David Wile

Hey folks,

Maybe I have not been searching properly, but I have not been able to find any thread dedicated to the ECX Barrage marketed by Horizon Hobby. The Barrage seems to be something of a hybrid. It is advertised as a 1/12 scale, but it seems to emulate the 1/10 scale in some ways.

Being new to this forum, I would like to find a Barrage dedicated thread. If there is no such thread, I would be inclined to start one. I purchased a Barrage a couple weeks ago, and it is all new to me.

Are there any Barrage dedicated threads I simply was unable to find?

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

phordman

I have not seen many threads, on any of the RC forums, nor ppl talking about them, nor any of them at any of the RC crawl's Ive been to.

may not have a ton of support on this one, only parts I found are though Horizon ...

cool lookin rig tho!

Mike Flea

I don't know about here, and haven't seen one, but on RCCrawler.com there's a thread started, it's in the Scale Rigs General Tech sub-forum

David Wile

The ECX Barrage



Listed Key Features:
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Hey Phordman & Mike,

I would have expected more chatter on this Barrage crawler - $180 regular price at Horizon Hobby and with their regular 10% off, that makes it about $ 162 delivered to your door. My steering servo burned out the second day I had it, but Horizon sent me a replacement which has been working fine since then. I do not use my Barrage for aggressive use or in water fording or mud slopping. I simply run in my front and back yards: a rock garden in front yard and two big dirt pile mounds in back yard. I have found AliExpress to be a really good source for replacement parts at very good prices. One just has to be patient when ordering things from China. Sometimes things can arrive in less than a week, and other times it may take up to three weeks. Most times, however, you can count on a week to ten days.

The Barrage is advertised by Horizon Hobby as a 1/12th scale, but from comments made by others, it seems it is a 1/12 by 1/10 hybrid because a number of parts interchange. Horizon also calls it a "scaler" instead of a rock crawler, but I do not understand that. It certainly is a rock crawler in my rock garden, and I would assume calling it a "scaler" means that it is scale looking. Well, I have seen some really strange looking rock crawlers which look like they came out of Star Wars. This Barrage is not a copy of any real life truck, but it certainly looks more like a realistic truck than the Star Wars things. I have seen some bodies that actually look like real life trucks, but this Barrage is a close second and suits my needs. Would I prefer red or metallic blue? Absolutely, but I can live with the desert tan of the Barrage quite well, thank you.

A fellow called 2KRCBACKROADS posted a video review of the Barrage which runs fifteen minutes, and I think it is very good. It can be seen as follows:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVKl-hKDzZk
He also posted a nice two minute video titled "ECX Barrage - Evening trail and crawl at The Slab" which show the Barrage rambling up, over, and around all kinds of rocks. It sure looked great to me:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mojB4zc3_os&t=1s
2KRCBACKROADS has several other videos on other crawlers which folks may also find interesting.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

phordman

Mind posting a few pics with the body off ? and 1 or 2 showing how flexable it is? will be looking for 2 for my kids before too long

David Wile

Hey Phordman,

The Horizon Hobby website has a lot of pics of the Barrage, both inside and outside, and they are much better than I could take. It also has info on specs and parts. The frame is a metal ladder frame which seems quite strong. If you hold one end in one hand and the other end in the other hand, you can twist the frame, but the X braces keep the frame from diamonding. I know you can buy them from Horizon Hobby or HobbyZone for $162 after their 10% discount. That seems like a lot of nice crawler for that kind of money. If they are any cheaper than $162 anywhere else, I do not know about it. The link for the Horizon Barrage page is:

http://www.horizonhobby.com/19-4wd-b...--rtr-ecx01009

The steering servo burned out on the second or third day I had it, but Horizon sent me a replacement for free, and it has been working just fine since then. Other folks told me that steering servos are usually the first thing to go bad in most cars and trucks. I do not plan on beating mine up with aggressive use, but I bought a few after market servos from $6 to $13 from AliExpress. They are a good place for parts at a good price - you just have to do some research to see what the right parts are. I think this Barrage is a good buy.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

Mike Flea

The "star wars" looking rigs are called competition crawlers. Those are for the hardcore rock crawler guys that live to compete in/on a specific rockcourse primarily for those custom rigs.

