Brushless options

[noddy_2121]

Hi all,

 

im looking to buy my first brushless for spring.

 

at the moment the Traxxas Rustler VXL is high in my favourites list but it's going to be £450 to get kitted out and up and running.

 

are there any cheaper alternatives? I only want brushless and I want it to be off road, for example a truck / truggy / buggy.

 

£300 all in would be ideal but I know that might be pushing it. 

 

I need chargers, and all other accessories to get going, I'm basically coming from nitro and petrol therefore total beginner in electric RC.

 

Many thanks 

 

Wayne 

[b19jas]

If it's the rustler you want, you could buy the xl5 and sell the motor / esc and buy yourself a hobbywing combo 3000kv -3500kv and you will have your brushless rusty. 

[noddy_2121]

I'd rather just buy one boxed and ready to go tbh

[mainstreet]

Are you looking for 1/10 or 1/8 scale, 2 or 4wd? I run one of these as a fun basher.

 

http://www.cmldistribution.co.uk/product/FTX5551/ftx-viper-sandrail-4wd-brushless-4wd-rtr-1-8th-buggy

[noddy_2121]

Ideally an 8th scale but 10th scale would be fine if it meant saving a few quid.

 

Are FTX good reliable models?

 

its just for fun, just want something fast and easy to use, charge and go. Il only get to use it once or twice a week during spring / summer when I take my daughter to park, take the electric brushless, have a 15 min spin, all good.

[NOFX]

The ftx viper is awful!!  I clipped the rear of mine on a kerb at walking pace & it destroyed the rear of the roll cage. The diffs spew oil. The plastic is like fine China.  Don't buy one if you wanna be able to drive it .

[babylon]

Some are gonna knock me for this, As I am a bit of a fanboy really,  But I would give this a try.

Basher SaberTooth

 

 

GT2B Radio

 

 

 

 

Zippy Flightmax  5200mAh  X4, Cos who wants just one set.

 

 

All from the UK warehouse,  Most spares seem to be in stock from UK, Including arms at only £4.71 for a full set.

Car, Radio and 4 Lipo, By the time you get your signing up discount, My cart is showing that lot for £264, 

 

And FT680 from RobotBirds with the remaining 35 quid, All that lot for just shy of 300 quid is brilliant if you ask me.

 

 

 

 

I know he breaks a hinge pin at the end, But I would rather the hinge pin than arm.

Edited February 4, 2018 by babylon

[dazp1976]

What about Arrma?

[noddy_2121]

The FTX Vantage brushless edition looks good for less than £200!!

 

What are people's opinions on this please?

[sunny]

I like Traxxas but new they are a rip off. £250 or so will get you a well looked after used Traxxas Slash or Stampede VXL leaving some money for charger/battery

[kenny_st]

thought about the arma range 

Edited February 4, 2018 by kenny_st

[sunny]

FTX plastics are not great so expect a few breakages

[300bhp/ton]

5 hours ago, noddy_2121 said:

Hi all,

 

im looking to buy my first brushless for spring.

 

at the moment the Traxxas Rustler VXL is high in my favourites list but it's going to be £450 to get kitted out and up and running.

 

are there any cheaper alternatives? I only want brushless and I want it to be off road, for example a truck / truggy / buggy.

 

£300 all in would be ideal but I know that might be pushing it. 

 

I need chargers, and all other accessories to get going, I'm basically coming from nitro and petrol therefore total beginner in electric RC.

 

Many thanks 

 

Wayne 

 

The answer all depends on what you really want and what you are prepared to pay and how much research into alternatives. And if you have any willingness to go more than just RTR. 

 

For instance. I quite like the Rustler. My mate had one back in 1994/5 when they first came out. It’s had some revisions over the years. But I beleive isn’t massively different today. Which is a testament to the design. 

 

But the price is HIGH on Traxxas models. If you don’t mind this you’ll get a good model that works well. 

 

But you can pay quite a bit less and still have a good model and  lot of fun. 

 

If its only bashing and not with other vehicles. Then performance is only relative. As in you don’t need the fastest possible. 

 

1/8th can be cool too. But bigger and heavier. So you might need more battery power to attain the performance and runtime. 

 

Something worth considering is, if you are running high speed RC’s in public places you really ought to consider insurance. Should you injure someone or worse. 

 

I quite like the look look of the Hpi E-Firestorm Flux. But cheaper than the Traxxas. 

