Mr. Furious

Hey all,

First off, I know there's a million posts about which MT is best or whatever.....Please read what I have and what I want to do and give me your thoughts and experiences. I live in a 2 truck town...Savage and T-Maxx so I don't get to see a lot of other trucks running.

All this talk about the REVO has got me Monster truck shopping again. I have a Mammoth that I'm keeping and I think it's awesome but it handles way too much like a buggy and has much too plush suspension for serious jumping. The suspension works great on rough stuff and keeps the truck really planted but it just doesn't take huge air like I want it too. It does great on track conditions but the construction site type bashing seems to be a little out of it's design parameters. It seems like the best setup for handling is way too low and soft for serious bashing. So I want to add another rig to the stable.

The REVO has the way cool new thing going for it but small blocks and monster truck don't go together IMHO. Unless the TRX gets waaaayyyy better fuel economy than a big block, that may persuade me. Also it seems like it's got pretty low ground clearance, the tires are higher than the body on most people's videos. Durablilty of the REVO is up in the air, some say it's bulletproof and others say it's very easy to break......

I already had a Savage and don't want another because in my experience the Savage is the exact opposite of the Mammoth and is only good for jumping. The COG is way too high and with the stiff suspension the things traction roll constantly. Top end speed is lacking too. Very tough truck though. I also found the Savage to be a huge pain to work on due to the chassis layout.

The MGT is looking pretty good but I don't know anything about it for jumping and hard bashing. I also am in the dark as to how easy it is to work on and if they break a lot.

TNX? Don't know a thing about this one but it seems like more of a racer than a basher.

LST....Darn nice truck but the price is $150 to $200 above almost every other truck listed. I think I'd rather start cheaper and buy some hop-ups.

T-Maxx...Out of the question. Too many hop-ups needed to keep it from breaking.

So....Tell me what truck I need to get to drive it like I stole it and jump it from big things onto hard things and drive it in every situation imaginable.

Mxracer45

Well since you DONT want a savage i would have too suggest the AE MGT with some of Hardcore racing's new alum/titanium parts.

Mxracer45

If you have the money- http://racinghardcore.com/ Or might i also suggest RPM parts. Gauranteed 100% not too break.

<conrad>

get harder shock oil and harder shocks ive been bashin my mammoth 12-15 feet in the air its crazy havent broken any thing except the pullstart.

Mr. Furious

Well that's no fun I need a reason to buy a new truck.....What kind of shock upgrades do you recommend? Part numbers and where to buy if you don't mind.

Keep the replies coming...even if I turn my Mammoth into a jumper I still want another toy

Boarder_man720

i'd also have to say AE MGT. i own a mammoth myself (yay!) and i mixed some 30 and 35 wt shock oil together and set my pre load down to about half and it will take a 4 foot straight drop not moving just fin. there is a tabletop at my track which launches the mammy up about 10 feet in the air and it lands it like a champ, nothing broken but the 5mph bumper and some REALLY bent shock towers

Mr. Furious

Get some CF shock towers for your Mammoth and your problems will be over. They are awesome.

Boarder_man720

the only problem i see with CF is that it soesnt bend, it crackes. So i was just going to get the 5mm thick 7071 shock towers and probly brace them up w/ either a spine or some 1/4 inch aluminum tube (maybe bigger but i doubt 5mm will bend esially) but can anyone here give me the pro's and cons of the 5mm and the CF shock towers? Thanks in advance

breakin2

My Feedback: (1)

I'm sort of in the same boat. I have an LST for racing, but I want to get another just for bashing the crap out of it. I've been thinking about the TNX, Revo, and SS myself. I ruled out the MGT because it seemed very similar to the LST.

Mr. Furious

The CF Towers for the Mammoth are pretty nice. I bought mine from Hanky TCP on the Global forums and he had 7 gallons of hard bashing through his Mammoth with no damage to the towers, shocks or diff cases before I bought mine. Very good investment. I also picked up Corvetterick's brace system from ebay. That is the best $35 I've spent. It gives the truck a nice spine and makes the chassis flex free. It reallt changes the handling of the truck. The 2 mods I did seem like they addressed all the weaknesses the Mammoth has. The global forum is down right now but I'll get some links to pictures of my truck later.

I would try the brace before new towers. The brace mounts direct to the towers and will probably eliminate the need for new towers all together. I already had CF when I bought the brace so I left them in place. The weight reduction(which is considerable) made up for the added weight of the brace and the CF looks dead sexy!

