FTX Outlaw Owners

[AmericanBullDog]

20 hours ago, rct said:

Finished welding and fitting the roll cage just needs to be powder coated now.


What are you using for a belly pan/chassis? Is it more of that laminate you used for your truggy build?

At first look I thought it may be a cutting board made out of HDPE, if so that is a brilliant idea.
 

 

[rct]

 

It is hdpe cutting board, well spotted.
My original chassis broke on the front diff mount area so i thought why not hdpe its awesome, solid and is very workable with simple hand tools. Just needed to add some heat and bend up the front diff part, nothing a heat gun couldn't do.
I am still waitin for some new rear trailing arms but have made some new ones other than the ones in the photos (they where just for mock up) the new ones have been made from some ftx spyder aluminium links and some 'p' clamps to hold then shocks and anti roll bar drop lins on.
They seem to wotk fine only time will tell, i will run them until the new ones arrive from wheelspin models sometime next week know doubt.


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[Jackathon]

I'm looking to use individual panels on my outlaw instead of the stock 'body' for a more unique look. I thought about doing something similar as what I did with my Losi SC10B (see pics) but am worried about making the outlaw top heavy with all the individual panels and bolts holding them together, I'm considering using acrylic, lexan or aluminium and cutting panels to size but a little scared of wasting allot of material if I make a mistake. Does anybody make panels for the outlaw currently? Or know an easy way for me to do it myself?

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[NOFX]

Took mine out for a clamber. It did really well, especially as the loose stuff was wet. . The esc got hot ( I was mainly crawling it about on stuff it shouldn't get up) .  No breakages . Pretty good seeing as it rolled backwards down a 60° ish slope 20+ feet a few times. Found a couple of new play spots too.  Can't wait until the weather improves. 

[capri-boy]

10 hours ago, RC4WD fan said:

I'm not sure if it's just me or not but the blue seems to be a different shade to the shocks  not so light and much more my kinda blue  will hopefully be ordering the new body next week depending on the damage if any from tomorrow  

 

It scratches very easily, but tbh though it show's up it's not an eyesore like on a black chassis.

[tvih]

Hello.

 

Ever since the AE Nomad DB8 came out I've been intrigued by the idea of a desert racer. Just recently stumbled upon the Outlaw, and of course it'd be a lot less expensive and more scale in style given that DB8 is just basically a modified RC8e/SC8e.

Spent most of today reading the first 30-ish pages of this thread and googling and browsing various other places, so I'm not sure I can prevent myself from ordering the car at some point with so much time invested, even though it's not like I need it given all my other cars. Haha. I suppose the idea would be it for it to be a basher, currently all but my 1/16 E-Revo and my brand new Komodo crawler are track cars and I suppose I'd prefer to keep 'em that way.

I've been looking at either the brushed Outlaw or maybe the Reely Bulldog version. The latter would be a bit cheaper albeit without battery + charger, but I don't need those. However I think it might have plastic shocks, as the VRX version seems to as well? The brushless Bulldog would also be a nice price at 170€ shipped, 20€ more than brushed, but other than the potential shocks issue they really ruined it with the green wheels and compared to the brushed version also with extra stickers. Which reminds me, are all the texts etc on the Outlaw stock body removable stickers? I tend to prefer minimal stickers on my cars rather than looking like a billboard.

But with all that said and as intriguing as the Outlaw is I do have reservations about its durability, because bashing tends to easily end up harsher than track racing. So many thin parts in this thing, especially the rear axle links and trailing arms. And buying a whole lot of aluminum would go against the whole idea of it being cheap. I figure maybe the chassis since the plastic one seems to snap a lot, and the steel rear CVD.

If I went with the brushed Outlaw from a domestic retailer and then the aluminum chassis and CVD from Banggood, overall price would seem to be just under 200€ (~£175). I do have brushless electronics from my AE SC10 RTR or a few other things I can stick in there, as well as a better servo, so thankfully those wouldn't raise the price further. Plus plenty of regular stick/saddle pack LiPo batteries, which seem to fit? And on that topic gotta say, the stock 1800mAh battery of the brushed version has to be one of the worst jokes I've seen!

Now I'm off to bed, probably gonna have nightmares about RC cars after all this info-binging... 

[NOFX]

I've only bent a shock & snapped a body post on mine. But I'm not blasting it over jumps at full belt like I do with my others. Have a google about ultra 4 & king of the hammers.  That's the kind of stuff I'm using my outlaw for. Being ftx, it is fragile. Not as bad as the viper ( that's got air bubbles in the plastic ]

[tvih]

I noticed that the Axial Yeti which the Outlaw has been compared to a few times in this thread is insanely priced in Finland for some reason, cheapest is 486€ (£427). Odd stuff, can pretty much get the DB8 for that. Of course, ordering from the UK or such is much cheaper.

Hmm. Maybe I should just make do with the E-Revo/Slash 1/16 for bashing. Paid way too much for it anyway, even with no real upgrades other than servo (and then the parts to convert it to a Slash). While I very rarely break my existing cars, I'm not too keen on the idea of buying one that would likely break, even if the spares aren't expensive. Decisions, decisions.

