BINFORD

How good is the kyosho Blizzard EP?

Wondering about the drivtrain durability, any common problems/weaklinks

Also how good are they in snow, I assume they are alot better than a Clodbuster, as they are designed for snow,

And lastly is the stock motor good enough, any recommendations?

Thanks

hands without shadows

The drivetrain is extremely durable and they do much better in snow than any other rc I have ever seen.

drevil

My Feedback: (5)

They do really well in snow but don't expect miracles. If you've got relatively deep, light packed snow it'll sink just like any other r/c.

The weak points are the chassis and the drive chains. The problem with the chassis is due to a design flaw. The front wheels are mounted to the chassis with one screw and as you hit bumps the chassis slowly starts to bend outward causing the treads to become loose and fall off. Kyosho does sell a bandaid fix for it which is basically an aluminum bar that goes across the chassis to stop the outward bending. I once contacted Kyosho about it to see if they'd warranty the bent chassis as it was pretty obviously a design flaw that they clearly knew about (and it was only a couple of weeks old!!!) but they refused. I personally would never buy another Kyosho vehicle again due to the way their customer service talked to me. The other weak point is with the drive chains. They're just not very well made and tend to fall off if not adjusted constantly.

As for the stock motor it's fine for what the Blizzard was designed for. It's geared very low for torque so it's top speed is quite slow. You can replace the motor and gear it up a little but then you lose that low end torque it needs. Besides that like I said above the Blizzard tends to have some weak points as is and adding any type of speed/power will only magnify those weaknesses.

All in all I think it's an awesome vehicle for what it was meant. However don't expect to be able to go blasting it around flying over jumps and things like that. I'm not going to tell you not to buy one, but I will say that I would never recommend it to anyone.

BINFORD

Thanks for the info, I just want it for snow, had a Clodbuster, really liked it in the snow.

Thought I might try something different.

I wondered about the chain, looks like the same one I had in my Optima years ago, used to have to adjust all the time with a mod motor.

I am having trouble finding part numbers for spare parts.

Would it be easy to brace the chassis w/o the kit?

drevil

My Feedback: (5)

I have seen guys that somehow braced it with aluminum tubing but I'm not 100% sure how it was done. There used to be a forum just for tracked vehicles and I'm certain somebody there would be able to help out with specifics. I don't remember the url, butf I come across it I'll post it up.

Yea the Clod is a lot of fun in the snow.

BINFORD

I found this website http://www.making-trax.net/

Has lots of info and pictures, should be pretty straight forward from the pictures I've seen.

Thanks again for your help.

drevil

My Feedback: (5)

http://making-trax.org/index.php?showtopic=218

EDIT: Just noticed your above post above. Here's the link to the fix.

BINFORD

Thanks for the link, looks pretty straight forward.