the blx80 has a delay for me with the brakes.

one more plus for castle is the punch control or launch control. forgot what they call it but if you drive on loose dirt or sandy surfaces at all, it will help make your truck faster rather than spin out from a dig.

I wouldn't upgrade to castle expecting more speed, but the extra control it offers is worth it. Also my experience is with a sidewinder, I imagine the mamba offers much more power.
 
I don't agree with that at all I've had more problems with the castle mamba monster esc I've had to send two of them back and I beat my kraton way more than my revo so I guess it's a matter of preference because im definitely not into savings my self money when it comes to my cars you realize most of the motors from China are all produced by the same company just packaged different

This is why some probably like Castle Creations.....Castle Creations speed controls are designed to never become obsolete. Firmware is upgraded on a regular basis and is available via the internet. The Castle Link, a USB interface adapter, is available separately. It is compatible with both the "Phoenix" line of aircraft controls and "Mamba" line of car/truck controls and is used both to upgrade the control's firmware and to set its operating parameters.

They are pretty smooth ESC's and I've never had one issue with one. I do like other brands and even liked the stock ESC and motor in the Kraton. My Kraton is smoother with the Castle Creation ESC....and has more speed than I can ever use for bashing. You are right....it depends on what you prefer more. I removed the stock ESC because I couldn't fine tune it as well as the Mamba Monster X. I also like to use the data logger that's built into the ESC. A Castle MMX ESC and a Poseidon motor combo is what I'm working on now. Should be interesting.
 
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I agree with vanning. I have a mamba monster 2 in my Kraton and it's easy to program and very smooth. Perfect esc for ME in this truck.
 
I have the mamba x and u hit it right on the head! The blx (although a good system and will get u by just fine) lags really bad and all together the kraton comes with LAZY electronics!
What do you think of the tekin rx8 vs. Castle creations?
 
I would love to try one out to compare.....I hear they are excellent ESC's

I'm not sure if they are water proof but I think you can use a smart phone to tune it.

That alone would be something I would like.
 
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I would love to try one out to compare.....I hear they are excellent ESC's

I'm not sure if they are water proof but I think you can use a smart phone to tune it.

That alone would be something I would like.
I emailed tekin and the said water resistant but not h2o proof
 
I emailed tekin and the said water resistant but not h2o proof

That works. Pretty sweet ESC's...I would get one.

I just got done running my Kraton configured with a Castle Mamba Monster X, the stock motor (with a slight modification), no motor fan or heat sink, a 14 tooth pinion, and a 5S 5200mAh 50C. Pro-Line Bad Lands. I think this is it.

My last configuration...MMX, Castle 2200KV, 6S 5000mAh 50C, motor fan and heat sink, 12 tooth pinion.

I'm thinking....if something advertises 6S....run 5S....until it advertises 7S....then run 6S.

I like 5S in the Kraton but I do not think the stock ESC sees 5S ??? 5S is real nice in the kraton .

6S was showing up real harsh on the data logger at times. Heat...errors....spikes. So far...the 5S looks better...plus the vehicle balances well, is lighter, and runs longer. Still has lots of torque and speed. Doesn't get too hot.

I'm pretty sure I shaved a bunch of weight off my Kraton...plus lowering one cell....it's really getting dialed in.

I tossed the stock ESC in the trash and the TX and RX. Not smooth enough. I like Radio Control....not Radio out of Control. lol Seriosly....any quality electronics turns these Kratons into some smooth rigs. The chassis is great....it really deserves some transplants. The RTR stuff is to get you started and keep cost down.

I do think the stock motor is good.
 
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If you over gear any combo it will go up in flames... lmfao at you running a 20tooth pinion and 4s, no wonder it won't wheelie it's grossly over geared. I ran a 17 and trenches on 4s and it got hot hot... if you do dumb poop then your gonna burn up any combo, I think the stock esc and motor are awesome in kraton. You need to be checking temps, with 16 tooth and badlands I got 61 mph on blacktop. And good temps while bashing, big heavy tires take more to turn producing more heat especially during breaking... if you don't follow guidelines for gearing you should get a note back with your burned up parts that says "we are sorry you cannot read or follow directions here is your burned up esc hope you learned something"
 
LOL...Fire !!!! Wow....21 tooth in a stock Kraton. Jeez.

