sn0wrider

My Feedback: (1)

Does anyone own a Hot Bodies Dirt Demon? plz if you do can you tell me if its a good truck, top speed and is a strong?

vizaracer

idk?

sn0wrider

My Feedback: (1)

anyone know?

Spin City

I've had a Dirt Demon since May 2003. In all honesty, it has been broken a large percentage of that time, largely because I miscalculated and hit a curb at full throttle, but numerous other little things have also proven troublesome. The weak links, as far as I can tell are the rear differential, body posts, and A-arms.

The rear differential seems to warp under heavy load and the teeth of the input gear slip past the teeth of the ring gear leaving a clicking sound, robbing power, and causing tremendous wear. I have rebuild and re-shimmed the rear differential numerous times, but I have been unable to solve the problem. I am thinking about buying a whole new dif. housing and gears, as I think mine are permanently flawed. The front differential, while identical to the rear has never caused a problem, which makes me think the problem is fixable.

The body posts, while interesting, will be destroyed the first time to flip the truck over. Replace them with something metal.

Some of the A-arms split down the seam at the hinge pin when I hit the curb, so I replaced them with aluminum ones and haven't had a problem since. I don't know if they would hold up to normal romping without breaking. I should mention that the crash was at full speed, dead straight into a vertical concrete surface and it destroyed the frame pan, front differential and front rims; so it was a significant impact.

Regarding your questions about speed and power, the Dirt Demon has plenty of both. The motor is perhaps too strong, hence my diff. problems. The truck will climb an incredible mound of dirt and will drive up standard curbs, without problem. The top speed is fast but not too fast. I've never measured it, but I'd guess it goes around 35 to 40 MPH -- not as fast as a nitro powered track car.

A lot of people will gleefully slander the Dirt Demon, but after almost a year of ownership, I have no regrets. One more bit of advice, though. If you get a Dirt Demon or any other RTR truck for that matter, rebuild, lubricate and loctite EVERYTHING before to actually run it or you will be ordering replacement parts by the end of the day.

Ed Z

My Feedback: (4)

I have one too... I have had little problems with it until the receiver crystal failed and the engine broke the con-rod as a result... Along with the loctite on the engine mount screws, be sure to add a throttle return spring or a "fail-safe" unit...
I did not have the return spring on the throttle when the crystal failed and the engine raced to full open throttle and then the forward/reverse servo went to a neutral position (no drive to the differentials) which allowed the truck to roll to a stop but the motor remained wide open (blew up within 15 seconds)...

Over all though, I would buy another one without hesitation... I plan to change to gear ratio as it has more torque than needed, but could use a bit more top speed (only an issue if you have a very large area to run it in)...

Go out and get one... You'll like it...

rookie_t

My Feedback: (1)

I to have one of these elite club members only MT, it is interesting reading these post because I have had all of the problems listed above. But i have one to add to the list, one bearing for the roto start system. Snow rider if it is your first RC car/truck i would probably not recommend it unless you are very patient. Like Spin City said, rebuild the whole thing all the way down to cleaning and re greasing the diffs, (I use Paris ronnie grease). I am not saying it's not a good STABLE truck, if i could get the diffs to last I would spank the crap out of any savage on a tight off road course.

Kimiz

Hello,

You can pick up a BRAND NEW Hot Bodies Dirt Demon from Ricky's RC Car on eBay.com. They are going for a cool $299.99! Here's the link:

http://stores.ebay.com/Rickys-RC-Car...3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

hybridstone

IT's weaksauce another flop/sorry but it's true

The Boss

The most important thing to do with these and most kits before you run them is to RTR them... R eset, T est, R etighten everything on the kit. The thing that with REALLY! help this kit ALOT is to go to a smaller wheel/tire combo (Sav/max size), the factory wheels/tires are just way to big (one of the biggest on the market) and put way to much stress and load on the suspension and drive components.

I know there were some guys making some custom aluminum parts fort the DD.

silverman1

I had spur gear, and clutchbell eatting problems, plus I split a a-arm hitting a curb but i was not going very fast. I did re-shim the diffs as explained on hot bodies site. I had a reciever failure, but hey hot bodies replaced the radio and reciever free under warranty. I am interested to find out how the new spur gear and clutch bell will hold up, I went with a ofna hardened clutch bell.

I guess we will see when mother nature gives me a chance, but for now the verdict is still out. I don't think it has had any worse problems then any other monster trucks though. Time will tell!!

bajan_dread

If its ready to buy at 299.00 i'll take one for the h-e-double hockey sticks of it shoot!

Nitro Goose

Rookie has a good point. I wouldn't recommend the Dirt Demon either for a first vehicle. After the experience I had with mine, I wouldn't recommend it at all. I owned one for about a year (it sat on a shelf most of that time), trying to give it the benefit of the doubt time and again...but the simple fact was that I spent more time on the phone with Hotbodies customer service than I did running the truck.

I will say this...Hotbodies customer service treated me well. They were always willing to replace part failures. But, after a couple of months of that, I put it up and stuck with running my other nitros. Within the first two weeks of owning the Dirt Demon, I had a rear diff fail (stripped gear) and a counter gear fail (another stripped gear) in the main tranny box. This was without doing any sort of bashing at all...just running around the yard. Other problems I experienced were:

*Internal (engine) spring that engages the starter pin kept shearing itself off...even after replacement.
*A-Arms split down the seams - rendering them all but useless
*Receiver crystal failed - causing a horrific high-speed crash into a curb
*Battery box cracked (possibly from impact of previous crash) but wasn't immediately noticable...later caused another crash when one of the "AA" cells popped out of place during a run.

The internal (engine) catch spring was the final straw for me. The roto-start wouldn't catch anymore...I was tired of pulling the engine apart and fixing the thing, and wasn't willing to pay $60 for a starter box. Luck finally ran out, and after about a month of owning it, a piece of the spring found its way up north, wedging itself between the sleeve and piston. Hotbodies replaced that under warranty as well.

I really wish Hotbodies had thought to engineer a slipper clutch into the drivetrain. I believe it may have saved me the gear failures I experienced. There's just way too much backlash (stress) between an engine and tires that big to not have one.

I loved the look of the truck. And, it ran like a crazy when it did run. Just wish it would have performed as well as it looked.

I've owned several R/C vehicles...and a few MT's including a Savage, LST, and six T-maxxes. For my money, there are other trucks out there that will perform much better, without the downtime frustration and constant wrenching. The Dirt Demon for me was a love/hate relationship.

I only hope that my experience was somewhat isolated....but from what I've read, I have my doubts.

slojoe

My Feedback: (8)

I have a DD also. The diff problems are easily fixed by moving some shims around in the diff. instruction are on the hotbodies web site. The clutch bell problem is easily fixed with a ofna 15t harden cb. I also switched the wheels with some wide maxx wheels with savage tires and changed the motor to a picco .26 its totally awesome now. The force .26 is alright for bashing but I like speed. A arm problems I haven't had yet but hitting a street curb with any MT you are looking for Problems. I had mine over 2 years after these mods and I haven't had any problems. Its a better handling mt because of its wide stance and how long it is. I race mine on a local track in the outlaw class where anything goes and I don't have turn marshals messing with it. Jumps nice and out handles most mts in its class. A little work to get it there but well worth it. If you are looking for mt to bash with go with a Savage or a revo. To race go with a DD, MGT, TNX, Revo,or T maxx.