I keep hearing "you don't need reverse" "it's only for beginners", etc. on this board, and although I AM a beginner, I want to say loud & clear that

REVERSE IS GREAT!!!!!

The ONLY place where it's unnecessary is RACING, and face it, the number of trucks that are used mostly for racing is pretty darn low when compared to bashing.

I can't tell you how many times I have used reverse: extracting myself from a bush, when I get to close to the house.....

It is a useful option. And, yes, it IS fussy sometimes in the T-Maxx re. switching between for. & rev., THIS IS ACTUALLY A GREAT WAY TO MAKE SURE YOUR IDLE IS SET CORRECTLY!!!!

I think it gets pooh-poohed a lot because

a) there are a lot of racers on this board, not nearly in the proportion that reflects the real world.

b) there are lots of Savage fans, too, and instead of just fessing up & admitting that HPI would be well served by making it a standard feature on their trucks, they choose to tell newbies they don't need or want reverse in order to prevent ANY negative from popping up in a truck feature comparison. I imagine that it's a particularly tough pill to swallow that the reverse module on a savage is fairly weighty(not to mention $30-40), while in the Maxx, it's better incorporated into the regular transmission (and easily removed for racing purposes, though I wonder why that's a consideration as the weight of the reverse gear is pretty minimal).

I'm not getting back on my T-Maxx soapbox, but as there are quite a few newbies chiming in right now, I wanted to present a "regular guy's" take on whether reverse is important or not.

Dean