JJaE

I am looking to get my first battery powered 1/10 R/C currently i am looking at the Evader BX and the Tamiya BAJA King or BAJA Champ. but i want to find out which is better for the money and why. I am on a limited budget so want to make sure i get the best for my money and not have to constantly upgrade to be happy or find out that i should have picked another car. the car is going to be mostly for fun running on grass, baseball diamonds and roadways with speedbumps. ideally i would also like to dial down the speed if i want to let the kids use it so as to limit high speed collisions but i want a fast vehicle to race with my friends as well.

any comparisons that may help me decide?

WckdDudeMan

My Feedback: (1)

i just started and started off with a traxxas rustler, im very pleased with it, it didnt cost me a whole lot and i have had alot of fun with it. from what ive heard its incredibly rugged, i havent broken anything yet and ive tried my best to flip it and found it almost impossible on a flat surface(even on loose packed gravel).

hope that helps a little bit even though its neither of the cars that you are looking at.

wicked

Mastec

Out of those 3 you are looking at I would suggest the Evader BX. It has ball bearings, aluminum oil filled shocks, good tires and there are quite a few hopups out and more on the way when the Pro is released. The only thing wrong with it out of the box is the Photon motor, you will need to replace that if you don't want alot of down time. The BX is an almost exact replica of the Losi XX, so it it is a pretty good car to run.

JJaE

Well so far in calling around it appears that Duratrax is not that popular in the hobby stores in my area. reported part delivery times in the 1 year mark and no local distributors they have to come from the states. worried about getting a car that i cannot get parts for if it breaks. one store stopped selling the duratrax because of the long wait times for part deliveries...
[] in my investigations i have read that the baja's bottom out over bumps and the tires wear quickly on the evader. so think i just had whole knew issues added to the works.

JJaE

Well I have ordered my batteries... just have to get the car. i ordered 3 3000 mAh nickel metal hydride batteries with a brain 959 charger. got the batteries for $19 dollars US each and the charger for 59 dollars US. shipping was free after a 20 dollar introduction offer from www.towerhobbies.com. think i am going to buy the car locally incase something happens i know where i can get parts without having to wait and and pay large shipping fees to get the parts into canada.


Question do you think it is a good investment to pay an extra 60 dollars to get a futaba 2PL controller rather than get the base futaba that comes with the RTR version of the evader?

RYANO218

The radio that comes with the evader is pretty good for starting out with. But if you do want a nicer one the 2pl is a great buy. I have one and i love it, it is all digital and allows you to make fine adjustments, and it is very featureful. It is definately worth the money.

EdsWords

If you get the Evader, you wont need a better radio right away. I think the 60 dollars would be better spent on the motor or esc or servo.

If you don't mind waiting 3-4 days for parts teh Evader is an ideal choice. Tower Hobbies carries all the replacement parts and all of the hop up parts for Evaders. I think they ship to Canada too. But if you prefer to deal with your local hobby shop, you might want to consider something else. The Evader is durable, but not indestructible.

I have an Evader and it's a great starter truck. But if can be frustrating if you cant find parts locally. I hear Tamiya vehicles are great for bashing. I always wanted a Tamiya Blazing Star but never got one. What vehicles does your local hobby store carry?

JJaE

the problem with ordering from towerhobbies is they tack on 18 dollar shipping to canada. and i don't know what the border duties are on anything coming over the border. I got a 20 dollar perk coupon which i have used to pay for the shipping of my batteries to me.

out of all the 2wd buggies the evader looks the coolest :-) (IMHO) we don't have many lhs here. but i am looking at one near work that is selling the rtr for 240 Cdn. or 169 cdn for the one without the remote.

one of the ideas i had for the 2pl is to be able to adjust the throttle to limit the speed. a) to increase the battery life and b) to make it safer for the kids to play with. this way i could open it up for when i race it and turn it down when they play it to safe guard everyones ankles. plus with a better remote if i get another car ie. the Baja King (one that i can build) then i could have a decent one that i could use on both cars.

is the motor really that bad that i will want to change it right away?

side note of curiosity... if i had 2 cars with the same receiver frequency. would i be able to run the cars in formation?

Does anyone have photo's of the stock body colors on the car? i don't think the photo that duratrax shows with the colors really do it justice. and all the photos i can find are the purple photo. I want to see the others as what they look like on the car?

ozzy9039

My Feedback: (6)

I would also suggest the Evader out of the choices. As far as parts....there is always online & some parts... "If it fits ...its right". Doesn't always have to be "for" the evader. Duratrax also has thier stress tech guarantee on some of thier parts. Meaning if they brake they are replaced for free. [link=http://www.duratrax.com/cars/dtxd22d.html]Stress Tech Gurantee[/link] Good luck on the decision.

