Getting The Most Out Of Your RC Car Temperature Gun

1. Tune Your Ttires To The Track.

A tire rated for hotter temperatures will resist breaking down or "shredding" on asphalt that's hot enough to fry an egg on but will be too hard to run on a cold track because it won't be able to generate enough grip. On the other hand, a cold rated tire (usually soft and sticky) might last only one run on a hot track, slipping and sliding around as it wears away to a nub. You can use your temp gun to find out the track temp before your run, and this will ensure that you choose the appropriate tires. Keep in mind that on-road track temps change throughout the day, so the tires that you used in your midday qualifier might not work as well in the late afternoon main event.

2. Temperature Tune Your Motor Gearing.

Over geaing your motor can do some serious damage. Not only can you burn up your brushes and commutator, but you can also damage your magnets. Brushes can be replaced, and you can skim a comm back to top performance, but magnets are another story: it is pretty hard to restore a strong field to a magnet that has been damaged by overheating. Slightly over gearing your car may not do any long term damage by overheating, but your motor might feel soft in the closing minutes of a race event if there is plenty of battery juice left. Take a few seconds to check your motor temp after a hard practice run, to get a good baseline temp. Then, after your motor has completely cooled, do another run with it geared a bit taller, and so on, until the motor temp is drastically higher than on its previous run. Then back off on the gearing a bit, but make sure that you can still reach top speed before the end of the longest straight. Remember that different motors run best at different temperatures. Experiment and find out what is best for the motor your running.

3. Check Your Batteries.

If you have a battery pack that is starting to lose its punch you might have a cell that is going bad. The faulty cell can be picked from the line of suspects by checking their temperatures. A bad cell will get hotter because of a build up of internal resistance; when it just can't put out juice at the same rate as the others, the result is heat. if you find that one cell is hotter than the rest at the end of a run, even by just a few degrees, it may be time to send it to the battery recycling bin. Your pack should be warm at the end of its charge. Check out the our BatteryFAQ page for a guide charging temps.