Nitro R/C Truck or Buggy?

[westie06516]

Hey everyone,

It's been a while since I was last here. Last time I was here I was looking for into about nitro r/c trucks and was leaning heavily on the HPI Savage X 4.6 and was originally looking into a traxxas, but things came up that I had to swing my funding into a different direction, like buying an engagement ring and proposing, now setting a date

I'm still looking into getting into a nitro r/c, but buggy's have sparked my curiosity as of late, thanks to you tube videos.

My question is this...which is better for overall driving on street/grass/dirt, which can handle some wet/damp dirt or other surfaces, and which is good for jumping, hill climbing, shredding up dirt/gravel, and taming wooded areas along with possible snow/ice usage and bashing in general (live in New England area). Lastly which is easier to work on, find parts, and modify?

Sorry to hit you guys with so much at one time, but I'd like to get some input...I've saved up a bit and want to get a nice RTR combo kit and might purchase one around X-Mas time when I get my bonus check I think I owe myself a little treat and some fun

I'd love to hear input/thoughts/and suggested brands/makes from users of both nitro r/c monster trucks and buggy's.

Thanks in advance everyone! Nice to be back among a great hobby community as well

-Westie

 

[MotoGod]

If you are just going to be bashing around and not racing....I would stick to a Monster Truck. They can do a lot more in the bashing world. If there is a chance you will want to go to the track and race...then you might consider a Truggy, but a Buggy isn't going to make you very happy in the bashing world. I mean they *can* be bashed, but they have low ground clearance and will not make it over all that many obstacles without getting stuck.

Just my opinion....

 

[exmark93]

buggys, truggys and trucks generally shouldnt be bashed they're mostly just for racing, monster tucks are good for one thing only and thats bashing, unless you tune up your suspension you wont be doin anything except going fast in straight lines and bashing you can race them but its not to common. id suggest a short course truck, they're so much fun AND CHEAP i bought my slash 4x4 for about 370$ and I've only broke on thing on it in the 3 months I've had it. i do have an emaxx bl which is fun but its just so heavy and big i can really do anything with it. now if you can afford it...... BAJA 5T or any other 1/5 scale/ large scale car, they're durable cheap to run and HUGE! if you decide to go nitro make sure you get a good one with a good engine, lots of time and a local hobby shop. nitros were the worst experience with r/c I've ever had once i went electric and 2-cycle i never looked back at nitro. good luck with your decision.
and congrats on the engagement!

 

[jojoviudez]

Hey everyone,
My question is this...which is better for overall driving on street/grass/dirt, which can handle some wet/damp dirt or other surfaces, and which is good for jumping, hill climbing, shredding up dirt/gravel, and taming wooded areas along with possible snow/ice usage and bashing in general (live in New England area). Lastly which is easier to work on, find parts, and modify?

-Westie

The savage x is definitely a good choice. If you are considering traxxas, the Revo would be a good choice. Like motogod said, buggies can and will do nice jumps, but it has a low ground clearance compared to a monster truck. I sold my 2 tmaxx with the .15 and 3.3 engine and bought a savage x. And never looked back on a tmaxx. If I do go back to traxxas, it would definitely be the Revo or summit. The savage x is great for bashers and made for bashers. It's a RTR bashers dream. Eat, sleep, take care of the Mrs. and bash. Visit your LHS and see what else they support. Read some Rc magazines to help you visualize the different vehicles and identify what you really want. Ask yourself if the reverse gear really important to you. Revo comes with reverse and 2.4 ghz radio. Goodluck and may you make a good decision so you can be happy and enjoy the hobby.

 

[westie06516]

Thanks for some helpful insight and tips guys and thanks for the kind words exmark93

I think if I'm gonna run it though woods, grass, and road, I think I would go with a nitro r/c monster truck. When I asked earlier this year, I was hooked on Traxxas, but a lot of people told me about HPI and the savage x, which I've taken quite a liking to. I guess it boils down to which is more easier on the pocket to maintain, fix, and modify, along with which one is gonna give me the best results and usability...I don't want something that is gonna break after a small jump or if some dirt gets on it.

BTW...does anyone know if they make or sell any WRC rally car based nitro r/c cars? I saw a video of an electric one on you tube and it looked amazing in detail, but I'm not a fan of electric r/c cars. I had a lot of bad luck with them...but I think it would be cool to have an AWD nitro r/c inspired WRC rally car like a STI or EVO...*drool* lol (I love rally racing btw lol)

 

[Richie]

If your looking for something that isn't gonna rape ur wAllet due to breakage etc, it's definatley the savage...I've put screw al into mine as far as repairs, upgrades is different though.... I even drove into a pole once at top speed and all it did was bend a turn buckle link which was 4 bucks to fix...

