Unfortunately, the stock NiMH 150 mAH battery only lasts a few minutes before the truck starts to slow down significantly. It was also annoying having to charge 8 NiMH AA batteries every other day to keep the Losi portable charger working.

The options I saw online were either to purchase another stock NiMH battery and a wall charger for about $30 or buy a LiPo charger and battery pack for about $40.

Rather than choose either of those options, I decided to build a very long life battery pack with four 1000 mAH AAA 1.2V NiMH rechargeable batteries wired in a series to equal the 4.8 volts output of the stock battery pack.

They have 1000 mAH stamped on the label but I suspect their capacity is more like 250-500 mAH.

I wired the 4 AAA batteries in series (+ of battery 1 to - of battery 2, etc) and then secured them together with a rubber band.

I didn't want to cut up the connector on the stock battery to test the prototype, so I just placed the bare wires into the plug on the electronic speed control.

The test run with this crude pack went well and it provided about ten minutes of full power run time, which is about double the run time of my worn down stock battery pack.

Then I went to Radio Shack and purchased a 4xAAA battery holder for $1.99 and a bag of heat shrink tubing for $3.49.

These green NiMH AAA batteries work well enough in an old MP3 player and A/V remote controls, but I wanted longer run time for my Losi Micro Desert Truck.

So I ordered a set of four Sanyo Eneloop AAA NiMH low self discharge rechargeable batteries for $11 from Amazon.

They have a true capacity of 800 mAH which should last about 5 times as long as the stock Losi 150 mAH NiMH battery pack.

For some reason the connectors had orange and blue wires rather than the standard red and black.

I was careful to double check that I got the polarity correct when attaching the wires together.

A bit of shrink tubing helped to keep the connections secure.

The extra weight higher up and on the front part of the vehicle does change the driving dynamics, but not by much.

Popping the batteries into the Radio Shack holder and attaching it to the Micro DT takes much less time than it would to unscrew and reattach the battery panel on the bottom of the truck.

I do try to take short breaks every 5 to 10 minutes to allow the motor to cool down.

So far the only downsides are that the vehicle occasionally rolls over during sharp turns at high speed and I can't attach the colorful lexan Desert Truck body.

The total cost of building the battery pack including the Radio Shack parts, the Losi connectors and the eneloop AAA batteries was about $20.

To see a video clip of the Losi Micro Desert Truck in action with this custom AAA battery pack, click on the following link. The movie is encoded in the WMV (Windows Media Video) format. To download the video to your hard drive, right click on the link and choose "Save Target As" or "Save Link As". (I was shooting the video and driving the truck at the same time, so please forgive the endless circles.)

Losi Micro Desert Truck With 4xAAA Battery Pack Video Clip