For an offroad RC.

I just bought a new electronic speed controller for a buggy I've had for a few years. I replaced the mechanical one. Anyway... I didn't remember how slow this thing was. I want something a lot faster... This is a 2wd buggy with a 7.2v motor.

I just have a feeling nitro will be too much of a hassle do to cleanups maintenance etc...

Whaddya think???

Nitro all the way! Mine wasnt to big of a hassle. If your wanting something that jumps and hauls but in the dirt go NITRO......

I'm going to have to put a barrier up around the outside of our pool... I almost dumped the buggy in there when the radio glitched on me... If it was a FAST truck, it would have been history.

An RC might keep me occupied while my truck is in the shop:D

Whaddya think about an RC forum here?

Heck yea. Ill watch over it.. :hammer:

Gotta new forum :D

Heres my 2nd bad X

This rules. Rick you are quick. Now I am going to go spend more money on a new Nitro Truck. I will have to make it match my truck :)

Ohhh Ohhh Ohhh.....Where can I get an Explorer body:bounce: :bounce:

You should be able to get one from this place. (http://www.towerhobbies.com/)


actually...heres the LINK (http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p.pgm?Q=1&I=LXDB31&P=7)

Those T-maxx Nitros are pretty nice I hear.

Yea thats what I will be getting. That is the one I have wanted for awhile now! You can upgrade them just like our real trucks.

I hope to get a T-Maxx as well. But with its $400+ price tag, not counting all the cool modifications you can make to it....it'll have to wait until I start my job and start saving some money.

I used to be a proud owner of a nitro T-MAXX !!!! That thing deffinatly halls ass and it has a superior suspension. I used to jump everything with it and it would land smooth and it was great because it had reverse and that was the only ready to run which had a reverse last year when i bought it. I dont know if others have reverse now.

the only problem i had was the repairs. Seemed like something was always messed up with it. The stock TRX.15 engine that comes with it is junk. I blew the bearrings inside the engine within 1 month of owning it. It got replaced for free under warrenty but it was still a hasle.

It also comes with an electric start. That didnt last too long either before the one way bearring went on it. Then after i replaced that ... a few days later the electric start motor got fried and needed to be replaced.

I decided to go with a pull start instead and that didnt last very long either. Pulled on the string and it snapped in my hands.

Off road nothing could touch it ... which that is what it was designed for .... on the street it was a differnt story ... it spend most of its time rolling over and sliding on its roof than it did on its wheels. It has a high center of gravity so like our SUV's if you do a high speed sudden turn it will flip and do cartwheels.

It was hard as hell to keep running perfect. Seemed like every run the carb needed to be adjusted. And because it is a 2 stroke engine it makes a mess. Oil gets everywhere.

I got a differnt clutchbell for it with a different gear ratio with gave me better accelerating and i took out the baffle which is in the stock exhaust and that thing screamed. Took off like a rocket. The same day that i recieved my replacement TRX engine i brought it to a empty parking lot to break it in.

For some reason the radio signal got messed up and it went full throttle across the parkinglot and hit a sidewalk at full speed which is around 35mph. Cost me about $55 in replacement parts to fix it.

There were a few more things which needed replacement also. It seemed like everytime something was fixed something else broke and i got tired of fixing it. It spent more time in my basement broken than it did actually running.

Where is my T-MAXX now? If you look at my signature you will see that i now own a 15in Eclipse sub. I traded my TMAXX with a friend of mine for the sub. I could never be happier with the trade i made and my friend is wishing that he never traded the sub for it.

In the 1 month that he had it ... he spent about $95 in repairs between gears being stripped and from hitting things and breaking parts.

Moral of the story ... only buy a "toy" like this if you understand how much the replacement parts are and know exactly what you are getting into. I always had electric cars and they seemed to not break as easily as this one probably because they couldnt reach the speeds that this one does.

If any of you have questions on what mods are good and what mods are crap for the T-MAXX feel free to ask. I researched everything about it while i owned it and replaced many parts and know which ones actually made a difference and which ones were crap like the tornado thing you can get for your intake system.

I think that is the most i ever typed on this forum.

Originally posted by 99explorer5.0
I think that is the most i ever typed on this forum.

But it was all good information. Makes me wonder about if I want to get one of these or not. I heard a lot of good reviews about it. Could yours just have been a lemon?? I'd imagine not with all the problems on all of its different systems. Actual owner testimony is one of the best ways to find out the nitty gritty on a product IMHO. Thanks for sharing.

That's the kind of info I was loking for. I figured the nitro motor would be hard on parts. And I don't want to constantly be cleaning everything from the oil mess.

Now what about the E-max... I would assume that is a lot more reliable, but the hassle with that is having enough charged batteries to be able to run it for awhile.

I can barely go 5 minutes with my 7.2v boggy. How is the run time on the E-max?? maybe strap two batteries together for more run time??

