Hello, Im new here. Been doing alot of research and still looking for a possible tuning solution.

Ive been a Electric Traxxas Rustler for 3 years and Electric XTM XC that Ive had for 3 months.

I was on my 3rd tank of break in and the diff gear went out. I was only running it a 1/2 throttle, if even that much. I never got after it at all, just a smooth steady pace. I was running it on a tennis court so I didnt have to deal with any traffic. I was waiting till after this tank to adjust to the factory specifide diff adjustment setting. Snug, back off 1/8th turn. I called my LHS where I bought the truck 2 hours earlier said he would give me the new gear and thrust balls(had them order the aluminum diff, aluminum idler and carbide thrust balls) .

I get the new one installed and snugged it, though it was snug for 3-4 full turns. So I played with the adjustments till it would roll under its own power. It would move, but under any thing but gentle acceleration it would slip. I ran it for a few runs till the 3rd tank of break in fuel was used up. I let it cool down, turned the adjustment of the diff a 1/8th turn and it locked the rear into full posi. I figured it would losten up with some slow passes. Well it didnt, it stripped the spur gear instead. Now Im pissed. I ran to the closest hobby shop and bought a new spur gear and got that installed, lostened the diff up a tiny bit and it woudnt roll under its own power. I tore it apart again and the diff was smoked again.

All this and the motor isnt even broke in yet, not even 4 full tanks of fuel have been run. The shop where I bought it said to bring it in and he would send it to Duratrax to have them acess the problem. So now Im out $288 bucks, have to wait to get it back. Is there anyone who has any thoughts about what the problem is? I was torn between this Evader and a 2.5 Rustler. My buddy has 2 of them and never had any issues with either. He also has a Sport with a 2.5R conversion and a 2.5 Jato. I love Traxxas, but thought Id give something else a try. Now Im second guessing my decision.

***** and moan all you want but it wont solve problems. Break-in is the hardest part on any r/c truck. Simple fact: a tight differential setting WILL NOT cause the spur gear to strip out under half throttle. Check the gear mesh and making sure all the screws are in on the the chassis will GREATLY reduce the chassis flex. And 3 tanks of fuel isn't enough to break-in a differential. When I rebuilt mine with the carbide balls it took me around 8 or 10 tanks of fuel doing figure 8's in a parking lot to even begin to get the differential to grab and not slip before the slipper clutch. New duratrax diffs will slip.
I race my duratrash evader and it does alright. Weakest link right now are the steering buckles and tie rod ends (that's right, it isn't the diff...and I STILL HAVE PLASTIC GEARS). I've managed to strip 1 (one) spur gear but only through my own stupidity (left out 2 forward tranny screws on chassis).

I am having serious diff issues.....keep frying the diff gear too been through like 5 plastic gears now.......switching to aluminum next week.

If you set the diff too tight, it'll do that. When the diff is too tight on the standard steel ball bearing, they wont roll on the plates as they should. Instead, they'll slide on the plates making flat surface and sooner or later eating up the main diff gear.

blew out two diffes on my nitro evader before i went for the aluminum gear and have not had any problems since. id tell everyone to make this switch.

Also, don't loosen your diff so that it just gets the truck moving, you don't want it to slip, so tighten it until it's as tight as it will get, then back off just little bit, like an 1/8 of a turn. Make sure your slipper slips before your diff as well. YOu don't need aluminum. I no longer use ali as well because the diff is much smoother with plastic.