 

But there are plenty of cheaper options too. Some good some not so. Just check on spares availability. As a rule the cheaper one might not be quite as robust and will come with lower powered setups. Brushless alone doesn’t make it a fire breather. You need to understand the specs of the ESC, batteries and motor. 

 

For the record can you can buy reasonable brushless motor/ESC combos for about £40. Which can be fitted to many different vehciles. Just make sure you understand the spec of any said Vehcile. Such as what type of turnbuckles does it have, diff and gear types, chassis construction, bushes or ball races, etc. 

[babylon]

Traxxas are a rip off new(Agree), But a second hand 90% plastic fantastic 2WD Traxxas at 250 quid isn't, No wonder the the second hand market is overpriced when were telling people that's an OK price, If were talking £250 second hand, We should be talking better than a slash.

 

Thunder Tiger Bushmaster 8E  £278, It's a Thunder Tiger, Just as strong and reliable as anything Traxxas has ever made, And it's a spanker with that new box smell, And not the already driven through dog poo smell.

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2018 by babylon

[noddy_2121]

Some good replies thanks everyone.

 

i think come the end of April beginning of May, I will see how much iv saved up. If I have the cash I really want the Rustler.

 

i don't want something weak, that's a given, I don't want cheap ESCs going pop!

 

i think Traxxas cost more for a reason by the sounds of it.

 

i would look at HPI but with the European arm folding I'm just not keen!

 

2nd hand I'm not keen on as you just never know which lunatic has been driving it!!

[babylon]

I've never really stopped and looked,  But I just can't get my head around, And just couldn't bring myself to pay £350 for a Rustler, This is not at you noddy, You get what you like the look off and grabs you, I've done it loads, And that's what it's about , Once your hooked, Your hooked, But other than someone asking specifically about 1/10 and a Rustler, I have no idea why it would be recommended at that sort of money.

 There is not one person here who can say that  that Bushmaster won't be brick like in build or reliability, It's a 1/8 Buggy from Thunder Tiger, So pretty much bullet proof, It comes with a HobbyWing Combo, So just about as bullet proof as you can get, And you can get the BushMaster with 4 Lipo's and a charger for the same price as the Rustler, Am I missing something here, Is it just me, Or are some of you getting kickbacks from Traxxas, I just don't get it, Please someone help me out here.

 

[noddy_2121]

I watched a review on YouTube re the thunder tigee. It got 5 out of 5 on everything except parts availability which got a 2! That really puts me off as all RCs are only as good as the spare parts! 

 

 

[300bhp/ton]

12 hours ago, noddy_2121 said:

The FTX Vantage brushless edition looks good for less than £200!!

 

What are people's opinions on this please?

 

The Vantage is ok. I have the Carnage which is the truck version. 

 

Just understand what you are buying. 

 

Something you might want to consider is Terrain. Buggies often handle better but smaller wheels mean they cope less well with rough terrain and longer grass. 

 

4wd however will generally perform better than 2wd and be easier to drive. Something you may want to consider. 

[300bhp/ton]

24 minutes ago, noddy_2121 said:

I watched a review on YouTube re the thunder tigee. It got 5 out of 5 on everything except parts availability which got a 2! That really puts me off as all RCs are only as good as the spare parts! 

 

 

 

Only thing I can add here is. Check which country the review was in. As parts availability can vary massively between the U.K. and the USA. 

 

And remember companies go in and out of favour as well as become unavailable. I started with Traxxas back in the 1990’s with their SRT model and some mates ran Rustlers. But parts supply was a major issue for Traxxas in the U.K. back then. Losi was the way to go with really good parts supply or Schumacher. But in the U.K. today Losi are comparatively tiny. Don’t think Modelsport even lost them. 

[Gavster29]

My first forage in to RC many years ago was a 2 wheel drive 1/10 Stadium Truck from Traxxas , can you guess what it was?  Yes the Traxxas Rustler with .15 pro engine and it was a great little truck!  I was always jealous though of my mates Kyosho Inferno as he got to build it from a kit, the quality of the Kyosho was second to none and nothing used to break on it, the Traxxas was also great but did break however parts were easy to get hold of, roll on a few years and I got myself an T-Maxx and I loved that truck until the Revo came out with revolutionary suspension, the first I saw of that was at the NEC show and it blew my socks off, so yes I was a Traxxas fanboy!

