My thoughts on
The FG Monster Beetle
Manufactured by FG ModellSport
My FG monster beetle arrived the other day, and I must say it is one large RC. If you measure length ways from outside of tire to outside of tire it is a massive 26†with a width of 20†and a height from floor to top of body of 13 ¼â€. The beetle is equipped with a Zenoah 26 cc Engine. The beetle comes almost ready to run all you need to make it complete are electronics. The beetle requires 2 servos for steering, one for each wheel. I used Hitec # HS-5745MG digital servos for this. For brake throttle the standard Hitec HS-645MG works great. I went with a JR XS3 pro radio system to control my beetle and for a battery a 5 cell sub c pack works great. Then just add your 25 to 1 mix and fire it up.
After running a few tanks thru the beetle I did come up with a few opinions, good and bad. The first one would be “this thing is a blast to driveâ€. The run time on a tank of gas is great, about 40 o 45 min between fill ups. This thing is loaded with torque it wants to climb everything it gets close to. The front end likes to pull up which can make steering a little tuff at times, it’s a different kind of driving than I am use to with my 1/8th buggies. After running it for awhile the handling got a lot easier. I have noticed that the body posts to hold the body up are a little weak, but there is an upgrade available thru FG that solves that problem. I did have a mishap with one of the rear c-hubs, it cracked on me the first day I had it out. These pieces are very stout so I don’t know why it broke, I talked to the people I purchased it from and they said this was an uncommon thing to happen. They came good for a new part, and I also upgraded to alloy parts. One of the drive gears that runs off of the clutch bell (plastic) is a little unprotected and is vulnerable to small rocks
That could damage it. I had a little damage on my gear when running in some gravel. The gear still works fine but I ordered a couple of spares just to have on hand.
The only real down fall to the FG line is that the parts aren’t as readily available as the more main stream RC’s. I have found a great source for parts thru Michael at FGPerformanceRC, and I can get most of my parts by Friday if I order on Monday. There are all kinds of upgrades available for them as well, from alloy A arms and C-hubs to disk brakes in cable or hydraulic there is also a 4WD conversion kit coming out this spring for the beetle. FG also offers a monster truck, buggy, stadium truck, and a large selection of 1/5th scale on road cars.
In conclusion I would have to say that if you can handle the larger price tag that this RC carries, you will be very happy. With this RC you can run almost any were and run over all kinds of terrain. It runs off of a 25 to 1 fuel mix so run cost are a lot less than nitro. The run time on a tank are double to triple to that of a nitro RC. The best part is no glow plug igniters or temp guns. Also lets not forget the heavy duty pull start, it will take a lot to break that.
Thank you Rython
