Kablooey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BJoe]

I was running my E-Revo on lunch tonight with a couple Trinity/Intellect IB4600 7 cell flat packs (TRI20165) in it. Just as I was about to bring it in I slid it to a stop in front of my Jeep and then hear a pop and see something come out of the right side of the truck with some force:confused: At first I thought the one of the right side tire's sidewall blew out until I came to my senses and remembered it's not possible on a foam supported tire and say the battery door on the other side of the Jeep about 16 FEET from the truck! I pulled the shell off so I could unplug the batteries and saw that the battery in the right side battery bay was out of the bay, nearly unplugged from the ESC, and the copper bars were bent nearly straight from a 90* bend! The compartment, front portion of the chassis, and servo in front of it are covered in black stuff, it nearly blew the front cooling duct off the chassis, launched the battery shell 34 FEET or so from the truck:eek: I took pics with my cell phone, but haven't had a chance to get them on line yet since I'm still at work. Needless to say I'm a just a wee bit unhappy and plan on calling Trinity tomorrow:mad:

[Thirdgen89GTA]

I was running my E-Revo on lunch tonight with a couple Trinity/Intellect IB4600 7 cell flat packs (TRI20165) in it. Just as I was about to bring it in I slid it to a stop in front of my Jeep and then hear a pop and see something come out of the right side of the truck with some force:confused: At first I thought the one of the right side tire's sidewall blew out until I came to my senses and remembered it's not possible on a foam supported tire and say the battery door on the other side of the Jeep about 16 FEET from the truck! I pulled the shell off so I could unplug the batteries and saw that the battery in the right side battery bay was out of the bay, nearly unplugged from the ESC, and the copper bars were bent nearly straight from a 90* bend! The compartment, front portion of the chassis, and servo in front of it are covered in black stuff, it nearly blew the front cooling duct off the chassis, launched the battery shell 34 FEET or so from the truck:eek: I took pics with my cell phone, but haven't had a chance to get them on line yet since I'm still at work. Needless to say I'm a just a wee bit unhappy and plan on calling Trinity tomorrow:mad:

So it looks like your batteries got a little hot then.

I'd inspect the other battery for thermal damage. You running the stock gearing? If so and everything on the truck is stock I'd either complain to Trinity, or Traxxas.

[BJoe]

I did have the gearing 17/68 instead of the stock 19/68 and I was running it behind the St. Charles HTU on pavement with stock tires and an extra ventalated (and poorly painted) stock replacement body. This has been a suspect pack since it's never seemed to run correctly prior to this. I should have known better, but still ran it anyway maybe 5 times beforehand.

[BJoe]

Looks like it might have been the good performing battery of the pair that failed! I just hooked the surviving pack up to my 959 and it read 6.-- volts.

[BJoe]

Got home from work and the pics downloaded, but let me warn you...they are cell phone pics since I didn't have a regular camera on me at the time.

Here's the blown end of the pack, those battery bars are supposed to be bent about 100*-110* the other direction!


Here's the guts of the cell that blew, I did shake some out of the truck since they were still burning in the compartment when I unplugged the packs!


And now for the Chassis Carnage!!!!
This is a distance shot of the chassis, you can kinda see the black stuff that came out of the pack when it blew

This is a "Close Up" of the forward part of the compartment that the cell blew in

Here's the top side of the chassis at the cooling ducts, the black powder also came out of the duct was well spraying all the way up to the front body mount and partially dislodging the front duct. The stuff stuck in the grates is metal grid part of the battery's internals

[BJoe]

Now for the debris field
This is an overall view of where the pack sprayed and the truck is sitting in about the same location in relation to the Jeep when the battery went kablooey.

Here's the farthest a chunk of the metal grid flew, probably 18ft from the truck

Here's the battery door, about 16ft from the truck

And here's the case of the cell that blew about 35 FEET away from the truck AFTER taking the door off the truck! Another 4-5 feet the case would have hit the wall or the door behind me!

[BJoe]

Sent them an e-mail though their customer sevice "line", hopefully they'll get back to me soon through e-mail, my cell or at the StC HTU.


*Update* They've sent an automated response to my E-Mail that they've recieved it and should be getting back to me in the next 48 hours.

