jawoul

Hey i was thinking about buying the CEN Magnum NX and Fun Factor... are those any good?

93firebird

To be politically correct I have not had a very good experience with the magnum. The drive line is weak and will require you to spend an additional 300 dollars to make it hold up. I would look at something in a different brand if I were you.

elven wizard

I have had much experience wih the Cen Fun Factor/Magnum. Please check out my gallery pic tutorial on how to take apart (in case of replacing parts) - put back together the 2 speed transmission and engine rebuild. These cars can be fun and are a great learning experience for anyone getting into Rc.


Elven Wizard

derrick05

I also have had very much experience with the magnum and none of it was good.I am a cen fan,and will stand up for their 1/8 trucks.To me,it doesnt get any better,but as far as the Magnum goes,you better run[X(].The quality leaves alot to be desired.There are better 1/10 or entry level vehicles out there in that price range.If you dont believe me,just search Magnum NX within the cen forum and you will see.If I were you,I would have a look at the MGT 3.0.The MGT 3.0 is a much better quality truck in the same price range.The Magnum is a bunch of flimsy trouble in my experience.

cenracer1

I've owned both the Magnum and the Fun Factor MT2.. they were both decent trucks, but not something that could take alot of abuse.. I modified my MT2 to the point of turning it into something else.. It was super fast and bullet proof, but also very expensive... If you are just going to do some light bashing then the magnum/FF would be fine.. jumping and heavy abouse will leave you nothing but frustrated... although so will most anything else out there... Parts availability is still an issue especially for the Magnum/FF.. not so much for the larger 1/8th trucks...

derrick05

Light bashing???What is that?Is that something like light beer,or light cigarettes,or light softdrink?Youre either bashing or youre not.Abuse was out of the question for my Magnum because it wouldnt even hold up to "normal"use.Who wants an MT that wont hold up to 1ft.jumps?I can get a Wal Marter that will do better than that.MTs are supposed to be made for off-roading,wich includes some jumping from time to time.The Magnums shocktowers wont hold up to 5 or 6in.jumps.Like I said before,just do some research and you will see[sm=lol.gif]

elven wizard

My Fun factor thru it's life I replaced the drive cup's with stronger ones. Then I replaced the radio. I put a Traxxas radio in it and that was good enough. The best part of the Fun Factor for me was the engine. It was a good running engine. Easy to tune, (if it needed it at all) and a great idler. That little .16 just hummed. I went thru 8 gallons in mine before a rebuild. As for the Cen transmission? The gears are pretty tough, I went thru a engine and a half until my first gears went bad. In the speed department The Fun Factor blew away Tmaxx .15 anyday. It was a fast truck. Light and nimble. A few times all to easily I did break the body posts so I stayed away from big jumps and concentrated on the little ones. The Diff/Ring gears I never had a problem with those. Built tough. The New Nx or MT 3.0 are a stronger version of the Fun Factor with lots of other improvements. I had lots of good times with the Cen Fun Factor.

derrick05

Not something that could take alot of abuse?Modified to the point of turning it into something else?If youre just going to do some light bashing??

derrick05

And then you turn around and post this.Built tuff??Seems like you dont know wich way to go.Your posts contradicts eachother

elven wizard

Ring/ Diff gears I never had a problem with those. Built tough.They lasted a long time. Time to time I took the diff apart. there was hardly any wear on them. I could of just left them there, there were pretty much service free.


Elven Wizard

elven wizard

Derrick I reread your first reply you said -

Not something that could take alot of abuse?Modified to the point of turning it into something else?If youre just going to do some light bashing??

I think when you read my "built tough" you thought this I was talking about the truck as a whole. I was primarily talking about Ring/Diff gears. Your second post said -

Your posts condrict each other.

Again here I was talking about particulary about one part of the truck here.
Just because your experience with your Magnum was not good does not mean someone else that might own one might share the same experience's as you had. I admit I had to do a few changes on my Fun Factor to get it reliable like the drive cups. It didn't have the improvements as the model you had the Cen Magnum from the very beginning. For me I had fun with mine for what it was. It's no Hpi Savage as in toughness as I knew this so I didn't give it the same abusive treatment that the Savage could take. It was faster than a stock Savage. Mine did pretty good in top speed races though.