The savage x takes the cake hands down in the bashers mt class.

 

[westie06516]

If your looking for something that isn't gonna rape ur wAllet due to breakage etc, it's definatley the savage...I've put screw al into mine as far as repairs, upgrades is different though.... I even drove into a pole once at top speed and all it did was bend a turn buckle link which was 4 bucks to fix...

The savage x takes the cake hands down in the bashers mt class.

What!? That's insane that you hit a pole at top speed and didn't completely total your savage! I saw some videos on youtube of people really bashing their savage x's without the bodies on...and it's just insane. One guy jumped his off of a dirt bmx jump...hits a TREE...the things flips and rolls like crazy...and then it drives off and jumps the next ramp!

I assume you get all your parts from tower hobbies? I think they have been the cheapest I've managed to find for parts in general and offer the most, along with having the best price on a savage x 4.6 RTR kit minus nitro fuel, etc.

Do you know what the top speed of the savage x is out of the box after break in? and it does wheelies right? like soon as you press down on the controller trigger

 

[Richie]

What!? That's insane that you hit a pole at top speed and didn't completely total your savage! I saw some videos on youtube of people really bashing their savage x's without the bodies on...and it's just insane. One guy jumped his off of a dirt bmx jump...hits a TREE...the things flips and rolls like crazy...and then it drives off and jumps the next ramp!

I assume you get all your parts from tower hobbies? I think they have been the cheapest I've managed to find for parts in general and offer the most, along with having the best price on a savage x 4.6 RTR kit minus nitro fuel, etc.

Do you know what the top speed of the savage x is out of the box after break in? and it does wheelies right? like soon as you press down on the controller trigger

Yup hit a pole at I'd say 65 or so km/h bent the "tie rod" so went inside 5 mins later had it back on the road...

Savage will definitely take a beating.. I've flown off a ramp, and landed wrong did about 30 end over end flips and it landed back on the wheels and I kept driving undamaged.

And as far as parts I get everything but rims and tires at my lhs skycraft hobbies. Wheels and tires I get on fleabay

 

[westie06516]

Yup hit a pole at I'd say 65 or so km/h bent the "tie rod" so went inside 5 mins later had it back on the road...

Savage will definitely take a beating.. I've flown off a ramp, and landed wrong did about 30 end over end flips and it landed back on the wheels and I kept driving undamaged.

And as far as parts I get everything but rims and tires at my lhs skycraft hobbies. Wheels and tires I get on fleabay

Interesting. I'm out of luck with a local hobby shop...the closet one to me is about 30 min away and the guy who owns it marks up I'd say between 200% to 300% on EVERYTHING and is not helpful what so ever. Just for the savage alone (no servos or controller or RTR package) he wants a little over $600...towerhobbies.com is about $450 for a RTR package.

Is the savage x 4.6 the biggest and latest savage model out on the market? that's the one with reverse and 3hp or so if I'm correct?

 

[Richie]

Interesting. I'm out of luck with a local hobby shop...the closet one to me is about 30 min away and the guy who owns it marks up I'd say between 200% to 300% on EVERYTHING and is not helpful what so ever. Just for the savage alone (no servos or controller or RTR package) he wants a little over $600...towerhobbies.com is about $450 for a RTR package.

Is the savage x 4.6 the biggest and latest savage model out on the market? that's the one with reverse and 3hp or so if I'm correct?

No there's a savage xl, but I read the engines aren't that super..

And my lhs is a good 25-30 mins away but with the service they provide...its a no brained to go there

 

[westie06516]

No there's a savage xl, but I read the engines aren't that super..

