New to Arrma 8s Kraton

[stevenmaxx]

Hey everyone what’s up?!

Been driving RC for about 30 years.
Bought my first Arrma yesterday, after always being a Traxxas enthusiast, grabbed the 8s Kraton. Anything I need to know? Anything to adjust change immediately upgrade and or watch out for? These trucks seems pretty reliable but I’m a little concerned about the chassis being metal and bending. I mostly run on the track so I won’t be doing 30ft high jumps but it is possible I nose dive in to a landing on occasion when things go wrong. Should I immediately buy a thicker upgrade chassis?
Also the hobby shop guys said change the pinion to high speed cause it’s slow out of the box and even on a track the motor runs cool with high speed gearing. Need input from more experienced people before I drive this thing.

Last thing.... what’s the cap pack thing on the ESC wire? Thanks in advance!

Steven

 

[madf78]

Hey everyone what’s up?!

Been driving RC for about 30 years.
Bought my first Arrma yesterday, after always being a Traxxas enthusiast, grabbed the 8s Kraton. Anything I need to know? Anything to adjust change immediately upgrade and or watch out for? These trucks seems pretty reliable but I’m a little concerned about the chassis being metal and bending. I mostly run on the track so I won’t be doing 30ft high jumps but it is possible I nose dive in to a landing on occasion when things go wrong. Should I immediately buy a thicker upgrade chassis?
Also the hobby shop guys said change the pinion to high speed cause it’s slow out of the box and even on a track the motor runs cool with high speed gearing. Need input from more experienced people before I drive this thing.

Last thing.... what’s the cap pack thing on the ESC wire? Thanks in advance!

Steven

Start to get the hang of it before changing anything except grabbing a 23t pinion.
Upgrade when it brakes. All will depend on your driving habits.
If you need more ideas on upgrades, you can have a look at my build. But that is going to the extreme.
Welcome, and wish you the best of fun. The K8S is a wonderful truck.

 

[stevenmaxx]

Start to get the hang of it before changing anything except grabbing a 23t pinion.
Upgrade when it brakes. All will depend on your driving habits.
If you need more ideas on upgrades, you can have a look at my build. But that is going to the extreme.
Welcome, and wish you the best of fun. The K8S is a wonderful truck.

It came with a high speed pinion, but I wasn’t sure about having that and driving off-road on the track. And kind of like an x maxx, out of the box the bearings are junk and so is the steering. Usually I try to upgrade things as they break but this truck doesn’t seem to have issues. I don’t beat my stuff, but the occasional bad landing and cartwheel happens lol

So basically I’m asking is it tough enough in stock form to last and last as long as it’s treated right? Does it have known quirks?

 

[KevinC]

Yes it’s strong enough out of the box to do what you want to do with it. You will eventually want to change the diff oils and pinion. Everything else is icing. I’ve broken one A arm since I’ve had the truck......June. Maybe stock up on those and drive shafts. I have since upgraded most metal to M2C but I got a lot of enjoyment stock. My old chassis is still straight.
Cap pack is voodoo logic I don’t understand. Someone else can chime in.

cheers,
kev

 

[madf78]

As @KevinC said. You are good to go.

 

[kratonwatch]

i didn’t have the greatest luck with the 23t pinion alongside the stock components. Maybe it was just me, but I had to upgrade my fans to keep my motor and ESC cool with the 23t. I ended up going down to the 21t for fear of absolutely destroying all of my electronics, including the batteries.

the stock tires are kinda janky if you ask me. They balloon too much, so I’d say upgrading your stock wheels/tires should give you a better experience.

 

[madf78]

i didn’t have the greatest luck with the 23t pinion alongside the stock components. Maybe it was just me, but I had to upgrade my fans to keep my motor and ESC cool with the 23t. I ended up going down to the 21t for fear of absolutely destroying all of my electronics, including the batteries.

the stock tires are kinda janky if you ask me. They balloon too much, so I’d say upgrading your stock wheels/tires should give you a better experience.

What temp are you getting with the 23t?
I agree with the stock tires, but I am still using them until they give up

 

[stevenmaxx]

i didn’t have the greatest luck with the 23t pinion alongside the stock components. Maybe it was just me, but I had to upgrade my fans to keep my motor and ESC cool with the 23t. I ended up going down to the 21t for fear of absolutely destroying all of my electronics, including the batteries.

the stock tires are kinda janky if you ask me. They balloon too much, so I’d say upgrading your stock wheels/tires should give you a better experience.

