Traxxas Blast Upgrades — Motor, Battery & Drivetrain
The Traxxas Blast is a compact twin-hull RC boat, not a truck, and it's worth clearing that up before anything else, since the name alone gives no hint either way next to Traxxas's much larger truck lineup. It's also been out of production for years, which changes the upgrade conversation considerably: there's no current factory accessory catalog to lean on, and planning realistically means working with what's still available secondhand or compatible from the broader small-boat hobby class rather than expecting an in-house parts ecosystem. This guide covers what upgrading a Blast actually looks like today, across motor, battery and drivetrain, along with the parts-availability limits that come with any legacy platform.
What the Traxxas Blast Actually Is
Stock, the Blast runs a single water-cooled brushed motor driving a flex-shaft coupler into a small prop and rudder assembly, powered by a 6-cell NiMH pack through a basic 2-channel radio setup. The plastic twin-hull design is built for calm lake and inshore water rather than rough chop, and the stock electronics are sized modestly to match, which is exactly why the upgrade path looks different from a Traxxas truck: there's a hull to keep sealed against water intrusion at every step, and no suspension or drivetrain gearing to speak of in the way a car platform has.
Motor Upgrade Options
A brushless conversion is the most common upgrade path for a Blast that's still structurally sound. That means a water-cooled brushless motor sized to the boat's small shaft coupler, paired with a waterproof marine ESC rather than the stock brushed unit. Because Traxxas never sold a brushless kit specifically for this hull, the parts come from the wider RC boat aftermarket rather than a Blast-specific product line, which puts the burden on matching motor size and shaft diameter carefully rather than buying a guaranteed drop-in kit. Prop pitch and diameter need to move with the motor swap too; reusing the stock prop on a noticeably higher-kV brushless motor risks overloading it at full throttle instead of delivering the speed gain the conversion is meant to provide.
For anyone sizing a brushless system from scratch rather than working backward from stock parts, the load-matching logic is the same one covered in sizing a brushless motor for an RC boat, just scaled down to the Blast's smaller hull and shaft.
Battery Upgrade Path
The stock 6-cell NiMH pack is a reasonable place to start troubleshooting run-time complaints, but most upgrade builds move to a 2S LiPo pack instead, sized to fit the existing battery compartment. That swap almost always comes paired with an ESC upgrade, since the stock brushed ESC is tuned for NiMH voltage and doesn't include the low-voltage cutoff protection a LiPo pack needs to avoid over-discharge damage. Connector mismatches are common too; a stock Blast harness rarely already carries whatever connector the replacement LiPo pack ships with, so a short adapter lead or a re-terminated connector is usually part of the job.
Weight distribution matters more on a twin-hull boat than it would on a car, since an unbalanced battery placement between the hulls can affect how evenly the boat sits in the water at speed. Keeping the new pack in roughly the same position as the stock battery tray is the simplest way to avoid introducing a handling problem the upgrade wasn't meant to cause.
Drivetrain and Running Gear
"Drivetrain" on a boat like the Blast means the flex-shaft coupler, strut and prop rather than gears and diffs. The flex-shaft coupler is a common wear point after years of use, and a worn or cracked one transmits noticeably more vibration into the hull even before it fails outright. Strut alignment is worth checking any time the motor or shaft is disturbed, since a slightly bent strut or a misaligned shaft angle both show up as vibration and reduced efficiency long before they cause an outright failure. Prop selection ties directly back to whatever motor is currently installed, and it's the cheapest single part to experiment with when tuning a converted Blast's top speed against how hard the new motor and ESC are actually working.
Parts Availability Realities
Because the Blast is discontinued, sourcing factory replacement parts gets harder every year rather than easier, and it's worth setting that expectation up front rather than discovering it mid-build. Hull-specific parts, the deck, hatch and battery tray, are the hardest to replace and typically mean either a donor hull from a secondhand listing or living with cosmetic damage that doesn't affect function. Flex-shaft couplers, strut hardware and props fare better, since the small-boat hobby class uses fairly standardized shaft diameters that a generic replacement part can usually match without needing an exact Traxxas part number.
Anyone converting a Blast to brushless is also, by definition, doing the same kind of legacy-platform brushless conversion covered on the truck side in converting a Traxxas E-Maxx to brushless power, just with a waterproof marine ESC and hull sealing in place of drivetrain and diff considerations. And if the plan includes running a matched LiPo pack sized correctly for the new power system, the capacity and discharge-rate logic covered in choosing a LiPo battery for the Traxxas Slash platform applies just as directly to a Blast conversion, even though the hull under the electronics looks nothing alike.
Is the Traxxas Blast a truck or a boat?
The Traxxas Blast is a small twin-hull RC boat, not a truck. It's easy to assume otherwise from the name alone next to Traxxas's better-known truck lineup, but the Blast is a lake and inshore boat built around a stock brushed motor and a sealed hull rather than a suspension and drivetrain.
Can the Traxxas Blast be converted to brushless power?
Yes, with a water-cooled brushless motor and a waterproof marine ESC sized to the Blast's small hull and shaft coupler. The swap isn't a factory Traxxas kit, since the platform is discontinued, so it relies on generic RC boat brushless components matched to the stock shaft and strut dimensions.
What battery upgrade works for the Traxxas Blast?
A 2S LiPo pack is the common upgrade path from the stock 6-cell NiMH, matched to physical space in the hull's battery compartment and to an ESC rated for LiPo voltage and equipped with low-voltage cutoff protection, since the stock brushed ESC isn't built for LiPo cell counts.
Do I need a new ESC to run LiPo in a Traxxas Blast?
In most cases yes. The stock ESC is tuned for NiMH voltage and lacks LiPo low-voltage cutoff protection, so running LiPo through it risks over-discharging the pack. A brushless conversion typically replaces the ESC anyway, which solves both the motor and battery compatibility question at once.
Where can I find replacement parts for a discontinued Traxxas Blast?
Factory Traxxas parts for the Blast have gotten harder to source since production ended, so owners commonly turn to secondhand listings, donor hulls, and generic RC boat parts sized to fit rather than expecting a complete factory catalog match.
What prop size fits a brushless-converted Blast?
Prop pitch and diameter need to be matched to the new motor's kV rating and the boat's hull speed range rather than reused from the stock brushed setup, since a prop sized for a slower brushed motor can overload a higher-kV brushless motor at full throttle.
How do I waterproof a Traxxas Blast after upgrading electronics?
Check the hatch seal and battery compartment gasket for cracking or compression set before relying on them with new electronics, and seal any new wire pass-throughs with marine-grade sealant, since a brushless ESC swap is more expensive to lose to water intrusion than the stock brushed system was.
Can generic RC boat parts fit the Traxxas Blast?
Many do, particularly flex-shaft couplers, strut hardware and props, since these are built to fairly standardized shaft diameters across the small-boat hobby class. Hull-specific parts like the deck and hatch are harder to substitute and usually require a genuine Traxxas part or a donor hull.
Is upgrading an old Traxxas Blast worth it?
For an owner who already has the hull and enjoys running it, yes, a brushless and LiPo upgrade meaningfully extends what a small lake boat like this can do. Buying one used specifically to build up isn't as clear a case, since a newer brushless-ready boat skips the parts-sourcing work entirely.