Need help on upgrading my super cub

[kercha83]

Hi there everybody...i am super new to the rc plane and i just bought the super cub a week ago...i only know very little about the plane...but i got very good at flying the plane already...i plan on upgrading the motor and battery and have tons of questions to ask...if you guys can help me i want the most powerful engine that you dont have to modify the super cub too much to make it fit and the best battery that has the most power and flight time...Also i keep hearing people talk about esc, what is ESC? Do i need to upgrade ESC too if i upgrade to bigger and more powerful parts...I like the 3 channel so i dont plan on changing it yet. And what is the difference between brushless motor and the factory one on the super cub? Do i need to upgrade anything else too if i am upgrading motor and battery...so if anyone has anything like what i am asking for let me know i am very interested. Or either tell me a site where i can get them...thanks alot once again.

[duck9191]

unless you plan on sticking with a brushed motor(which there isn't any much better then the stock motor) you will have to upgrade your raido system. this includes the transmitter, the reciever, the ecs( electronic speed controller) and servos. the cub uses proprietary radio system so there isnt anything you can reuse.

for motor there are two different type, brushed and brushless. brushless offers higher efficeny, less weight and more power. with out modifying any of the motor mounting hardware the easiest way to go is a brushless in-runner. with this you will use the stock gear box and is pretty much a direct bolt in. in the motor section there is a few people who have done this.

as for batteries the best way to go is lipo. they are lighter, have higher capacitys and you can use a 3 cell battery and have 11 volts of power. you can use lipo batteries with the stock cub just by removing the jumper that is on the receiver. you will notice quite a bit more power, plus depending on the battery it will be lighter too. with batteries the higher the voltage the more power you will get, the higher the capacity rating in mah the longer the flight time ie. a 1500 mah battery will fly longer then a 1000 mah. there is a few down sides to lipo batteries. they require a specially charger that is compatible with lipo batteries, also its recomended that a balancer is used when charging. a balancer will make sure that all cells in the battery stay at the same voltage and prevents one cell from under or over charging. another thing is that they don't like to be roughly handled or over or under charged, all of which could lead to fire in the worst case.

the receiver and esc are combined(plus the esc is for brushed motors) on the stock cubs electronics. this is why you will need to buy a brushless esc and separate receiver. if you are fine with 3 channel set up futaba and JR both have 4 channel radio systems that come with the transmitter, reciver and servos which will run you about $120-140 which will give you the option to go 4 channel latter or to use with another plane. then all you will need is the esc. esc's are measured in two ways, type which is either for brushed or brushless motors, and capacity or how much current it can safely supply the motor. both of these depend on what motor you go with.

one other thing is to search the site and look what other people have done, there has been quite a few people who have posted there conversions and have very good descriptions and instructions.

[spar]

Thank you for this thorough explaination! It answers all the questions I wanted to ask.