If you are in the market for a nitro stadium truck, stay away from the nitro evader. I ordered it from Tower Hobbies. When i got the truck, i broke it in exactly as the manual said. I didn't have any problems until I stripped a gear in the steering servo. I didn't hit anything, it just went out. That wasn't a big problem, i had my friend fix it for me. That was on the 6th tank of gas. On the 7th tank of gas, i stripped the nylon gear inside the gearbox. Right before the gear stripped, it was set to the factory specs. I bought one at my lhs. I put it in, and after 2 tanks of gas, belive it or not, it stripped as well. Then, i called duratrax. They sent me another nylon gear. It stripped as well. I made sure that it was adjusted the right way both times. The only way to fix the problem is to replace it with an aluminum gear. I called duratrax and requested one of these, but they said they could only replace stock parts. It is not avaliable until mid august through Tower. I am getting sick of having my new rc car just sitting in the floor. I wish duatrax would help me out a little more than they did.

dosnt mean its a bad truck your just not ready for the hobby it takes time and your just not right. i dont have probs with the evader its my favorite truck i would take it over a jato and rc10gt and any other ST on the market not that they are bad but u just have probs understanding this hobby. well go electric but the truck is one good truck u just have probs dosnt mean u have to dog on duratax cause u just dont understand this hobby. and im not trying to be mean, but get over it ur gona brake stuff i broke humm, 2 spers, 2 diffs ,the idler is missing 1 tooth, humm i have over heated it once, been thrue 1 set of tires need another set melted rims cut batt box wires 3-4 shock towers fuel tubing lost some motor mount screw's manifold fell off, we all have problems with are trucks but i still think its a great truck and ya i striped my steering servo too but i swapped it for the throttle servo trimmed it and its fine but it dosnt give u ANY ANY rights to bash duratax or the truck just get over it, god i hate when people get me mad[:@][:'(] and we are all untitled to are opinions but u need to understand this hobby is hard if u want an easy hobby sell your evader to some one who wants an evader and get and electric and go on your way
and im not trying to be mean in any way but come on its a hard hobby thats what makes it fun

Stuff breaks. if you don't like it, this isn't the hobby for you.

If you say ANY nitro truck is "too much trouble", you need to go to n00b style electrics until you can get the hang of the chassis work.

i went thrue 100$ before i didnt brake any thing and i still brake things

I would go ahead and sell the Evader and get something else.

Why? it wont solve anything. he'll run into the same stuff with any other car. it's a fact of life.

What gear are your stripping and how you driving this thing....mines hopped up and I don't strip gears...i tear a spur off now and then thats it and even thats rare when I tear one of those up and I beat the crap out of it...sure it breaks things but thats expected...gears stripping out are usually caused by another problem...thunderbirdjunkie is right though getting another st won't solve anything they all break some parts...well ok not all but most.

Nitro Dan,

dude.. you bought an entry level RTR truck.. there are going to be problems, if you build it yourself with top of the line components (i.e. servos, gears, etc) then your chances of failure are going to be less.. but it's going to cost you a lot more..

what I suggest is the following:

- build yourself a stash of spare parts (idler gears, a couple of diff rebuild kits, arms, knuckles, assorted screws, pins, etc)

- run your evader, when you break a part, replace it out of the stash of parts, send the broken part to Duratrax for replacement.

- read as much as you can of the Official Evader thread, there's a lot of good stuff in there.. but it's a lot of info, it'll take you a while to do..

- ask questions, the only dumb question is the one that is left unasked..

from my experience, the steering servo really needs to be high torque, there's no getting around it.. the stock one isn't good for the application that it's being used in, go high torque for about 50 bucks and you won't regret it. Also, until you get it down, you'll probably eat up a couple of diff gears, it's not problem to rebuild one, just takes a bit of time and patience.. it'll take you a few tries to figure out where to set it at but you'll get it.

don't let the breakdowns bring you down dude.. this can be a fun hobby but you will need to do some maintenance to your truck, there are people that will help you and share their knowledge with you, ask questions and have fun!!


edited to add: if you aren't willing to do all of this stuff, then the RC hobby probably isn't for you, I would strongly suggest a maintenance free hobby like badmitton

Badmitton, hah!

