Hunter BL after a thorough once over , its condition when received, which supposedly only had a few months usage ( must have been a very tough few months ) was pretty average to say the least. I bought it cheap enough so I went to work , stripped all the wheels, shocks , electrics out and gave it a good clean, rebuilt all the shocks, new oil 40F/50R, reassembled / remounted the electrics , fitted a heatsink/fan to the motor, bought some new Proline Bandlands wheels/tyres ( originals were shot , one wheel cracked, hex's stripped, tyres full of dirt , etc, they were garbage ) , installed some fresh screws, new shorter turn buckles to address the front toe still being negative using the stock turn buckles shortest setting ? , fresh Lipo 2S , some repairs to the body.
Badlands are 9 mm* offset, ( off Slash 4x4) which is not ideal , as I really wanted 3-4 mm offset, but nothing was available in that offset, so I do have a slight tyre overhang of about 1-2mm. I have ensured the suspension/body height geometry doesn't allow it to easily bottom and touch the body as best I can.
First few test runs went reasonably well, car is deceptively fast out the box with the stock electronics on 2S , took a beating with some pretty big hits , no breakages, but the ESC did cut power to the engine on a few instances after a big hit. Quick toggle on/off, and power was restored. Not sure if that is normal , maybe someone else can give me some feedback on that behaviour.
Few bits still on the way, fresh set of hex adapters as 3 of the 4 are less then perfect , some stiffer springs , antenna tube and also some spacers for the shocks to be able to use 3rd party shocks. Shock lengths are 100mm, so plenty of options. I have some Slash 102mm shocks on the way that were meant to go on the front of the Senton, but I may have worked out another solution there. Both trucks are in need of bearings, so the next visit will be to Fast Eddy's.
Hunter with its other stable mate, BL 2S modded Senton Mega 4x4 , with a few other mods re suspension/servo, etc, both trucks are close to par in speed, handling. One thing that I did find odd with the Hunters front suspension geometry is that on compression it significantly alters the front toe out, whereas the Senton on compression doesn't alter the toe at all. That behaviour with the odd standard toe in , does set it a little out of the box, but it seems to handle O.K.
There is a lot more set up options on the Hunter, and its a tougher overall truck , will handle 3S easily out of the box. I can see why it was popular, although a little underground due to the limited LHS support / distribution. I have yet to have any issue with sourcing parts tho , unlike ARRMA which has been out of stock for some basic essentials since I purchased the Senton 4x4 3 months ago.
Overall, I am reasonably happy , its a good second basher for the younger son to go racing his brother, with some potential for me to actually get a go at some point, but admittedly I can't drive the trucks for shite, still trying to connect the brain/hand coordination, but I'll get there .