Elven Wizard

93firebird

I too have had a horrible time with the magnum. The first thing to go is the spur gear. Why is it plastic to begin with? If you change it to the steel upgrade the next thing to go will be the diff, as they are the next week link in the drive train. After you change them to the "upgraded cnc gears" you will then start to shear off the pilot shaft at the end of the crank. Why? because now that all of the gears in the drive line are finally grabbing the energy from the motor has to go somewhere, which causes the chassis to flex creating a bind between the pinion and spur gears breaking the next weakest link the pilot shaft. I only found this out after I sheared the second pilot shaft, of which I had my LHS check my gear mesh before running. We got to checking it out and noticed that the chassis has a lot of flex around the hole where the flywheel protrudes through it. We could see that the flex was causing the gears to bind. Thus causing the shaft to shear. A major flaw in design. Thus making this a Major Piece of CRAP!!!

elven wizard

Everyone has a right to there opinion about the Magnum/Fun Factor Rc's. I wont argue with or try to change that. Luckily for me my experience wasn't bad.

Elven Wizard

elven wizard

To 93firebird -
I think my Fun Factor gears which has a similiar drivetrain as the Magnum lasted so long is because I always checked the proper fit between the pinion gears & racing spur gears then making sure the engine mount screws were fully tighten down. Other people I know that would run with me had problems. After a jump they would strip gears cause the engine mount screws weren't totally tighten or the gear alignment wasn't correct. My gears lasted 8 gallons then from a rebuild another about 3.5 gallons till they wore out. Not bad. There was no need to put CNC gears in there. The Cen .16 is not to much of a monster to rip up those gears, so no worries there. This gear problem has been tackled by number 1. Proper gear to gear fit and 2. making sure the engine mount screws are always tight. Even checking after each run !

Elven Wizard

cenracer1

Derrick.. I won't get into a pissing match with you over this... everyones definition of bashing is different.. light bashing to me is running around the yard or field and bring it to the track during practice.. Yours may be not taking the 10 foot jump and only hitting the 5 foot one.. My FF would jump very well, but I didn't launch it off the biggest jumps I could find... I don't do that with my T-maxx or even my HPI Baja... As for turning it into something else, I replaced the whole drivetrain with modified T-maxx parts.. worked pretty well.. I only did this because I wanted to run larger tires with 17m hexes and the stock Cens were I believe 12mm... Other than that the trans held up fine and the engine was good as well.. I did change the engine to an OS18 CVRX for more power, but nothing to complain about the engine...

Long before any of you were on this site, a bunch of us got into a little contest of upgrading or Cens to see what we could come up with.. It got pretty interesting after a while with BB engines and modified trucks.. Not that the trucks were bad, just wanted them to be different..

My point is everybody treats there trucks differently... I won't say the Cen FF/Magnums are the best trucks out there, far from it, but they are durable and work very well when maintained and set up properly.. I never had any issues with spur gears unless the engine mesh wasn't set right.. I will say one thing Cen should have installed was a slipper for the trans... My Maxx has one.. If you are going to be jumping, this is a must.. land with the throttle on and it will kill the spur or worse the axle/dogbones... just a fact of life...

elven wizard

Everyone will have a different experience with whatever Rc they have. The life of the Rc and how well it performs is dependant on how one keeps care of it and how they drive it . For me I felt it was no big deal to change out the transmitter and drive cups on the Fun Factor, I can see at the time this buggy had potental. It just needed a lil bit of modifying and understanding.


Elven Wizard

cenracer1

Agreed.... That was exactly my point... You can drive it or you can destroy it.....

elven wizard

yup exactly

cenracer1

eleven wizard.. hear are a few pics for your enjoyment... I sometimes wish I still had it, but the guy I sold it to still sends me emails occasionally and its still going strong...




hard to see all the mods I've done, but she worked well for a long time...

cenracer1

One more outside with Proline Bowties in race trim.. very quick and wheelied a bit too much for serious racing....

elven wizard

Very nice indeed I'm impressed ! nice pics, cool buggy !!


Elven Wizard

cenracer1

Thanks.. took alot of time and got alot of great ideas from this forum a few years ago.... that was one of the first bodies I painted, thankfully they are much better now...

elven wizard

Great paint job I can see you put a lot of time into it.

Elven Wizard

nubzorz

why is the spur gear plastic? on every nitro car i have driven the stock spur gear was plastic...

93firebird

How many of them had a slipper clutch like the magnum needs to have?