I have two trucks that I run back to back, 1 with the arrma blx80 and the other with the castle sidewinder sct combo.

the blx arrma is more powerful but the castle system has much smoother throttle transitions. also the brakes are immediate with the castle where as the blx80 has a delay for me with the brakes.

one more plus for castle is the punch control or launch control. forgot what they call it but if you drive on loose dirt or sandy surfaces at all, it will help make your truck faster rather than spin out from a dig.

I wouldn't upgrade to castle expecting more speed, but the extra control it offers is worth it. Also my experience is with a sidewinder, I imagine the mamba offers much more power.

Mamba Monster X....way more power. But control is better than having too much power. I program my auxiliary wire to the dial on my transmitter.... you can turn the torque control up and down on the fly.
 
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I agree with radio part, tactic seems laggy, the spektrum I just got is nice and I'm swapping over to spektrum recivers in my trucks, even Nero if I can get it to do the lockers... if not the tactic stands for nero only.
 
I avoided buying a new combo for a while. And after my third esc recently, that the thermal shutdown failed on and it burst into flames taking all the rest of the electronics with it, I decided to get a new combo instead of waiting on replacements.

And I notice a huge difference with the mamba monster 2200kv system compared to stock. The initial punch off the trigger is insane and the biggest noticeable difference. Arrmas esc's have a noticeable lag between pulling the trigger and the car moving.
Easiest way to explain...
I was running a 20t pinion on the stock esc on 4s and still could only pull a wheelie with my trenchers and the suspension adjusted. With the castle system a wheelie is just a trigger pull away using a 15t pinion on 4s no matter if it's stock tires, road rages or my trenchers.
Try using same pinion for comparison thats a huge difference
 
20 tooth pinion wierd that caused overheating and a fire! Lmfao you guys kill me... now tour running a 15 that's more realistic, with badlands I ran a 15, 16 and 17, the 17 came off after one run on 4s and it was hotter than I like, dropped to stock tires and a 14 tonight I ran it hard and it was not to hot wouldn't want much hotter but 126 to 140 is acceptable... putting badlands back on with the 14, should be good... you wanna go 65mph then run one pass cool down, next pass... yep cool down and so on. It's a 2050 with 150a esc, maybe try a mmx or max 5 or 6... just saying if I was customer service I would have sent that back with a note that said read the manual and gearing recommendations have a nice day please learn from your mistakes. Thanks.
 
Man...you should see my ESC temps bashing 6S, 12T, 2200KV, with my Mamba Monster X. Speed runs on the street are fine...you start bashing that off road for a full pack...Wow, it gets up there. It just goes to show you...Mamba Monster X can take some abuse. I have a screen shot of the max temperature I got it up to. A stock ESC would have burned or shut down. The Mamba didn't even shut down.

So you got people running the stock ESC on 6S 20 tooth pinion. Man....a 12 tooth would get that toasty I would think.

I got my Mamba X bashing on 5S, 14T and Badlands. Keeping the vehicle lighter with smaller, light tires. 5S seems to work out nice with the 2050KV. It's still has that 6S feel but I'm utilizing full trigger more often...with 6S, I was holding back more often....So I'm utilizing more full trigger in my bashing area. The ESC's like to be wide open plus my Kraton is lighter on 5S. No fan, heat sink, and the battery is way lighter. Plus...Badlands are smaller and lighter.

My style of driving is in low very short grass with sandy soil...fast, with large natural jumps. I'm always moving pretty fast.
 
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Man...you should see my ESC temps bashing 6S, 12T, 2200KV, with my Mamba Monster X. Speed runs on the street are fine...you start bashing that off road for a full pack...Wow, it gets up there. It just goes to show you...Mamba Monster X can take some abuse. I have a screen shot of the max temperature I got it up to. A stock ESC would have burned or shut down. The Mamba didn't even shut down.

So you got people running the stock ESC on 6S 20 tooth pinion. Man....a 12 tooth would get that toasty I would think.

I got my Mamba X bashing on 5S, 14T and Badlands. Keeping the vehicle lighter with smaller, light tires. 5S seems to work out nice with the 2050KV. It's still has that 6S feel but I'm utilizing full trigger more often...with 6S, I was holding back more often....So I'm utilizing more full trigger in my bashing area. The ESC's like to be wide open plus my Kraton is lighter on 5S. No fan, heat sink, and the battery is way lighter. Plus...Badlands are smaller and lighter.

