Losing the battery mid race!!?

[Scimdarren]

Hi All

We run TJ 2000's in our S1 mission. At the 2nd outing we reconfigured them from stick to 'in line' saddle as we felt the stick config made access awkward and the clips were too tough for my son to operate.

During 2 heats the batteries flew out, it is probable that it was caused by some heavy crashes as we are still novice, but we need a contigency until our driving improves!

Has anyone suffered this and can anyone recommend a solution to prevent this from happening. The batteries do locate fine althogh you could pull them out from under the saddle strap by hand if you tried hard enough.

Thanks

Darren

[AndyT]

Maybe you could pop a tie wrap round it, keep a bag of them and just cut them off when you change batts.

Just a thought, thats what i'd do.

[DA_cookie_monstA]

Best option is to stick foam to the bottom of you battery strap, so it pushes the cells into the cells slots.

Also, slightly chamfer the cell slots 45' on each long edge, so the cells sit slightly further in.

I have never had that problem since I moved to sadle packs, its the only reason why I converted them to sadle because they kept coming out when I crashed because of the clips got noked off when the car got T-boned. I know this will sound stupid but are the cells "standard size" because the cells shouldnt be able to be pulled out of the car! If you take the battery posts off and cut about 2-3mm off of the bottom it will make the battery bar fit lower therefor its a tighter fit and the cells will not come out.
Mark

[steven252]

put some heat shrink round them, then cut the holes out for the battery brase (so they fit) and this will stop them from ever falling out again

hope this helps
steven

[MattW]

Unfortunately some cells are slightly smaller than others, and i suspect that 2000's would be smaller than others.

If none of the above work..........buy new cells :P

[burgie]

this used to happen to me with my Axis. I chamfered the battery slots, to lower the cells slightly, and put super glue over the chamfer to prevent de-laminating the chassis. I then filed a little plastic awayfrom the battery posts, to lower them also. this went a long way to curing the problem.

[Garry]

I had this problem when I was at BTCC WLRC, running GP 3300's. Solution?

Put the cells in as normal, then put a layer of duct tape on the underside of the chassis, over the cell slots. The cels then stick to the tape instead of flying out!

[bakera]

best and quickest way to solve it i found was to put some double sided sticky foam to the underside of your battery strap leaving the backing on the side that faces the battery's.

you could also try tacking a bit off the chassis, like stated above but make sure u do run some super glue around the edge's you have done to prevent your chassis de-laminating.

[gatesy]

i used to chop up old tyres and double sided tape that to the underside of the battery strap! pushes the cells in, and the rubber has so much friction its hard for the cells to slide out

[Barmybob]

Strange one this.

Have you assembled the saddle clamp correctly? it should look like this.


If you have then I appologise.

The strange thing is this clamp is often too tight to fit, and has to be modified to fit correctly.

Bob

[Scimdarren]

Bob

Thanks for taking the time to digi photo the battery clamp, It was assembled correctly.....

Thanks everone for there input. We had a 'battery loss free' race night on Friday. I took all your advice on board and figured the best thing to do as a long term solution was to take a DREMEL to the chassis, create champfers on each baterry slot and reduce the height of the battery posts.

Advice to All. If you have fitted your batteries and find 'by hook or by crook, you are able to slip the batteries from there securing method, then potentially this could let you down in a race.

Cheers

Darren