What you have purchased is a scaler that can run trails and crawl up rocks like a 1:1 truck, something you'd take out to the backwoods, mountain trails, or desert for fun, or hunting. Most of the folks that post here, show off their "scale" trucks. ProLine.com has a bunch of scale accessories that you can attach to your truck, to give it that 1:1 look.

It's good that Horizon backs their products, and I wish you well in your new found endeavor. Keep us posted on the ups and downs you have with the Barrage.

I have a couple ECX shortcourse trucks, and am very happy with them. I don't abuse/bash my trucks, and ECX hasn't let me down yet, and they're easy to work on.

TheBennyB

Nice looking rig for the price point. Dave, as I'm sure you know, you get what you pay for. Yup, the aliexpress servo's are cheap, cause their just that. You may want to upgrade to a nice steering servo down the road, makes a big difference when your trying to turn your wheels in various terrain especially when your moving at slow speeds. Here's a very proven servo if your ever interested. Have fun with your rig and send us some pics next time your out bashing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Hitec-HS...QAAOSw7NNT2-DW

David Wile

Hey Mike,

You had an influence on my buying the Barrage based on a comment you made concerning the Barrage on another forum. Another person had pretty much called it junk even though he had never seen one, and you posted the following: ,


A few posts later, you said:



This made a lot of sense to me. I thought this Mike Flea seems like a discerning sort of fellow who takes a more analytical approach to evaluating things. I figured if you thought ECX products were good value for the money, it certainly was worth my buying one. In my case, I did not pay the $180 price nor the $162 price after a 10% discount. I had a $25 coupon from Horizon which reduced my cost to $155, and being the "inexperienced hobbyist" you described, where could I go wrong? So, thanks to you, Mike, I decided to get the Barrage and have been enjoying now for almost three weeks. And I do mean "thanks."

I do not know the jargon of the hobby very well, but I have seen videos of cars that race around tracks, cars/trucks or whatever that race around courses where they run up grades which send them flying in the air, and various kinds of vehicles which crawl over some really crazy rock courses which also include fording some formidable waters as well as sloppy mud. I realize the most demanding crawler courses call for some really serious machines that obviously are designed to meet that task, and they are the ones which look like Star Wars machines to me. What attracts me, however, are the machines which actually look more like a real backroads truck, and I wanted to get one that would be big enough to be able to run around my rock garden and the hills in my back yard. I live in a townhouse, so I am not talking about any serious rock climbing, but I was advised the 1/10th scale would be good for my limited interest.

I liked the looks of the Traxxas Teluride, but at over $300 with no discounts, it was a bit more than I wanted to pay. I had also read reviews of the Teluride by owners who complained about parts breaking easily and poor support from Traxxas. When I saw Horizon was marketing the Barrage at a $180 list cost, it was certainly something for me to consider. I looked for forum information on the Barrage, but it was very limited. As I noted above, your comments on the one forum thread were very influential for making my decision to get the Barrage.

Now that I have had it nearly three weeks, it is meeting my needs quite well. The steering servo burned out on the second or third day, but Horizon replaced it quickly, and it has been running quite well for me ever since. I have ordered some crawler parts from AliExpress which include two 2200 mAh LiPo batteries, three extra steering servos, three aluminum servo arms/horns with different splines, some extra body clips, and some extra headlights and tail lights to mount in the body. In the past year, AliExpress has provided me with most of my electrical parts needs for my RC airplanes, and the quality of those parts has been very good.

You said the Barrage is a "scaler" and crawls like a "1:1 truck." I never saw the term "1:1 truck" before, and I had previously thought "scaler" simply meant it was a "scale" looking vehicle. Can you tell me what these terms really mean? I have already glanced at the ProLine site and have saved it for more in depth reference for accessories, but I am still wondering what that "1:1 look" is and means. You also mentioned you have some ECX shortcourse trucks, and I am also wondering what "shorcourse" means. I told you my RC vehicle jargon is very limited. It is encouraging to see you find the ECX brand to be a sound value. Like I said earlier, you seemed to be a pretty analytical guy who thinks things through rather well.

