RC Vehicle battery Tips
Many people have RC cars batteries problem. Electric cars and trucks need rechargeable rc car batteries to run, these batteries can be nickel-cadmium (NiCD) or nickel-hydride (NiMH). NiCD batteries are an older type while NiMH batteries are a new type. Several manufactures provide batteries, good brands are Sanyo, Tamiya, Orion, Fukuyama, Panasonic and Trinity.
Many people will think If they double the battery pack on my RC Car, it will make the car faster or they will just get longer battery life. It is not true. Doubling the battery will add the cars total weight. The added weight will not help the speed and handling. Also if you wire them in series (i.e. 7.2 + 7.2 = 14.4 volts) you will increase the voltage but not the capacity. You will burn out a normal 540 motor. But for monster trucks, some are designed to run with 14.4 volts (e.g. E-Maxx if I’m not mistaken). Others are designed to run 2 packs in parallel (total of 7.2 volts) which will double the capacity (i.e. longer run times).
RC cars and trucks that runs electronically need to be the rechargeable ones to compensate for the running hours of your practice and competition duration. Since there are so many types of batteries out in the market, you need to make sure that you have the correct information regarding the needed battery device for your RC car. So, first of all, know that rechargeable batteries are the NiCD and NiMH ones. NiCD stands for nickel-cadmium while NiMH is for nickel-hydride. Other than the two, it is not rechargeable so be very careful with this detail.
Tamiya Ni-MH 7.2V 3600mAh is one of the best RC battery packs on the market, this quick charging high performance battery pack consists of six cells packed in a transparent unit. Each battery in this pack has 3600mAh capacity. Some other good batteries available in the market are including: Nosram 1800mAh, 7.2V NiCd, Powerpack NiMH, two 7.2V 4200mAh NiMH SC Battery Pack.
Battery Storage is also am important question you need to consider. Be sure to remove all the batteries that are used in your setup. This also includes the batteries used in your radio and the receiver. This will be the one time that charging will not be an issue. No sense charging these before storage as they will soon discharge anyway. It is better to discharge your batteries and store them “dead”. Even a fully discharged pack will retain about a 1v charge throughout the storage.
