Microz

Hey guys. Is anyone planning on getting a sandstorm baja buggy any time soon? They look really nice and I would like to get one, but I don't see any reviews on it. I wouldn't put a brushless system in it; it would stay brushed. Anyone have one?

nitrosportsandrunner

Hi
she's based on the epx platform. Has a vortex bumper, and different tires/body.

So, basically its a tornado/volcano with a cooler body.

Microz

Oh okay cool thanks. Then that means it must be a good platform then for out of the box reliability. I see that you have the tornado...is it a good durable car? Based on what I've read so far it seems to be mixed about what it is, but I'm betting that its good for out of the box performance.

nitrosportsandrunner

its good if you know little tricks. fuel tubing bits in the drive cups to center the dogbones, mounting the links and shocks on the inner most holes to reduce stress on the hubs and shock towers. There is a tips and tricks thread on here where I go into more detail on that stuff.

I havent owned a brushed epx, but the esc and motor are pretty standard fair for a brushed RTR.

The slower speed should mean even less breakage than I get on my tornado, and the tornado holds up very well....even tho it can do 40+mph.

currently, i have the tornado epx pro running, but I also have a volcano epx pro chassis that Ill be installing electronics in as well. Ive owned 2 volcanos before and liked them.

check this out, its a volcano epx pro in the vid:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNmv9PkyHus[/youtube]

Microz

Cool thanks for your reply. I'll take a look at that thread. Oh and you're pretty good at driving on the ice! I'd be all over the place.

nitrosportsandrunner

not that hard with a 4wd. its alot like onroad drift cars. just turn early and keep on the power till the thing turns in the direction you want it to go.
Tho, my buddy did hit his foot with his own car HE was driving.

Microz

Ah okay I see. I've never drifted before, but would like to try it someday.

nitrosportsandrunner

drifting is fun. it takes a bit of getting used to, as steering is done both by the wheel AND by the throttle. but once you get the hang of it you can do some cool stuff.

honestly, you can just slap drift wheels onto a rig like the sandstorm and basically have a drift car. The only difference between a normal onroad car and a drift car is the tires.

there are vids on youtube of savages, emaxx and other big 4wd trucks where they put PVC pipe on the tires to get the amount of limited traction you need for drifting. the same can be done with any 4wd rc.

LMK when you are ready to buy a sandstorm, ill see what kinda deal I can get you.

Dads like rc too

I had a Tornado S30 and my biggest problem was it didn't break enough. It was very durable. After awhile I modded it to run 2.8 tires on it with a single speed. Then I got tired of that and put the two speed back in and replaced the suspension with shocks from a Losi 810, added low profile street tires and a few other minor things. It was always dependable, fired up on 1-3 pulls. Just started getting boring so I put it up for sale, a member on the forum wound up buying it. I would recommend it for almost any type of running.

Microz

nitrosportsandrunner - Cool thanks for your reply! Yep I will let you know when I'm ready.

Dads like rc too

Well to me at least half the fun is working on or modding these cars. The Tornado took a beating, but never just broke. I made a lot of little changes. One thing I really liked was replacing the axels stubs with ones from the Volcano. They're longer and use double hexes which kicked the wheels out a bit farther making the wheelbase a little wider. Doing small things like this, making suspension changes, you don't have to go crazy but small changes can do a lot. Eventually I got the idea that running bigger tires would be fun, and it was. Kind of like a truggy but not as wide. Then I figured slapping the Volcano tranny in it would give me the gearing I needed...it did. I can tell you though the tranny was a lot more work than it looked like it would be. Anyway why I had the Tornado in the rotation I was also running two other cars pretty regularly. The good thing is the Tornado was always ready to go, the bad thing was I was just more into my truggy and stadium truck. I really like buying basket cases and fixing them up and selling them. I wanted to buy another monster truck and really didn't want four cars in the rotation so I sold the Tornado and eventually sold the stadium truck also. But I would still recommend the Tornado or Volcano to someone looking for a budget priced very durable rc buggy/truck.

PetRock

There's a guy on URC that gave an overview of the Sandstorm - he didn't sound very impressed, but as others said it's a common chassis with a different body so it's not completely new.

ou2mame

i wonder if the wheels are less fragile than the vortex cause i keep shattering wheels, apparently thats my new thing. i might have to buy the rims off of that they look cool , maybe they are better? lol.. yeah redcat.. better. ha

nitrosportsandrunner

Wow, what a great review....NOT. To state the quality of the plastic on a model he's never run is lame.
I can see that is uses a different center chassis then the exp models...but the rest is right off your tornado or volcano/vortex.

The tires do appear to be a bit stiff looking....but its a brushed RTR. that buggy wont do more than 25mph (more likely 20mph) and you dont need a high grade tire at those speeds.

Those shocks dont break that easy (the plastic top mount he mentioned)

And the suspension parts are same as on my tornado. Ive jumped my tornado pretty dang hard, and at speeds twice what the sandstorm can do without breaking stuff. Again, I do mount my links on the innermost hole on the hub to reduce stress but even so the plastic isnt that bad.

I hate when someone whats to call it "toy grade" cause of the materials. Toy grade means a model with no support, no spare parts, nothing interchanable or upgradable. thats not true of the sandstorm or any other epx models. While the materials are not as nice as your $250 traxxas, they are fine for the speeds the model will do.