It is cold for me outside, so I actually sit inside my family room while I am driving my Barrage all around the back yard hills. If it were warm outside, I would put the Barrage away and be out flying my RC airplanes, but for the time being, the Barrage will be my entertainment. Again, I thank you, Mike, for your insights.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

David Wile

Hey Benny,

The servo you noted above is a Hitec HS-645MG High-Torque 2BB Metal Gear Servo priced at $30 plus $2 shipping with the following specs:

Speed: 0.24 sec/60 at 4.8V - 0.20 sec/60 at 6.0V
Torque: 106.93 oz-in at 4.8V (7.7 kg-cm) - 133.31 oz-in at 6.0V (9.6 kg-cm)
Length: 1.59 (40.6mm) Width: 0.77 (19.8mm) - Height: 1.48 (37.8mm) - Weight: 2.11oz (60g)
Three metal gears - Dual ball bearings

Unless I missed something, this Hitec servo is an analog servo rather than a digital servo.


From AliExpress, I ordered a JX Brand PDI-6221MG 20KG Large Torque Digital Servo for $13 (shipped to my door) with the following specs:

Operating Speed (4.8V): 0.18 sec/85° -- Operating Speed (6V): 0.16 sec/85°
Stall Torque (4.8V): 17.25 kg.cm (239.55oz/in) -- Stall Torque (6V): 20.32 kg-cm (281.89 oz/in)
Dimensions: 40.5X20.2X38mm (1.59 X0.80X49 in) -- Weight: 62 g (2.18oz)
Degree: 180° - Angle Range: 172±2°
Connector Wire Length: JR 265 mm (10.43in)
High performance digital standard servo - High-precision aluminum gears with hard anodizing
CNC aluminum middle shell - Dual ball bearings


The JX servo is a digital servo and has twice the torque and a faster speed than the Hitec servo. Comparing the specs on these two servos, it would seem to me the JX servo delivers more performance and at less than half the price of the Hitec.

What I fail to understand is how price alone is a reliable indication of product performance or quality? Regarding the servos I purchased from AliExpress, you stated, "Yup, the aliexpress servo's are cheap, cause their just that." That statement is made without any documentation or information to support its validity. A valid question would be if you have ever purchased any servos from AliExpress, and if you did, what brand did you buy and what was your experience with them? Are you aware that AliExpress also sells Hitec servos? The Hitec servo you cited is $30. Other Hitec servos can cost $100 and even $150. Considering the difference in prices for Hitec servos, would your statement "you get what you pay for" also be accurate if you buy the cheap $30 Hitec servo instead of the high priced $100 Hitec servo?

In the past year, I have purchased a bunch of products from AliExpress, and everything has performed quite well. I needed some servo cables some months ago. I could have spent $10 buying one single servo cable from Horizon Hobby which I do trust to be a good product. Instead of buying from Horizon, however, I could buy ten cables of like kind and quality from AliExpress for $1.50 and have them delivered to my door for that same $1.50. That to me is neither a sign of being cheap nor poor quality; to me, it is just good value for my money.

I certainly hope I have not offended you with my comments. If I am missing the barn by about 12 yards on this, please help me to understand where I am wrong. I have received some very good RC airplane products at some very good prices through AliExpress this past year, so my experience has been most positive.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

Mike Flea

No problem Dave, glad to be of assistance, and I'm happy to see that ECX has made a decent scaler/crawler to add to the field of these kind of hobby-grade RC's. Over on URC (Ultimate RC) there's an ECX specific sub forum there, and we had talked about ECX coming out with one, and now it's here!

Ok, lets see if I can help on some of your questions. Other, lets say more hard core builders, put down the cheap trucks because they're not Axial, or Vaterra, or Kyosho. These brands are 3x the price of the Barrage. Yes, they have a bigger following, and more aftermarket parts available, and sometimes more durable, I say sometimes because there are guys that buy the "best" parts available, and then complain when they break. What is shinier/flashier and costlier is not always the best.