Rick, that is the main reason why I am still considering a nitro. I always hated having to charge the batteries of my cars for 5 hours to play for just 25 minutes. :fire: Then you have the decrease in performance as the batteries drain. Hated that too. If the E-Maxx is better than that, I'll consider one of those.

The E-MAXX takes two 7.2V batteries and it actually has faster acceleration than the T-MAXX but the T-MAXX has a higher top speed. Unfortumatly even though it takes two 7.2V batteries it still only lasts about 7-10 minutes. Reason is because it has dual motors. One battery for each motor.

You can buy some chargers that are a little more expensive than the 4 hour chagers and it will charge the batteries in 15 minutes. The drawback to that is the battery wont last as long as it wouuld have if you charged it for 4 hours on trickle charge.

The time decreaces even more depending on what terrain you are driving on. If you are riding in a parking lot on level cement than you will get around 10 minutes if you run it in grass or sand where the engine is being bogged down it will last 5-7 minutes.

I didnt really intend on making you guys not want to buy the T-MAXX. It is a fun hobby if you can afford it. I had a blast the few times i used it and it didnt break.

They key to having one last a long time is by not pushing your luck. If you run it through two tanks of fuel and nothing brakes concider yourself lucky and dont use it until the next weekend.

By the way ... a tank of fuel with no modifications will last you about 15 minutes. After i did some mods on mine i was averaging about 8 minutes on a tank of feul. But the mods that i did made a difference in performance like night and day.

A friend of mine bought one the same day i did. After buying feul and extra glow plugs and batteries together we almost dropped $950 at that hobby store. He decided to never touch his and i modded mine. I would give him a head start and my truck would run circles around him and my mods only cost about 15 dollars.

He has also had some bad luck with his with having just about every part on it break. He has a digital camera so he documented a few accidents he had. I am going to ask him for the pictures so i can post them.

I want something to mess with while the pumpkin is in the shop and for messing around in the desert after a day of wheeling.

I don't want something that's going to be "in the shop" itself most of the time.

OH Great!
Thanks Rick
Now I have to go dig the RC out of the garage, dust it off and spend more $ on it.

It's your fault for reminding me it's there.

Oh well I guess I'll just put one of the kids to work to support my habits.

More toys :confused: Thats what I would want one for. Just to mess around after a day of wheeling.

Gee I guess that means I have to dig mine out and fix it up too. :)

wow, long post..

NITRO!! :)

I have an MT with an OS .12 CVR-X and a paris racing pipe.. it'd probablly smoke most of the electrics.. its messier.. but a gas engine is worth it IMO :bounce:

my tmaxx rules and i love it.the emaxx is cool too... here is a pic of me at Carnegie SVRA the day iI rolled my X... if i had to do it all over again i would have gotten a lift for the X or gotten a 1/8 scale buggy... they have bigger engines and are way faster......

i have a ton of hop ups on my tmaxx.... Steel driveshafts(MIP all 6) Stablemaxx rims(bigger offset) maxx masher tires(MT Baja Claws)...rear spool...aluminum billit upper control arms, f/r bumpers, center skidplate, steel spur gear (RRP) tough plastic bulkhead braces and shock towers(RPM).performance exhuast and header..nimh receiver pack..cirrus steering servo(this servo sucks,dont recommend)..more mods

to the best of my knowledege nobody sells a 4 door explorer body... however an excursion body is made... they are somewhat similar

hey jimabena74 ... having a steel spur gear is not good. The reason why that gear is plastic is so that gear will get stripped before the gears in your tranny do.

If that gear and your clutchbell are medal then when you hit a wall and it gets stuck at full throttle like mine did it will burn up the tranny gears instead of the spur gear. The tranny gears are alot more of a pain in the ass to replace than the spur gear is.

I did go through 3 spur gears because teeth kept getting chipped and it it stripped itself when i hit a sidewalk but its a 5 minute fix rather than pulling apart the whole tranny.

I'm now the proud owner of an E-Maxx. The nitro is too much of a hassle for me.

I bought two sets of batteries and a dual charger... I also picked up a spool. What's a 4x4 without a traction device, right??

Oh boy... here we go... My batteries are charged and I'm about to take her for a test run.

Char wasn't a good influence... I couldn't decide if I should upgrade my buggy with a better motor and she said "you know you're not going to be happy until you get the 4x4". She knows me too well :D

i know.... but i got the slipper clutch set up well and the gear mesh is perfect... no problem and been like that since i got the truck.......

Seriously bumming!!! The motors won't run:eek: I'm hoping that it's the thermal switch and it will come back on. It's been awhile though.

I hate it when stuff breaks RIGHT away... The damn charger I got had to be returned instantly.. It was blowing fuses. Now this... Oh brother...

I didn't even go through the first set of batteries and I wasn't running it hard as I can barely see it in my yard.

Photos from the backyard...

2

Nice rig... You guys get much nicer bodies with the E-Maxx compared to what we get with the T-Maxx if you ask me...