One other consideration though, is the FTX made from stainless/non-rusting metal parts? Only my 4WD SCT, the E-Revo and the crawler from my current ones are, the rest get a bit rusty even at the track, never mind if driven in wet/snow conditions - one reason why I don't like to bash with them.

Edited April 1, 2018 by tvih

[AmericanBullDog]

The metal parts on the Outlaw are regular steel.  

 

If you already have a Slash and want something Yeti like for bashing maybe this would work for you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68PMNQ7C6uY&t=3s

 

Seems like a fun project and you can grab the Yeti cage/parts  on ebay.uk for much less money than starting into another vehicle that has known weak points you'll have to address sooner, or later.

 

Personally I'd order the Yeti cage parts and go full Mad Max basher with the E-Revo/Slash but I like to tinker and modify things just for the cool factor.

 

 

 

 

 

[tvih]

Well my E-Revo/Slash is the small one, not sure if there are any 1/16 desert buggy cages. But of course even if I did just get a desert racer cage for one of my existing cars, in the end it'd be the same car in how and where it can drive. My offroad "arsenal" consists from the aforementioned E-Revo/Slash 1/16, the Gmade Komodo, and then the track cars AE SC10, AE SC5M, TLR SCTE 3.0, AE B5M and JQ THE eCar (RTR chassis).

The Outlaw would have quite different driving characteristics to any of those and could even crawl a bit, and in general go in rougher areas due to more ground clearance (or so it seems, I'm not sure what the ground clearance actually is in centimeters - but for my SCTs it's normally under 3cm when "dropped").

I did take out the E-Revo out for a spin today for the first time since October, so at least pondering these things resulted in that much, hah.

EDIT: Well I do also have a HPI Savage SS4.6 nitro monster but I've never driven it, if I could get it sold maybe I got better justify the Outlaw

Edited April 1, 2018 by tvih

[NOFX]

The ground clearance on my outlaw's 4.5 cm.  It's a pretty good crawler. & because of the independent front suspension it covers rough ground quick better  than a crawler with a quick motor in it. 

[tvih]

I can imagine needing to lock the rear diff if doing more crawling. Like the E-Revo got stuck many times today - although I only drove maybe 20 minutes in relatively even terrain - due to diff action. I suppose it'd be fairly quick to lock/unlock as needed.

[NOFX]

Ftx do a locker really cheap. & it looks like it takes the removal of 4 screws to put it in.  I'm gonna pack my rear diff with universal joint grease (when I can find it . my misses keeps filling my shed with general crap , cupboards, a table, chairs & a few bikes) . Locking the front diff gives you a turning circle of a petrol tanker, the nautical type .

[RC4WD fan]

 

9 minutes ago, NOFX said:

Ftx do a locker really cheap. & it looks like it takes the removal of 4 screws to put it in.  I'm gonna pack my rear diff with universal joint grease (when I can find it . my misses keeps filling my shed with general crap , cupboards, a table, chairs & a few bikes) . Locking the front diff gives you a turning circle of a petrol tanker, the nautical type .

I use blue tack to lock my rear diif works great  

[tvih]

Also took a look at Losi's Rock Rey kit. Seems better than a Yeti out of the box. Still twice the cost of a stock Outlaw, though, plus the cage/body is probably worst-looking of the three. I guess there's just no "perfect" solution for a car of this type.

What slightly worries me about the Outlaw is that while many of the parts are cheap, many of them aren't even listed at all. Even at the brand's own store at ftx-rc.com. Differently branded versions of the cars have slightly different spare part selections, so for some parts you have to order from all over the place if you find the right part in the first place. It's a bit of a dilemma, I imagine Rock Rey parts would be easier to find in one place - although not in my country, no one sells the RR here.

[RC4WD fan]

Had a good hour or so bash yesterday with the outlaw only stopped as the the servo tape holding the esc on came off after going through a puddle  hopefully it was muddy rain water it was on a farm so I'm not sure  but it's all been cleaned now though  the only bit of damage was the roof panel  have no idea where one of the 4 screws holding the roof panel has gone though I know it was on there before I went 

[tvih]

Right, finally caught up with the entire thread, more or less, plus read some on the Facebook group.

Gotta say I'm a bit surprised with the electronics many of you run with these. With that in mind it's not surprising if some people break them a lot, as many have equal or even more powerful electronics than you'd have in a 2WD racer SCT, some equal to 4WD SCT racers when those are are about ten times beefier than the Outlaw. That also makes it hard to assess breakage rates when some people drive it slowly and others blast the crap out of it, something a car built like this just won't handle. Thin parts are thin parts.

