Red 390 motors that are fakes!!!!

[Rubicon99]

Today I was testing out some new red 390 motors that were advertised as original HL red 390 motors. I knew instantly after a month in shipping limbo that they were NOT real HL motors. I have purchased dozens of the red motors over the years and these were just not right. The red paint was wrong and the wires were to narrow gage. There was no point in trying to send them back as it would cost me more to ship them to China then they are worth.

So I thought I would give them a try and see what happens. I installed them in my KV1 and the first run with them was at 7.2 volts with a NiMH battery. They ran really well performing as would be would be expected from red 390 motors except for feeling a little hotter then they should be after running for 35 minutes. I was optimistic that all would end up well and good.

I gave the motors time to cool down and then moved up to 9.6 volts of power. WoW was my first thought the KV1 is running great!!! Then after 10 minutes the right track locked up. I picked the tank up and could feel that the hull beneath the gearboxes was extremely hot. Upon removing the upper hull I could see why the track had locked up. The motors had gotten so hot they had melted their internal cooling fan and were visually smoking. If fact they were so hot I had to put on a pair of gloves to keep from burning my fingers while trying to remove them.

Now I have worn out and overheated HL red 390 motors over the years, but I have near had a HL 390 motor melt it’s internal parts and start smoking after 10 minutes of running.

So for those of you looking to upgrade to the red 390 motors make sure you are buying them from a legitimate HL supplier or quite possibly suffer the fate shown below. Motion RC if you are reading this then hurry up and start stocking the real 390 motors. Don’t make us wait another 3-4 months!!!!

Fake HL 390 red motors showing melted internal fan parts sticking out of the cooling vent wholes in the motors.



Shown below is another one of these motors that is still new and unused. You can clearly see the internal plastic cooling fan blades as they should be.

[Beeg]

Is there a way to visually tell if you have fakes? I just picked up two sets but haven’t opened the boxes yet.

[Rubicon99]

Is there a way to visually tell if you have fakes? I just picked up two sets but haven’t opened the boxes yet.

They should be a bright red in color and the power lead wires should be of the same gage as the stock 380 motors.

The first photo below is of real HL 390 motors notice the brighter red color vs the second picture.
Above are real HL 390 red motors

These are “fake” HL 390 motors notice the dull darker red color.

[Beeg]

OK good. Thanks! Both my sets are the brighter (pinkish) red rather than the (brownish) red color and the wires are the same gauge as the stock motors.

[Beeg]

Today I was testing out some new red 390 motors that were advertised as original HL red 390 motors. I knew instantly after a month in shipping limbo that they were NOT real HL motors. I have purchased dozens of the red motors over the years and these were just not right. The red paint was wrong and the wires were to narrow gage. There was no point in trying to send them back as it would cost me more to ship them to China then they are worth.

So I thought I would give them a try and see what happens. I installed them in my KV1 and the first run with them was at 7.2 volts with a NiMH battery. They ran really well performing as would be would be expected from red 390 motors except for feeling a little hotter then they should be after running for 35 minutes. I was optimistic that all would end up well and good.

I gave the motors time to cool down and then moved up to 9.6 volts of power. WoW was my first thought the KV1 is running great!!! Then after 10 minutes the right track locked up. I picked the tank up and could feel that the hull beneath the gearboxes was extremely hot. Upon removing the upper hull I could see why the track had locked up. The motors had gotten so hot they had melted their internal cooling fan and were visually smoking. If fact they were so hot I had to put on a pair of gloves to keep from burning my fingers while trying to remove them.

Now I have worn out and overheated HL red 390 motors over the years, but I have near had a HL 390 motor melt it’s internal parts and start smoking after 10 minutes of running.

So for those of you looking to upgrade to the red 390 motors make sure you are buying them from a legitimate HL supplier or quite possibly suffer the fate shown below. Motion RC if you are reading this then hurry up and start stocking the real 390 motors. Don’t make us wait another 3-4 months!!!!

Did you melt any plastic? It seems the ABS hulls are fairly durable..

[Rubicon99]

Did you melt any plastic? It seems the ABS hulls are fairly durable..

Fortunately I did not melt any hull section or other plastic parts and it appears the MFU which also got really hot suffered no damage. This time the “thermal shut down” programming worked. But the motors did get hot enough to not only melt the internal plastic fans but as I later discovered the solder on two of the motor leads had also melted away.

