pjoseph

I am new to Gas RC Cars I had an electric one back in high school but thats about it.
I suddley became interested in getting a Gas Stadium Truck and from reading around this forum I am leaning towards the Jato 3.3
I am just looking for some feedback before I make the final deceision, I am aware that it is fast and not for beginers but I figure
if I buy something not as fast I will eventually want something faster so why not just get it now.
What else will I need to buy that does not come in the box?
Also where do you recommend I purchase this from is ebay ok?

Thanks

quietnas1

Well I have had my Jato for a little over year and I could not be happier with it. Some poeple will say it has weak plastic parts like the A arms but I disagree. I have also had 2 RC10GT's and my last one I just sold after 14 years. As far as quality I put the Jato right up there with my GT's. The only thing I changed after a few months were the A arms to RPM arms. I still have the original arms also. The only extra things you will need are batteries for the remote and reciever and a battery and charger for the EZ START wand. I suggest you practice with the car in a pretty empty parking lot first until you get used to the speed and handling. Other than that you should be good to go.

Chris_RC

Trust me, 40mph will do you plenty if your going offroad. The jato is bascially made for onroad only, it sucks offroad. So if all you want to do is speed runs (which gets old quick) then get the Jato. But if you want to go offroad and it to handle really good get the HPI Firestorm, GT2, or XXX-NT. The Firestorm is more bash bred but it handles ok. The GT2 and XXX-NT are race bred trucks, but are still great bashers too if you maintain them. The XXX-NT Sport RTR 2 is discontined but parts are very readily available since it was a very popular truck when Gas truck was popular. They come with a starting wand (better than the ez-start), WAY better, more reliable enigne, and it comes with a computer radio which is a big plus when you get another RC. Traxxas radios are bascially throw aways. So look at those 3 trucks I mentioned, those are the best nitro staium trucks there are. Hope this helps!

stubb

My Feedback: (10)

The jato and the xxx nt are basically the same i own both and theres not much difference between the two

kawaboy101

So the HPI firestorm is a good 'backyard' bashing truck?Im kinda new to nitro,so is it a higher skill level truck?So would this be a ok starter truck?

Also,i use to have a st-15 nitro truck and it went out of frequency range and hung wide open one time,so is there any kind of fail safe i can put on this truck to keep from that happening?

Mekong

chris rc really likes bashing the jato, I bet in reality he never drove a jato setup for off road [:-]

Its a killer truck off road, slap some moabs or any off road tire and its great! The two speed is really nice and it has more than enough power.

From the sounds of it you probably are not gonna race so that jato will be a perfect truck. The firestorm is a good one too, but the jato has 2 speed and a bigger engine, hence faster and handles about on par for bashing. The only part that breaks on my jato so far are the turnbuckles, and I beat the snot out of the jato. There is nothing wrong with traxxas ezstart, sure it would be lighter with out it, but hey its really convenient to have one button starting. Traxxas radios are trash, thats the only draw back I can really see for the jato.

KILL--ROY

If you bash get the nitro rustler. It is a good fast truck, and easy to work on.

Doker44

Yea do a search of Chris_RC post's....he is always bashing Traxxas, his credibility takes a hit if you ask me! The Jato is a hell of a fun truck. Throw a 9 dollar RPM bumper on it and get a set of off road tires and you will have one hell of a fun off-road/on-road truck. Is there better off road trucks....yes. Is there better on road cars...yes. But if you are looking for something that is fun for both and not for racing the Jato is a great choice with extras and parts everywhere. Now HPI makes excellent trucks also and the Firestorm for the money is great. But it's much slower then the Jato (Firestorm stock 37 MPH which is fairly slow by today's nitro/electric vehicles) so on-road is not even an option and no electric start which is a must for me, its a feature not a negative like some make it out to be for some strange reason. The radios in most these RTR trucks aren't the best, not just Traxxas.

quietnas1

Wow Chris RC has it all wrong man. The Jato is decent off road. I slapped on some PRO LINE Bowtie dirt tires and at my local base ball field in the clay I will admit at full throttle it just spun. Under light throttle it did ok but the low cut and almost dry grass of the field it was sick. As far as speed runs getting old. NO THEY DON'T. I love running my Jato on pavement and I run it almost everyday at work on my lunch break. The truck is a blast. You get a truck that can handle pavement and off road in one package. The EZ START system does not suck. You prime the carb hit the button and in under a minute you got that bad boy started. The pull starts on my RC10GT's used get very frustrating at times. I love the EZ START its just what it says easy to start. The radio I will agree is cheap. I grabbed one of the Futaba Radios from my RC10 and NOVAK receiver and now I have great range. Any failsafe will work they all do the same thing essentialy. I personaly dont use one even though I know I should. Look the Jato is a great truck but you do have guys like Chris or NitroNate who hate Traxxas for some odd reason but never owned one. Do your research. I have also driven a firestorm recently and it a good truck just a little to slow for me. Will be getting a Savage X by summer. The reason why I mention MY Rc10 And the Savage is to show you that I think all RC manufactuers are great just each one has something I like. Traxxas happens to have the Jato and you cannot go wrong with it.

