jefx

I'm sure this has been done several times before, but I just wanted to post my initial impressions of my new MGT.

I got it a couple weeks ago for $320 from my LHS. I never fired up the engine as it seemed a little underpowered from what I'm used to (from what I've seen in online vids). So I dropped in a Mach .26 first thing, and also swapped out the stock wheels/tires (also never been ran) for a set of XTM Meats and chrome Pentos. I cranked the slipper down all the way, considering I'm still only using the stock 6 pegs. The Mach wasn't a direct drop in, I had to use a longer clutch nut, and I needed the AE side exhaust manifold to use the pipe I have. I also put 50 weight oil in both diffs.

The first couple tanks was pretty fun. The truck handles pretty well, and takes rough terrain with stride. The power of the Mach .26 pulls wheelies at will with the stock gearing, and combined with the 7 inch tall tires, appeared to be hitting mid to high 30's for top speed........Not too bad.

Then I rolled it over. Very minor, with speed at ~5 mph. It managed to pop off two shock caps, and a turnbuckle. I was quite dissapointed by this, but figured it was a good chance to remove all the fake piggybacks. Nothing broke and it cost nothing to repair, it just ended my day with the MGT early. I'm glad I brought my LST with me so I could continue to bash.

My next trip out is even more fun as I'm getting used to the truck. I rolled it again on accident after a flip from a wheelie, at higher speed this time ~15 mph. It remained in one piece, so I kept driving. After that I noticed that it wasn't quite as fast as it had been, and my temps were climbing, and I wasn't able to bring them back down, so my day ended early for the MGT again. And once again, I was glad to have the LST (the thing never breaks).

After I got home, I noticed the spur gear was rubbing the clutchbell, and the clutchbell was blueish in color, like it had gotten really hot. I tore it down to find that the chassis was bent up pretty badly under the engine mount, causing the clutchbell to rub the tranny, and bind with the spur gear. I guess my flip had something to do with that, but my engine head shows no sign of scratches. I was able to pound the chassis fairly straight again with a hammer, and used a sanding wheel on my dremel to smooth out the rough edges. I can't believe the chassis got bent up so badly from something so minor!

Then I take the clutch out from the blueish colored clutchbell to find that the clutch is already completely wore out, after about 5 tanks of fuel. The clutch springs have even wore a groove into the clutchbell.

Anyway, so far I'm less than impressed with the lack of durability of this truck. In fact, I'm pretty damned dissapointed. It's fun to drive, but has already given me quite a headache. I'm not gonna give up on it quite yet though, and all the repaires haven't cost me anything yet, unless my replacement clutch shoes from my tool box don't work very well (they're stock LST clutch shoes, with SUT springs). I honestly can't recommend this truck to anyone yet, since it's seems to be pretty brittle. I would only suggest buying it if you can get it for dirt cheap.

Haldir

Jefx,

Thanks for the review, I will stay clear of this Thunder Tiger product as well as others.

ThermalRD

Holy Hell Jefx, how did you manage to bend that extruded chassis? Take some pics man.

remten2001

big tires=trouble[:@]

turbopwr

Yes the stock shock bodies are crap. You are going to keep popping the shock cap. You should get the Factory Team shock body and caps. The blueing of the stock clutch bell is normal. You should get a bigger clutch bell anyways with the .26. I'm sure you are always pulling wheelies with the stock gearing. As for bending the chassis that is hard to believe. The MGT comes with one of the strongest if not the strongest chassis available in a monster truck. I have over 4-5 gallons thru my MGT with a Wasp 26 and have never had a problem with gear mesh or mount problems. Perhaps the motor mount screws were loose causing your gear mesh prob. Not trying to say you are lying about the chassis problem but that is one stout chassis and I can't see it bending from the small flips you say your truck did.

jefx

Damn it, I should have took pictures. I'm not lying, I'd have no reason to do that. The screws were tight, and didn't even come close to being loose after that. If fact, the bending of the chassis made the screws even tighter, and they were very hard to get out. The engine mount made a dent in the chassis, that follows the contour of the engine mount up by the tranny, with the deepest part being at the corner closest to the spurgear. The rear left engine mount corner (fartheset from the spur gear) was almost 1/4 inch off the chassis, as the mounting screw head was nearly pulled all the way through the chassis. The engine was severely tweaked because of the bent up chassis which caused all the binding. It was pretty bad.

