Max Riot 3s or 4s

[Rocker]

Hi .Decided with all this crap weather .I need a little hack model to fly in all this windy weather.The Max Riot comes to mind  .The recommended lipo for a Riot is a 3s 2200 but I hear most people are flying it on 4s .Will the Riot take a 4s without any mods ?

[Shaun Walsh]

I have a 5 year old Riot which flies on a 3S 3000 on the original motor and a 12x6 prop it has perfectly adequate performance for a poor weather hack. I later replaced the motor for a more powerful one and it will climb vertically. The original set up drew 28 Amps at WOT, the uprated setup draws 38 amps. 
If you want to run on 4S you may need to drop the prop size a touch. I am not sure what current the original motor is rated for. 
You may have trouble fitting a 4S battery into the battery compartment, I've cut the bottom out of the battery compartment in mine to make it fit a wider range of batteries.

[Shaun Walsh]

1 minute ago, Shaun Walsh said:

I have a 5 year old Riot which flies on a 3S 3000 on the original motor and a 12x6 prop it has perfectly adequate performance for a poor weather hack. I later replaced the motor for a more powerful one and it will climb vertically. The original set up drew 28 Amps at WOT, the uprated setup draws 38 amps. 
If you want to run on 4S you may need to drop the prop size a touch. I am not sure what current the original motor is rated for. 
You may have trouble fitting a 4S battery into the battery compartment, I've cut the bottom out of the battery compartment in mine to make it fit a wider range of batteries.

The suppliers recommend an 11x5.5 or 10x6 prop on 4S batteries.

https://www.centuryuk.com/Spares/Aeroplane-Spares/Max-Thrust-Riot

[Peter Beeney]

Hi Rocker,

 

Once upon a time I did a 4 cell jobby on a Riot, probably for no other reason other than to see how fast I could make it go. I posted the result in one of the Riot threads that were running at the time, from memory that happened around 2013 or so I'd say. As usual, I did my own thing, I used the standard motive power but I had to do a couple of other mods, I instantly found the elevator and rudder push rods fell down on the job so I moved the servos down to the back of the fuz. Even then it was apparent sometimes there was still some hesitancy on their part to do what I wanted to them to do so I changed them out for slightly bigger Bluebell MG types. Now I had total confidence. I can say that all the servos did a lot of work at the time, I rigged it for as much control surface throw as I could get in every direction and the standard aileron servos were always as good as gold, not as much as a blink anywhere…. and despite what can probably only be described sometimes as just unadulterated hooliganistic flying nothing else on the model ever broke or bent. I was quite impressed really; I felt quite sure at times the wing at least was on the point of giving up the ghost but it never did….

 

I suspect that a Riot with this sort of performance would cope, but personally I would also consider that the standard 3 cell version would also generally be okay as well.

 

Maybe of course the newer Riots have been upgraded to the point where this sort of mod would not be needed. Also the fact that the model is inherently nice and light to start with so that may help to explain why it was able to put up with so much punishment and still stay in one piece!

 

Good luck if you decide to try it, you may find you don't need the servo mods anyway. I also altered the battery box as well as I remember, I certainly didn't want the battery departing an otherwise perfectly sound model at the wrong moment……

 

PB

[Kim Taylor]

I fly my Riot on 3s3200 lipos and find it flies very nicely. Not fast by any means, but with the throws increased, very maneuverable. 

Tbh they're a bit of a brick, so going fast is never going to be its strong suit. 

Others may well disagree, of course. 

Kim 

[Shaun Walsh]

They are  a bit heavier than a Wot4 and don't fly particularly slowly, on the other hand they are are quite robust,  mine went through  2 trees during its early life with minimal damage. 

[Simon Burch 1]

We use a Riot V2 as our club trainer, using 3S 2200 LiPos which give about 7mins flight time to storage voltage.   With the nose weight removed and replaced by wooden block, it's not too heavy and its aerobatic performance is pretty good.  

 

Its most significant weakness has proved to be the undercarriage. We've replaced the metal leg securing bolts with 5mm nylon bolts, and modified the axles.  Other than that, it's pretty much as standard and, as a trainer, it's difficult to fault.

[Frank Day]

I have the  Max Thrust Ruckus, goes nicely on a 3S 3000-3200 from my old Eflite Apprentice with the two steel weights removed,  it weighs in the same as with 2200's with 10mins. Why carry ballast?

 

On 4s they recommend dropping the prop size. I just dropped in a 60a esc I had kicking around so no faffing about swapping props 50a would be fine.

 

Landing gear, "aircraft grade alloy" yeah!  Axle is thin bolt made from putty and threaded its full length so it grinds through the wheel. fitted Dubro /Aliexpress  axles with collets. I fitted the later bigger wheels, these have a CF tube glued in as a spacer so just drill it out or replace to suit new axles. I also bonded a plywood plate onto the plastic main gear mounting area and extended it fore and aft into the foam after trimming it back a little.  Tail wheel,  pick up a 3D print brace. Dropped the tail down from about 6" and it broke so new and 3d brace. Old tail assembly was glued in so be careful replacing as you could snap the rear fuzz.

Edited May 1 by Frank Day
poor spelling