palbanes

I've had my Sportwerks Raven for about a week now and want to post some initial impressions on it. First off, for those of you not familiar with this car, it's a relatively new RTR Stadium Truck made by Sportwerks, the creator of the popular 1/8th scale Mayhem.

I was kind of skeptical of buying this knowing that it's Sportwerk's first electric RC release. I got the whole kit for 180.00 dollars so here is my quick review:

Pros:

- It uses aluminum shocks with easy to use preload adjusters that you just twist to desired load.
- Comes with a decent 19T motor
- Comes with a Tazer 15t ESC that I was pretty impressed with
- The radio is decent and has good range / controls
- The preglued tires provide a lot of traction
- It handles very well and is nicely balanced
- Has a easy to access slipper clutch adjustment to change traction settings
- Very fast out of the box

Cons:

- You might aswell replace the mounting adhesive for the reciever and ESC right off the bat, they were poorly attached and I ended up putting velcro on it right away
- The body is sort of tacky in my opinion with the headlights/grill decals (which I've removed)
- No aftermarket upgrade parts are available
- Battery holster could be designed better
- Not a lot of stores stock common parts

I've been driving this truck a lot and even though I don't have much exprience in the electric stadium truck realm, I'd have to say this truck has the most value out of the box in the market. For 180 dollars you get good adjustable/aluminum shocks, a nice 19T motor, a 15T ESC, and a decent radio.

The car handles jumps very well and has conquered any terrain I could throw at it. I have much more fun on the jumps with this truck than my old Losi JRX2 buggy. There is plenty of torque, speed, and overall good handling. I can't wait to compete this spring with it.

A friend of me loaned me his GPS so we could test this trucks speed. With the stock pinion and motor, this truck reached 21.7 MPH with the weight of a GPS attached!

The truck is currently out of comission because I'm waiting on a steering part that broke when I went off too large a jump. I can't wait to get it running again and HIGHLY recommend this truck to anyone wanting a stadium truck, even if you have more money to spend on something more expensive. Save the money for upgrades and buy this truck!

palbanes

Feel free to ask me any questions about this truck

RCAdmin1

DOES IT SUCK DI CK??

palbanes

Uhm.

MuffinMan06

I was thinking about getting a Stadium truck kit (NOT RTR[8D]). And I was wondering if they offer it in a kit version and also if it's good as those T4's and xxx-t's out there?

palbanes

They don't currently offer it outside of RTR as far as I know. I would say it's on par with the T4 and xxx-t but those come with slightly better electronics.. We'll see just how good this truck is come spring when I race it

MuffinMan06

awww... oh well I was probably gonna get the xxx-t anyways Good luck with your racing, I'll probably doing some parking lot racing myself this summer (I haven't been to any races yet so that will be fun)

MBX5T Maniac

My Feedback: (-1)

Nice review Pal, but I would leave opinions out of this. By this, I mean the look of the decals in the cons. This isn't true for some people. I must agree that the part support isn't the best, but it will get going, because Horizon owns Sportwerks and dynamite, and we will be sure to see some aluminum parts.

Overall, nice review!

-Inverted-

Now it just needs a brushless setup to get it going.

MBX5T Maniac

My Feedback: (-1)

Look inside the tranny, and see if all the gears are metal.

Combatcm

My Feedback: (1)

Looks like a nice truck to have if you really hate ball diffs.

discgolfer72

i dont have a raven but im using the shocks on my rc10 t and orignal rc10 truggy conversion and am verry impresed for the price (around 20$) they are the best shocks i have used . the spring rate is really superb

MBX5T Maniac

My Feedback: (-1)

what's up with the top gear? It isn't meshing with the second gear at all.

bashingozzy

hey iv got a raven very fast out off the box very good bashing rtr r/c parts in australia are very easy to get. Hop up parts are comming soon to aus my only cons are that the tyers are slicks now after 2 weeks and esc come lose of chassie after a couple jumps

Doahh

any tire will go slick after 2 weeks on pavement...

"what's up with the top gear? It isn't meshing with the second gear at all. "
That's really odd...

MBX5T Maniac

My Feedback: (-1)

Doahh, maybe on the other side of the case, there are supports for the shaft, and so right now, the spur gear is weighing the gear down, so it's lifting up. Tat's thhe only thing I can think of

Doahh

Wow you'd think that they wouldn't make it have very much play on that one side...

MBX5T Maniac

My Feedback: (-1)

yeah, but i'm pretty sure that the shaft goes into a ball bearing.

philp37

woahh... no adjustable ball diff?..... I dont know. Truck seems interesting though. Discgolfer72, I will have to ck out the shocks at my local LHS. What do you like about these shocks. I see LHS has about 8 of these Ravens in stock. They are a large respected hobby shop, (stock parts, knowledgeable staff, don't rip you off) so it is a good sign that they are stocking them.

discgolfer72

thy are really great they have a slow return not bonucy at all and the spring rate that they come with is perfect for my local track also they are really well made. for the price i havent been able to find a set or adj shocks any where that compare. associated shocks are 30 bucks for 2 and arnt adj the only other ones i found are hpi but they have plasctic bodies with alum caps (not adj)they are 15 bucks and their are a frew full sets of shocks i have seen but its like 135 bucks for 4

here are some pics of my rc 10 t and rc10 truggy conversion using them i would love to use them in the front but their to long for my truggy and im waiting till pay day to buy for the t

arceight

I was told that the raven is basically a losi replica and that some parts are interchangeable,plus i've never seen the xxxt to know this but it definitely looks like an overgrown mini t.

discgolfer72

the lhs told me the evader is a losi knock off and i own one its junk if the raven is a losi knock off from what i have seen(display model) its allot beter built than the evader im really thinking of buying one

i do know the evader bx parts are the same as a losi xx dont know about the st

arceight

If you think about it the raven is distributed by horizon as is losi therefore the raven may be a replica but the evader is distributed by tower and is a knock off.I would prefer the replica opposed to the knock off probably because i own the (fragile) bx pro. Better yet I'm going to purchase the t4 as soon as tower gets some kits in.Actually a friend of mine bought the raven st and put a 12t revolution in it and loves it it seems light weight and durable.I'll have to compare when my t4 gets here.

palbanes

Here are some pictures from driving it today:





And here are some videos (REQUIRES QUICKTIME!)
[link=http://webpages.charter.net/palbanes/raven1.qtl]http://webpages.charter.net/palbanes/raven1.qtl[/link]
[link=http://webpages.charter.net/palbanes/raven2.qtl]http://webpages.charter.net/palbanes/raven2.qtl[/link]

Combatcm

My Feedback: (1)

The tranny is open the the shaft has nothing to be supported on because the opposeite tranny case is off.

Not too difficult to figure out.