I am thinking of getting a 8ight buggy. I mainly want it for racing but I also want to bash with it. How durable are they for bashing?

If you want to bash, i would sat most major companies stuff can handle it. But, i truly think its a waste to bash an 8ight!!!!!

If all you want to do is bash then get a Sportwerks Turmoil or Mayhem.
They hold up GREAT

Ditto

the eight is a race car its not a basher thats not to say it would outbash all other cars cuz it would but the 8ight requires alot of maintenece to keep it up to par.....certain things like greasing the cv joints are a must on the 8ight due to high wear on the parts....bashing a 8ight would be expensive

What parts would wear out quicker from bashing? I plan to race mostly but Ive got a nice bashing spot nearby that I would hate to go to waste, I just want to make sure it can hold up to some rough driving.

Suposivly the front center drive shaft wears out quickly. If people are putting grease in there like tony said then thats their problem. I haven't had one wear out yet but I use a dry teflon/graphite lubrican't made by Dupont that wont attract any dirt but keeps the parts lubricated. Dirt sticks to grease making parts wear out faster.

I've also heard of bearings in the center diff going bad but again I haven't had that problem yet. I do have the pro kit... I'm not sure if these problems are with the RTR or not.

If you get the 8ight go with the pro kit. You get a much better chassis and shock towers, 2 extra shoes for the 4 shoe clutch (rtr only comes with 2 shoes), metal shock caps over the RTRs plastic ones, an extra set of springs, 2 extra sets of sway bars, diff oil instead of grease, along with your choice of engine and electronics. I'm sure they're is quite a bit more that I'm missing. You will spend more to get the kit together but you have a better package when its done.

They are always breaking. Dont get it!!!

No...they aren't. When I first got mine, I ran a little wide on a jump, flew off the racetrack into a fence post at around 40mph, no damage. The car is as duarble as any other.

Have they fixed the servo problem?

A lot of people think they're unreliable, I've heard about a number of problems. but I've also heard that those problems are due to inexperience and/or poor setup understanding.

The only thing I can say with any certainty is that when I asked an acquaintance who races micro nitro class with me, and also buggies, he said his eight has had no problems whatsoever.

Take from that what you will. 46u, my friend said he had no problems with the servos, maybe he identified the problem himself and fixed it himself, I dunno, but anyway, he likes it.

I love my 8ight. No problems here. I just came back from the Alabama Indoor Classic where they had a sick double. Something like 15' of air and 40' of distance. I went Thursday - Saturday with NO failures. I'm still running all the factory parts with the exception of new clutches, clutchbell bearings, and oils.

Yes, follow the added directions, or read through the post on RC Tech

I killed a couple servos before figuring it out as well. Like all Revolutionary Designs, it had some "teething issues" which have been resolved. If you're still curious about the car, I'm sure somebody in your area will let you have a go with theirs...with little fear that you'll break it.

the issue with the servos is chassis flex and the servo hitting the bottom of the chassis cause of how low they sit in the tray. just add an extra shim to both servos and make sure end points are no more than 95 percent and you will be good. now about those rear outer hing pins!

No it isn't. If it were, there'd be physical damage to the dead servos; there wasn't any.

Wrong again, 95% on your system won't match 95% on other brand radios.

It's like I said, follow the added directions in the kit for throttle setup and read through the RC Tech post, and it'll work perfectly. I was among the first to discover the issue, and to resolve it.

The outer rear hinge pins are the ONLY thing that I would say have a problem. I've had my 8 since November. I stopped counting gallons after 10. I'm someware in the 12 to 13 gallon area now. I have bent 3 rear outer hing pins (hitting a fence parralel to a high speed jump). I've bent 1 inner rear hinge pin (same fence). I put NO lube of any kind on the CV joints & they are all fine. Not counting the clutch, I've had 1 bearing fail (outer rear hub on the same side as the damaged hinge pins). For reliablity I would put it up against my Mugen any day. The guys who say "I hear they have this or that problem" are talking with no experiance. There is no servo issue on the kit. I'm on the same servo I put in the day I built the kit. The only thing I did that was not called out in the instuctions was cut the return spring. I think Losi's biggest problem is that a lot of people who have never owned a buggie got the 8 & do not know how to set it up properly & do not know that these cars (all brands) are not indestuctable. This week end I had my first "major failure". I stipped the rear ring & pinion. No Big Deal.