Shortcourse Truck (SCT) is a form of off-road truck racing confined to an enclosed stadium course, similar to desert racing, but in a stadium. So as in real life (1:1), we have shortcourse tracks that we go to, to race our toy trucks. You could do a search on this site for shortcourse trucks, and see what they have, or go to RCShortcourse.com, and you'll see a lot more.

If you look down a few threads, below this one, you'll find my 1/6 G.I. Joe Jeep thread. In there you'll see all the scale accessories I added to it, to make it look more realistic, more like a 1:1.

Hope this helps, I see you're a member over on RCC also. Look around over there, check out all the different threads, ask questions, and don't take offense if someone gives you a smart-ass answer. Most of the members are over 20, although sometimes they act like kids, and most of them are more knowledgeable than me, especially when it comes to electronics, BEC's and so forth. .

TheBennyB

Easy Dave, was just trying to point you in a direction for options in the future. Yup, your correct on price not always delivering performance. Reliability is a different monster(you've already been down that road.) Wasn't trying to put you off or challenge your purchases. In the end it's about you spending more time running then wrenching, and having fun!

David Wile

Hey Benny,

I know your intentions were completely friendly and positive, but I wanted to disagree in an agreeable way to the idea that higher prices automatically equate to higher quality. I wrote my response to you at least six times before I finally published it. Every time I read my response I thought it sounded offensive, and that is not what I wanted to do. I wrote my first draft in the morning and re-wrote it a half dozen times as I came back to it through the day. I finally published it last night in the form you saw, and I was hoping I could get my point across without sounding nasty, and if it still sounded disagreeable, I was hoping I could make amends in a following post. I hope you can believe that I did not intend to be disrespectful in making that point, and if it was taken that way, I hope you will forgive same.

As I noted earlier, the steering servo burned out the second or third day I had my new Barrage. Horizon sent me a new replacement servo that has a good bit more torque, but when installed in the Barrage, the servo extends too far back, and the servo wire interferes with the shock spring. The replacement servo also was a 25T spline and the original was a 23T spline. Another call to Horizon resulted in their sending me an exact original equipment replacement servo (with lower torque).

Since I already had the original burned out servo plus the first replacement servo, I decided to do some experimenting. I pulled both servos apart and replaced the splined output shaft/gear on the replacement servo with the splined output shaft/gear from the original servo. The gears interchanged properly, and that allowed the replacement servo spline to work with the existing servo arm/horn on the Barrage. To keep the servo wire away from the shock spring, I used an X-acto knife to cut off the rubber wire protector which protruded a quarter inch from the servo case. Without the wire protector sticking out as it was, I was able to fold the servo wire tightly against the case side and case bottom and then use hot glue to secure the wire tightly in place. This allowed the replacement servo and wire to clear the shock spring with ease. I used hot glue to re-seal the servo case, but I have no intentions of running my Barrage in any water or mud anyway.

The original equipment replacement servo has arrived from Horizon, and I have three more servos coming from AliExpress any day now, but I have no intention of removing my "experimental" servo as long as it is working properly. It has a good bit more torque than the original, and it has been working just fine for almost two weeks now. And I keep with the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." And, as you pointed out, it is about my "...spending more time running then wrenching..." Well put, Barney.

If you would not mind, I would like to ask you about the differences in the Hitec servo you noted earlier and the JX servo I noted. To me, the specs posted sould indicate the JX servo has more torque and should be better. That does not, however, mean the JX servo would last as long as the Hitec servo. In two years of RC airplane flying, I have never had any servo go bad, but my airplane servos are not the same as this big steering servo. You obviously have experience with these steering servos, and I would like to know what you think about making a servo choice based on advertised specs as I posted earlier.

