Picking new truck

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Hey Caleb. Welcome to the forum. I own and bash a MT10 and will say all manner of good things about it. Great runner on 2S. Tough too. 3S capable out of the box, but it is a handful. 2S will bring loads of fun.

Another consideration is the Arrma Vorteks 3S. Have no experience with it other than the Arrma reputation and it looks good.

Cheers. 'AC'
The arrmas looked good and are bigger and faster stock. But at close to 500 otd running thats more than i want to spend. The mt10 just seems like a good bargin to get back into the sport
 
Forget about that smart cr*p, way overpriced, like everything Spektrum, but even more so.

The pack you get with the associated won't last 15 minutes of runtime, and the charger is a joke. No storage mode if I can see right.

You can get a good 3s 5Ah battery for 30ish bucks and a decent beginner charger for 50-60.

It's not a cheap hobby...
 
The arrmas looked good and are bigger and faster stock. But at close to 500 otd running thats more than i want to spend. The mt10 just seems like a good bargin to get back into the sport
Yep. MT10 was my pick moving out of back yard racing into all-terrain bashing. No regrets. In fact, have an Ebay MT10 slider chassis in the mail to build an upgrade MT10.

The one I have now will remain bone stock-it is that good a truck right out of the box. My MT10 is the one without battery or charger. Cheers. 'AC'
 
For chargers and accessories, off brands can be found on Amazon for half the price most times. Same product, different name.
 
The arrmas looked good and are bigger and faster stock. But at close to 500 otd running thats more than i want to spend. The mt10 just seems like a good bargin to get back into the sport
As stated, chargers and batteries that come with the RTR kits aren't worth the money you pay for them. You are better off buying a Liperior, CNHL, or Zippy battery and an entry level charger. Stay away from the smart chargers unless you are just too lazy to do a little research on LiPo battery care. That is the reason hobby shops push the smart chargers. They don't want to have to deal with teaching customers how to charge LiPo's. There are plenty of YT vids that will teach you all you need to know.

The charger needs to have a storage mode to safely put your batteries in a state where they can sit unused for awhile without degrading. LiPo's don't store well depleted or fully charged. They need to be at 3.8v per cell when stored. Chargers that come with RTR kits don't typically have this storage charge mode.

Other than that, the MT10 is a pretty good truck. I don't own one, but looked into it quite a bit before buying our Grsnite. The Granite was only $320 at that time, or I would have grabbed the MT10.
 
Well wth
As stated, chargers and batteries that come with the RTR kits aren't worth the money you pay for them. You are better off buying a Liperior, CNHL, or Zippy battery and an entry level charger. Stay away from the smart chargers unless you are just too lazy to do a little research on LiPo battery care. That is the reason hobby shops push the smart chargers. They don't want to have to deal with teaching customers how to charge LiPo's. There are plenty of YT vids that will teach you all you need to know.

The charger needs to have a storage mode to safely put your batteries in a state where they can sit unused for awhile without degrading. LiPo's don't store well depleted or fully charged. They need to be at 3.8v per cell when stored. Chargers that come with RTR kits don't typically have this storage charge mode.

Other than that, the MT10 is a pretty good truck. I don't own one, but looked into it quite a bit before buying our Grsnite. The Granite was only $320 at that time, or I would have grabbed the MT10.
Well wth.. there is only a 30 dollar difference between the two
 
Well wth

Well wth.. there is only a 30 dollar difference between the two
But you will still need a better charger. That one has no way to tell where your battery charge level is, has no way to storage charge, and these are two of the most important things needed to properly care for LiPo batteries. So basically you are paying $30 for a battery. But if your hobby shop has it for only $30 more, that really isn't terrible, because everywhere else there is a $60 difference in price.

But I'd still buy the standard version and buy a charger and battery separate.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/B6-Lipo-Ba...2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

https://rcbattery.com/liperior-5000mah-3s-65c-11-1v-lipo-battery-with-ec5-plug.html
 
The rival is 30 less with out the batt and charger and 35 more for the combo. If the batt and charger are that bad i might as well get the granite?
 
The rival is 30 less with out the batt and charger and 35 more for the combo. If the batt and charger are that bad i might as well get the granite?
The Granite is a great RC. But I have to think the MT10 is as well. I would just stay away from chargers that don't allow you to properly care for the batteries. In the long run, they will cost you more in bad batteries due to not being able to monitor them and storage charge them.

That cheap charger I linked will do to get your feet wet, but even that I would eventually replace because a LiPo charger really needs to have an internal resistance meter to show you if your batteries are degrading.

As LiPo's age, and through use, internal resistance can climb, causing the batteries to get hot while charging/discharging. This will cause them to puff, filling with oxygen. Oxygen inside a LiPo is what causes them to burst into flames at very high temperatures. With proper care, batteries will last for years. But things can happen to shorten their life, and reading the resistance will give you early warning.

If you shortchange yourself jumping back into this hobby with inferior equipment, I fear it won't give you a good idea of how fun this hobby is. It's not a cheap hobby. If you gave yourself a $500 budget, you would have a far better experience with a car, a couple batteries, and a decent charger like this one...
https://www.racedayquads.com/produc...c-battery-charger?_pos=1&_sid=bca2f5844&_ss=r
 
Batteries, batteries, batteries.... sounds like the Brady Bunch "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha" (Google it if you are too young). Dude Nitro has a smell only batteries wish they could reproduce with electronic sounds, zoom-zoom ;) truth is - I have both and they both have very different roles, so you really have to determine what your end goal is to make a solid decision if you are only going with one. I have both because I have no end goal, I have an addictive personality and that there is why I stay away from drugs.
 
Well i decided I'm going with the rival mt10. Non combo as its 339 bucks vs 400. That 60 bucks for a so so batt and a cheap charger dosnt seem that great now that I've looked into it more
 
Well i decided I'm going with the rival mt10. Non combo as its 339 bucks vs 400. That 60 bucks for a so so batt and a cheap charger dosnt seem that great now that I've looked into it more
Good move. There are cheap chargers that are decent, but if you can spend a little more to get one with an IR meter built in, you will have a charger that will be better for taking care of batteries. The one I linked above, the Hota, is a great charger for the money. For LiPo's, Liperior, CNHL, and Zippy brand were leading the pack in tests here, and they are cheap batteries to boot.
 
Now i need to figure out what size dimension wise and connector style to get for it. So i can order ahead of time
 
Now i need to figure out what size dimension wise and connector style to get for it. So i can order ahead of time
EC5's are what I use on all my 3s batteries. XT60's and XT90's are nice as well.

When you decide on a charger, see what it uses and get the proper cables to adapt to your battery. The Hota uses XT60's. Most others use banana plugs.

For the balance lead, I just use a 6" balance lead extension cable, and I remove the plastic bit between the slots so I can plug any battery up to 6s into it. You just have to keep the red lead on the balance plug facing the red lead on the balance extension, but keep the battery plugged farthest away from red wire...

Stock, and modded balance extension
20220119_160347.jpg


Proper placement of balance plug
20220119_160448.jpg
 
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