And my lhs is a good 25-30 mins away but with the service they provide...its a no brained to go there

So do you think that the savage x 4.6 is the best one to get, especially engine/tranny wise? I guess your lucky you LHS provides you with good service. Mine is the complete opposite. I tried to ask the owner which is a better choice, nitro monster truck or buggy and he basically gave me a generic response that their both the same thing pretty much...which is obviously not true. He made no effort in giving me some useful information to base my future purchase off of, hence why I turned to here and came back to this excellent community of hobbyists

 

[jenson40]

have you looked at team assoicated monster gt theres a couple differnt verisons from what i hear it s pretty tuff truck seen one jump off a 15-20 ft drop off rollover a buch of times and keep going. also the one thats comes with the 4.60 which is the same as a team associatted pro.28 which i have in my rtr rc8t i bought alittle over a week ago. it is the easiest motor to break in and tune in any rtr nitro I've ever had use to be a traxxas guy, but no more after a week of bashing hard and alittle over a gallon later havnt had to adjust my needles since break in . The rc8t rs rtr is what i have , i bought it because I'm going to be racing next year and this thing bashes awesome . just as good as my tmaxx if not better and havnt broke anything besides the one way bearing is starting to slip. sorry kind of long lol but check out some videos of the monster gt and the rc8t think you will like one of those.

 

[alien13]

So do you think that the savage x 4.6 is the best one to get, especially engine/tranny wise? I guess your lucky you LHS provides you with good service. Mine is the complete opposite. I tried to ask the owner which is a better choice, nitro monster truck or buggy and he basically gave me a generic response that their both the same thing pretty much...which is obviously not true. He made no effort in giving me some useful information to base my future purchase off of, hence why I turned to here and came back to this excellent community of hobbyists

I got the X 4.6 last summer, and it's great. I've cartwheeled it, flipped it, slid it on it's top, and it still comes back for more. Out of the four new engines I've broken in and tuned this summer, it was by far the easiest to tune. IMO, it's the ultimate basher mt, but that's the only monster truck I have experience with.

It also has a ton of aftermarket support and options, you can make it an XL if you want, HPI has a kit to lengthen it, and you can add hub extenders to widen it. If you search around the web, you'll be amazed at what you can find for this truck.

 

[Richie]

i have the savage xl kit, i just chose not to use it, i tried it and hated it.. so i took it back down to a regular x

 

[westie06516]

i have the savage xl kit, i just chose not to use it, i tried it and hated it.. so i took it back down to a regular x

Whats the main difference between the savage x 4.6 and savage XL? I saw a video from HPI on youtube showing the XL in action and it looked right up there with the x 4.6...just on a slightly bigger scale/size and I believe more power. It looked like it was hugging and ripping up dirt and grass in the video and they did pull a front flip off very nicely. I haven't seen any user videos of people bashing their XL's. I just wanna make sure I make a good decision and buy a quality and reliable nitro MT that I can send more time enjoying than trying to fix after 30 min of running like my nitro r/c street car which I have completely given up on because I can't pin point what the hell is wrong with it over the past year...plus it be nice to have MT to run in the backyard, woods/parks by my house, construction sites (for jumps and hill climbs), and even in my dead end which was not so friendly on my street car...

have you looked at team assoicated monster gt theres a couple differnt verisons from what i hear it s pretty tuff truck seen one jump off a 15-20 ft drop off rollover a buch of times and keep going. also the one thats comes with the 4.60 which is the same as a team associatted pro.28 which i have in my rtr rc8t i bought alittle over a week ago. it is the easiest motor to break in and tune in any rtr nitro I've ever had use to be a traxxas guy, but no more after a week of bashing hard and alittle over a gallon later havnt had to adjust my needles since break in . The rc8t rs rtr is what i have , i bought it because I'm going to be racing next year and this thing bashes awesome . just as good as my tmaxx if not better and havnt broke anything besides the one way bearing is starting to slip. sorry kind of long lol but check out some videos of the monster gt and the rc8t think you will like one of those.

I watched some youtueb videos of the team associated monster GT and it seems like everyone babies the MT than has fun with it besides running it in a grass/dirt field over small humps or doing wheelies on pavement...I wasn't really convinced. I did look at one that was straight up bashing, but it wasn't anything like the bashing sessions I've seen people take HPI or Traxxas MT through...so my conclusion is that this company doesn't make a solid MT for bashing because literally every video and video review I saw, the person driving it was babying it the entire time, unlike the HPI or Traxxas vids I've seen which make you cringe at the bashing but at the same time make you feel amazed on how these things keep running after such a beating or flips and crashes. Just my opinion and out take from about 20 videos I looked at so far...still leaning toward the HPI savage...just a matter of finding the right one for me I guess...