I want to thank you for your last post which was kind and considerate. I really do try to do the same.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

TheBennyB

Hey Dave, no offense taken. For sure why not get the JX if the specs are the same if not better. The only thing to consider is the quality of the components that make up the servo. Everything from the quality of the solder joints, motor, esc, type of metal used in the gears, etc. Yea, a steering servo is going to see much more load than a control surface servo. When I'm crawling and get a tire/front axle stuck between 2 objects I can literally wave my truck by steering left and right to swing the entire truck back and forth and not worry about burning out the servo. Maybe the JX or your hybrid can do this as welll, let us know. I have had this happen to a cheap chinese servo though in my excavator only a couple weeks after getting it.

David Wile

Hey Benny,

Thanks for the response. When my servo burned out, I knew nothing about servos except that my airplane servos had never gone bad. I started looking things up and began to learn that steering servos were a whole lot different, so I started comparing the specs on a whole lot of servos and found some servos on AliExpress with very good specs and at very good prices. As you noted, specs are important, but they do not guarantee quality of the component parts, and that is always of prime interest to me when trying to make an informed decision.

In the past year or so, I bought a lot of servo cables and similar items which have worked flawlessly. Quality in cables and wires is not that complicated since it is all wire and connectors. Either they work or they do not. I have also bought over a dozen servo reversers, which are a bit more involved than simple servo cables, and all the servo reversers have performed flawlessly. Moving up to steering servos involves a greater degree of quality control consideration since more parts are involved. Based on the specs I found and based on the low prices, I figured it was worth the minimal investment to order three different servos from AliExpress and see how they would perform.

That all makes sense to me, but at this point my "hybrid" servo is working real well, and I am not going to pull it out as long as it keeps working. When it dies, I will still have the three servos I bought plus the replacement servo Horizon sent me to use in the future. You seem to be a far more serious crawler than I since my Barrage is only run in my townhouse back and front yards, so I am not likely to put the kind of stress on my servo as you do with yours.

If I end up burning out all four of these servos in the next year, then I will be looking to buy another but more expensive servo. If that burns out in the next year, I will quit running my Barrage for my winter entertainment. At that point, maybe I will go back to Florida for winter and keep flying my planes. I did not crash one plane this summer, so that is pretty good for me.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

MongoPete

Hello Mr Wile,

It seems to me that you've now had your Barrage over a year. I am just wondering how it has been overall? Is it something you still enjoy Has it been durable? Have you felt the need to upgrade anything about it? I'd appreciate any thoughts and experiences since I'm going to get one soon. Thanks in advance.

-MP

David Wile

Hey Pete,

Yes, I bought my Barrage in November 2016, just a little one year ago. How has it been overall? As you can tell from my posts, I am not very experienced with crawler trucks, but I think my Barrage is a fantastic piece of machinery, and compared to the price of so many similar crawler types, the Barrage price is also excellent. I think most of the Barrage crawlers sold in the first six months seemed to have the steering servo go bad very quickly - mine went bad on the second or third day after I received it. From what I have seen reported, Horizon has replaced the servos, and it may very well be that the Barrage crawlers sold in the past six months have been equipped with better servos.

After six months or so, a pin at one end of my front axle fell out, and this caused my left front wheel to stop providing drive. I cut a finishing nail to the proper length and used it to stick back in the axle joint. That made the axle work properly again, and I put a little dab of CA glue at each end of all the pins to keep them from coming out as the first one did. That is the extent of my problems with the Barrage, so that seems pretty good to me. My Barrage came with a 900 mAh NiMh battery which provided well more than an hour of crawling time, but I immediately ordered two 2200 mAh LiPo batteries to use instead of the NiMh battery. I use LiPo batteries in my airplanes and find it easier to use LiPo batteries rather than NiMh. Can one get by with the NiMh battery? Absolutely, but switching to LiPo batteries was simply easier for me. As it turned out, the 2200 mAh LiPo batteries run for several hours before needing to be recharged.

Do I still enjoy it? Absolutely. I do not run my Barrage in streams or mud, but I do enjoy running it in the snow. Upgrades? No, I am not interested in doing all the modifications so many others do. I am pretty much satisfied with it as it came out of the box. I did install four red tow links to it, and while I did buy four lights to add to it, I never did get around to installing the lights as yet. As far as I am concerned, there is no reason for me to install a more powerful motor or whatever; it suits me fine just as it is.

