ECX Circuit/Traxxas Rustler questions.

[Slick2500]

I have both a Circuit and a Rustler. Of the two the Circuit is more stock. The Circuit parts are very flexible which depending how you look at it is a good or bad thing. The Rustler most of the stock parts can be bought cheap but better to go ahead and upgrade like RPM when they break rather than replacing with stock parts. Broke both shock towers, rear and front a-arms, front and rear carriers, caster blocks, bent kingpins, had screws constantly back out, front bulkhead, shock caps pop off, cracked chassis, broke top shaft roll pins, stock driveshafts maybe more don't want to keep thinking about. The Rustler also uses different offset wheels front and back you can't just buy all four of the same wheels and switch them around. The Circuit IMO is tougher as far as stock parts go but has it's weaknesses. The driveshafts are worse than Traxxas shafts (IMO), servo saver sucks, shoulder screws for steering knuckles keep coming out, plastic diff, the metal gear upgrade can't buy each individual parts separately (diff, idler, top shaft gear) those are just off the top of my head. The appeal of the Rustler was the parts and aftermarket support you can dump a lot of money into it whether you want to go ahead and upgrade when something breaks. If it was brushed I would of probably broken less parts.

The Circuit I have is actually from when they used to be called Electrix. Over time things were upgraded but still using most stock parts. Not for a lack of upgrade choices just that stock parts aside from the servo saver, driveshafts and shoulder screws for the steering knuckles aren't that bad for a basher. In all fairness to the Rustler after the first break I usually just upgraded the parts maybe when the parts broke could have been a one time thing (i.e. bad landing, crashing into something) and another stock replacement would have been fine don't really know. My HPI Blitz and E-Firestorm since they are basically the same have been the most reliable as far as stock parts go.

Best fix I have found so far to those stupid shoulder screws popping out is the hot racing front spindles.


Having owned both a Traxxas Stampede 2wd XL5 and a brushed Ecx Ruckus 2wd for the last 4 years I can attest that in general the Ecx is a bit tougher. And I agree on the axles, I just used stock Traxxas Slash 4x4 rear axles ?.
The shocks for both vehicles are rather crappy and will pop the caps.

I kinda miss my Firestorm ?

 

[biggman100]

Best fix I have found so far to those stupid shoulder screws popping out is the hot racing front spindles.


Having owned both a Traxxas Stampede 2wd XL5 and a brushed Ecx Ruckus 2wd for the last 4 years I can attest that in general the Ecx is a bit tougher. And I agree on the axles, I just used stock Traxxas Slash 4x4 rear axles ?.
The shocks for both vehicles are rather crappy and will pop the caps.

I kinda miss my Firestorm ?

The shocks that came with the pile of parts i have are aftermarket aluminum, with threaded bodies, from who though, i have no clue. Basically, i have two chassis with diffs, suspension arms, hubs, and axles, and then a box of parts, that i went through and organized, and figured out through looking at exploded parts diagrams, what went to which vehicle, and figured out that by adding tires/wheels i already have, although they are SCT wheels with RC4WD Mickey Thompson Baja's on them, i can make one running, complete, brushed vehicle, but, it more than likely wont stay brushed long, since not even my Redcat/ExceedRC vehicles stay brushed more than a week. I have some cheap Ebay aluminum threaded shocks i might use on this build though, since the shocks that came with the parts are more like a 1/8 shock, and i could use those on my DHK Hunter, since i keep blowing the caps off the front plastic shocks on that.

 

[Sledgehog]

If you swap boken parts out to aluminum one all one is doing is transferring the designed weak points to the next part inline weather its in board or out.. the esc is by far more fragile than the traxxas..breaking a rc constantly is either the driver hitting immovable objects or a poorly skilled driver.

False, I neither hit immovable objects nor am i a poor driver and my rustler and stampede broke constantly. Some aluminum parts are fine if you put them in the correct place such as shock caps and bearing carriers. A-arms and shock towers are a nono and I had to replace arms, shock towers, gearboxes, etc all with rpm plastics after the craptastic traxxas plastic broke under normal use and circumstance.