I figure my use case would be slow-to-mid-speed offroad driving. No crazy jumping and whatnot, I jump enough at the local outdoor track which is basically 1/8 even though I mostly drive 1/10 SCTs. To retain some crawl-ability I could use my sensored brushless 17.5t motor that is currently unused, and since I'd not be getting this to go fast maybe I wouldn't have so many breakages. It'd be a sort of a faster companion to my scale crawler, after all that thing only goes like 6-7km/h currently (once the brushed motor "breaks in" a bit, I guess it could a bit faster). 

The final decision isn't made, but after considering the use case I'm slightly leaning towards ordering if budget allows.

Edited April 2, 2018 by tvih

[RC4WD fan]

@tvih I carn't speak for everyone else but I brought my outlaw purely for cheap fun so far just under £200 now I knew it was going to break and I'm fine with that currently I'm using mine to hoon around and for jumps not big ones ( yet  ) really if you want something that's going to last and not brake that often spend the extra money and get an axial or something similar  now if I've miss read your 6 posts forgive me I mostly skip read ( I'm lazy I know  ) 

[tvih]

Yeah, this thread was so long that I'll admit I skip/glance-read most of it as well, hehe. Still took me three days!

As for the other options it seems that while they are a BIT better out of the box durability wise, they sure have their own weaknesses and the hopups (and even regular spare sparts) cost heck of a lot more than for the Outlaw. Further the Yeti apparently steers like crap stock. I'm sure it and/or the Rock Rey would be quite nice fully upgraded, but at that point for the money spent I could already easily just buy the AE Nomad DB8 (even if it doesn't do crawling, per se) for a whole another level of durability.

I don't like when things break - I accept it can happen, it's only natural, but I try not to push my cars all that hard so that they'd go out of control and collide into things and such, and that has served me well in keeping the race cars intact so far. For example I drove at least 100 hours last summer at the 1/8 track and only broke one mechanical part (a front bumper on my AE SC10, and the replacement RPM bumper is pretty much indestructable).

[rct]

Personally i dont mind breaking my outlaw and repairing it, the parts are cheap (when in stock) and finding 'diy' ways to improve and strengthen this beastie is all the fun for me.


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[RC4WD fan]

3 hours ago, tvih said:

Yeah, this thread was so long that I'll admit I skip/glance-read most of it as well, hehe. Still took me three days!

Took me about the same time to read this thread aswell  

2 hours ago, rct said:

Personally i dont mind breaking my outlaw and repairing it, the parts are cheap (when in stock) and finding 'diy' ways to improve and strengthen this beastie is all the fun for me.


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Exactly the same for me too  

[tvih]

Other than the cost when parts aren't available locally it's the wait that is a pain in the butt, even when you have other cars! And of course the interrupted driving session. Also I just noticed the upgrades are all basically out of stock at Banggood... could've sworn the chassis and steel CVD at least were in stock just two days ago. Bah. The domestic retailer's prices for the aluminum stuff as well as the CVD is 50% higher than Banggood's  For the plastics the difference is negligible. And the plastic rear shaft's price is silly no matter where you buy it from given how weak it reportedly is. Or at least the rear half - I'm not sure which half it is that breaks more commonly.

EDIT: Looking at videos of the Gmade GOM I'm starting to think maybe I should've just gotten that instead of the Komodo. While I dig the truck crawler look of the Komodo, the GOM would've kinda been the Komodo and Outlaw in one, being able to crawl but also go faster with the 2-speed trans. Plus it would've already had some of the stuff the Komodo needs bought separately, like zero ackermann.

EDIT 2: Aaaanddd it seems in my late-night delirium I ordered the GOM for the Outlaw's "role". It was "only" 299€ discounted. And now I'm officially bankrupt. Sorry for spamming y'all's thread without even ending up an owner!

Edited April 3, 2018 by tvih

[RC4WD fan]

@tvih I wouldn't consider 8 posts spamming  oh and just saw the bit where you asked about removing the stickers yes there easy to remove but the glue left behind is a different matter  tried all sorts to get rid of it WD40 de solve it sticky stuff remover so it's just being removed when it flips and slides along the ground  

 

EDIT please do a build thread on your new GOM it's on my want list for this year  

Edited April 3, 2018 by RC4WD fan

[tvih]

2 hours ago, RC4WD fan said:

please do a build thread on your new GOM it's on my want list for this year  

I don't think it'd make for a very exciting thread, since it's gonna be bone stock to start with (well, other than my own electronics, of course) though I'll be happy to share my opinion on the build itself  Although if selling some non-RC stuff pans out, might actually be able to buy a couple of things (for the Komodo too), but those parts would only arrive some weeks later. Hopefully I won't regret this decision once again - I do like the Outlaw/Yeti chassis & body style more, I just hope the GOM can make up for that in durability and performance.

[RC4WD fan]

What's people running tyre wise other than the stock ones ? nothing wrong with the stock ones but the ballooning of the tyres make it unnecessary difficult handling wise so have been looking for a another set of wheels I know that John and a couple of you run them them beadlock's and tyres he posted but are quite expensive well for me anyway who wants to keep the cost down and fun up  was looking at some cheap short course truck wheels or something along them lines just something that won't balloon like the stock tyres any thoughts ?