Here's a link to the auction I won.....E-mail him for more info.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=5907366184

fhm101

Don't you mean the thunder tiger truck marketed in the US by associated? I for one think it's more than a little lame to pass the MGT off as an AE product when it's nothing more than a disguised TTR. Of course the LST is not made by the real losi either, so I guess it's all about the same for these two companies. Since you said you didn't want the best big air jump truck going (savage), I'd say one of the above fakes would be the number 2 and 3 choices. The problem you will run in to getting major big air with a flat pan style truck is chassis flex, even if you beef it up to beat the band. Your basic 8th buggy design was concieved to run on relativly mild european off road/rallygame tracks and big air is not something they do, so it was never intended to be good for it and will not last doing it. It may make a few nice ones, but it won't take it over and over like the savage will. OTB the savage is a bit heavy for it's engine, but a bump up to say a pico 26 is really all you need to be in the big air biz with one. Besides, how many other trucks do you know of that can have a chassis repair made with zip ties that actually works.

Mxracer45

I totally agree, but last time when i said it was TTR people got pissed off and started flaming at me. Note the *hardcore parts*.
AE didnt even bother too change the body.[&o]

frozen

Revo

tamiya08

My Feedback: (10)

tamiya tnx been jumping it in the back yard for a while. real fun, want to make a video too.

Deandome

My Feedback: (1)

http://www.unlimitedengineering.com/...ore/10000.html

monst@r

I'd rather buy 2-3 monster trucks and upgrade them then buy 1 rolling chassis .. Even if it is the best.

Mr. Furious

Dang it! I've been looking around too much and now I'm interested in the Savage 25. With the deal Tower has running it would be super cheap. My Savage was a .21 first run.

Is the Sav 25 that much better than the original Sav 21?

And....Is there any way to get some of the traction roll out of the Savage?

The slap ma fro vids got me thinking Savage.

Dang it!

Acs_guitars

My Feedback: (3)

The .25 engine has a better top end and starting torque than the .21.... If you know how to tune an engine properly, you can be very pleased with it as a stock bashing motor, but if you want more speed, you can always upgrade when the engine dies (6-10 gals of fuel later). AND
Yes!! There is a really easy way to get less roll in a Savage suspension. I use RC Trix 20% springs with 45wt(front) and 60wt(rear) shock oils, and they also make a 40% spring. These are great for all 'round bashing, though the 40's might be a little too soft to jump on. Another way is to get 40 series wheels and tires, but this will be a little less durable for bashing. I have MGT tires on proline Weld SS rims, IMHO they are the best ones I have owned. The MGT tires have stiff sidewalls and resist roll-over in turns extremely well. They are also bigger than the stock tires and what I have noticed is improved traction on all surfaces. The PROVEN BEST basher is the Savage and why not get the best.

Texdav

I think the Savage would be a great choice but would get the SS and put a few mods to it. Aftermart parts break/bend too when jumped hard and are alot more expensive. and harder to get readily. Alot of guys do this and set the truck up only for jumping really. When jumping really high you have to expect that something may break when you don't hit the landing;so you want it to be cheap and locally available to get. I really don't understand the two Savage guys comments unless they are jealous of the MGT and LST trucks. Is the Savage designed by HPI then built by another company in fact ? Do they know how small Mugen is and how many of the parts are made by vendors? Have they been in a closet or seen AE say they amade the MGT or why TTR brought the MGT prototype to AE and gave up the biggest MT market to AE.? I think that POS comment said evrything about the poster; and why the other was flamed. Reminds me of a guy running down the street soaked with gasoline and then asking for a light;burns to death and ask St Peter why that guy murdered me.

fhm101

Help me out here tex, this is so confusing I can't tell what you are trying to say.

Are you trying to say that HPI does not make the savage?

Are you trying to defend AE for passing off another companies second failed attempt at building a monster truck? After the disaster that was the first TTR monster truck, how many people do you know that would have taken a chance on a second TTR MT? If your answer is not many, you get a gold star. Now, think for a moment about what a great reputation AE has, and how that was the ONLY reason so many people bought the MGT. Not because it was a great truck, it was a new, untested platform so there was no way the average jamoke could know how good, or bad it might turn out to be. But the average guy that happens to think AE is the **** in 10th scale rc racing (I'm one of those by the way) would not hesitate to drop a rather large wad on the MGT simply because they THOUGHT it was manufactured by associated and would be as good as their 10th scale stuff. TTR didn't give up anything by handing the truck over to AE, if anything they GAINED thousands of sales that they would not have gotten otherwise.