I have anitro Evader ST and I have had next to Zero Problems with it, unless caused by user error. I to Stripped the Spur Gear, but that was because I didnt have the gears spaced properly. Other than that, I havent had any major problems. Just astnight I had the truck out at my local BMX track, and it was handling the very large jumps pretty good. A few cartwheels here and there but no broken parts (until the last jump of course) my poor truck was full throttle at the big Quad jump and I ended up only clearing 3.5 jumps. The Force of the cartwheels ripped themounting wire to the tail Pipe right off, with that gone, the next cartwheel ripped the muffler itself off, then it must have landed hard as I now have a nasty bend in the manifold. And the force that I hit, I should have broken alot more thats for sure. Duratrax is the same as any other make...The user sets the standard on how often parts will be broken.

by the way.. if it helps at all..

the first month or so that I had my evader, I had problems.. once I got them ironed out and figured out how to set the truck up I now run 2-3 tanks of fuel through the truck a night after work, and plenty more on weekends and I haven't had a problem in the past couple of months with my truck, other than clean it once in a while, it runs like a rocket!!!

I think this guy is just one of those random people that come on a board.. make a complaint or some big statement and leaves never to be seen again.

so you guys think i am a random guy that complains and never comes back? i know this hobby and i also know when something is defective. when you strip a gear the same way three times, after adjusting it to factory specs, there is something wrong. i am not the big dumb***** everyone thiks i am

ya your right i had probs at first too but after i learned how to drive it smoothly i havent broke any thing but i usuly do maintenance on it every day FOR FUN i enjoy working on my truck i wish it was that easy getting parts but u all ways dont get what u need when u need it but yes i do like to just work on my truck and i dont half do it eather thats what makes it break example

i was running around this dirt parking lot and i didnt think 1 missing E clip was a problim well it was the front left hing pin and there was pot holes well the pin wiggled out so it was holding just half the a arm well i went thrue the pot hole and the a arm thats half on went CRACK!!! and i hardly could hear it but, i was like why is it tracking then it comes around and the a arm was dragging on the links it was a easy flook brake just cause 1 E clip was missing i broke an a arm in a little 1in deep pot hole thats like 1 foot wide just a small little pot hole ended my day but it was funny the point of this story is if u half a** it its gona brake in a half a** crash

Yup your right....if you constantly tear spur gears off there is something wrong on Nitro's it's most likely the driver or way the rc's being driven thats causing it. Post some pics of the torn up gear and maybe even pics with the gear on the st so we can see whats up. Hope you realise alot of people here own Evaders and will try and help you out...don't be so fast to blame duratrax yet.

Ditch the duratrax and get yourself a GT.

is it even possible to strip a steering servo without hitting anything? t would have to be some serious doughnuts man.. then turning the wheel the other way

me and my brother (in-law) both have evaders... we're both adults. i'm 28, he's 27. mine runs excellent and i tune it properly, and understand if i break something, that all trucks are mechanical. meaning, if something broke there is a reason. most of the time it is the operators fault. i strip a spur occasionally.. from getting on the gas too soon after a spin out. but i fix it quick and love the truck.
my brother on the other hand, has nothing but problems. gets mad if he can't start it. can't tune it, not a clue on how to set it up. i got running for him the other day, after he was about to throw it.... he opened it up full throttle...100 feet, and turns sharp, flips it over and it stalls. he proceded to curse the truck out.

simply put, some people just need more paitience, and a genuine like of turning little wrenches. if you don't like performing tasks on your own, then you're not going to enjoy this hobby..

and it's not a queston of which truck. rc10gt breaks just as much as the evader.

dan,
you might want to get a monster truck instead. alot more durable. i have a monster gt i drive also, on top of my evader.

my mother at the age of 60 or so stripped out her steering servo on the third tank of fuel during break in. This was running the truck with no body on the road in front of my house in a big circle.. if it stripped with her driving, then it wouldn't have lasted with anyone else..


this is the woman that has yet to run over anything or get the front tires off the ground with her T-maxx..

and Nitro Dan, if I'd thought you were a troll or dummy, I wouldn't have spent time typing my original post.. but if you aren't going to use the knowledge that's in the forums, I do regret wasting my time, it seems that you didn't even bother to read it..

