ORIGINAL: Boostedeco
Lol it's funny you mention the ecx torment. We were just at the local hobby shop last night and that was the truck he wanted and was dead set on. It was $190 there but haven't looked online yet to compare prices. I'm not dead set on brushless but figured if i could get a brushless in my price range i would. However i am fairly set on the amount of money to spend which I know limits my options but its for a Young boy and didn't want to go crazy with the amount of money i spend. I'm not so much worried about the speed for him but more the durability. Another thing I didn't mention is I'm a cnc machinist/toolmaker for a living so I can make parts to add to the durability of a rc vehicle. Thanks for the input and after reading a lot of reviews I think the caldera 10e truck is my leading candidate currently.
caldera is a good truck. and 4wd does make it more offroad capable.
The ECX has the advantage of being supported by more hobbyshops. Not all hobby shops carry redcat. Make sure yours does, cause if not you will be ordering any parts offline.
If you can CNC your own parts, that would be sweet. Only major issue owners have with the caldera is the pivot screws which hold the steering hub to the C hub tend to back out (self tapping screw into plastic were there is a lot of vibration)
There are alloy upgrade parts, but it runs nearly $65 for both. If you can CNC your own that would be really cool.
The torment I am gonna say is a bit tougher than the caldera. Partly cause it is a tad slower, but also cause it is lighter with less moving parts (2wd vs 4wd) I doubt your son will be disappointed with the torment. Ive owned one and it was a good truck. good all-around truck.
SCT trucks work well as they have decent ground clearance, longer wheelbase (Than other 1/10 scale models) larger front/rear bumpers and on top a body that looks scale (like a real life truck)
While brushless is nice, the extra speed isn't that big a deal for one's 1st rc. 25mph is plenty fast for a 9 year old. And the truck will handle brushless if you want to upgrade it later on.
Tho the caldera is about $20-$30, do note that the brushless system in it is a low-cost one. Its a perfectly good system, but its not comparable to say, a traxxas vxl system. At most, the caldera will only do 35mph on a 2s lipo....only a touch over 30 on the stock 6cell nimh.
$190 is the norm for the current torment. The older version with spectrum radio and 20t motor (current has a slightly faster 15t motor) was a bit less.
Only thing wrong with the torment is the included battery. its 1500 or 1800mah...which is not much. A 5000mah nimh battery on hobbypartz.com will run you $30. It will be WELL worth the extra runtime and will even add some more low-end punch over the stock battery.
I do recommend the torment over the caldera. Leave 4wd and brushless for when he has more skill. Get the tougher, simpler truck for now. Just try not to take the controller out of his hands too often (and you will, when you see how much fun a truck like that is to drive!)