The guys at the hobby shop said to change it to the supplied 23 tooth out of the box and they don’t know why it comes geared the way it does. They also said things run cool with the 23 tooth. So I hope yours was a fluke or something else. I see lots of people running the 23 tooth online videos but no mention of overheating. Once you changed the fans was it good to go?

 

[KevinC]

I’ve run the 23 T for quite a while before I switched to higher gearing. If you give your rig a break halfway through the packs, the heat will be fine. If you run it non-stop in the middle of summer heat can be an issue. Just be sensible with it, get a temp gun and give the motor a rest during your run.

The stock pinion won’t give you the air correction you need in a nose dive situation......thats just my opinion.

cheers,
kev

 

[stevenmaxx]

I’ve run the 23 T for quite a while before I switched to higher gearing. If you give your rig a break halfway through the packs, the heat will be fine. If you run it non-stop in the middle of summer heat can be an issue. Just be sensible with it, get a temp gun and give the motor a rest during your run.

The stock pinion won’t give you the air correction you need in a nose dive situation......thats just my opinion.

cheers,
kev

I only run on a track. It’s a private track I built that’s decent size, we just jump and race around, nothing crazy it’s just a backyard track for fun. I just don’t wanna cook it, the guys at the hobby shop said it runs cool with the 23 tooth. But I’m skeptical of that cause it’s so heavy

 

[KevinC]

To give you some numbers, I ran 23t mid summer, 30 Celsius and reached motor temps of 150 then I stopped for 10 minutes. Carried on for the rest of the packs. 150 is pretty conservative for most. Some guys won’t blink until they’re up into the 170 range I think. My stock motor is as good as new but it’s not in the rig anymore.

I have some 7200 mah and get pretty decent run times.....hence not a big deal to take a mid run break.

cheers,
kev

 

[kratonwatch]

What temp are you getting with the 23t?
I agree with the stock tires, but I am still using them until they give up

My issue may have come into play because of summer humidity. It wasn’t the hottest day ever, but I guess the humidity was high enough to shoot my motor over 220F. My ESC was up over 170F and my batteries (power hobby 8000mah 100C) were both around 145-150F.

I put new fans on the motor and the esc and haven’t had a problem since. It Is an absolute BEAR with the 21 and 23. I still get nice aerial correction with the 21T, so I’ve been running that for the time being.

 

[stevenmaxx]

My issue may have come into play because of summer humidity. It wasn’t the hottest day ever, but I guess the humidity was high enough to shoot my motor over 220F. My ESC was up over 170F and my batteries (power hobby 8000mah 100C) were both around 145-150F.

I put new fans on the motor and the esc and haven’t had a problem since. It Is an absolute BEAR with the 21 and 23. I still get nice aerial correction with the 21T, so I’ve been running that for the time being.

The stock fans don’t work so well?

 

[kratonwatch]

The stock fans don’t work so well?

I had some extra cash to blow, so without asking the community here I went ahead and bought the NTF fan set up for motor and esc. Now I know there are as good or better options for a more competitive price.

on the flip side I’m so happy I did the upgrades as I’ll use them if I change my power train down the road. I also love the noise it makes!! ?

EDIT TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION: the stock fans worked wel enough. I got spooked by the high temps and spent the Dough to update the cooling system. I’m near positive based on my research that guys run 23T with stock fans without issue

 

[BlueDog1210]

My issue may have come into play because of summer humidity. It wasn’t the hottest day ever, but I guess the humidity was high enough to shoot my motor over 220F. My ESC was up over 170F and my batteries (power hobby 8000mah 100C) were both around 145-150F.

I put new fans on the motor and the esc and haven’t had a problem since. It Is an absolute BEAR with the 21 and 23. I still get nice aerial correction with the 21T, so I’ve been running that for the time being.

What type of fans are you using? I am in South Florida and need to upgrade fans on Castle 2028 1100kv.

 

[Rob-O]

Hey everyone what’s up?!

Been driving RC for about 30 years.
Bought my first Arrma yesterday, after always being a Traxxas enthusiast, grabbed the 8s Kraton. Anything I need to know? Anything to adjust change immediately upgrade and or watch out for? These trucks seems pretty reliable but I’m a little concerned about the chassis being metal and bending. I mostly run on the track so I won’t be doing 30ft high jumps but it is possible I nose dive in to a landing on occasion when things go wrong. Should I immediately buy a thicker upgrade chassis?
Also the hobby shop guys said change the pinion to high speed cause it’s slow out of the box and even on a track the motor runs cool with high speed gearing. Need input from more experienced people before I drive this thing.

Last thing.... what’s the cap pack thing on the ESC wire? Thanks in advance!

Steven

Arrma is a more robust architecture when it comes to the build and the their layouts