Freedom and RC10GTBasher, you both should probably just hush up a bit. You guys seem to know the hobby pretty well, and should understand that nitrodan does not. Just because you don't like Evaders or don't have them is no reason to tell him to lose his. The Nitro Evader thread on this forum has more varying visitors than I have seen on other threads. Reason being, people love this truck.
Nitrodan, FQA put it well...
Get the kinks worked out, you will love the Evader. I am pulling close to 50MPH, can pull wheelies whenever I want. I have broken the rear shock tower, front A-Arm, ripped the tires off the rims from sheer power, and worn out the tires quite well, including shredding the non-powered fronts into rubber strings. I have blown oil gaskets on the shocks, stripped spur gears, and got the thing DISGUSTING. I ran it about 30MPH into my friends leg (thought he was gonna move, HEH!) and it popped a steering link, popped the exaust off the pin AND the coupler, damn thing kept running and I could still steer, sounded like a damn chainsaw though hah!

Point is, keep going. You've only made 2 posts on this site which is a hint you are relatively new to the hobby. I had a Tamiya Terra Conqueror 4WD electic buggy for years, broke almost every suspension based part on the thing and now I can't even get parts for it. I went Nitro, broke so much more. But I was learning how to HANDLE the power. I upgraded to aluminum rear tower + front A-Arms, and damn I can rock the dirt pit now. Nothing better than seeing a nitro ST climbing a near 90 degree wall of dirt 30 feet up and jumping over the lip @ the top. Incredible.

hey man, can I try that? using your truck of course...

One more little note:
#1 Who ever said that?
#2 How are we supposed to respect you and help you out with that kind of talk?
#3 Not just to NitroDan, but... has anyone ever noticed the angry ornate people tend to not use any punctuation? And I failed English class in high school 6 times! hah!

well im not saying dans a bad guy and every ones opinions are valid BUT BUT!!! is didnt give him the right to bash duratax or there great trucks we all have problems if u were to have got a xx-nt u would have had problems u might have striped the servo u probably will have broke some things BUT its still a great truck and it goes for the RC10gt jato x-cell any other ST out there there all good trucks heck the AD2 has some problems but its being use by pros these arnt your zip zaps from k mart these are a way of life and your just not right for

AND THE EVADER IS NOT DEFECTIVE WE LOVE THIS TRUCK AND IF U THINK ITS DEFECTIVE SELL YOUR EVADER TO A GUY WHO KNOWS HOW TO USE IT[sm=tired.gif]

well along brownstones line of thought..

these are like anything else.. some people are chevy, some are ford.. it's all the same pretty much, just some people like one or the other for whatever reason..

this is the same no matter what you do.. instead of JATO vs. Evader on a gun forum you'll see "Ruger vs. Smith and Wesson" on a guitar forum you'll see "Fender vs. Gibson".. it's all the same only different.. don't let it get under your skins...

ya i like chevy but ford has some nice stuff out there and chevy isnt all good neather, its not the object its how well it fits your needs if u want racing truck u might look losi or RC10 if u want speed u might have your eye on the jato its how it fits your needs not the name its what u get out of it that counts

Understood you will get this VS that all the time. I like how Brownstone said that it doesn't give him the right to bash Duratrax in RCU. RCU is made for people who love their vehicles - and also to help people fix them when they BREAK. It is part of the hobby. You can never be 100% safe from breaking things. You put a alum suspension tower on the back, and you hit it hard enough, you are bound to break the mounts on the rear bulkhead or transmission housing. With a plastic tower, that most likely wouldn't happen - but you would be replacing the tower instead. You could make it a tank and replace all with aluminum... but you'll still vibrate bolts loose, you'll still scar up the metal, bend it, dent it, and possibly break it (if you like cliff diving w/o water @ the bottom...)