elven wizard

Life with the FS truck - long term review


I just got my FS truck a month ago . Opening from the box I was amazed at how huge it was. Yellow body, yellow rims, red suspension arms and blue parts all around. It's a good looking truck. I went to Chevron and bought 91octane gas. mix it with 2 stroke oil. Before starting I check over the truck everything seemed to be tightly screwed down and secure. Put gas in, and four new duracell rechargables in and away I went. I keep a log book on everything I do. I wanted to run this truck thru two tanks a day.

Quality - For the price and what you get for workmanship / quality material is good

Transmitter on the reciever switch I put the choke on, blip the primer bulb a few times, one or two pulls hear it now want to start and pull the lever on "run" postion pull the cord and it starts. The engine idles good, a constant nice idle. Once going the FS steering is fairly good surprisely for one servo on 4 AA batteries. No steering wander.

I drove this truck mostly on my track, in the mountains, sand, thru mud, and even on pavement. I wanted to see what this truck can do thru these terrian conditions.

Engine - Power - Reliability -[sm=shades_smile.gif] I was able to go up steep high sides of mountians with no problems even spinning all four wheels going up. The power from the FS motor was even there all the way towards the top. It's a cool site watching this monster just chur up the dirt going up. Taking this truck to the desert some days were hot and one of those days it was sorching. I ran this truck on that scorcher day and the engine worked as good as it would any other day.

Mud - In the mud that I ran it thru, it was very thick and heavy, thick enough were even it would give other rc's trouble. Going thru this mud the FS sank all 4 wheels a quarter of the way up the rim.[sm=drowning.gif] Pressing the throttle slightly the engine labored ( wheels not turning yet) pressing trottle now further wheels started to turn then all 4's spinning the truck out of the mud. This engine does have the power to move this thing out of thick deep mud.

Doughnuts - This monster can do doughnuts, no problem and it looks cool !

Brakes - The brakes I tested over and over again and they stop on a dime.

Steering - With one servo it was able to do it's job. It doesn't steer as fast as two servos of course. I felt I can live with this and It was able to do the job. On the 10th tank I jumped the truck landing on the first front wheel and I heard a grind sound. Steering did not work. Stripped a gear in the servo, so I replaced it with a hitec high torque servo and I'm back in business.

Bearing - After the second run I noticed the left front wheel was slightly wobbly. I left it like it was suspecting the bearing is the problem. Amazingly enough after all the runs on this truck the wobble didn't get worse. I did have a problem with the right side front bearing and I'll get to that in the jumping section. [X(]

Transmisson - All gears stayed intact and look good. Very minimal wear. [8D]

Sand - I ran this truck thru the kind of sand with those little itty bitty rocks that can strip a gear fast. The gear cover did its job nothing went thru it.

Diffs, outdrives - All look good still

Body- I've had a few turnovers and the body has no tears just slight scratchs

Tires [:-] - I like these tires. It gives this truck a good handling feel and great for all terrian.

Jumping - For a big truck I able able to jump this truck a few times. It took the jumps pretty well. On about the 5th tank the right side bearing is popping out moving the front axle outwards, thus the axle is not connecting to the outdrive making the wheel jam up. I am ordering better quality bearings to solve this.

Speed - This beast goes pretty good at full throttle. [:-]In fact at full throttle I like power sliding it thru the turns.

Transmitter - I've been using this same transmitter that came with the truck for a while now. I go at a good range. I dont go to far though and I've haven't experienced any loss of signal.

I have now run this truck thru 30 full tanks of gas. The engine still idles smooth and runs really well. I have been using the same spark plug and about every 2 to 3 times I give it a good cleaning. The air filter I clean after every tank. After the day I blow out the whole truck with my air compressor and make sure all the screws are tight, they will loosen up after a few runs. Besides gas and 2 stroke oil. The only money I put in this truck is steering hub bearings and a hitec servo which I already bought.

Summary - [sm=thumbs_up.gif]Iv'e had alot of fun with the FS truck, it's been to alot of places and was able to handle it. People are amazed at how big it is. Nice thing about running this truck as much I do is the savings from using gas. Overall for the price and the use Iv'e gotton out of it, the FS truck is a pretty good deal.

Elven

JQuest64

Yep, love my FS as well and beat it without mercy.
I have made some changes to mine in the form of electronics and some MCD parts as things broke. As well as some cosmetic changes.



