Motor question from a newbbbbb!!! Please read : )
 

Hi guys, I am looking to get into this Hobby. My friend and I are both going to purchase a 4x4 truck and start having some fun with this !! Now I have narrowed it down to the following trucks that I like...

Exceed Mad Beast Brushless

Traxxas Emaxx

HPI Savage Flux HP

I know the mad Beast is the cheapest and basically a knock off but I still heard good things about the truck except for part support which I know is huge. Im leaning towards the Savage Flux HP and will probably pick one up after the Holidays. My question is I noticed the emaxx and savage have 2200kv motors but the mad beast has a 540 motor. Again I know nothing about this hobby yet but I intend to learn a whole lot. I found 2 hobby shops that are pretty close to my home. Now I know 2200 is a much bigger number than 540 so does that mean the motors in the Emaxx and Savage are basically 4x the power of the 540 brushless??? I just don't want to spend $380 on the beast when I could have got the savage for $600 and later regret my choice. Anyway any advice you guys can offer would be appreciated!! I have to be honest just from seeing pictures of all the trucks I really IMO think the mad beast is the best looking truck. I wish I could get that look with the Savage motor and toughness!!

Thanks

bumpity : )

Out of those three I would go with the Savage. I don't want to make your life harder by giving you more options but you should also check out the TT MT4 G3, BL E-Revo and Rival. It's a tough choice to make but for being new to the hobby I would lean more towards the E-Revo mainly for the parts and after sales support that Traxxas offers. The TT MT4 G3 is also a very good truck but you really want to get new hinge pins from the word go, it's a cheap and fairly easy thing to upgrade but a lot of people who are new don't like the idea of taking stuff apart until they are more familiar with things, it also needs to have loctite added to a lot of the screws and a chassis brace is well worth looking into.

The motor in the Savage and the Traxxas trucks is basically the same and made by Castle. Yes its larger in all dimensions, its also noticeably more powerful but not 4x more powerful. The big difference between the top brands like Castle, Tekin and the motors found in RCX vehicles is efficiency. All motors are not 100% efficient and will waste some energy generating heat instead of driving the vehicle. Efficiency costs money though and the vehicles found at nitroRCX are especially cheap in the motor department. I have a hard time recommending any of the knockoff brands like those found on nitrorcx. They do have some decent stuff and it does seem to be getting better. But search around on youtube and some of the reviews, then watch the reviews of other vehicles and you'll see the difference. If you're tempted to go with something cheaper than the HPI and Traxxas stuff have a look at Redcat. The vehicles are the same designs as the stuff on nitrorcx but Redcats are generally built a little better and have a better reputation because of it.

If you want a true high riding monster truck the Savage gets my vote, 2nd place goes to the Team Associated Rival. The Rival gets 2nd place only because its motor and esc are limited to 4s lipo. The Emaxx rates a distant 3rd IMO and I have a soft spot for the platform since it got me back into rc many years ago. Its just not as strong as the Savage and Rival requiring significant investment in aluminum and/or RPM parts to be durable when jumping or hitting the inevitable obstacle.

The Erevo is not quite a true monster truck IMO. It can be setup to have the same ground clearance as the Savage and Rival but it looks lower. It does handle better than both of them though and the durability when jumiping or hitting stuff is about equal to them. Definitely more durable than the Emaxx. The drivetrain of both the Erevo and Emaxx is fine on 4s, but its not really meant for 6s use. The Savage and Rival definitely have the Traxxas beat when it comes to drivetrain durability.

The Thunder Tiger MT4 G3 is a great truck. There are a few weak spots but generally you have to be fairly hard on it to break stuff. There's lots of info and even dedicated forums on them for help in strengthening the few issues they have. Overall I'd rate chassis and drivetrain durability just as good if not better than the Savage and the Rival. In my opinion the MT4 is the best value going right now. But the chassis is flat like the truggy its based on, which while killing the traditional monster truck look does make it handle as good or better than the Erevo.