But the author of that post wouldnt know that, as he wrote a scathing review without actually driving the models

Ive owned and driven a $100 radio shack car (from last year) and it was truely horrible. The plastics were a good deal worse than what comes on a redcat, you dont get a 2.4ghz radio, you dont get a 4.0mm banana plug (which is heaps better than a white tamiya plug) you dont get 4wd, you dont get something that can be repaired or upgraded and it was even slower than a stock exp (15mph)

If he aint happy with what he got for $140 thats his problem. but you cannot get a simillar model (quality/spec) wise for less money. Certainly not for half that cost.

Im defending alittle here I know. but seriously, for him to expect more than what he got for his money is stupid. Again, there are $100 rc's sold at walmart every year that are half the quality/design thats in the redcat.

I have a feeling that guy is used to far more expensive RCs. If you drive a corvette, you arent gonna be happy with a dodge neon.

Microz

dads like rc too - Oh okay yeah then I can see why it would get boring. I like driving my cars more than working on them, so it would be really good for me.

nitrosportsandrunner

I enjoy flying as much as driving...however, since I only fly brushless epo planes, I have to wait for nice days to go flying. best plane I had couldnt handle more than 10mph gusts.
But when the weather was good, man was flying fun. Just cant do it as often as driving.

And yes, the twister's body posts are stupid weak.

Im going to the hobby shops indoor track tomorrow with some friends! My tornado epx pro, twister XB, brushed volcano and ECX Torment will all be coming with me. And if it arrives in the mail in time, so will my new Caldera 10e. Should be a blast.
I plan on racing my twister XB against my buddies B4.
And my other friend also has a ECX torment.
Ill take vid and make a utube for sure. I dont get to go to the hobby shops track often!

Microz

Yeah I mean planes are pretty fun, but you don't get to use them as often just like you stated. Also, I've always been an enormous car enthusiast, so thats why the RC cars are so much more fun to me...I can tell you which car is which just by looking at the headlights or tailights!!! Have fun at the track! I'm hoping to take my boost there tomorrow to try out the track...get some video of you racing against the B4...should be interesting.

Dads like rc too

Hey Nitro, hate to steal the thread but when you get your Caldera 10e and need to replace the diffs, the Earthquake hardened set works great. I went through about 3 sets of stock Caldera replacement gears since I couldn't find hardened on the Caldera page, then figured out they were the same as the 8e line. I replaced both front and rear about 3 months ago. After the beating it took at Badlands a few weeks ago, I would have definately had to replace gears again with the stock set, but the Earthquake ones are still going strong.

PetRock

This is the most useful thing I've read in this forum in a long time, thank you! I have a Caldera (1/10th) and a Shredder (1/6th) and Ihad assumed all the diff parts were identical. But after reading your post I went and looked them up. The diff housing and outdrive numbers are the same... but the diff-with-case, diff-only, and gears-only part numbers are different on the Shredder (and Earthquake) than the Caldera.

I had kept all my diff parts in one bag and have been using them for both models, now I have to go back and see if Iused the wrong ones. For other peoples benefit

Caldera: Just Gears: BS903-105
Caldera: Diff Only: BS903-104
Caldera: Diff-with-Case: BS903-020

Earthquake/Shredder: Just Gears: BS803-027
Earthquake/Shredder: Diff Only: BS803-026
Earthquake/Shredder: Diff-with-Case: BS803-025

Dads: Can you see/feel a difference in the metal gears? My Caldera had a front-center-outdrive bearing failure that ended up eating the ring gear teeth, and Ialso just replaced the rear diff internals when I had the diff off the truck to replace a hingepin brace (diff worked, but inside the ring gear teeth were 50% gone and sharpening to a point). I also replaced both front-side and front-center outdrives on my Shredder because they were worn... but didn't notice the diff looking any different.

Dads like rc too

Thanks for clearing up the part number differences for others that may read this post. I should have been more specific and not just said "8e line". I did order the Earthquake complete diff assembly with included hardened gears. For those that don't know, the diff case itself does wear after time and will help speed up the crunching of your diff gears. So I figured since my sons Caldera 10e was about two years old it was probably time for a complete swap out. There is a noticible difference in the hardened gears compared to the stock set. They definately look more machined or of a heavier grade metal. Sadly, they did ship almost completely dry. Not that big a deal but you think they would have at least put a little grease on them for those that don't know you need to grease and check the shims before you install them.

nitrosportsandrunner

guys, the other important part is the shims.
many of the box stock diffs are not shimmed well. even the stock ring/pinion can hold up will if shimmed good.
The easiest way is to buy the nitro shim kit.
Part # 81069

My buddy had a caldera ahwile back. he stripped a few spurs...running a 1/8 scale brushless system but never had diff issues. Again, some come out of the box shimmed well. If the ring/pinion mesh is good then they hold well. If not, they strip.

I would love to see redcat come out with metal diff case upgrade for the 8e/caldera/shredder.
The stock cases are not re-usable IMO. This is cause the stock case screws together (instead of bolting) and when you unscrew it and put it back together the plastic holding the screw in is now weaker.
And if that case flexes any...there goes your diff gears.