Kraton Broken center diff after 1 day

[Joethenewb]

After a day of running 3 batteries in my new 6s Kraton, i had the center diff go out on me. It is being repaired and upgraded this week to an aluminum case and some better gears. My question is... what the heck did I do wrong to break it so fast. I know these things are made for some decent bashing and i was just running it around my front yard in the grass and street. I have seen some people mention that wheelies will quickly burn it up and that i should be easier on the throttle. Still didn’t think i could do that damage so fast. Any recommendations on what else I could be doing wrong? Yes... I am new at this but not new to RC. I usually stick to planes and helos. Just needed something that doesn’t require a lot of very open space

 

[slick2500]

After a day of running 3 batteries in my new 6s Kraton, i had the center diff go out on me. It is being repaired and upgraded this week to an aluminum case and some better gears. My question is... what the heck did I do wrong to break it so fast. I know these things are made for some decent bashing and i was just running it around my front yard in the grass and street. I have seen some people mention that wheelies will quickly burn it up and that i should be easier on the throttle. Still didn’t think i could do that damage so fast. Any recommendations on what else I could be doing wrong? Yes... I am new at this but not new to RC. I usually stick to planes and helos. Just needed something that doesn’t require a lot of very open space

Did it melt the plastic case? If so I am willing to bet it was empty.

 

[Rav3n]

After a day of running 3 batteries in my new 6s Kraton, i had the center diff go out on me. It is being repaired and upgraded this week to an aluminum case and some better gears. My question is... what the heck did I do wrong to break it so fast. I know these things are made for some decent bashing and i was just running it around my front yard in the grass and street. I have seen some people mention that wheelies will quickly burn it up and that i should be easier on the throttle. Still didn’t think i could do that damage so fast. Any recommendations on what else I could be doing wrong? Yes... I am new at this but not new to RC. I usually stick to planes and helos. Just needed something that doesn’t require a lot of very open space

The fastest way to break a center diff is to jump and land full throttle on front of back tires. Also, going from wet non grip surfaces like grass over to dry pavement. It’s very hard on the drive train. Also if your center diff tower was loose at all, you can damage the diff.

what was broken specifically? Being that it was brand new, did you check to see the diffs were full before going out? I know it sounds crazy but people have received brand new boxes units with low or no diff oil.

Did it melt the plastic case? If so I am willing to bet it was empty.

You beat me to it.

 

[Joethenewb]

Did it melt the plastic case? If so I am willing to bet it was empty.

It didn’t SEEM melted but I also don’t know exactly what I’m looking for. It was leaking a little bit but nothing too crazy. I still find it hard to think that my little usage was able to burn it up so quick

The fastest way to break a center diff is to jump and land full throttle on front of back tires. Also, going from wet non grip surfaces like grass over to dry pavement. It’s very hard on the drive train. Also if your center diff tower was loose at all, you can damage the diff.

what was broken specifically? Being that it was brand new, did you check to see the diffs were full before going out? I know it sounds crazy but people have received brand new boxes units with low or no diff oil.

You beat me to it.

the guy at the hobby shop said I needed a new differential housing and he ordered some new internal stuff in case I screwed those up as well. It wasn’t disassembled there so I’m not entirely sure what was wrong but it’s $50 out the door to fix it. I didn’t check the oil or anything. I did notice a slight leak once I started hearing the noise and investigating. I hope it was some factory issue because the videos i have seen of these things are so far beyond what I did in the first hour of owning. I think the only person impressed by my skills was my 4 year old.

 

[Rav3n]

It didn’t SEEM melted but I also don’t know exactly what I’m looking for. It was leaking a little bit but nothing too crazy. I still find it hard to think that my little usage was able to burn it up so quick


the guy at the hobby shop said I needed a new differential housing and he ordered some new internal stuff in case I screwed those up as well. It wasn’t disassembled there so I’m not entirely sure what was wrong but it’s $50 out the door to fix it. I didn’t check the oil or anything. I did notice a slight leak once I started hearing the noise and investigating. I hope it was some factory issue because the videos i have seen of these things are so far beyond what I did in the first hour of owning. I think the only person impressed by my skills was my 4 year old.

Believe me when I say many of us have beaten ours to death. That’s how we can do accurately help you and tell you the causes.
If you broke anything internal, it was likely empty before it exploded inside. Rather it was factory low or something caused it to leak, that likely caused the failure.

the aluminum diff housings are nice to dissipate heat, but they aren’t terribly different than stock diffs as far as durability, from my experience.

 

[hobo]

After a day of running 3 batteries in my new 6s Kraton, i had the center diff go out on me. It is being repaired and upgraded this week to an aluminum case and some better gears. My question is... what the heck did I do wrong to break it so fast. I know these things are made for some decent bashing and i was just running it around my front yard in the grass and street. I have seen some people mention that wheelies will quickly burn it up and that i should be easier on the throttle. Still didn’t think i could do that damage so fast. Any recommendations on what else I could be doing wrong? Yes... I am new at this but not new to RC. I usually stick to planes and helos. Just needed something that doesn’t require a lot of very open space
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After a day of running 3 batteries in my new 6s Kraton, i had the center diff go out on me. It is being repaired and upgraded this week to an aluminum case and some better gears. My question is... what the heck did I do wrong to break it so fast. I know these things are made for some decent bashing and i was just running it around my front yard in the grass and street. I have seen some people mention that wheelies will quickly burn it up and that i should be easier on the throttle. Still didn’t think i could do that damage so fast. Any recommendations on what else I could be doing wrong? Yes... I am new at this but not new to RC. I usually stick to planes and helos. Just needed something that doesn’t require a lot of very open space

never had any problems with centre diff on six of my arrmas but had problems with front and rear losing teeth and breaking the pins but not often enough to worry about it

 

[jondilly1974]

Best guess from across the interwebs is that the seal was defective from the factory, leaked out all the fluid, and you ran it dry. Rule #1 of RC should be to go thru any new rig looking for these types of issues. The cheap Chinese factories these things are made in can’t be trusted to do everything 100% every time. When you get it back, I suggest you check every screw and check the other diffs too.

 

[slick2500]

It didn’t SEEM melted but I also don’t know exactly what I’m looking for. It was leaking a little bit but nothing too crazy. I still find it hard to think that my little usage was able to burn it up so quick


the guy at the hobby shop said I needed a new differential housing and he ordered some new internal stuff in case I screwed those up as well. It wasn’t disassembled there so I’m not entirely sure what was wrong but it’s $50 out the door to fix it. I didn’t check the oil or anything. I did notice a slight leak once I started hearing the noise and investigating. I hope it was some factory issue because the videos i have seen of these things are so far beyond what I did in the first hour of owning. I think the only person impressed by my skills was my 4 year old.

So you don't even know exactly what happened to the diff? Just going off what the guy from the hobbyshop said? ?‍

 

[fpvmiller]

Like most have said already there had to be an unseen issue with the diff to cause it to fail.

The irony is that the arrma rigs I am finding are "stronger" in areas that don't need that much strength *cough arrma loctite* but other areas seem to have gotten little attention to detail.

It won't hurt anything except your time to do a full teardown and rebuild.