ncrego
Posts: 470
Joined: 8/28/2002
From: Ankeny,
IA, USA
Status: offline
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I got my Savage X 2 days ago, it's a very nice truck, with real improvements over the original Savage 21 RTR (that I also bought the day it came out). I've also owned the Revo and a bunch of other nitro monsters, plus a bunch of electrics, and cars. Out of them all, I always come back to the Savage. I don't race the monster trucks, I just bash with them, and for that, the near indestructability of the Savage, as well as the great jumping ability, and easy to tune engines that come stock win out. For racing, the Revo is a better design (lower CG, lighter, higher corner speeds), but if I'm not on a track, I'll take a Savage over anything.
One of my flying buddies and I were talking out at the flying field while we were out flying helis and planes, and he said he wanted to get trucks so we could run them when the wind was heavy, or others were flying. Having gotten rid of all my cars and trucks a year ago due to never running them from focusing on my Helis, I agreed, and said we should get the new Savage X, since my original went through hell and back and was about the best RC vehicle I had ever owned (and I've had a LOT). So my buddy and I bought the first 2 that came into my LHS for $429 a piece. They both started right up and idled through the first tank without incident that night on my deck, it was 15 degrees and snowy, but he had never had a nitro truck before, so he was anxious to start it up, and we froze our a$$es off while they idled. Haven't started them up since, as it's been snowing heavily here in IA, and it's -5 degrees out right now. No way I'm going out in that.
Having spent a little time with the truck on the bench, it's a very nice design, with real improvements over the older ones. I've pulled the front diff just to see how easy it is, and yes, it comes out in about a minute, and that's taking the time to read the instructions. Same with the center trans, just a few screws and it's apart. Both huge improvements over the nearly complete stripdown the original truck took. The new plastic roll bar, and cage are better than the original metal pieces, they are sturdy, and won't get bent up like the stock metal hoop did, only disadvantage is with the new airfilter, the hoop can't really be used as a handle, but oh well, with the body on you couldn't get to it, anyways. The wheels are held on by much larger, sturdier hexes, I don't anticipate the stripping problems that existed with the originals. The wheel nuts are different, they are a standard nut attached to a large flange with knurled lip on it that keys into the wheel to actually hold the wheel on straight. The wheels themselves have a much larger hole than the axle, so when you put it on the hex it still flops around and doesn't have any strength until the nut is screwed on. It's an interesting design, I have my doubts about the flange on the nut being big and tough enough to keep the wheel levering off it, but time will tell. I put a good dose of locktite on it, and torqued the nuts down, hopefully that will prove enough to keep the wheels in one piece.
Here's the post I put on another forum the night I got it, with detailed impressions of the changes:
quote:
My buddy and I picked up the first 2 Savage Xs that came into our LHS for $429 a piece. Previously, I owned the first model of Savage 21, along with just about every other Monster Truck out there. I can tell you that this is a very nice truck, and the impression it gives is that they've made a lot of improvements that cost me a lot of time and money.
I never bought another Savage after that, I just kept improving mine, so some of these may have shipped with previous models of Savage between the X and the original.
Nice air filter, just like the Dirt Savers (if I recall correctly) I spent a bunch of money on.
Nice steering servo saver, just like the Ofna one I adapted.
Roll cage isn't installed out of thebox, but easily fits on in a minute or 2. It's fairly sturdy, I don't see the engine getting damaged with it on. There was minor body trimming necessary to fit it, but the lines are marked on the body for where to trim.
New Chassis is sweet! The gunmetal color looks great, it gives the truck a much more polished look than the old silver TVPs did. It's pretty obvious that the access to the center trans wil be easy.
New tires and wheels look great, much better than the old ones, I expect good traction out of them. THe tires are already glued, my original one wasn't glued.
Fuel tank is still hanging off the side. That's just plain stupid.
New radio box is very roomy, the cover is now easy to fit, it's no problem getting everything in, in fact it's big enough that a 5 cell hump pack slides around in it and needs foam to hold it in place. There is a rubber plug on the side for a charge jack.
New body also looks great. Mine is the red one, it looks racy, and sits low on the chassis. It's got a lot of dark colors in it, and with those along with the gunmetal chassis, black shocks and springs really makes it look great.
The diffs look easy to pull out.
The new A-arms still look nice and strong, I was afraid they'd be flimsy after reading that they'd been lightened.
It's night, and very cold, but we both fired our trucks up and ran a tank through them idling for the first step of break in. They both started easily, and ran with no problems. Pipe is pretty noisy, but oh well.
I'm planning on keeping it mostly stock, as my old one got less fun the more money I put into it. The only changes I'm planning is swapping the steering servo, it's pretty weak, can't turn the wheels on a hardwood floor, and putting a reverse kit on it. I'll also probably put a better radio on, but I'll wait and see if this one works well or not. This is a basher, and won't be raced, so if the radio ends up working well, I'll keep it.
In all, I'm impressed. It's a nice truck. A big improvement over the original.
< Message edited by ncrego -- 2/17/2006 5:10:09 PM >
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All Forums >> RC Cars, Buggies, Trucks, Tanks and more >> RC Monster Trucks >> HPI Monster Truck Forum >> RE: Anyone Own a Savage X? 
RE: Anyone Own a Savage X? - 
the hottest I've had it was 195 and that was with the head wrapped with foil. I don't do that anymore. It's just a beast! I always bring my new trucks down to my RC guy for a final "Tweaking" tune up after I finish breaking them in. In the case of the 
...and for god's sake stop making me lust after a 
RE: Anyone Own a Savage X? - 