CESSPOOL

I'm thinking about getting (actually my mind is pretty much made up...) my kids each a monster truck for Christmas. They are 6 and 8. I want 4 whel drive and I want electric and RTR.

The 2 mentioned trucks are $10 price difference at killerhobbies. I don't prefer 1 brand over the other, I grew up on both and think Losi and Associated are both top notch. I have an LST2 (Tough call, I really like the MGT) and my kids want Trucks. I have no experiece with 18 scale cars. So I need some help.

Will these be able to run through grass. Nothing overly high, but an average height in between cuttings?
How fast are these little trucks?
Is one overly more durable than the other?


I would prefer to get them the same one, with different bodies, so as to keep from any "that truck is better" arguements. But one of my kids may lean more towards a buggy, so I may get the RC18B. It seems to be pretty much liek the MT, but will it be able to run in the grass and still be durable?

Any other suggestions are fine. One guy said to get a rustler, but that may be too much truck...


Thanks!

BaSh_2_tHa_mAxX

My Feedback: (1)

Try posting this in the mini and micro rc forum. Being that i have had a rc18t before i may be more miased towards that series of trucks. However before getting my 18t i did do months of research and read countless posts. The mini lst is a truck team losi just wacked together and stuck on the market prematurely. Some people however do have good experiences with them, but on the whole the mini lst has lots of diff and drive train issues so id advise you to stay away unless your gonna drop extra cash in to beef up the drivetrain. The rc18 series does have its own little "quirks" it does have drivetrain issues and leaky shocks out of the box. IF you do go brushless you will need super diffs and mip cvds. As far as running them on grass goes, these are minis and are best suited to smoother surfaces. Doing your research you will learn where and where not to run them and what and what not to buy. Try visiting www.one18th.com .

Bria1

Mini's may not be the best if you plan on running them in grass. You may want to consider a Stampede also. I got both of my kids Stampedes around that age and they were fine with them. If it is the old version, it won't be any faster than the mini's you mentioned. If it is the newer version, it has a beginner mode that limits throttle to 50%.

carmatic1

i own a mini lst... in my own personal experience, it works well as a 'garden basher' , where the garden would look something like



notice the neatly cut grass, and the lack of space for larger scales...if your home has a garden like this a mlst would be right at home

it would also work well for rough asphalt you typically get in neighbourhoods where the roads dont get as much attention as the main roads

if you plan on hopping up the power system, buying half the truck's cost worth in drivetrain upgrades is a must... but this is already an improvement over the earlier situation where everyone was stuck with the same stock gears, which is very frustrating for people who had swapped the stock motors and esc for more powerful ones , but not neccesarily a bad thing for those who kept using the relatively weak stock power system since they only experienced very little failure... shimming the gears to get a good mesh will also help, just like other cars... i think , the majority of failures come from people who use a center spool, dont use one and you will have alot less problems...

DaveG55

I have and rc18b and would not even consider trying to drive it in the yard. If you play golf you'll understand this. I don't see mine running well in anything longer that the first cut or at most a freshly cut fairway.
I'm not familier with the Stampede but I've had the Duratrax Evaders (both a ST and a buggy) and they were fine in the yard and on the street and about the same cost as a rc18. They can also be made quite fast w/o spending a fortune and are easy to work on too. Only thing is they're 2wd.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXXJ49**&P=ML

zach brenner

mini-lst is the best bet. it has all the goodies of a racer but comes setup for bashing, so if they get in to racing they have a perfect race truck already. the 18 mt will go about 17 stock and my mini-lst was clocked at 16.5 but with way more torque (because of dual motors) so gearing up will get you to 18+ with the same torque as the 18mt.

farknben

I have a mini-lst and had a rc18t(same as an mt with smaller tires).

The mini-lst is better in grass but keep it short. The cool thing is since you have a lst2 the mini is almost an exact little copy of it. Its harder to work on then the 18s but not too hard...just more time consuming.

The rc18t is was very nice also. The one thing I liked about the 18 is a longer battery live which maybe good for kids(of all ages). I think parts are a little cheaper and there where(last time I looked) more hop ups readly available.

Id say strictly for grass get the lst(it still aint real fast in my grass about 2.5") or the 18 if you've got some dirt and concrete/blacktop.

