Nasher

In the past two weeks i've had some bad luck with my rigs, first my crawler decidided to strip just about every gear in it(55 turn motors kill gears, who woulda thought?), then shortly after that I was preparing my Mini Slider for some bashing and using everything stock i blew up the ESC(I will admit, this was partially my fault, I was in a wetish area-some standing puddles), that escalated(sp?) into a small fire which melted some things around it), shortly after that i was driving my mini-z and shorted the battery terminals and it fried the board in a few places. So now I have a Tamiya TT-01 and Duratrax Vendetta ST.
So, after much deciding i have chosen to get a new car, unlike most I do have a good idea of what I am looking for. I will be bashing in loose dirt, gravel, asphalt, grass, and most likely on the beach, I will be jumping(under 6 feet high), and some recreation racing.
What I'm looking for is:
Priced around $200 or less
Durable
Decent run times with 2000 mah 7.2v nimh batteries
I don't need aftermarket support, but I do need parts support as I will be bashing
Preferably a kit or roller, RTR is acceptable however
I have considered the HPI E-Firestorm, Tamiya Dark Impact, RC10B4 and Rustler XL-5.

Thanks for any help from all you guys and gals out there!

NjBasher

it depends what you wanna do like race or bash. also if you want a kit or rtr

Nasher

bash and i'd prefer a kit, but rtr is okay

Chris_RC

For bashing, dont get the B4. What is sad today is they dont make budget friendklly kits anymore!

Nasher

that's what i noticed about the kit prices. i somewhat figured with the B4, it looks okay but seems a bit fragile, i've driven the dark impact and it is very impressive for bashing, then again it's also the biggest i've driven, mostly been doing 1/18th off-road

Krazy Chicken

try the blackfoot xtreme, its extremely durable here are some video's of mine, with the money you have left over, you can get a faster motor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DcqCg1ti0o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWSWwKlcBt8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI7YhHpwaPU

Nasher

my mom and i switch cars, so once in a while i get to drive her Midnight Pumpkin
i'm looking more for buggies or st's though

FairTax4me

The new Rustler XL5s are waterproof. They suck for racing though. And I think the Titan 12T would burn up a 2000 mah pack. The one in my Slash chewed up a 3000 mah Venom pack and spit it out with half the shrink wrap gone. And that was just on stock gearing.

Slashes on the other hand are great for racing if your track has a Slash class. Handyracing posts new vids of those things in action just about every week. That would fit the bill but you might want a better battery pack for it.

Tamiya kits are great but getting parts is a pain from what I hear.

rclugnut10

My Feedback: (1)

the e-firestorm is a good truck or the duratrax evader both great trucks with lots of potenial i'ld go firestorm if i was you

the lug

Chris_RC

[&:][&:][&:]

REALLY?!? The XL5's with the new bodies are waterproof? I guess you learn something new every day! Its been a while since I learned something from this forum though!

Nasher

so it looks like e-firestorm or DF03, i've actually got a semi-local supplier of tamiya parts(went shopping for DF03 parts with a friend there), also semi-local HPI parts, my only problem right now is the E-Firestorm has a hefty motor, so i'm worried about my batteries. 1500 mah nicd batteries last a good 15-20 minutes in the DF03 which would be pretty good, if i can get something similar in run time in the e-firestorm it'd be really great

Krazy Chicken

go for the df03, its a great buggy

Nasher

that's what i figured i'd go with, it certainly looks like a superb bashing buggy, it flies stock so i figure with tamiya's sport tuned motor it should have a very good punch, until i go with a mamba 5700kw system paired with a 2s lipo

SlashBasher

My Feedback: (8)

good choice on the DF03! but ine thing, a 1500 nicd will not last 15-20 minutes in any buggy/truck. Maybe 5-7...

Krazy Chicken

it lasts that long in a lb/pumpkin/bf xtreme, thats all im able to use, and thats the run time i get

rustlerdog

Not sure if you have decided yet but I'll throw in my experience with the XL-5 I picked up just before xmas(my first RC car.... well first was a grasshopper at the age of 10.. so 15 years later i still consider it my first lol). I use 4200mah Nimh venom packs for batterys.

First pack through the car (totally my fault) I broke an A-Arm. I run totally on grass and managed to strip the idler gear on about the 5th run.

But on to the good parts... After I replaced the plastic idler gear (they claimed all internal transmission gears were metal) I have run 15 or so packs through the car with absolutely no problems... Its pretty quick on pavement and good enough to keep my 70 lb 9 month old boxer puppy running almost full out on low grass. Run times on the 4200mah batts i have are well over 20 minutes most times.. with 2000mah I would assume you might get 10-15 minutes at best.

I wish I would have known about the water proof version that pep boys started selling because knowing everything i know now and experiencing puddles/snow a water proof or at least resistant ESC would have been a blessing.

from my minimal experience I really love the truck and have been buying hop ups obssessively to get it ready for a brushless system and lipos .

If you buy the truck, do yourself a favor and spend the 20-30 or so bucks it costs to get a steel idler, steel ring differential and an RPM wide front bumper. It made all the difference in the world for me when i changed the internal gears to metal.

Nasher

hmm...maybe it seemed like it lasted so long because of how much fun we had! yeah, after thinking about it, the run times should be a tad bit lower

t9dragon

My Feedback: (11)

Just use the money to fix your broken RC's................

Nasher

that's a good point, but i'm losing interest in 1/18th and 1/28th scale cars, the bigger rigs provide more thrill and it's been just recently that i figured that out

Mz

dude, get a nitro monster truck!
the t-maxx classics are like $300 now. steal!!