OP, This is the kind of thing I was talking about, people who make fanboyish excuses for poor products cuz they don't know any better or have just been extremely lucky and think "well mine didnt break so these other people must be idiots or unlucky." NOT the case. Most people who own a slash may bt break 'as much" due to the design of it with the huge front and rear bumpers, side bars, and huge body that absorbs a lot of impact makes it a stronger vehicle overall than the rustler or stampede, but again in my experience I watch them break (worn and brand new out of the box) EVERY WED NIGHT in the stock slash class at my indoor track which is well-built with no large jumps or things that should break a vehicle. In fact a father and son who took theirs right out of the box last week fried an esc and broke shocks (caps flying off as well) and bearing carriers on them.
Here's some shots of my rustler at said track. This all broke in ONE day: rear shock tower split, bent shock shaft, leaking shock, broken gearbox where hinge pin connects a-arm, and a-arm. These all happened just driving around the track on small jumps with NO CRASHES (or immovable objects, lol) . I've also included my trophy with said rustler to show I'm not a "poor driver" as tnt states are the only people who break traxxas cars.
Go ahead with traxxas if you want, but trust me, you'll be sorry in the long run once you've put as much money into repairs that you realize you could have bought a much better quality basher kit with and more time on the bench with it than out having fun.
.

 

[biggman100]

OP, This is the kind of thing I was talking about, people who make fanboyish excuses for poor products cuz they don't know any better or have just been extremely lucky and think "well mine didnt break so these other people must be idiots or unlucky." NOT the case. Most people who own a slash may bt break 'as much" due to the design of it with the huge front and rear bumpers, side bars, and huge body that absorbs a lot of impact makes it a stronger vehicle overall than the rustler or stampede, but again in my experience I watch them break (worn and brand new out of the box) EVERY WED NIGHT in the stock slash class at my indoor track which is well-built with no large jumps or things that should break a vehicle. In fact a father and son who took theirs right out of the box last week fried an esc and broke shocks (caps flying off as well) and bearing carriers on them.
Here's some shots of my rustler at said track. This all broke in ONE day: rear shock tower split, bent shock shaft, leaking shock, broken gearbox where hinge pin connects a-arm, and a-arm. These all happened just driving around the track on small jumps with NO CRASHES (or immovable objects, lol) . I've also included my trophy with said rustler to show I'm not a "poor driver" as tnt states are the only people who break traxxas cars.
Go ahead with traxxas if you want, but trust me, you'll be sorry in the long run once you've put as much money into repairs that you realize you could have bought a much better quality basher kit with.

I actually decided to go with the Circuit, for a few reasons, not just the constant issues i see with Traxxas in general, or the stories of how people buy one, and replace 80% of it in the first few days, but, more because, after searching through Yelp, Yellow Pages, and a few other places, i actually found a hobby shop about 40 minutes from me that carries ECX and Arrma parts, at least according to their website (they have only been open a month at most though, and shops in this area open and close fairly quickly, unless they cater to aircraft), but not much Traxxas, and, another one just relocated about 60 miles from me (they used to be 200 miles away), that, although they do carry a lot of Traxxas stuff, they also carry just as much ECX and Arrma stuff, and even have a bunch of parts for the RE Pro2 i just gutted, but they are way in the other direction of where i am typically at in my travels, but their website says they do ship, so, who knows. I have been in their old shop a couple times, and it was pretty small, and didnt look like they actually had much in stock on the shelves though. A lot of shops in central and northern N.Y. have closed the last couple years, and parts were getting harder to find for any vehicle, unless i drove to Syracuse (2 hours away), Auburn (1:45 away), or Rochester (2 and a half hours or more away). Oddly though, northwest N.Y. (Rochester, Webster, Buffalo, Lions, Niagara Falls) have multiple shops, but i am rarely in those areas, if ever (I've never been to Buffalo or Niagara Falls).

As for the fan boys, i typically ignore them, since i see it constantly in not just RC stuff, but music, restaurants, 1:1 vehicles, video games, etc, etc.

I also posted this on another forum, with these two videos linked:

To show just how hard i can be on my vehicles, and the consensus on one forum was, if i bashed a Traxxas that hard, it would be pretty much destroyed in about 5 minutes.

 

[Arrmajunk]

Not speaking as a fanboy but as someone with hands on experience. Had a rustler vxl and stampede vxl which are both identical vehicles besides the chassis shape and wheels/tires. I got rid of both within around 4 months of ownership because of how often the damn things broke (even after spending almost as much as each vehicle in the necessary aluminum and Rpm upgrades). Money pits both of them that broke regularly and lost a ton of money selling each one. I also regularly watch Traxxas slashes (again same basic vehicle as rustler) break weekly at out indoor track weekly, even brand new out of the box. Just last week our stock slash class went from seven vehicles down to two in the mains from breakages and our track is far from being destructive on vehicles. Never buy Traxxas unless it's a trx-4 crawler. Only decent thing they seem to make. Anyone who tells you their Traxxas is good either has never owned anything else or had been extremely lucky.