EDIT; as far as racing I disagree with the above post. The rc18s handle much better imo due to the lower cog. If I was racing Id take the rc18 w/servo spring mod over my lst.

zach brenner

the 18mt will have higher cg than the 18t so the mini-lst and the 18mt will have about the same cg, and the mini lst handles 1/10-1/8 scale tracks better than 18mts at my track which is suited for big 1/8 mts the 18mt often flip over on the really big bumps. just the other day , three cars where on the track, an 18mt,my mini-lst and a baja 5b 1/5. on the stright me and the 18mt dodge the baja and accelerated to a hair pin turn, as i said earlier the 18mt is a bit faster so it pulled ahead onto big bumps, it fliped foward and to the right, cartwheeling to the side, my lst pulled hard in to the bumpy area and hopped about 3 inches off the ground and landed on the front left tire quickly regaining traction.
I think these sort of things happen because the mini-lst is alot heavier and this storys ending is not pretty, when this was happening the baja laped us and hit the 18mt. 23lbs of buggy plowing a 1.7 lbs truck.
damage report:
baja: a piece of 18mt body mount was stuck under the body.
18mt: crushed rear shock tower ,3 broken lower arms, ripped body and body mounts, ripped off rear bumper etc.....
you could use that as an idea of the durability of the 18mt but it is unfair to pit it againest somthing 13 time its size

farknben

Thats funny! Ive broken alot more parts on my lst then my 18t. I most of gotten a lemon. Have you seen a 18mt next to a lst? It still has a lower cog. It is a single piece chassis unlike the lsts doulble chassis. If I can find the pic of my 18t & lst next to my buddies 18mt I will post it.

zach brenner

[:@]
then you should drive in front of more bajas!
you should see me run out onto the track "I save you little buddy" I yell as I protect my little car from that mean baja
do you guy think the 18mt is more durable than the lst. I don't know but double deck chassis with aluminum plates is usaully more durable than plasic bath tub chassis.
I will let you know if my mini-lst is hit by a baja at 40 and i will compare with the 18mt
maybe the 18mt is lower thaan the lst

zach brenner

I found some pics but how do you post pics?

farknben

Thats the problem. The chassis is so heavy the plastic parts break from the momentum. The lst is almost twice as heavy as the 18s.

Any which way they are both great trucks.

and Zach dont let a Baja hit your mini I dont even want my MGT to get hit by one of those brutes.

zach brenner

unfortunately I will not be able to help give info on a stock mini lst anymore because my thanksgiving present to myself was a mamba 25 and a c4 brushless motor and I would like to give thanks to dynamite and castle creations for creating this product. it should be up and brushless by saterday morning eastern standard time so i will tell about the proformance around then.(think I will out run that bully of a baja?)

carmatic1

if your track is short and tight, yeah

::edit:: did the baja get the 18mt while the latter was flipping over etc?

DaveG55

I've got that system in my rc18b and it is way, way fast. Almost uncontroably so when you put a 3c lipo in it. If you did not get a Castle Link with your system it's well worth the extra $25. Setting up the esc with the tx is a royal pita. Being able to use the computer for set up is increadably fast and easy.

To the original question, I would not get 6 and 8 yo's a 1/18th scale vehicle. They're just too small. I'd get at least a 1/10th scale vehicle. A Stampede, an Evader ST or something like that would be a far better choice. At least that's my opinion.

zach brenner

1. no the baja hit it when it was at reast
2. I think minis are great for kids(little kids, little cars) and I'm a kid and I like my mini-lst

carmatic1

ahh... bad baja, bad BAD baja!

yeah i think that minis are also nice for kids, their hands are proportionally smaller and so will naturally fit with working on the cars better... unless of course they really really really want something huge, but maybe if you just show them how fast a 3s lipo equipped 18t can go they'll be hooked...

farknben

If they run a 18t on 3s then they are gonna need those little hands to work on the truck

zach brenner

kids will enjoy little cars more unless you drive and they ride on it.
they will not enjoy carrying big things like savages or better yet bajas( i marshaled a baja race flipping one over is not fun yet alone carrying it. the little kids at my track love to watch bajas and 1/8 mts cartwheel but when it is their own car cartwheeling they get mad it is less dramatic to watch a mini flip (it's amost cute) than a big car. (I know my savage and mini-lst have hade their share of cartwheels and It's traumatizing to watch the savage bounce 10 ft in the air.
and I have alot more mini on mega storys, one involving my savage and a cretian mini-t. .. . . . .

zach brenner

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