My style of driving is in low very short grass with sandy soil...fast, with large natural jumps. I'm always moving pretty fast.
I just put my badlands back on by far my favorite tires for the kraton, I have a 14tough pinion and run 2 7200mah 70c spc racing batteries... it is insane I may drop back to 12t, I don't care about going 60mph or faster, my lawn in big and have a decent driveway some really nice hills... it's mostly grass... with the the 17 it got hot on 4s, never tried 6s, because I could tell it didn't like it... also gearing high with big tires will increase stress on diff parts. My kraton spends an equal amount of time on the ground as it does in the air.
 
Nice....same here. The ground is just a way to take to the air... LOL. My Slash has some serious flight time logged on it....the Kraton is catching up fast.

I gave up bashing the 6S offroad...My ESC, Motor, Batt, and chassis can take it but I can tell by some data that it's getting stressed out. It wasn't going to live long... Oh it's fun but I think I'm achieving it on 5S also. More time will tell.

I didn't weight the Badlands (I should) but they are lighter than stock. They are also like having a smaller pinion in the Kraton and they get lots of traction. I didn't do the math on the final drive ratio, because I'm too lazy, but I'll just check temps while the Kraton is getting run.
 
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20 tooth pinion wierd that caused overheating and a fire! Lmfao you guys kill me... now tour running a 15 that's more realistic, with badlands I ran a 15, 16 and 17, the 17 came off after one run on 4s and it was hotter than I like, dropped to stock tires and a 14 tonight I ran it hard and it was not to hot wouldn't want much hotter but 126 to 140 is acceptable... putting badlands back on with the 14, should be good... you wanna go 65mph then run one pass cool down, next pass... yep cool down and so on. It's a 2050 with 150a esc, maybe try a mmx or max 5 or 6... just saying if I was customer service I would have sent that back with a note that said read the manual and gearing recommendations have a nice day please learn from your mistakes. Thanks.
Agreed
 
Temps are the best way to get the right gearing if your not just blasting speed runs and quitting till it's cool again... I have a mmx sitting on my bench with xt90 connectors but it is not working properly, had it in my xmaxx awhile back swapped connectors after it sat for a couple months then put in slash it needs to be completely reset and then go from there... I just haven't had time threw the mm2 in my slash 2650kv motor on 3s 2.8 badlands trimmed body mip x-duty axles tekno center drive shaft, erevo diff cups and innards proline body mounts with screw caps, tbone bumpers front and rear, gonna get some buggy tires for it and run the 17mm adapters I bought... it's a fun truck but I just finished it last night. It's only been out for short test runs before now... it's perched on top of my kraton headed up north for the weekend, may as well bring the trucks...
 
Temps are the best way to get the right gearing if your not just blasting speed runs and quitting till it's cool again... I have a mmx sitting on my bench with xt90 connectors but it is not working properly, had it in my xmaxx awhile back swapped connectors after it sat for a couple months then put in slash it needs to be completely reset and then go from there... I just haven't had time threw the mm2 in my slash 2650kv motor on 3s 2.8 badlands trimmed body mip x-duty axles tekno center drive shaft, erevo diff cups and innards proline body mounts with screw caps, tbone bumpers front and rear, gonna get some buggy tires for it and run the 17mm adapters I bought... it's a fun truck but I just finished it last night. It's only been out for short test runs before now... it's perched on top of my kraton headed up north for the weekend, may as well bring the trucks...

I'm going camping in PA...bringing a few RC's, my Jeep and a dirt bike. LOL Sounds like we got some of the same ideas.
Recently I installed a hardened aluminum spur gear in my Slash from HR...Hot Racing. Yes....it's aluminum !!! Sounds bad but I was proven wrong. The thing got bad reviews on some web pages so I wasn't to excited about it..... but I ordered it anyway. So it came in the mail and I installed it and beat on the Slash 3S for a while with it. What an awesome, well made, precision gear !!!...I can't explain why I like it....It just sound cool in the Slash and it seems so smooth. Plus I was chipping plastic spur teeth often. I added the Aluminum motor mount from HR with the larger bearing for the slipper, put in an Axis chassis brace and also 2.8 Trenchers with 17MM MIP hexes , and X-Dutys. Got a set of RPM A-Arms also. It's bullet proof...or as close as you can get.

Aluminum spur gear...go figure.....the thing is sweet. It's one of my favorite upgrades. That and the MIP X-Dutys. The gear probably got poor reviews from people that can't set gear mesh properly.
 
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