<span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: medium">I am just getting back into RC flight myself and know little about the cars and trucks. I picked up a couple of gas trainers but if I stay with this I will almost certainly convert to electric.
My wife is interested in gettingan electric car or truck. She would like it to be able to take rough ground without breaking every time she takes it out.
I think what she should have should run on lipos and be durable. It certainly does not have to do 50-60 MPH for a beginner.
Is there any brand or model that I should have her take a look at?</span></span>

traxxas stampede. the new ones can run lipo batterys,are waterproof and are very tough trucks.
if she happens to break something parts are very cheap and available at every hobby shop.

depends price range for the whole setup, 4wd or 2wd, and scale.
Scales 1/8(expensive for electric), 1/10(decent priced for elecs), 1/12, 1/16, 1/18th, 1/32

here's the vxl stampede http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXSDB6**&P=SM

or you can get the xl-5 version for less.

<span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: medium">I am sure she does not want something small.
I would not have any idea whether she would care about 4 WD.
We live on the edge of a national forest if that give you any idea of the type of ground she would use it on.
So 1/10th scale looks like what she should look at?
Also, I glanced at the models referenced here and they do not reference any batteries but NiMH but I assume a LiPo of the same voltage and amp rating would work fine?</span></span>

2S lipos are 7.4v AMPs don't really matter except for run time.
6cell NiMh's are 7.2v so pretty much lipos can be used in anything that takes NiMh. But with brushed motors you need a Low-Voltage Monitor to monitor the Lipos charge and tell you when to stop. (Low Voltage Cutoffs do NOT work with XL-5 ESC's that are in traxxas vehicles)

If your going to run it near a forest you will want a 4wd seeing 2wd's kinda suck in grassy locations.
Theres the E-savage for around $350, its 1/10th scale
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXTDD6&P=ML http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXPCH5&P=ML (No idea whats different about the 2 cept ones cheaper and out of stock)
or the Savage Flux its 1/8th scale
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXWLZ8**&P=ML

Then theres also the Revo from Traxxas that has a very loyal following
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXUYD6**&P=ML Brushed
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXWGD0**&P=ML Brushless motor

<span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: medium">OK, I will have her take a look at these.
I will want a good battery charger for our hobbies so while I am here what is a good one that hopefully will charge almost anything for flight or trucks. An option AC/DC would also be nice I suppose.
As I said, I just picked up a couple of glow trainers but I will convert to electric in the near future, I can tell already. Much cleaner and simpler or so it appears to me.
</span></span></p>

http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store...lancer/Charger
Charges everything its DC only so you will need a 5A 12V power brick(or rig a computer power supply if you have one laying around)
That place is also VERY reasonable on LiPo batteries (you probably won't find lower priced lipos)
Only thing on batteries they are usually out of stock (I've been on backorder for about a month) on their real good deals

Thanks for the information.
That appears to be a pretty nice charger as does the big brother to it for the money.

ld get an E-revo for the forest, the battery compartment has no holes for sticks to go through and punchure a lipo battery causing an instant fire.
4x4, MT will do anything. Better than a FLUX, or e-savage they have many little issues. mines a pain in the butt.

your one of the few people I hear rip on the flux so much. Yes I know you bent your TVP (BTW you should double up TVPs on the flux when doing bashing like you like to do)
BTW since when did you own a e-savage I've not heard any little issues with that one. Actually the people on the electric forums that have them love them and have no probs from what I read.

OK, my wife just looked at that E-Savage and really liked the video on it so I think she has made her choice.