Overall though, the money was well spent and would definitely buy another.

elven wizard

Nice looking ! I like mine alot happy that I got it.

Xtfreak

Will the MCD body fit the Baja?

Cal-Torque

Great post. My only question is what other large scale RCs do you or have you owned? I think that reviewers need to have a point of comparison.
I still don't think much of my FS. The CY 26 made a big difference, but it's still no where near the overall quality of HPI, FG, or even Smartech and Redcat.
It's not terrible, but it's not worth my time and money to get it to the point where it's fun and reliable to drive.
Just my opinion. I know that many people will disagree. But, before firing off the nasty notes, consider what experience you have with other brands.
As a cheap entry point into large scale 4x4, it's ok.

elven wizard

I have a MCD truck, MCD buggy. FG pajero, XTM buggy etc on and on. Besides the other manufactors MCD's are the Mercedes of 1/5 scales RC's. Do FS products compare with MCD ? no not really. Mcd quality materials and workmanship are so much better. There great trucks and buggys. I bought a FS to see for my self how they compare. I have found there not junk nor are they great. I dont want to say there junk or great until I've owned one and put my time in them. Someone who cant afford a MCD or other, FS is a good starter. If you keep the maintenance up there good. I run Rc's everyday alot of people run maybe the weekends or once or twice a month, so I put alot of mileage on my stuff, thus the wear and tear will be greater than a normal RC runner. A alot of people out there want a MCD but can't afford one. Would I buy another FS truck ? No. Iv'e lived the FS experience. The truck did it's thing for me for what it is worth. If you are a daily runner like me who puts a few hours of run time on there RC's everyday and have the money or can save up for something like a MCD then do it !

Bratch96

30 tanks in 30 days. That's some serious rc time.

Just curious, why wouldn't you put in a 5 cell battery?

elven wizard

I wanted to see if I can put the least amount of money in this truck for this test. The more money I put in with upgrades then I creep up the price to other Rc models that I can get instead of this. On one servo on a open area as long as your not turning to tight one servo will do.

elven wizard

I wanted to see if I can put the least amount of money in this truck as I can and to see how long this truck can last stock right out of the box. The more money I put in with upgrades then I creep up the price to other Rc models that I can get instead of this. Question about Servo - On one servo on a open area as long as your not turning to tight, one servo will do.

elven wizard

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MODELMAN2

WWW.IMEXRC.COM HAS ALL THE PARTS IN STOCK FOR ALL FS 2WD AND 4WD CARS AND TUCKS.... FAST SERVICE TOO

elven wizard

Great thanks modelman2 [sm=teeth_smile.gif]

elven wizard

repost for FS death

elven wizard

I see more people asking questons about the FS truck. For those who didn't see my FS review here it is.

splcrazy

ther is a new king kong out now supposed to be bigger than the one you have

elven wizard

bigger than the king kong that I have ? [sm=omg_smile.gif]

cause this thing is already huge lil kids can't even carry it !

splcrazy

actually i think its the same size i could be wrong , this one is called the king kong pro , and has differant features and extras http://www.oversizerc.ashop.com.au/p...ter-truck.html

elven wizard

Not bad, not bad at all. [8D] alot of improvements for basiclly the same price.

splcrazy

So is this king kong a clone of the mcd monstertruck ? im seeing this monster truck in the mcd truck section at powerslide racing http://powerslideracing.com.au/index...roducts_id=441 , its called a proline or something , is it from the company proline ? or is it from MCD and they called it a proline ? im confused , and i really like this truck more than the FG MT and i want to get one when they get back in stock .

elven wizard

Good question. Now to be safe if you were to buy the MCD MT EVO3 I would buy it at Largescalerc. At the very least you know then that it is a legit MCD product. As for the FG 4x4 truck, that will be interesting. Looking at the pictures it should be very good. [8D]

splcrazy

yeah www.largescalerc.com looks to be an awsome site , but there is no way i could buy from them cos they are in the usa , it would cost me an arm & a leg considering our crappy australian dollar . i would need to buy from australia site www.powerslideracing.com.au and i dont know what happened to them cos they dont sell FG anymore , only MCD and the hurrax and some cheapo clone baja5b lol , or give $2000 for a FG MT at my local hobby shop that is 5 mins away from where i live lol

elven wizard

I see what your saying about the dollar difference. Cost effective wise have you considered a nitro model like a Traxxas Revo Slayer ? Some of these new models are awesome. Or the SC8 ?