JJaE

Well i think i am getting that much closer to making my decision.
I am looking at the charcoal evader bx. but it is a toss up of the rtr with remote or the prebuilt and dropping a futaba 2pl in it.

hoping this hobbie is not going to bankrupt me :-)

JJaE

Well i have ordered my Evader BX in the Charcoal color. and got the RTR version. primarily because of the rebates that are available from duratrax and the 10 dollar gift certificate that Towerhobbies is giving out. so even though i bought the rtr for 169.99 US. I can now get 40 dollars worth of upgrades for say an upgraded motor or 2nd body or well if I eventually want to get the 2PL and build a second car.

now all i can do is sit and wait. oh and pray that customs does not charge me to much.

i wouldn't mind getting a street car that i could tweak with underlights and what not but that is farther down the road.

Po Kid

The traxxas Rustler was my first car also and I loved it. It wasnt the fastest or most agile thing, but it almost NEVER broke. It was so tough. I did some crazy things to it also. The only thing you might break is the transmission gears, which can easily be replaced. And one time broke a caster block from slamming it into a parked car tire at full speed. Other than that and the tranny gears, it was very very tough. I was gonna say get the Rustler or the Traxxas Bandit because you can get em off tower for like 129 U.S. Plus Traxxas has great customer service and if you mess something u you can send it in and they will fix it. I remember doing that until they sent a letter back simply telling me a wire was unplugged . The first fix I ever did on any RC car was plugging that wire back in...I thought I was so smart! Well sorry for dragging on... and the Evader si still a good choice.

JJaE

Yeah I looked at the bandit but the body design just was not esthetically pleasing as the evader :-) I like the look of the evader better :-) and i ordered it off of towerhobbies. after all the rebates the RTR will be 127.00 ish. -20 dollars cause it was over 150 dollars to start plus 10 dollar gift cert + 30 dollar gift cert for tower hobbies from duratrax.

I can't wait till they get in. although the batteries are coming ground and the car is coming air. with the ground package has had a 3 day head start so it is a race to get across customs :-)

WckdDudeMan

My Feedback: (1)

if your looking for something thats almost impossible to mess up traxxas is by far the best way to go, other then that theyre pretty average in speed and handling
i love my rustler *huggles his rustler*

wicked

JJaE

If anyone has a charcoal Evader BX could you please post a picture of it?
I am anxious to see what it looks like before mine comes in.

JJaE

Just got my new Evader. charged up the 3 batteries i got with it. and had it out on the streets.
at first i didn't really see any difference between the speed i was getting with this to one of a 1/18 radio shack job was getting. by the time i got to the 3rd battery i did see a difference :-D

I came back into the house and plugged the 1st battery i drained in to recharge it and the charger came back telling me it was already charged. so now i am charging the 2nd or 3rd (don't know which it is) and find myself wondering why the 1st battery would say that it was fully charged already.

Any ideas?

Po Kid

What kind of batteries and what specs does the charger have? Is it the kind with a little timer on it? And does it discharge the battery first? If the batteries are NiCd (as opposed to NiMH) they need to be discharged.

JJaE

i got 3 EPIC 3000mAh NiMH and a brain 959 charger.

i put the batteries into the car and ran in till the motor stopped and then recharged the batteries.
this let the charger recharge the batteries.

WckdDudeMan

My Feedback: (1)

your mrc superbrain was false peaking theyre notorious for doing that

wicked

JJaE

ah i see :-) ok that sorta sucks... does it do that because it is to hot?


well I have finished replacing my 1st busted component took it out for a test drive and broke another one.

busted the botton piece of plastic on the bottom of the rear left shock the part that connects to the bearing.
not bad only cost 2-3 dollars to get the replacement part.

well now that that was replaced the rear shock tower broke on the rear left side. (top of the shock that had the problem)

called the LHS and they don't have the base replacement part just the graphite one. it is a little more in cost. and the guy at the LHS wouldn't say if it would be a better replacement choice. but seeing as it is get this part or wait till one is ordered or duratrax sends me the replacement i am sol. i am hoping that it will stay together better for every day to day driving.

but i am getting more and more scared to run the car on the road. i guess it landed to hard after taking a jump off a speed bump. or it was damaged a little the first time i damaged the lower part of the shock (side swiped a concrete curb) or maybe when i jumped the speed bump and it slid on its roof for a bit. I don't know. :-)

thought it was supposed to be good for bashing...