Nesal

I love my Jato... great buy!

pjoseph

Man i feel much better that we have some support for the Jato 3.3 because that was the one I was set on until I read that post that was telling me not to get it.

Thanks for all your help

pjoseph

Can someone tell me what exactly Bash means?

Mekong

I would say it means to just have fun with the car, find some nice jump to launch it off of, or anything you really want with it. It is not racing competitively on a track. Normally involves some big crashes and pushing the truck beyond its limits.

I.E. trying to do a back flip, seeing if you can jump over a car, chasing the squirrels/neighbors cat...

JatoGuy

Despite what my tag is I have a few of everything, but every time I drive the Jato I have a huge smile on my face. Speed of course means breakage. Took me over a year to break the A arms and other then a few bent turnbuckles (driver error of course) its a lot tougher than what people (who dont have them) like to argue. I have ripped 30 foot backflip gaps at 20 or so feet in the air and had no issues (have some crappy video may try to share that). I used to be a big supporter of moabs or similar tires for offroad, but recently went back to pins and ribs and am really digging it. May even drop in a single speed and .12 and run it at the track just to be different. Its a great truck, but if you are new be prepared for breaks headaches and some downtime.

Chris_RC

Look, I race and I hate bad handling trucks. I can actually DRIVE unlike some of you people where you break everytime you run, so I rarely ever break parts. When I ran electric, I raced with a stock mtoor for most of the time (it goes about 20-25mph) and it was perfectly fine for my application because that was what everyone else had too. With my 8ight and xxx-nt, they only go 40-45mph which is plenty. All in all, I dont need a 65mph truck to have fun. Since I race and most of you on this forum do not, my posts will always be a little biased because I am used to reccomending Losi, Associated, Kyosho, etc instead of Traxxas. Traxxas always has an extremely bad reputation at tracks.

With any truck you can throw some offroad tires on it and call it "decent" offroad. Then put it on a track with other Stadium trucks and see how "decent" it is. For most of you, you do not know what is really good from bad, other than spinning out.

And with all this rave about the EZ-Start,it weights 5oz which is REALLY heavy, and isnt the most efficent way to start an engine. A starter box is ideal.

quietnas1

Hey Chris do not turn this into some insult thing bro. I can drive and pretty good also. I bought my 1st nitro RC when I was 19. It was a RC10GT tub chassis. Then my second was the RC10GT Factory Team truck at 22 and raced at my local track and also got 3 1st place trophies with it. At 33 I bought my Jato and I have built it for nothing but speed. With some dirt tires it does pretty good. Granted not like my RC10 used to but it is decent. I dont race on tracks anymore but I love my Jato and I CAN DRIVE pretty dam good. And yeah I used to have a starter box when I had my OS .12 CVX in my RC10 but it became a hassle lugging it around so I went to a pull start. The EZ START may ad some weight but c'mon man even with that the Jato stock will hit between 60 to 65 mph. And the EZ START is convenient bcuz it fits right on my belt loop on my jeans. Cant do that with a starter box. And no I dont break my Jato every time I run it. In the whole year and 2 months that I have had I only broke it once cuz it got run over by a HONDA ACCORD. Other than that it has been smooth sailing. Any ways good luck at the track and you also got some pretty good RC's.

Chris_RC

Im not saying that YOU are a bad driver. Look at some youtube videos and you will see how bad some poeple are at driving.

JatoGuy

Lots of snow had some spare time. [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRje0XQaGf0]Jato Video[/link]

quietnas1

Sweet Video. See Jatos don'y break easy. Any ways Chris I feel where you are coming from from man. Like I said The RC's you have are good ones also especialy that LOSI 8. Sweet.

Mekong

Some one is rather full of themselves...

Its obvious that the OP is not asking about a race bred truck and will probably never race with it. One of the people I bash with has a XXX-NT sure its great on groomed dirt, but really in a rocky dry creek bed it just bounces all over the place, the jato just sucks up the bumps and guns right through it. In the think nasty mud the xxx-nt doesnt get the traction of a heavier truck. The xxx-nt is better for backflips, it rotates much easier, but doesn't land as smooth.

I guess if we could all just be pro-rc racers like you we might someday see the light. Till then Traxxas is a great company and makes some killer trucks.

pjoseph

Hey guys thanks for all your input.
Anyone want to recommend a place that they have used in the past that I can order from

thanks again.

quietnas1

Wow I have always used my LHS (Local Hobby Shop). As far as online I have ordered parts from TowerHobbies, AMain, and Hobby ETC.

ramp4ge

...

A well set-up JATO will run with any competition ST out there.

Give it a comp-legal .12 and pipe and the single-speed conversion and have a field day with it.

My JATO 2.5 was a *better handling* truck, out of the box, then my old RC10GT Team.

My stock JATO 2.5, even with the stock tires, handled great. When I put some Bowties on it and put it on my local track, my then 14-year-old brother was breaking track records with it..

The JATO is by no means a bad-handling truck. Out of the box it's a wonderfully handling truck. Of course, if you put it in the hands of someone who cranks the ride height up all the way and raises the CG thru the ceiling it's going to handle badly, or moving the battery to the mid-chassis position makes it handle badly, but with the battery out the back where it belongs, stock 2.5 tires or comp-grade tires, the JATO's a great handling truck.