[slaytanic]

Call Trinity. They will take care of you.

[BJoe]

I'm still waiting on a claim number.

[Tex]

going to the gearing you did should only make the elec/batts run cooler. You went to a smaller pinion which would give more torque and keep everything cooler than stock.

Sounds like a bad batt pack. Trinity's problem not Traxxas.

[BJoe]

Grrrrrr, still haven't recieved an e-mail:mad:

going to the gearing you did should only make the elec/batts run cooler. You went to a smaller pinion which would give more torque and keep everything cooler than stock.

Sounds like a bad batt pack. Trinity's problem not Traxxas.

That's what I think too Tex, seems like when ever I hear of batteries failing like this one did, hte only other thing all incidents have in common is that the battries are Intellect brand cells being assembled by a variety of companies, mine being a Trinity pack, one posted on RCCrawler was assembled by by a place called (and I'm not making this up!) Boom Boom Batteries, and just recently a kid on the Traxxas forum had an Integy assembled 7 cell pack let loose in the same manner completely unplugged from the truck and charger for 4 hours!

[BJoe]

Here's some pics I took the day after with a real digital camera in better light before cleaning that black, powdery crap up.
This is a front view of the chassis' right side to show some of the powder "spray"

Here's the rear section of the chassis, got some of that powder there too, just not as much

Here's a so-so pic of the battery compartment

Here's another so-so but more close up pic of the part of the bay the cell blew in, you can also see where the door was ripped from the hinge!

This pic is better still!

Here's a better pic of the front duct, it turns out that the blast did warp it some, but it's atleast still useable.


If you're wondering what that steel wool looking stuff it, it's some of the batteries guts!

[BJoe]

And now for better battery pics!
Just the blown end of the pack,



Here's the blown cell





And now........the unhappy couple!

[BJoe]

It blew a week today and I e-mailed them a week ago tomorrow, haven't heard back yet.

[Gene]

Any updates from Customer service?

[DAVEC-NITRO-RS4]

I'd pick up the phone.

[BJoe]

I actually called them today after 3pm.......got put on hold for 10 minutes before "Chad's" voice mail kicked in...............

[Gene]

I actually called them today after 3pm.......got put on hold for 10 minutes before "Chad's" voice mail kicked in...............

Man, that's horrible. I can see maybe not getting back to you in a timely manner if the pack was bad and didn't hold a charge. But, This being a safetly issure i would guess that they would be a little more prompt on the situation.

Hope all goes well

[Krosenqu]

I actually called them today after 3pm.......got put on hold for 10 minutes before "Chad's" voice mail kicked in...............

It sounds like you are getting shafted. I'd make that clear when you finally do get a hold of somebody.

[BJoe]

I'll see if I get a call back tomorrow, if not they'll be getting another call Tuesday!

[BJoe]

Finally got a hold of somebody and now have a claim number to send the pack in under!

[AddictedtoNITRO]

took long enough. They better hook you up big time! It's hard to believe with 2 of the biggest names in their catagories. I've always ran trinity stuff and ib cells without problems. I actuall have 3 old trinity monster motors from the early 90's that still rip. I also use ib cells in my crawler. Maybe this is a good reason to upgrade to lipo now lol Even though my pack (4200) has probably been charged about 100 times and still reads over 9 volts on a 6 cell pack lol

[BJoe]

I had to call and mention that I work for a HobbyTown and have a possible battery warranty, then when I actually got some one in warranty claims dept I fessed up and told the gal that is was my battery and what it did to my E-Revo.

[BJoe]

Update, when I got home from work tonight there was a box waiting for me that had a bunch of Trinity marked packing tape on the outside of the box. Turns out Trinity completely replaced this pack with a brand new one that has all side by side cells! All I have to say is....................













Thank You Trinity!!!!!!!!!!




:joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:

[BJoe]

It's like de ja vu all over again, took the truck for a test run today with the new and old pack and the old pack blew the same battery door clean off the truck again (about 16' distance again too:eek, only this time it was in the store while we were open! I was going to call Trinity tomorrow and thank them for the replacement of the first pack........guess I may have to bring up this one going Kablooey too I'll have pics to post up tomorrow or tuesday, I forgot my camera at work tonight