 

Move on to today and I am back in to the hobby, I picked up a Traxxas Bandit with VXL system and I have to say I got bored of it very quickly, the 2 wheel drive low chassis and it struggles on anything and the pin wheels were toast on concrete, so I picked up a Savage XS and although better I wanted something bigger and better!  I now have a Hyper 7 converted to Brushless, the ESC is Hobbywing and I can't fault it at all the motor Leopard, the cost of the VXL system from Traxxas is not worth the money they go for new but I also didn't like the Castle offering from HPI as the ESC went pop as many of them do (at the time I thought it was the motor).

 

Parts is the hobbies biggest problem at the moment, the Hyper 7 has been OK but the HPI was a struggle with long waits from the hobby shop, Traxxas has been OK I have a TRX-4 so lots of parts available for the and again I love it!

 

I guess if I wanted a 1/8th I would still go down the Hyper route maybe a VS or I would look at the truck babylon linked as long as parts were available, TT have been good in the past (I had a Thunder Tiger heli many years ago and the build quality was amazing) but you just don't see them about as much these days?

 

At the end of the day you chose what you feel comfortable with, I do think Traxxas are expensive but I don't think the build quality is as good as it could be, they stepped up to the plate with the X-Maxx but anything smaller seems to suffer with drivetrain issues including the E-Revo and E-Maxx

[babylon]

I'll be fair, Parts support for TT seems to be pretty dreadful, Even by my standards, But it is different for some of us, That I don't always see, That some of us have done this a long time and can work around stuff like that, Especially when it comes to 1/8 buggys were a lot of stuff  is interchangeable between models and manufactures.

 If your new to the hobby, Then I can see it,  But even then I find it hard to see were that price for the Rustler comes from,  £360 is a lot to shell out on a hobby that turns out not to be for you, It's a lot for me to shell out for an all plastic 1/10 2wd, I still don't get it, Let's keep it simple, Why would you pay 360 quid for This

When This is available from the same place for  £325, Leaving some money left over for a couple of Lipo's, WHY.

This is why Traxxas keep charging what they do, Because we keep on paying it, Model after model, Doesn't matter the price, We'll pay,  You know what Traxxas is don't you, The Model car version of Beat's Headphones, Marketing, Marketing and a lot of Marketing.

[nr73]

Just to add some perspective here, I agree the Traxxas prices are salty, however I'm of the opinion that it all comes down to parts support. I've never had any problem getting parts for any Traxxas. Some occasional issues with HPI (and I prefer the way HPI are built, for what its worth). I would be more concerned going further off-piste though.

 

Back in December I bought a secondhand 2wd Slash for £70 on this forum . Cost another £12 for a full set of bearings, and some enjoyable bench time doing a complete rebuild on it. I then junked the brushed motor and stuck a £50 trackstar brushless combo in it. Now it's fast enough for bashing and plenty of fun, plus it's reliable. I dont need to worry about it skidding 40 feet on the body shell, unlike if I bought a new one. So far it's broken just one part (bearing carrier) despite my 7yo son driving it and planting it into various obstacles at 30mph. What gets broke will be replaced with RPM equivalent. Total cost for a 2wd brushless around £130. Granted, buying s/h from ebay would be much more of a lottery. I see similar RCs going for this type of money on here though and would not hesitate if I was in the market. 

 

Parts support is everything in my book.

[bertberr]

6 hours ago, noddy_2121 said:

Some good replies thanks everyone.

 

i think come the end of April beginning of May, I will see how much iv saved up. If I have the cash I really want the Rustler.

 

i don't want something weak, that's a given, I don't want cheap ESCs going pop!

 

i think Traxxas cost more for a reason by the sounds of it.

 

i would look at HPI but with the European arm folding I'm just not keen!

 

2nd hand I'm not keen on as you just never know which lunatic has been driving it!!

 

Thats no way to talk about our very own Miss T...

[noddy_2121]

Are Traxxas good for parts? I agree, parts are everything! Il happily pay £360 for a Traxxas if the parts support is good.

 

traxxas build quality looks mint also!!!

[bertberr]

Traxxas parts are prob the most easily obtainable in the rc world. What you can't get here in the uk you can get from states or Europe within a week. There's also the fact that due to their popularity worldwide, they are very well supported by aftermarket / upgrade parts suppliers. Would I buy a new slash/rustler - no, just too expensive for what they are. A nice condition used example? Absolutely! In fact that's just what I did when my daughter wanted her first 'big' rc... A used 2wd slash in near mint condition for 110 delivered. It's been a tank, no complaints for the money (sorry traxxas haters...).