 

[Richie]

Whats the main difference between the savage x 4.6 and savage XL? I saw a video from HPI on youtube showing the XL in action and it looked right up there with the x 4.6...just on a slightly bigger scale/size and I believe more power. It looked like it was hugging and ripping up dirt and grass in the video and they did pull a front flip off very nicely. I haven't seen any user videos of people bashing their XL's. I just wanna make sure I make a good decision and buy a quality and reliable nitro MT that I can send more time enjoying than trying to fix after 30 min of running like my nitro r/c street car which I have completely given up on because I can't pin point what the hell is wrong with it over the past year...plus it be nice to have MT to run in the backyard, woods/parks by my house, construction sites (for jumps and hill climbs), and even in my dead end which was not so friendly on my street car...




I watched some youtueb videos of the team associated monster GT and it seems like everyone babies the MT than has fun with it besides running it in a grass/dirt field over small humps or doing wheelies on pavement...I wasn't really convinced. I did look at one that was straight up bashing, but it wasn't anything like the bashing sessions I've seen people take HPI or Traxxas MT through...so my conclusion is that this company doesn't make a solid MT for bashing because literally every video and video review I saw, the person driving it was babying it the entire time, unlike the HPI or Traxxas vids I've seen which make you cringe at the bashing but at the same time make you feel amazed on how these things keep running after such a beating or flips and crashes. Just my opinion and out take from about 20 videos I looked at so far...still leaning toward the HPI savage...just a matter of finding the right one for me I guess...

The xl is just a bit longer and has wheel extensions to make the wheel stick out a bit wider, the xl from factory also comes with a 5.9 which I've heard isn't as good as the 4.6.

I found that when my savage had the xl kit on minus engine it did wheelies too much that weren't controllable which made it flip back on the body too much, also when turning at high speeds it rolled twice as much as the reg savage x.

Also I find the xl wheels to be too big.

 

[alien13]

Here's my video of the Savage X when I took it to a local race track. As you can see, the cartwheels didn't hurt it. I was hoping for some bigger jumps, but I expected the banking of the corner to be a little more than it was.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx_vTuoiTkk"]YouTube - Savage jumping at dirt race track[/ame]

The 5.9 in the XL is hit or miss. Usually miss. I've read alot of stories of how hard it is to get a good tune, and keep it tuned, and I believe it has a mid-speed needle as well, which from what I've read, once you get it where you want it, you seal it so it can't loosen up and it keeps it's tune.

 

[westie06516]

Here's my video of the Savage X when I took it to a local race track. As you can see, the cartwheels didn't hurt it. I was hoping for some bigger jumps, but I expected the banking of the corner to be a little more than it was.
YouTube - Savage jumping at dirt race track

The 5.9 in the XL is hit or miss. Usually miss. I've read alot of stories of how hard it is to get a good tune, and keep it tuned, and I believe it has a mid-speed needle as well, which from what I've read, once you get it where you want it, you seal it so it can't loosen up and it keeps it's tune.

Alien,

Nice savage and nice vid! that savage just kept on going no matter how many times you rolled it or cartwheeled it. I think thats a selling video right there lol. Looks like it was a fun moment...something I'm looking for lol. Thanks for sharing.

I looked into the XL and I agree with what everyone else says...it seems like a hit or miss...I think if I'm gonna go savage, I'm gonna stick with the x 4.6, especially after seeing that vid and many many many others.

Out of curiosity...is going through snow or VERY shallow creeks (less than 3 inches or so) a very bad idea with a MT or is that just asking for trouble? Figured I'd ask before I totally damage or fry something...

 

[Richie]

Alien,

Nice savage and nice vid! that savage just kept on going no matter how many times you rolled it or cartwheeled it. I think thats a selling video right there lol. Looks like it was a fun moment...something I'm looking for lol. Thanks for sharing.

I looked into the XL and I agree with what everyone else says...it seems like a hit or miss...I think if I'm gonna go savage, I'm gonna stick with the x 4.6, especially after seeing that vid and many many many others.

Out of curiosity...is going through snow or VERY shallow creeks (less than 3 inches or so) a very bad idea with a MT or is that just asking for trouble? Figured I'd ask before I totally damage or fry something...

If u do you definatley wanna water proof your electronics..

If hit a puddle that soaked my truck and luckily it dried quick and didn't do any damage... Now the cement pole I hit... That made a boo boo. Lol

 

[westie06516]

If u do you definatley wanna water proof your electronics..

If hit a puddle that soaked my truck and luckily it dried quick and didn't do any damage... Now the cement pole I hit... That made a boo boo. Lol

Bummer about the cement hole. Is it hard to water proof the electronics? I've never done it, so I don't even know how to begin with that lol. I've just seen people drive their MT's through water and deep snow and figured it was a standard type of deal since you are driving an expensive MT lol.