There is a Barrage kit being sold now that does appeal to me. I think it might be fun to build the kit, but it requires you to paint the body, and that does not appeal to me. The kit also has a few differences to the chassis from the original, and I suspect these changes are probably improvements. Either way, I think the Barrage is a good choice and a lot of fun.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

Mike Flea

Hey Dave, glad you're having fun with the Barrage. Don't be afraid to paint, in fact, when you do your first one, you'll want to buy an extra body or two, just so you can try different tricks. In the "Paint and Body" section of RCC, I've posted a few times answering questions for other beginner painters.

On lexan bodies, which most kits come with, unless you specifically buy a "hardbody", like from Tamiya or RC4WD. Lexan bodies come clear, hardbodies are usually white, like a Monogram or Revell model kit, made out of polystyrene.

Painting on the inside:

Before you paint, you'll want to wash the inside of the body with a mild detergent like Dawn. Get in all the corners and recesses. What you're doing is washing off the mold release agent. If you try to paint without washing, the paint won't stick, then let dry thoroughly. I usually let a lexan body dry overnight. You can wipe it dry with a rag or paper towel, but you're sure to miss some moisture. The outside of the body should have a clear film over it, that you'll peel off after you paint the inside. There's usually a sticker on the outside of the body, usually the front windshield, that says to remove the clear film after painting. Painting on the inside means your paint won't get scratched rubbing on rocks and obstacles. I'll talk about painting on the outside later.

When you're ready to paint, you'll need to use a polycarbonate paint, like a Tamiya PS paint. Tamiya paints are a little pricy, usually around $6 for a small spray can, but well worth the $$ knowing you're using the right paint. Watch when you purchase, because Tamiya also makes a TS paint, which is for hardbodies. You can also use a Rustoleum or Krylon paint-for-plastics, but my advice is that you use at least a Clear Tamiya PS paint against the lexan before using another brand, then the color of your choice. The PS specific paint when dry, flexes, preventing flaking. Also, before you paint on the inside, most clear bodies come with window blanks that you have to position over the windows so they don't turn out the same color as your body. This is important if you're going to make an interior with a driver that can be seen through the window. I use them just so the windows aren't the body color, but then I remove them and back the finished color and windows with black, like tinting.


Painting on the outside:

My Crawlers are painted on the outside, and this is my method for camo, you can do as you like. I'll paint the inside first with Tamiya PS-14 Copper, backed with Black. First coat on the outside is Tamiya PS-12 Silver, followed by Krylon Paint-for-Plastic Chalkboard Green, Testor's Flat Black, Flat Red, and Flat Brown. The idea for painting on both sides, is that as the outer paint gets scraped off, it exposes the silver as bare metal, then if that scrapes off, the copper as rust......I've yet to see that happen, lol.

Just remember that when painting multiple coats, especially when using different paints, is to let each color dry thoroughly between coats. Another important item to remember, is you can use Enamels over polycarbonate paint. Polycarbonate paint is an Acrylic, thus it flexes when dry. Do Not use a lacquer based paint. The chemical composition of a lacquer based paint will re-activate the chemicals in an enamel or an acrylic, even when dry, and ruin your paint job. I speak from experience. Rustoleum, Krylon, & Testor's model paint are all enamels, they work well with the Tamiya PS paint, as long as you remember to let the Tamiya cure thoroughly, usually 12 hours, your time may vary depending on humidity and temperature.

The only time I painted without letting the paint dry between coats, was when I painted one of my SCT's, and I wanted the paint to blend. Turned out cool. Went from white, to yellow to orange to red.

David Wile

Hey Mike,

I am partial toward metallic red, but the red-orange-yellow-white Dodge is mighty good looking. It is not that I am afraid to paint, but rather, I really do hate to paint, and I mean paint anything. You might suppose it could be due to my being in my mid-seventies, but you would be missing the barn by about twelve yards there. I have always hated to paint, and I can remember hating to finger paint in kindergarten. I would like to paint some door & window lines on my Barrage and bought some paint to do so, but every time I get the urge to do it, I sit down for a few minutes, and the urge passes.

