MTboy

That is why we are staying with the Losi's.. LHS stocks parts for these and that will help us out. I really understand that the mini T is not the best but my son is hooked on the look for some reason..lol Also don't think it's that bad when you have all the hop ups since thats what I love to do.. But we will have to wait tell November 3rd when the DT is in stock unless my lhs has one.. Will find out tomorrow.

DarkHorse

Every truck has it's niggles, the xrays have less than most. If you can live with online ordering the the Xrays are a great choice, especially if you want future brushless and lithium power without much hassle. Check the Xray M18T and M18MT RTRs thread and Just sharing - M18T - best 1/18 car I've ever... thread. Do a search for the pro kit version with even more solid performance hop ups included.[8D]

MTboy

Thanks for the links.. Some great video's.. But for me I'm not looking to spend hundreds on a mini. Maybe after some time I will put more into it but for bashing and such I have my 1/8 scale.. These mini's will be mostly ran in the house and in the yard. Just something to play with when not able to go out to our favorite locations. Plus I look at having to up grade as a learning step. Helps my son learn what is what.. If we start out with the best then all we do is drive and wait for something to brake and never learn what is better... Just how we look at it and thank you guys for everything..

MTboy

Crap!!!
Now that I told my son that on the mini T he needs better shocks and some batteries, he Now wants the DT..lol Man that just costed me more..lol

04DarkShadowGT

The duratrax vendetta at is the best mini I have ever owned. I sold it for an RC18MT and I wish I hadnt, I hate the RC18. Id put the vendettas toughness up against anything from Xray for half the cost.

flat6

My Feedback: (5)

I love my mini t... Bought it used on ebay.. Threw on a set of gpm shocks, full bearings, deans plugs all around, rx280 motor out of the mini baja (twelve bucks), and it is a BLAST. Been doing a lot of 15 foot jumps, etc...nothing broke yet.

Evan T.

make sure you get the mini peak charger for the desert truck because the stock one is going to take for ever to charge the batts or just get the lipo batt and charger

dacaur

Nah, you will save money in the long run... you think you are going to get oil shocks and decent electronics for under $30? Plus the mini DT will handle better.

DarkHorse

> vendettas toughness up against anything from Xray for half the cost.
Yea, you'd have to buy one then . LOL

It seems we all get entrenched and attached the the truck that best suits our driving requirements.
Good job there are lots of options to choose from (avoiding the obvious lemons).

MTboy

Yeah I think all can be good trucks and think that the DT will be great for us.. But still trying to figure out if my charger will work with these mini batteries or if I need to get another charger..

dacaur

what charger do you have? if its a peak detecting charger and can go down to 1 amp or so it will work... if its a timed charger, definitely ditch it and get a decent peak detecting charger.....

MTboy

I have the Dynamite prophet pro charger. I believe it is a good peak charger that will handle the stock batts. But not lipo. I can do 1amp, 2amp and 4amp.
The problem I am having is that to charge the stock batts or mini batts I need a connector to go from charger to the mini batts. Since I dont have any mini batts I dont know what end they have. So if anyone can help me with the connectors that would be great..

Will this work????
https://www.rcplanet.com/ProductDeta...ctCode=INT2165

dacaur

Yes

Or, what I did is just cut off the end of the stock charger, and made my own adapter....

MTboy

Cool thanks. I may just do that.
Been reading allot about different motors. Thinking I may need to get one so I can smoke my son since he is getting the same truck now. Was looking at either the monster wild or orion.

JPerrone

Everyone raves about Deans connectors. I got a LiPo for my mini-Baja, and it came with a Deans connection on it. So I will upgrade the connection from the car to battery by soldering a Deans on that end. I thought that there was not enough room in there for it, but there is.

I don't know about the DT, but I can squeeze my fingers under the body, break the battery connection, and connect up to charge without taking the body off. Makes it VERY convenient to charge. Not sure I will do this with my new LiPo though; but I might make use of this to disconnect the battery when not in use. Point being, the stock Losi connectors aren't as robust as the Deans (or Traxxas), and I don't feel 100% comfortable doing this with the stock connectors. I do with the Deans.

For charging, you will need to have some way to connect to the battery. If you have a number of different battery connections (I do: Traxxas, Deans, micro Deans) that becomes a bit more work.

I have a Hyperion 0606 and you connect to that with a banana plug. What I did was make up three sets of connections; one each for each connection. Great soldering practice.

I also have another charger a Dynamite Peak I believe and the cable is hardwired into the box. This charger comes with Molex (aka "standard" aka PIS Tamiya). For this charger, I use adapters (Molex to Traxxas, etc)

The fact is, you don't charge at high C rates; so the extra resistance from adapters is not a problem. Both chargers and their connections/adapters are working fine with no problems

Good luck and regards

bigairlife

m18t pro. No questions asked

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

Man, you opened a can of worms with that question.


