Our first RC session - FTX Outlaw

[RC Beginner Dad]

Hi everyone!

 

As mentioned in my introduction, I'm new to all things RC and have purchased a FTX Outlaw (Brushed), for my son's 8th birthday.

We had a great hour or so out in the back garden and on the tarmac driveway, getting used to the car and marvelling at it's speed, my son was absolutely delighted with the car and quickly got the hang of the basics.  He surprised me on how well he caught on to feathering the throttle to keep the car stable on tight turns, we had a blast.  It did take a hard knock to the front bumper a few times, once by my over enthusiastic driving and several times by one of his school friends who had happened to pop by, she seemed hell bent on driving it into the kerb at full throttle despite me telling her to be gentle with the trigger.  The third time she did it, the bumper fell off, ending our fun for the day.  That's our first lesson learnt,  don't let people who have no intention of being careful anywhere near it in the future.

So the upshot is a broken bumper and a broken chassis plate (sheared at the screw holes), luckily I had spent some time explaining to my son that it's the nature of this hobby that things will break from time to time and its all part of the fun to repair them, so he took it all in his stride.  I've done a temporary fix which will work fine for the time being and after some considerable effort of searching I finally found a retailer with the bumper parts in stock, so they should be with us in a couple of days. 

Everyone seems to be expecting FTX spares stock in May - has there been some supply chain problems? I think I would probably have been a lot more careful if I had known beforehand how rare parts seem to be at the moment.

I will upgrade the chassis plate  to aluminium asap as the positioning of the screw holes are really close to the edge and although my son's psychotic friend didn't help matters, it looks like that area is generally very weak. Is there any reason to consider the carbon version other than 'bling'?

 

It would be great to hear from fellow Outlaw owners on any tips and upgrade recommendations. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

 

Rhys (49) and Owain (8)

[Badcrumble]

Welcome and glad you are enjoying your Outlaw.

 

There is a wealth of information in this thread which has been running for a little while now.

 

https://www.msuk-forum.co.uk/forums/topic/220899-ftx-outlaw-owners/

 

If you are looking for a wider bumper in future then you can fit the one from the FTX Torro.

 

Watch out  for the rear trailing arm mounts, the servo saver losing parts after an impact and the motor giving out after a few hard sessions. The gears can also be an issue if it hasn't been put together very well but replacement spurs are available.

 

I've not burnt mine out yet but I'm not far off given the stink following two back-to-back battery packs.

 

Fastrax wheels are a common option.

 

You'll find people converting these to affordable brushless set-ups or even going full-on crawler

 

https://www.msuk-forum.co.uk/forums/topic/243564-ftx-outlaw-crawler/

 

Enjoy!

[Redback]

Welcome, the outlaw threads have a wealth of information, the alloy plate can bend, lads managed to bend his were the trailing arms attach, so maybe the carbon fiber ones better.
Hop over to the outlaw threads if you have any issues, they are a fun truck, so much so after gifting one to the lad, i also needed to get one 😀

[suls]

22 hours ago, RC Beginner Dad said:

Hi everyone!

 

As mentioned in my introduction, I'm new to all things RC and have purchased a FTX Outlaw (Brushed), for my son's 8th birthday.

We had a great hour or so out in the back garden and on the tarmac driveway, getting used to the car and marvelling at it's speed, my son was absolutely delighted with the car and quickly got the hang of the basics.  He surprised me on how well he caught on to feathering the throttle to keep the car stable on tight turns, we had a blast.  It did take a hard knock to the front bumper a few times, once by my over enthusiastic driving and several times by one of his school friends who had happened to pop by, she seemed hell bent on driving it into the kerb at full throttle despite me telling her to be gentle with the trigger.  The third time she did it, the bumper fell off, ending our fun for the day.  That's our first lesson learnt,  don't let people who have no intention of being careful anywhere near it in the future.

So the upshot is a broken bumper and a broken chassis plate (sheared at the screw holes), luckily I had spent some time explaining to my son that it's the nature of this hobby that things will break from time to time and its all part of the fun to repair them, so he took it all in his stride.  I've done a temporary fix which will work fine for the time being and after some considerable effort of searching I finally found a retailer with the bumper parts in stock, so they should be with us in a couple of days. 

Everyone seems to be expecting FTX spares stock in May - has there been some supply chain problems? I think I would probably have been a lot more careful if I had known beforehand how rare parts seem to be at the moment.

I will upgrade the chassis plate  to aluminium asap as the positioning of the screw holes are really close to the edge and although my son's psychotic friend didn't help matters, it looks like that area is generally very weak. Is there any reason to consider the carbon version other than 'bling'?

 

It would be great to hear from fellow Outlaw owners on any tips and upgrade recommendations. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

 

Rhys (49) and Owain (8)

exact same damage happened to our outlaw the same way, will hopefully be swopping everything over this weekend, if you consider a move to lipos beware its likely to burn the stock motor out as standard. We went through two in two runs before going brushless.

 

Either way, enjoy