Radio controlled car battery (7.2v) questions...

[haaammit]

I have a couple of old Tamiya cars (A Fox and a ThunderDragon). Both were refurbed several years ago with new motors and bearings and the like. I also bought a couple of new NiCad 1800 batteries and an ACS 67P charger at the same time.

I dug them out today, charged up the batteries and had a good hoon about for half an hour or so. It was fun, but I'd like more battery life.

I'm thinking of getting some Ni-Mh batteries - I guess the voltage is the same (7.2v) but the mAh seems to be much higher (5000 vs 1800?). Does this mean the newer batteries will last longer than my older NiCad batteries? I'm fairly certain my charger will charge Ni-Mh batteries. Are here any dangers to running Ni-Mh instead of NiCad? What batteries would you recommend or is it just any of ebay?

I also have a Schumacher Menace 21 Nitro car read to be rebuilt later this year! Where's good for spares? I need new wheels and tyres and a diff at the very least!! The suspension has all been uprated to alloy, along with a few other bits

 

[MikeHunt79]

If you have a 7.2v motor I'd go for Li po, lighter and more capacity than NI MH

 

[paradigm]

If you have a 7.2v motor I'd go for Li po, lighter and more capacity than NI MH

Except that will involve a new charger too, and likely he'll be better off with a more modern speed controller (infact, with them being old tamiya's, they might even have mechanical speedos which wouldn't be pleasant with LiPo).

Nothing at all wrong with modern NiMH cells for RC (and infact for a few classes, it's still "the rules" that you don't run LiPo - such as 1/12th pan car).

In answer to the OP's questions, if you have a charger that can handle NiMH, then yess, you'll be getting far more runtime from a high-capacity NiMH cell pack, however they do deliver a lower peak voltage, so you may find the car doesn't feel as "punchy" off the line.