It is not that I do not appreciate nice painting, not at all. I really do have an appreciation for things other folks paint well, but I do not want to do it. Reading your tips on painting these bodies is most interesting. I truly am interested in how you do these things, but the thought of my actually getting my hands dirty is a non-starter for me.

My wife and I used to do ceramics many years ago. Actually she did everything in ceramics while I mostly did pumpkins, skulls, and table lamp. I thoroughly enjoyed doing pumpkins where I would add clay to the pumpkins to add ears, noses, and eyebrows for a more interesting three dimensional look. I actually did paint the pumpkins, but it was very simple - red tongue, white teeth, white eyes with black pupil, green stem, and orange all over. I also "painted" the lamps with some kind of stuff that changed to many different colors after being fired. None of my ceramic painting was sophisticated in any way, but my wife would do some real intricate painting on a lot of things she made. I just cannot get thrilled with painting eye lashes on little tiny people or whatever.

That Dodge truck of yours does look finestkind for sure.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

MongoPete

Thanks for the reply Mr Wile,

I've actually ordered the Barrage kit version to open with my son's ECX Amp kit on Christmas. I think building a kit is part of the fun of the hobby, and I like the fact that I can paint it any color I like. I went ahead and ordered a $15 waterproof servo (JX brand). I just hope the stock ESC will be okay with a higher voltage servo. I prefer to run things stock and only upgrade as needed, either due to failure in performance or durability, so I'm glad to read that you have enjoyed yours as is, besides the servo and the axle pin falling out. From what I've seen, Horizon is still using that same plastic gear servo, which I will likely just keep as a back up. I'll be sure to post my experiences with the build and any upgrades I decide I 'need' here on this thread. Thanks for starting it.

Cheers,
MP

Mike Flea

Damn, Dave, you don't look a day over 50 in your avatar, hope I look that good when I'm in my middle 70's

David Wile

Hey Mike,

Thanks for the compliment, but I have been cheating a bit. I think that pic was taken about 2011, and besides, I always did have a baby face. To this day, I still do not have to shave every day, and having a fat face helps to hide the wrinkles. Back in the 1960s there was a saying that became difficult for me: "Never trust anyone over 30." A couple of years later I turned 30, and I have been depressed ever since. I really do hate getting older.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

TheBennyB

Dave, to solve the pin issue if it comes up again you can put a small rubber band around the cvd to keep the pin in or even some shrink tube. Essentially anything with elasticity to wrap around the collar to keep the pin in. There are aftermarket metal sleeves to accomplish this as well, just not sure how'd they fit on the Barrage. Also take a look and see if there may be a tiny set screw that may hold the pin. Go around to all four corners and your drive shafts and make sure their snug. You may have to take the drive shafts out to get the angle needed to access the tiny set screw, for instance look at the top shaft in this pic.



https://www.amainhobbies.com/hb-raci...115395/p479555

David Wile

Hey Benny,

Thanks for that information. I know there is a set screw in there somewhere, but those things are very small for me to see. You have to take everything apart to get to that set screw, and to tell you the truth, I just do not have the motivation to do any more than I have to do - especially on small stuff that is hard to see and hard to manipulate with old fingers. With my Barrage, the easiest thing to do was to dab a bit of foam tac glue on each pin end, and so far so good.

Horizon is now selling the newer version Barrage in kit form which really is in very small pieces. All those little pieces would be a real challenge for me, but I think I could manage it if I did it in a whole lot of one-hour sessions. However, I already have my original Barrage which is working just fine, so I really do not need to buy another. If my original Barrage goes bad, however, I think I would make a stab at the new Barrage kit.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

Mike Flea

Dave, you need to pick up one of those fluorescent hobby lamps with the magnifier, they clamp on the end of your table or workbench, or they come in freestanding models with a base, too.

I have to use one of these when I'm working on details for my railroad, and I already wear tri-focal eyeglasses, lol