Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Venom Lipo Batteries Review

Hello Everyone! I have been using Venom batteries for a couple seasons now and here are my thoughts on them.


At first I was racing my SC10.2 and SCB10.2 using the value batteries from hobby people, the ones that cost 40 bucks. At first, the value battery was great or so I thought. I always wondered why everyone else would so easily pass me on the straight aways and clear the big triple jumps. One day a friend of mine let me try one of his Venom batteries and I immediately noticed the difference power. 
 I went out and bought my first Venom battery, a 5800 70c. I loved how the battery gave me all the power I needed to finish my race. I was able to push my vehicles as hard as I wanted without worrying about my battery fading near the end of the race. During the 8 minute main events in the Grass Roots Racing Series my Venom batteries never let me down, they never faded, and they never got hot.
 After the GRRS I was hooked on the batteries. I purchased the 7000 70c as soon as it was available. The battery was insane when I tried it for the first time. There was more power and even longer run time than I had ever experienced before.
As my vehicles changed to Pro-Line Pro2 SCT's over the past two seasons, my batteries never ceased to meet and exceed my expectations.
At one point I decided to convert to shorty packs and Venom had the batteries I needed. First I started with the 3800 60c and I was not lacking any performance due to the smaller battery size.  Out of all the batteries, I had one of my 3800 60c packs puff up which was a bummer. Although the battery puffed up, I did not notice any loss of performance.
 When Venom came out with their 4500 100c shorty packs, I immediately bought some. The new shorty packs are my favorite so far. The current shorty packs are a great balance between weight and power. They do not have as much power as the full size packs, but they have more than enough for my 2wd Short Course truck.

I have let several people at the track test out my batteries and every response I have got is that "There is a lot of power in these batteries". Also people have exclaimed , "I need to re gear my truck to use this battery!".


Performance
     In terms of performance, I give these batteries a 10/10. I have never been left wanting more from my batteries and so far they have never let me down.


Reliability
    I abuse these batteries, running them to lipo cutoff over and over again. The batteries always charge up and balance for me, even the 2 year old batteries are still crushing it. For Reliability I give these batteries a 10/10.


Quality
    Overall, the batteries have been premium quality. Although, I did have 1 battery puff up on me and some of the labels came partially detached out of the box. Thus, I give the batteries a 9/10 in terms of quality.

Warranty
    The warranty for these batteries are amazing! There is a 1 year replacement warranty for defective batteries for the first year and then you can trade in your old batteries for 30% off a new battery from year 2 onward. To me, the warranty is a 10/10.


Looks
    I really like the look of these batteries. The translucent red case really looks awesome in my opinion. The bad part of the case is that the positive and negative terminals are not easy to identify sometimes. During the early mornings of racing I have plugged my speed control in backwards. I ended up coloring the negative terminal with a black sharpie and I never had trouble seeing the terminals again. I have found the many batteries have the same issue with trying to identify the terminals. If there were simply a large raised negative and positive sign, identification of the terminals would be much easier. I give the batteries a 9/10 in looks.


Overall the Venom Batteries get a 9.6/10. I would highly recommend these batteries to anyone that is trying to race and get maximum performance or to anyone trying to get the longest  and most powerful bashing sessions they can get.



Good luck at the races! Remember, you can always ask me for help, just look for the Venom powered Pro-Line vehicles and the KLA logo at the track.





-Matthew Garcia





Monday, January 12, 2015

Top Notch Series round 2 at Coyote Hobbies

Hello everyone! A couple of weeks ago I attended Round 2 of the Top Notch Racing Series at Coyote Hobbies. It was a full house with a lot of fast drivers in attendance which made for an amazing day of racing!  My Venom Powered Pro 2 SCT performed amazing after I finally fixed some issues I was having.


My first practice session in the morning went well and my truck was performing great. I was really happy with my driving consistency and the traction that my Pro-Line Electrons where giving me! My Venom batteries also performed awesome like they always do!
















After my second practice session, I noticed my ball diff was starting to bark at me and perform very inconsistently.  I ended up taking apart the diff and noticed my thrust bearing had exploded. I ended up rebuilding the diff and it exploded again during the break in phase. The MIP guys where in attendance at the race and they really helped me out with the issues I was having. Unfortunately I had no extra parts to rebuild the diff again and neither did the MIP guys. Here is a shot of my thrust bearing, or what was left of it.














I ended up switching back to the Pro-Line gear diff with 7k oil in it. I was extremely impressed with the gear diff since I never actually tried it indoors. I found that my truck performed more consistently than it ever has. I also noticed that the truck rotated much better through the corners. The truck handled very differently than I was used to, but overall I liked it. Although my day started out super frustrating with my diff failing and the lack of parts available to fix the issue, it ended with a new found respect for gear diffs.  I am going to finish the season with the gear diff and I hope to get my truck fully dialed in for the next race.

Here is a video of the main event that I shot with my Sony Action Cam.


Good luck at the races! Remember, you can always ask me for help, just look for the Venom powered Pro-Line vehicles and the KLA logo at the track.





-Matthew Garcia