Hiya all!
Well first I will go ahead and let EVERYONE know that I am a complete rc car nooblet, I have been in this hobby for about a whole 4 days!
I went out this weekend and bought myself a duratrax evader st. The more reading I do on the web, the more I regret this purchase, but, oh well, too late. I own it. Now I want it faster, stronger, and to have better steering.
My husband owns an old school losi JRX-2. He can buy non losi parts for his.
Can I buy non duratrax parts for mine? Does anyone know what other companys parts would be compatible with duratrax? I'm sure I'll think of more questions but for the time being if anyone can answer the one question I'd appreciate it, thanks so much!

Morph

i dont know MUCH the evader but i do know if you get a novak brushless motor youll rip your evader apart.seen it happen

The Evader ST is not that bad of a purchase, I have had my nitro for nearly 2 months now and happy as could be. I have raced, bashed and smashed with only a few parts breaking, of course, all RC's break once in awhile. The Evader is alot better now than it was a year ago. But anyway, Losi XXT parts fit on the Evader. I am using the graphite shock towers and suspension arms on my Evader. DuraTrax is also coming out with their own graphite replacements that will be released with the electric Pro version. There is numerous aluminum replacement parts on the market to make it more tough which you can find at TowerHobbies.com. I dont think you will be disappointed if you give it a chance.

Here's mine.....

Mastec you say Graphite and I've seen that mentioned around .. what material is the stock stuff made of?

Also big thanks to cjg for the webpage. Answered a lot of my questions!

The think the stock parts are made of a nylon/plastic material. Mine was pretty durable until I switched to graphite, I just prefer it over plastic since I race mine. The only times I broke my parts was when I kept hitting the corner of a concrete porch step at full throttle. I dont think many trucks on the market could withstand that impact.

How does the stock nylon compare to aluminum? Is aluminum stronger?

Aluminum will not break as easily, but it will bend under hard impact. Aluminum is also usually a bit heavier than the stock "plastic" parts. I have an evader for over a year and only broke the rear shock towers. And even then, it held up for a while with many cartwheels on concrete. I think it is a very durable vehicle. I do have the BX, but they are made of the same material.

Morphineous,
Thanks for the compliment on the webpage. If you have any other suggestions let me know.

I remember reading on a forum somewhere that a couple of years ago Duratrax had a bad batch of plastic parts that broke easier. Don't know if this is true, but I find it interesting that I don't recall ever having broken the same part twice (i.e. the replacement part has held up better than the original that came on my buggies.) About the time I say this of course something will now happen.

You will be able to enjoy your duratrax. Since they are fast newbies tend to overdrive them, crash them, and break them. I know, been there, done that. As I've gained experience (or common sense?) I haven't cracked them up as much. My neighbors associated breaks when he overdrives it too.

Enjoy your evader.

I remember reading something about the durability of the old parts too. They were suggesting that people boil the parts for 2 hours to add moisture or something like that so they were not so brittle.

My brother has the rustler and I have an evader, and I have to agree with you guys that its parts break pretty easily but as for performance goes.... I can win a race with him with my eyes shut. With that guarantee you can replace broken parts for free until you get better. Im using a 19 turn no name motor and it runs twice as long and just as fast and he has a 17 turn. I just love my evader and might get the Evader pro when it comes out.

[X(] well.. we went to an off road track yesterday. I sware when we walked in they had $$$ signs in their eyes! My hubby bought himself a Losi XXX-T Sport Truck and it ran for 15 minutes and he had to buy titanium turnbuckles. 40 bucks chaching! I ran my evader for 15 minutes and toasted the gears in the servo.. tho didn't know thats all I did, so went and bought a cheap servo, drove 15 minutes and toasted the gears in that servo too. So I spent most of the day taking my evader apart and putting it back together.. I'm getting real familiar real fast with evader parts, hehe. So after I toasted the 2nd servo I was disheartened to the point I didn't want to play anymore. Came home lat night, ran to my internet favorites and brought p cjg's webpage. Fixed the gears in the servo and modified the servo saver according to the webpage. Took it out to test drive and works great cept for that hard pull to the right.. so have to take it apart again! AHHHHH lol. But anyways. all the noise coming from the front end went away after the servo saver modification, so again thanks cjg!

What is this webpage?

http://www.usd.edu/~cgutzman/evader/

Doing some research this morning and found some useful stuff for the Evaders. JEP used to sell braces for the front bulkhead that mounted to the pins. They made the front end practically bullet proof. He no longer sells them, he went out of business but I did find that Losi made the samething for their XXT. They are a few dollars more but its better than replacing plastic all the time. The link is [link]http://store.racers-edge.com/catalog/index.cfm?fuseaction=catalog&parent_id=208[/link]

I've heard a few people say they had trouble with servos in evaders. But, I have a cheapo airtronics servo last for over a year w/o adjusting the servo saver Guess I'm lucky

hehe one step ahead of ya mastec! I got the metal brace at the hobby shop yesterday and also ordered a metal front bumper off ebay. ( I broke my bumper first day out)

Racers Edge also sells the rear brace for the front bulkhead and a brace for the rear chassis plate that attaches to the pins, something like the aluminum brace you picked up for the front.

I have a Nitro Evader BX and I don't think it was a bad decision at all. They stand behind their product & they are great products. Who else offers free replacement parts (stress tech ones)? They have that free replacement of their "stress-tech" parts. I would love to see some graphite parts, but there is a lot of aluminum parts for them. Also if anyone does know where I can get some wheels, besides the basic color buggy wheels, Please let me know....They have an interesting setup with their back wheels I believe.. Good luck & have fun. Also... as far as what "Professor E.n." was saying about the 19t beating the 17t....A lot of that is in the gearing. My TL BK Buggy has a 19t and beats my HPI Sprint with a 17t in it. the reason being is the one with the 17t still has the gearing that came with it....which was for a 20t. My 19t has a 17 Spur & 23 Pinion. This gearing on a Trinity Chamelon Pro SPEC 19turn motor blew the wheels off my 17t. Also, the back wheels balooned out!!! The motor barely gets warm..a great gearing for a 19t. I'm sure if I changed the gearing on my Venom-Racing Fireball 17t it would win, but until then... I have a gear program you can download for free that will help you find the best gearing. It's on my site..take a look.

morphineous,
Couple ideas about right side pull:
If you by chance took the servo horn off the servo shaft did you recenter your servo when you put it back together?

Did you adjust the steering trim on your radio?

Yeah had to recenter the servo..took it out for a test drive earlier this afternoon and itl ran fine and straight. Beat the hell out of it on some jumps that were similar to what I was doing yesterday at the track and the servo took it all. Great advice!

I would not at all say you made a bad buy. In fact I would have recomended an Evader ST myself to someone who is new to the hobby. Its strong, handles well, jumps well, has a good array of features...etc. You made the right choice. [8D]

Yeah I think so too, just gotta figure out it's quirks.

I just traded for one today. I am really happy with it so far. I had never even seen one in real life before today, but it has a lot of nice features. It had stripped servo gears, and a broken fron suspension arm, but he had the replacements for it, and it didnt take me no time to have it ready to roll again. I am hearing some bad sounds from the tranny, but im not to worried about that because it shouldnt be to hard to fix after/if it goes out(strips a gear). I jumped mine some, and it did good. It needs back tires, but other than that, it will scat with a 15 turn double. I cant believe how quick it is with just a P2K2 27t stock motor

he he he! you guys are all pansies!
electrics are for wimps! nitro rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
kick your butt any day 1/4 throtle

We bow to your superiority, oh god of nitro.