I haven't had any problems with my hinge pins. In fact, I recently replaced the diff fluid back there, and pulled my hinge pins to inspect. I rolled them on a light table used for shooting screens. The glass is perfectly flat, and when I rolled my pins accross it, they were perfect! Some of the coating has worn off, because I'm somewhere in the 10+ gallon mark too.

ok so i never have had any servo issues with my 8ight and its a 1st run kit. but other people have and i have torn their servos apart and found broken gears due to hard impact or tray flex. the biggest problem with the tray is the rear battery box it only has one screw to hold it, this causes flex/vibration you can calm it down bye putting an oring under it but all in all that radio tray does have some give to it that will cause a problem if you dont spend the extra time setting up youre servos.

Every single servo I broke on the throttle in my 1st run kit has perfect gears. Even the lowly P.O.S. standard plastic-geared airplane servo I had to use because there weren't any good ones available. We never quite nailed down what was happening, but for whatever reason, I got it right about 7 months ago. It was the same JR Z590 type servo, several times(excluding the standard, which also happend to be JR). In fact, I gave one I broke to a friend who had another with stripped gears, but the rest was still good. He combined them, and that's the servo on his throttle now, about 4 months old.

That may be what happend to yours, but several of us had the same mystery failure. The servo would just quit, for seemingly no reason. One guy had a servo die, IDLING ON THE STARTER BOX. How did it flex there? My point is we never really figured out what specific aspect of the 8ight killed it. I did however, help to develope steps to stop it through trial and error (took 5 or 6 tries). Even with all the steps that kept mine working, some kits & RTRs still kill them here and there. For the most part, if you use a decent servo and set it up conservatively, it'll perform very well and live a good life span. Mine, which is raced regularly, is testament.

1st run kit..?

well in my opinion i think the tray has alot to do with it but it could also have been the throttle linkage not lined up perfectly straight with the carb causeing a binding issue wich would be the same as an end point being off. i like my 8ight but i really dont like the over all desighn of the radio tray i personaly think its to close to the engine.

Chassis flex has a whole lot to do with the servo issues. That is why Losi came up with the O'ring fix. It's also why spacers are being used and the rubber grommets are a must on the throttle servo as well as not tightening the servo screws all the way. It's all designed to relieve the stress on the radio tray from chassis flex. There have been several post concerning broken servos, most had a broken circuit board. My servo issues ended when I bought the kit chassis and tossed the RTR chassis. The difference in the two is like night and day.

I have a couple friends who bought their 8ight's in the last few weeks and haven't had any issues. Neither of them ever raced a buggy before and all they use theirs for is bashing and running on a backyard track. They installed the O'rings as instructed with their RTR's and did the set up as described in the addendum and not a one problem. The newer RTR have the issues fixed by Losi, or so it seems.

Personally if I did it again I would buy the kit. With the money I've spent upgrading mine I could of had a kit with a choice engine and the same servos I use now. I would still have the same TX because it is a good one. There are numerous parts on the kit that are far improved over the RTR that makes it a much better deal.

Yes, I got it around Thanksgiving, it was one of the first two kits to make it to Fl.

None of my servos had any physical damage. It is STILL a mystery as to why they don't work.

Again, none of my servos had any physical damage. I took each of them apart looking for broken gears, scorch marks, ANYTHING to indicate why it quit...I'm telling you it's a MYSTERY, NOT CHASSIS FLEX. If flex killed them, the servo body would be distorted, gears would be stripped, something to indicate torsional stress. None of the mods I did to mine would reduce flex. The car is designed to flex, it aides traction. If anything, the mods reduce vibration, as well as shield it from the heat of the motor. There are countless pics and posts about it, we've been fighting this issue for over 7 months now. It is NOT flex.

EPA may be??

Cutting the throttle return spring down, limiting EPA, these are all covered in the added directions and RC Tech thread.