At the time I wrote the above post, I had already done what I could to fix the chassis, and have it back together. So a picture now wouldn't show the extent of the carnage. However, I don't know how strong it will remain to be, since all 4 of the holes in the chassis (for the engine mount screws) have been very weakened and enlongated. I wasn't able to get it totally flat again, and the unmounted engine rocked back and forth on the chassis as I was getting the screws back into it, which made it difficult to reset the gear mesh and took several attempts. The binding that occured from this has even made the spur gear wobble. I took the spur off, and it is still flat, which must mean thet the tranny shaft is also bent now.

The rollovers I had were not bad at all, far less than what I'd expect to cause damage. I was still being pretty easy on the truck since it is new. No jumps or crashes into anything, just the two roll overs mentioned in my first post. The stock body is still in great shape, and the "Handle bar" isn't even bent at all (which is the first thing I expected to get wrecked). Like I said, my engine head doesn't even show any sign of abrasion. I don't know how long the chassis will last now after being bent, hammered flat, and ground down. So if it happens again, I'll make sure to post pics.

ICrashThings

Yea, i ran into a stop sign (the pole part) and the roller bar bent right down the middle. So i went to my lhs, got made fun of cause i own Assciated stuff( ) and got this new era bar...I like it! [8D]

turbopwr

Jefx- not trying to accuse you of anything. Like I said in my post I personaly cant see it getting bent as the chassis is strong-especially,without the engine head showing any damage. My engine has the top 3 fins of the cooling head bent due to flips and tumbles but I have no mount or chassis damage. Don't get me wrong If it can happen it will happen and maybe you just hit it at the right angle to cause the chassis to bend. Hope your repairs hold up and you enjoy your truck. You might want to call associated up and see if they can do some warranty claim as you said the truck is new.

jefx

No, it's cool. It's just that I can understand how it would sound like a lie. The chassis is one of the things that really impressed me about the truck when I bought it. It just looks indestructable, and I love how they eliminated the need for bulkheads. I would have never believed it myself (the chassis bending so badly) if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. In fact, just implying that the chassis got bent so badly, would make me think that the driver tried jumping a house or something. But the small flip onto it's lid was all that it took. If it doesn't hold up after I tried to straighten it, then I might have to call Associated.

ICrashThings. I have the New Era bar on my Maxx and LST. It's a great product. Looks like I'll be needing one for the MGT as well.

ICrashThings

Yea, I love it, too bad i can't drive the mgt now...need to get a engine that works on it...[]

Right now im trying to fix my MGT's stock .21...i cleaned it and it looks alot better. I still cant drive it though, damn hobby shop didnt have a servo saver. :[

fourwheeler

The bending of the stock chassis has to be a fluke. My MGT was landed upside down after sailing about 20-25 feet from a height of about 5 feet and all that broke was the motor mount. That is just a case of bad luck man. If you can get the chassis problem fixed and get the Factory Team shock caps you will begin to see that the Monster GT is a pretty good truck. But like me...keep the LST handy.

Fronzel

I spent a hour or so bouncing mine off of a telephone pole that was laying on its. side I managed to break an A-Arm. I haven't driven it in a while because of work and I need to make a longer throttle linkage to fit the Wasp I put in there.

TerraCrushing

i wore out the stock thunder tiger motor on my mgt,,,replaced it with a picco 26 and have ran 4 or 5 gallons through the picco and have never broke anything on my mgt other than a few a arms ( my fault ) and one shock tower ,,,,i have jumped at the track bmx jumps and even 4 foot ramps on pavement,,,no problems with my chassis,,i have had no problems with the tranny stripping even though everyone says they have and i have ran 11 gallons at least in my truck ,,,it is a very durable and underated truck,,i also building another mgt like the one in car actions monster truck issue with a sirio 27 to race

TerraCrushing

o btw jeffx im not doubting you or the troubles you had, i was just stating my opinion on the truck

IslandSavage

Im sorry you had probs with your MGT... I love mine... Sees wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more go time then my Savage25... I dont bash mine though (ok that was a lie, I have bashed a few times )but i race it noe. I never had the problem of my Shock caps popping off. I've have the turnbuckles pop off though, but i remedy that by adding a washer to the end and it catches the tunrbuckle and keeps me in the race without having to stop and pop it back in..I also had the rear shock tower crack on me in a Race, but that was a easy $5.00 fix, so no biggie.... other than that I love this truck... The second i hadd it in my hands i did the engine swap and FOC... My one-way bearing on my engine went out (not bad for having it going on over 1&1/2 years now), other than that i'd be racing it this sunday...