But the CENME16MT BLOWS THEM ALL AWAY!! I have had them all and I know.

Here is what NO OTHER MINI CAN OFFER

FULL SIZE 540 OR 550 MOTOR this means VERY powerfull mini that is VERY EASY to upgrade. You don't even have to go brushless to beat every other mini out there.
FULL SIZE 6 CELL SUB C BATTERY PACK LONG RUN TIMES
1/10 SCALE WHEELS MOW OVER WHAT EVER YOU WANT WITHOUT GETTING STUCK LIKE THOSE LITTLE TRUCKS
Parts availability VERY AVAILABLE
Upgrades VERY AVAILABLE
In case you haven't already, check out my thread

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_72..._1/key_/tm.htm

MTboy

Thanks for all the info on the adaptors and charging JPerron. Think thats what I will end up doing, just getting adaptors for the batteries. Really just want some good run times and don't really care right now about the speed.

Wheelnut, Nice looking truck. But looking more for a mini that looks realistic. Plus we have 1/10 and 1/8 trucks so don't need to worry about getting stuck and being faster than anyone. We are getting these for use in the house or yard on days we can't go out and play with the big trucks.

Wheelnut

My Feedback: (81)

MTboy, thanks for the comp.

"We are getting these for use in the house or yard on days we can't go out" Isn't your yard outside? just kidding about you contradicting yourself in that comment.

To redefine your thread title, "What is the best mini?
I guess there are really two types of minis. They type that is best for indoors, Which I think is the Micro T or Micro Raminator, because they are small enough to have real fun with indoors. Or the type that is mostly meant for outdoors. We have monster trucks too, but mini's can have the advantage of the ease of toting around and less batteries to charge and can run in smaller yards and so on. So in that case the best outdoor mini is the CENME16MT and it is definitely not a good indoor truck.
One last note here, My favorite Micro truck of all time for indoors was the Kyosho Mini Mad Force. It was awsome. If you don't mind, I will take this opportunity to show off some old stuff. For indoor, a good track is needed.

MTboy

What is the best mini was at the start when we were looking for the best for us.. I just didn't think I needed to start a new topic to get some answers that we have been looking for.

You have a great collection of RC's and someday hope to have ourselfs a wide range. But for now we have to start at the first one and learn about this mini world. I was thinking about the micro's but thought that they are alittle to small for us right now. But still would like to get some later on. To be honest I would like to get a monster truck but this is for my son and what he decides on... We are planning on using these as a learning tool and family fun with small races in and outside the house.

Thanks for the pics and feel free to add any that you please. We love to look...

Rody63

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that one. I love my Mini-Z Monster. Even though it's 2wd, it'll still run over all kinds of obstacles inside (shoes, toys, etc.). I haven't run it in a while because the top gear case where the suspension link is connected is broken. I've been thinking about getting a metal one, but they're expensive. That's a very cool truck.

JPerrone

People will always have their favorite car; that's because everybody has different (sometimes greatly) interests. Some people like to build, some don't. Some like to crash and burn, some don't. But on all of the "what is the best" surveys, you usually find 3 to 5 vehicles being mentioned a lot. (eg. Xray, Vendetta, Mini T/B/DT, CEN...) I would start by narrowing to those.

Next thing I'd look at is local parts support. Even if you baby your cars (I do), you will eventually need parts. There is NOTHING as disheartening than wanting to use your vehicle and you can't because you're waiting for parts. I can deal with it but the 7 year old doesn't really understand patience yet; and that frustration gets passed on to me.

If you aren't interested in hopping up, that local parts supply only needs to be the stock parts. If you like upgrades well that helps narrow the field down; some of the vehicles don't have a lot of upgrades available.

By the time you've gone through this, there will still be MORE than one car on your "ok to buy" list; so how to decide? Two things: do any of your buddies have one? Driving similar performing vehicles against each other is much better than ones that are very different. When I run my mini Baja against the Midnight pumpkin, it's not as much fun as Mini-Baja against Mini Baja.

And finally the only criteria that should matter: Which one do you LIKE? In the end that's the only thing that really matters.

Regards

Kloft

Well would have to say definately the rc18 or the xtm rage

My friend has the xtm, hes got the 5400kv sidewinder and a 3 cell lipo
we've been running the crap out of it for almost 4 months and

1. the drivetrain is AMAZING! We've had zero problems with it handleing the brushless andd
2. the electronis are nice to just because of the fact that it can handle the 3 cell

mini_mac

the only "electronics handling the 3 cell lipo" is the mamba ESC that is designed to do so
but doesn't come as part of the xtm

Kloft

Ya, sorry I worded that wrongg

But actually we ran the lipo on the truck STOCK for a couple days before he got the sidewinder, it worked,
but just the fact that it did work for that long is amazingg in my book