My simple battery strap

[Wacker 2]

Seeing as I've seen a lot of different ways in which people have found to hold their batteries in and do away with the crappy velcro... I thought I'd post some pics of what I've done.

I first started using a 'laggy band' design using the battery retaining band from a calandra 1/12th car:


It worked really well and there was definitely no way it was coming off as I used the same idea all last season in my Atomic Carbon CR2 and it worked a treat. However, I'm in the process of making a plate like others have done that bolts onto the rear angled plate and runs parrallel with the Lipos so that I can mount my speedo onto that a lot neater with plenty of room under the body. And using the 'laggy band' design would have just been too fiddly.

So I made a 'moc' battery strap using some fibreglass GRP sheet that I had lying around... I think its only about 1.5 - 2mm thick...
Here is a pic of it installed in the car:


Here is a pic of the brace itself:


I made some slight modifications to the peice that bolts to the chassis near the servo area to stop the Lipo's from moving around... I drilled through the original holes so that I can use a screw with a nut on the top... I had an old bit of Carbon Fibre left over from an old shock tower so I've cut that into a strip and have bolted this to the top... I then dremmelled a bit of the material away from the Losi peice to allow me to bolt something in the middle of my CF strip to anchor the battery strap... Kinda difficult to explain so here's some pics:



At the other end the battery brace slots into the small middle hole in the peice that goes over the motor, just below the speedo:



Again... here it is all mounted in:


The eagle eyed veiwers out there will have noticed that I used one of the body posts as the way to fix the brace down... kind of a nice touch I thought (I wasn't using them anyway as I prefer velcro to fasten the bodyshell)

Incase you were wondering what I used to cover the fibreglass plate, I found some really cheap Carbon Fibre effect sticker sheet... cost me about £1.63 including postage for an A4 sheet... I did order red (I have a thing for red, hense the Nosram speedo! ) but black still looks great!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...ht_5638wt_1139

I liked it so much I covered the chassis in it as I found the chassis really difficult to clean after the regional at Oswestry last weekend:


I'm also in the process of making my own rear weight kit... it is still in very early stages and so I've only mocked it up using my trusted fibreglass sheet and covered it in my CF sticker. The idea is eventually to have the plate made of steel... or brass (think steel would be better for this bit, to increase strength incase I get a shunt at the back) and then have some bolt-on brass blocks made that I can attach under the plate at the back, and to each side! I did think about purchasing the common brass weight kit but its not very heavy... and I think I'd like more weight over the rear wheels to aid traction!



Hope you all like as much as I do?!

Ta, Jon!

[Muggydude]

how did you punch the holes in the bottom chassis cover?

[Wacker 2]

Originally Posted by Muggydude

how did you punch the holes in the bottom chassis cover?

I just cut them with a sharp scalpel... I did think about nocking round the edge of the holes with the stubby end of a hammer to use the chassis to 'cut' the holes out of the sticker sheet to get it really neat but I couldn't find my hammer... not the kind of tool I usually use for my racing kit!