jefx

Today went much, much, much better. I fixed all the above mentioned problems as best I could and took it out today. It actually lasted longer than the LST!, but only because the LST's filter fell off on a gnarly crash and got dirt in the carb.............ouch![:'(]

Anyway, Me and a buddy took turns bashing the living p1ss out of the MGT today for a couple hours. We flipped it over every which way possible. We jumped it, smashed it, crashed it, bashed it, flipped it, and rolled it. It withstood all of our abuse. No shock caps popped off, no turnbuckles popped off, no gears binding, and no chassis bending. I was totally suprised and impressed!

I had refilled all of the shocks (and cut off the fake piggys) after the first shock cap popping experience, so that all the shocks would have matching oil. I think the first incedent was due to over filling at the factory. After I filled and bled all of them myself, there has been no more problems.

So far it seems as if all my early troubles were just fluke-ish bad luck. It's ironic that all the earlier problems happened while I was being gentle with the truck, and today we were almost trying to break it and nothing happened. I am much happier with the truck after today's experiences.

The only things from today that were a bit of a concern were reduced steering and clicking diffs. After driving in very dusty conditions, the steering started to bind. I'd imagine this was due to dirt lodging itself into the bellcranks. I had replaced the bushings with metal shielded bearings before I ever drove the truck, but I guess I should swap those out for rubber sealed beraings. The diffs also made frequent clicking noises after landing jumps. I had taken the diffs apart and filled them with 50k oil before ever driving the truck as well, and they were not in need of any extra shimming. The diffs were as tight as could be without binding, so the clicking sounds I heard has me a little suspicious to the strength of the diff cases. I haven't tore them down after today's bash yet, so I'm not sure what could have been causing that.

Overall, I'm much happier with the MGT today then I was yesterday.

turbopwr

The clicking of the diff is a common noise. My MGT have been doing it for the past 3 gallons and still runs fine. It usually make the noise on landing from a jump. Glad to hear your experance with the MGT was better the second time around.

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

crap, after reading this thread, I might go MGT instead of LST.
although, the LST does have a nicer radio and engine...

jefx

Well out of owning the LST, MGT, and Tmaxx, I'd rate them in exactly that order.......1.LST 2.MGT 3.Tmaxx.

I'd say the the MGT is leaps and bounds better than a Tmaxx, but neither can hold a candle to the LST. My LST has proven to me to be nearly indestructable, and it handles extremely well. I really just can't say enough about it. It's my favorite toy (and I have many). Of course the LST took a couple mods to get it to this point.............Namely aluminum diff cases, secondary gear cover, and lastly (and most expensively) MADMAC's aluminum a-arms.

IslandSavage

what mods do u have in the MGT?

jefx

Just the Mach .26 engine and Dynamite pipe, XTM Meats and Pentos, 50k diff oil, and some minor linkage mods.

zboy69

just ordered my MGT! can't wait to get it. what upgrades would be the 1st things i should do to it. I am still a newbie to nitro as i only have a Evader BX that has given me noth but greive since i got it. Haveing that has made me a little more knowlegable because of all the brake downs. I would like to make the MGT a fun and tough truck as i like to bash hard.
Every truck has it's issues but i have been doing alot of reading and would like to give the MGT a go.

You all seem to know what you are talking about and you all like the MGT.

ICrashThings

jefx, if you havent already, get the upgraded aluminum shocks from Associated. THey work better then all the others from what i have been hearing. Also, keep an eye on the servo saver, I broke mine while going over some rocks...[:'(]

Other then that im glad you enjoyd the MGT, I know it may not be the best MT out there but its a pretty fun truck to drive.

proxpilot

My Feedback: (3)

id get a new era roll bar, extra steering knuckles, good hump pack, FT shock caps, and maybe some TI turnbuckles.

I have, Pro line shocks, New Era roll bar, FT sterring upgrade, hi torque steering servo, TI turnbuckles, 1400 mah hump pack, RPM A-Arms, hyper .21 motor, aluminum shock towers, JR XS3 pro radio. monday i should have some aluminum axel carriers/ steering knuckles. oh and proline mulcher tires.

jefx

If I continue having problems with the shocks, I'll definately look into upgrading them.

But if yesterday's bash is any indication of things to come, the MGT is a very worthy and capable MT. I am happy about owning it now!