And to clear up another of your misconceptions, I do not own a savage. All I do is race MT so a savage is of no use to me whatsoever. It's a killer bashmobile, but blows big time on the race track.

Last of all, what in the heck does mugen have to do with any of this?

Please help me here tex, I'm get the feeling you are trying to flame me, especially after the man soaked in gasoline analogy, but somewhere between the ideas forming in your mind and translating them to the written word, your thoughts got horribly garbled and make no sense at all.

The Boss

Quote"Need a new MONSTER for JUMPING!!!"

hi, one of the best "trucks" ever built for jumping was a called the THUNDER KING, it is an old school kit made by MRC, they are not assembling any of there own kits anymore but they are still making parts for it 14 years later (it came out in about 1991). They can still be found for sale once and a while. They are basicly a monster sized 8scale stadium truck.

many of our club members use these ULTIMATE TK jumpers at our yearly monster jam shows and this old school kit has showed up all the other truck kits in the arena 4 years in a row now. Next to 8scale buggys the TK kits are the BEST! long distance jumpers and can still put some other "new type kits" to shame in terms of performance and jumping.

Test jump for M/J promoters with a STOCK NTK, jumping over 2 fullsize vans.
http://www.nitroextreme.com/cars_tru...s/jump_two.mov

breakin2

My Feedback: (1)

fhm - I agree with much of what you said, but hasn't the MGT proven to be a very capable MT? I agree that it's pretty shameful that AE had such a small role in making the truck, but it seems the results weren't that bad.

fhm101

To be honest, all I can tell you about the MGT is that last year after they hit i saw a few at every local and regional race I went to. This year however, i have only seen one in all the races i've attended both local and regional. From what i hear around the local shops, they suffer from the usual broken driveline parts like any heavy big tired truck does, but their owners don't seem to think it's excessive. I wish I could tell you more, but I don't bash so all I really know is what i see at the track or hear at the shops.

Mr. Furious

I checked everything out and ruled out all the trucks but the Savage and the REVO. The others all had strong points but just didn’t trip my trigger. The Savage is high on the list due to durability and the improvements with the 25 engine. The REVO is up there due to coolness and it’s the latest thing so that makes it more desirable. I’ve thought a lot about it and thought of what I already have on hand so here is what I plan to order from Tower:

Savage SS Kit
Hitec HS-645MG Servo
HPI Savage Dual Brake Kit
4 Duratrax 6x10x3mm bearings for the steering bell cranks
HPI Rotostart Back Plate
OFNA Micro Fail Safe
Du-Bro Large-scale fuel filter
4 extra silver wheel nuts
4 extra black wheel nuts

The equipment I already have on hand is:
Futaba 2PL 75mhz computer radio
Futaba micro receiver
Rotostart unit (my XTM cars have OFNA shaft start plates)
Throttle/brake servo


Total with shipping after the $40 Tower rebate will be $400.91

Or if I went with a REVO with the failsafe and fuel filter I would be at $460.96 shipped after the $50 rebate.

It seems pretty obvious to me which way I should go. The Savage SS will be a lot better-equipped truck when it’s built than the REVO. I planned on taking reverse out of the REVO anyways so I could use my 2PL. That kind of yanks a bunch of the coolness out of the REVO and costs me another $12 for the FOC. Plus I get some upgrades right out of the gate with the Savage and I have an extra $60 in my pocket to fuel that thirsty big block.

What do ya’ think? Am I building a nice truck with the specs I have? Will I be sad that I blew off the REVO for a year old truck? If I did go with the REVO would I be disappointed with the performance of the small block?(Did I mention I LOVE torque?)

Thanks for all the replies and I think the MGT is a cool truck regardless of who built it. Associated is a great company to buy a car from because you can always count on parts support. (They still make parts for the original RC10 from 1985. That’s standing behind your customers if you ask me.)

Dnmeistr

If you are considering the Revo don't forget the TNX, although not as flashy as the Revo, the TNX is a very durable truck and cheaper with a better motor. But for the money and Towers price the Savage is hard to beat. I have the original Savage .21 and haven't broken a part on it yet, other than the one way bearing inside tranny slipping which HPI replaced for free.