I don’t know how you can say Traxxas Slash and Rustler are rubbish ? I have both Slash 4x4Lcg and Rustler 4X4 vxl and Arrma Senton 3s and an Arrma Kraton V3 6s
I have broken my slash and rustler as well as Senton , it’s down to me driving them like a Pilchard mostly in the wet, slammed side on into a Metal pole or clipped a Kerb on one of the suspension arms , it’s bound to break.
to be honest I don’t do Stupid jumps with them, I take them on the grass and Take sports field markers with me to mark out a makeshift course and make a little circuit.
I used to race 1/10 buggys when Kyosho lazer zxr Mk2 was all The rage. I don’t like smashing up my Toys ?

 

[Rcknucklehead]

Best fix I have found so far to those stupid shoulder screws popping out is the hot racing front spindles.


Having owned both a Traxxas Stampede 2wd XL5 and a brushed Ecx Ruckus 2wd for the last 4 years I can attest that in general the Ecx is a bit tougher. And I agree on the axles, I just used stock Traxxas Slash 4x4 rear axles ?.
The shocks for both vehicles are rather crappy and will pop the caps.

I kinda miss my Firestorm ?

Yep TRA6852X to replace the stock shafts best cheap replacement IMO not bad for replacements on the 2wd Traxxas models either. I used the Hot Racing spindles as well and the RPM ones are a waste of money worse than stock too soft (YMMV) . Never popped caps on the Circuit maybe I was just lucky ?‍

If anybody has ever seen the transmission and the fact HPI didn't use plastic shafts is just a couple of the big reasons I like Blitz and Firestorm. Sorry for your loss . The Blitz is the best handling thing I own it's basically stock except for the motor/esc and tires even still have the stock servo.

 

[biggman100]

I have owned a couple HPI's, but that was quite awhile ago. The only vehicles I routinely ruin or break shocks on are Redcat/exceed stuff. I blew a shock cap on my DHK Hunter, but I was also running it extremely hard, and it went back together, and is still together.

 

[biggman100]

I don’t like smashing up my Toys ?

I bash them, crash them, beat on them, and i have only broken my DHK Hunter once, which was nothing more than a shock cap popping off, my DHK Raz-R, snapped the center driveshaft, and, my DHK Wolf 2 broke the wing mount and ripped the screws out of the steering block, and, even my Redcat Blackout XTE, that i ran extremely hard on 3S, and only broke the upper rear diff housing and rear bumper, and busted the shock caps. I have a video of it somewhere on here, and even after it broke, i was still bashing it and jumping it hard until the battery died.

 

[Sledgehog]

I don’t know how you can say Traxxas Slash and Rustler are rubbish ?

From experience with my own and watching them break and fail week after week when other cars don't that take way worse crashes and jumps don't. I thought I explained that already in not one but two previous posts along with pictures to show it. ???

 

[biggman100]

From experience with my own and watching them break and fail week after week when other cars don't that take way worse crashes and jumps don't. I thought I explained that already in not one but two previous posts along with pictures to show it. ???

I was down at the same skate part i made my Granite/Hunter video, with the Circuit, testing it, and a guy that was there broke not one, but 2 stampedes before i made it through one battery, and he wasn't being near as hard as i was.

 

[F.R.S. Ninja_007]

I own an ECX Circuit off of eBay and I’m thinking of selling it in favor of a Rustler. The Circuit uses Philips screws, and it’s next to impossible to find aftermarket parts, so it’s really an entry level vehicle; nothing more.

 

[Slick2500]

I own an ECX Circuit off of eBay and I’m thinking of selling it in favor of a Rustler. The Circuit uses Philips screws, and it’s next to impossible to find aftermarket parts, so it’s really an entry level vehicle; nothing more.

The Rustler XL5 also uses Phillips screws.......
Upgrade parts are all over eBay and Amazon.

 

[Greywolf74]

The Rustler VXL doesn't use Philips afaik

 

[biggman100]

The Rustler VXL doesn't use Philips afaik

I have to ask, why does everyone hate Philips screws? I have way more issues with hex screws rounding off than i ever do Philips, but, that might be from years of working on cars that are full of rusty Philips screws, so I'm used to being easy on them and not stripping them.

 

[Greywolf74]

IDK about anyone else but I think my main two complaints with them in the RC context is theyre stainless so theyre softer than the steel screws and everything else I have has hex head steel screws so it messes with my OCD.