Rick will you take some pics with the body off??? I'd like to see what it looks like under the hood...

lookin good, up and running already, one of the good parts of electric, however a .21 nitro maxx would still out haul ya! :D not to mention strip a spur gear in 10 seconds if its set up wrong lol

Either way, the maxx is the way to go, best offroad truck on the market aside from buggies and such. Not much for speed cos of being so top heavy, but definatley capable drivers. If I weren't so cheap I'd buy one myself, love those things.

Rick that was just to quick. I love the nitro but now the electric is looking alot easier to keep up.

Brian, don't get sucked over to the dark side... Its not THAT tempting...


Oh yeah and Rick, when you break your skid plates, don't bother with the aluminum skids, they bend to easy and you can only straighten them so many times before, SNAP, and you're out buying a new one... Either go plastic again or go Titanium... The Hardcore Racing Titanium skid was $42 at my LHS...

lol, electric is easier to take care of.. but a nitro RC will out perform an electric in a heartbeat.. unless its a brushless motor or something.

I got an HPI RS4 and a Traxxas Rustler. The rustler is a pretty nice truck. It came RTR (ready to run) so i didnt have to assemble it. Then my brother got a stampede, and that thing was just plain awesome! So I can't imagine what the T-maxx has to offer. I wish it was around when I was making my choice.

How is the nitro for rock crawling? Does the motor load up at low speeds? The electric just crawls over the rocks. Sure it can fly across the tops and too, but watching the suspension articulate is pretty cool.

We're lucky, our back yard is all gravel and river rock.

I placed the truck on our patio and the thing left 1 1/2 foot burnouts, while lifting the front tires off the ground... Hit high gear and it just flies. I certainly don't need anything faster... The faster I'd go the harder I'd crash :D

The harder you crash is right !!!! The nitro's arent really good at low speeds. Its basically all or nothing like a chain saw. The Nitro's have a slipper clutch on them which only activates after a certain engine RPM.

When you are just touching the gas to make it go slow the clutch engages and disengages so it will "buck" just like if you had a standard car and didnt know how to use the clutch.

Nitro's are more fun if your looking to get into a hobby which you are involved with the truck ... like adjusting the engine idle screws and leaning out the mixture to make it run better. If its in your blood you will find it fun adjusting everything. I found it to be a big pain in the ass.

You should set up ramps for that EMAXX ... you would be surprised at to what it can do. I had a pile of dirt that was about 3 feet high. I wouuld jump that at full speed and it would launch in the air and land about 10 feet away and it landed smoooth.

I already told Char I was putting a jumping hill in the back yard :D

I took the truck to my LHS today and they are exchanging the speed controller for a new one. He wouldn't let me do it while I was there and he didn't have time so I should be getting it back later in the day... I'm much happier now :D

Rick - love the new forum and congrats on your E-MAXX! If I ever upgrade from my Traxxas Stampede, it will probably be with an E-MAXX. I'll be watching closely to see how yours performs and how many breakdowns you suffer...

I do enjoy the hobby - even tearing the truck apart to fix things - but as someone stated, it can get quite expensive. To date (I've had my truck about 3 weeks), I've added/replaced: 1) RMP wide front bumper (saves the steering linkage) 2) the steering servo (with an all metal-geared Hitec 625) 3) servo saver (with a beefier one to handle the torque of the more powerful Hitec) and 4) bearing carriers (with RPM to accomodate 5x11 instead of 5x8 bearings).

I'm quite happy with my Stampede and am very happy I chose electric. For those who enjoy endless tinkering, nitro certainly has performance advantages. Still, I like knowing that chances are good, with a fully charged battery, my Stampede is going to "fire up" every time and give me around 10 minutes of runtime. Nitro seems a bit less dependable - especially for those new to it.

A picture of my 'pede: :D

http://www.fototime.com/28417AD70F86666/standard.jpg

Well I'm having fun now... I installed my rear spool today, and bought and painted a Dodge Ram body. White of course to match our Ram. I'm bummed the body didn't come with Cummins stickers though! Only V-8 and V-10 :(

I made a pretty humorus mistake. I had to laugh at myself that's for sure. The diffs can be installed in either the front or rear, you just flip them around depending where you need to run it. So... I put mine back in backwards! The front was going forward and the rear was going backwards! I put the truck down on the gravel and it just dug a hole!

This thing is wild... it sends gravel flying like 10 feet as it's cranking around turns. The gravel yard really chews the thing up. In two days it looks like I've had it a month.

The spool really helps with rock crawling. It's taking a bit to get used to cornering with it now. You need to stay on the throttle or the front end wants to push.

Can't wait to do more mods :D

Ram

Ram2

Rick like you, I wanted faster than my present electric one, but I don't want the fuss of Nitro. So I came up with an idea. I am going to just put some wheels and a motor on my yellow top Optima and I figure I will be good to go. That should last for a couple of hours.


The rig looks awesome. I am sooooo jealous, I will have to hurry and get one fast.

I see Trinity Blue springs and RPM A arms & Shock Tower mounts in your future...