[Beeg]

Fortunately I did not melt any hull section or other plastic parts and it appears the MFU which also got really hot suffered no damage. This time the “thermal shut down” programming worked. But the motors did get hot enough to not only melt the internal plastic fans but as I later discovered the solder on two of the motor leads had also melted away.

That's pretty warm. Average 60/40 rosin core solder melts around 365⁰F.

[Rubicon99]

A bit of follow up testing on this. I went ahead and installed another pair of “fake red 390s” from this batch in my KV. I wanted to test and see if these would overheat at 7.2 volts coming from a 5000 mAh NiMH battery. A friend of mine theorized these “fake” motors might only be rated to ~7 volts.

After 30 minutes of hard maneuvering and fighting with my 15lbs KV tank, the 7.2v 5000 mAh battery was finally out of power and the motors were fairly hot as to be expected. When I inspected the motors there was no visible signs of heat damage. So it seems these motors might in fact be only rated to ~7 volts unlike the HL red 390s that are fully 12 volt rated.

The problem I see is if someone falls for buying “fakes” like these and is using a 7.4 volt Li-ion/Lipo battery. They run the risk of a motor melt down as the 7.4v Li-ion and Lipo batteries at peak charge put out 8.4-8.6 volts long enough to overheat the motors and possibly cause melt down issues.

[Rubicon99]

That's pretty warm. Average 60/40 rosin core solder melts around 365⁰F.

Initially when I removed the motors I did not see that I had a warped hull bulkhead that sits just in front to the motors. I also just notice that were some areas the looked like they had started to melt.

I figured the motors were well over 250deg by the time I got the upper hull unscrewed and removed. As stated I had to use gloves (oven mitts) to hold them during removal in order not to burn my fingers.

I got lucky this time and did not have the tank catch on fire....LoL

[SoCalBobS]

A question about the real 390's; how does their extra power affect runtime?

[Rubicon99]

A question about the real 390's; how does their extra power affect runtime?

Depends on a lot of factors. Overall length & weight, track grip, type of terrain, slow crawling turns, amount of high speed driving, total mAh and voltage being run.

At 7.2 volts and lower mAh below 3500 the red 390 motors can run longer. This is largely because at lower battery power levels their higher torque output comes into play, when 380s would have long stalled out. 380s tend to draw/use more power in soft terrain like silty sand/dirt, grass, carpet running and while climbing. So it can be a “wash” in run time when using a 7.2 volt batteries with lower mAh.

The real difference is in the 8.4+ volt range and 4500+ mAh batteries. Given the same tank specs and running them side by side one with 390s and one with 380s, the 380 tank tends to run 25% longer. The performance & handling though of the 380 tank is noticeably less. This is evident with my T72s. One is running 390s (tan tank) the other 380s (grn tank). Both are using the same brand and size of 9.6v battery. (both these tanks can be see on my Instagram @ fsttanks)

So yes the 390 will generally burn more power. But the trade off is noticeably smother and better all around performance with then.

[Prowler901]

So, who is a reputable source for these motors?

[Rubicon99]

So, who is a reputable source for these motors?

Toucan hobbies. They can be found on EBay.

[Prowler901]

Thank you, sir.

[DaveBurzum]

Did you order these off of aliexpress?

Worried I may have gotten these exact motors, what was the name of the store you purchase from?

[Rubicon99]

Did you order these off of aliexpress?

Worried I may have gotten these exact motors, what was the name of the store you purchase from?

Yes Aliexpress. It was not from one of the big HL tank parts sellers. So if they don’t have a lot of HL parts listed then chances are the motors are fakes.

[UltraVargen]

Just got two sets of the "fake" red motors in. Plastic blades, darker red color Bought from Toucan on Aliexpress. I thought they were reputable? Could it be that these are in fact official but that Heng Long changed production?

[Alpha]

Be very wary of fakes. We've taken our time to comb through at least four suppliers of these alleged "red motors". Note that Heng Long doesn't produce any red motors themselves.

We have red motors on the way to the US and EU warehouses that we've been using ourselves.

[UltraVargen]

Alpha Good to hear MRC will be stocking the correct motors.

In the meantime I think I'll address the issue with Toucan. The photo of their product listing is the bright red, maybe they aren't even aware. If the wrong motors mean potentially damaging the tank, they should be made aware.

[SoCalBobS]

There's a Toucan Model and a Toucan Hobby, careful which one picks.