New to RC and brushless

[clubber]

I have a HPI Firestorm and I am peed off with it. Charge it for 30-40 minutes, play for 7-8 minutes, battery dead.

A mate of mine has told me to go brushless.

I have been looking on eBay and seen this and this

Would this be a good place for me to start?

[Col]

Both those seem to be 1/8 scale speedo's?
What do you use the firestorm for? Racing or bashing?
What battery's are you using? nimh to lipo will make more difference than brushed to brushless

[clubber]

I'm using nimh batteries, I think the biggest capacity I have is 3000mah.

Not racing mate, just for my kid to bash about in the local park

[clubber]

It does say 1/10th trucks in the listings.

Do you think I should try Lipo batteries before changing the motor and esc?

[Col]

o.k...

edit: yes, I'd try lipo first BUT your brushed motor WILL wear out quicker due to higher voltage. In a previous life I ran brushed and lipo and had to skim twice as often as with nimh and brushed.

The best possible combination for run time is high capacity lipo (anything over 4200mah is high in my opinion) and a good quality (preferably sensored) brushless set-up. The pair can easily be got for less than £150. Both those speedo's you posted will probably be upto the job - I know nothing about them TBH...

These have great reviews for the money: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Turnigy-52...ht_1243wt_1271

Bear in mind that larger capacity battery's can be charged at higher amps so charge times do not increase too much. You will need a lipo compatible charger along these lines: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/turnigy-ac...#ht_500wt_1288

With a reasonably steady motor, those cells and correct gearing you should get 20min + and around 1hr charge time. 3 sets of cells and you're laughing

[clubber]

Cheers Col, very informative post.

[Col]

Pleasure buddy - we aim to please

[rondoolaa]

Remember one thing, if you get lipo's but keep the brushed system then the brushed Speedo won't have Low voltage cut off designed for Lipo batteries, so keep checking the voltage every minute after the first 5 minutes so you dont let your lipo cells go below 3v per cell or you could damage them.