I don't think that the transmission is bound up because the ride is so smooth and any noise it makes does not change throughout the drive but I will check it when I can. From the looks of things OFNA/Hobao have good quality vehicles but yes they don't seem to have a lot support for the vehicles or parts. I don't really want a monster truck or truggy I think the e-revo oddly imho has both of those fields covered for me, the savage flux hp was what I’d have gotten if the e-revo hadn't shown up so cheap. Like I said I fell in love with the Tamiya XV-01, I love the looks of the rally style but i just can’t run it where it will work. Really I just want something that will go well with my 540 10.5t motor and can ideally take a battery the same as my e-revo takes. Ideally from a kit but I’m willing to buy a chassis from the eBay chop shops. The main things are it needs to be fun to drive and durable fwiw with parts support to the extent that if the most trivial thing breaks I can replace it. I know that most of these qualities are that of a monster truck or truggy but I still don’t think I’d like another one

Thanks for the advice, I’m pretty sure I can rebuild the transmission if need me, I had to replace the spur and pinion on my buggy on separate occasions so this should be somewhat similar.