vishdes

I am planning to buy an off road truck but can't make up my mind on wether to buy a nitro powered or Electric. Can anyone help me out by listing out the positives and negatives of both?

Thanks
Regards
Vishal

Hordsak

Holey moley. Since your new, I'd go electric if I were you. Then if you like it lots, and you want to go nitro down the road, you can take that route.

Access

What are you looking for in your truck?
And what are people running / racing in your area?

adam-69

You have just made the biggest mistake ever. everyone hates nitro vs electric threads. but in answer to your question go electric if you are new, its so much simpler.

Longhair

What are the driving conditions? Middle of nowhere or surrounded by houses?

What is your budget?

What trucks are you looking at now?

iamnot

you're not giving nearly
enough information
for us to help

electric may be more
plug-and-play

but, depending on
your situation/conditions
may not be very satisfying
to run

vishdes

Heres the info everyone is looking for.

For starters I kinda know about nitro engines. Actually scratch built an RC nitro powered vehicle for a competition with not even one bought out part excluding the engine and the servos. Everything else was fabricated. SO i guess I can manage the tuning and stuff like that. I will not be racing with anyone as this hobby is relatively unkown in our country. I guesss i must be the only one into Hobby flying and hobby driving in my area.

I will be driving it near my house as well as in the middle of nowhere.

My budget is maybe $ 300 to 400.

I want an all out off road truck one which can handle even rocky patches. Dont want to end up with broken parts. Also i will like to run at least an hour non stop (point for electrics).

I am looking at HPI wheely king, E firestorm flux,E savage traxxas Stampede VXL, E maxx, T maxx, Nitro stampede.

adam-69

what about a nitro savage? i would go for that if i were you.

Chris_RC

his budget is $300 to $300. Anyway, your not gonna find a car truck or buggy that can go for an 1hour straight. Unless with brushless/8000mAh 3c Lipo. But with nitro it is more of a risk to run longer. With electric the battery slows down when it done, but with nitro you CAN keep refilling for an hour, but except temps to be around like 350-400 and you WILL damage your engine. I am very cautious with my engine. Actually, when it gets past 250 I stop it until it gets back to 150. I usually get about 10-12minutes of running until I hit 250, then let it cool. If you are looking for an "all out off-raod" truck that can handle rocks then look no further then the [link=http://www.ehobbies.com/losb0102.html]Team Losi 1/10 Desert Truck[/link] It is only $230, which will give you alot of wiggle room for battery/charger. here is a video, [link=http://youtube.com/watch?v=JJowyDtZnXI]clicky[/link]

BigShrimpah

A properly tuned nitro engine will not overheat if run long. I have ran my Savage NON STOP for a couple hours at a time, just constantly refueling.

Chris_RC

oh, must just be my fuel then. I hate Traxxas 20%! It is a pain to tune and heats up after 10minutes. I clean my air filter pretty much every run.

iamnot

your fuel or your tune
tune more likely

that's one of the +'s for nitro
they can be ran for hours
just stopping to refuel

heck, there are - or used to be
endurance races that
lasted for an hour or more
and they were going flat out
most of that time


to the op

first, whatever you get, nitro or electric
- even the savage -
can and will break
period

second
imho
from what you've listed
definitely a monster truck is what will best suit
and i think nitro will be your best bet
the only thing on your list that fits
is a t-maxx

you might also consider
an MGT, maybe the 1/10 version to keep costs down
or the aftershock
or, if you can swing it,
a savage

adam-69

[X(] ive never seen a nitro engine heat up the longer it runs.. how do you expect to last an hour long main then lol. or a 5 hour endurance race.. (boy those are hard.)

The Mad Modder

E-savage:
Stock speed:26mph
Going price:$270, $330

Pros:
Durable.
Dual 550s provide plenty of power.
Large size.
Pretty good parts following.

Cons:
Run time isn't spectacular.
Requires twice as many battery packs to run.

E-maxx:
Stock speed:30mph
Going price:$360

Pros:
Good speed.
Dual 550s provide plenty of power.
Extremely large parts following
Water proof.

Cons:
Needs to be upgraded to take heavy bashing.
Requires twice as many battery packs to run.
Run time isn't great.

Wheely king:
Stock speed:12mph
Going price:$135, $210

Pros:
Easy to convert to a crawler.
Appealing to fans of full size monster trucks with its rigid axles and "tube" frame.
Wheelies easily.
Low gearing for plenty of torque.

Cons:
Low speed
Large amount of steering slop.

Stampede VXL:
Stock speed:30mph
Going price:$285

Pros:
Good speed.
It's durable.
Good parts following.
Comes brushless for long life and low motor maintenance.

Cons:
2wd

E-firestorm flux:
Stock speed:???
Going price:$310

Pros:
Good speed
Built strong.
Comes Brushless.

Cons:
2wd
Low ground clearance.

(Information for all vehicles besides the E-savage came (which I have personal experience with) from what I could find on the manufacturers' web sites, Google search, or from reviews of the products. If there are any errors in the above info, let me know so that I can correct them. Thank you.)

nitrosportsandrunner

i have a modded wheely king. it takes alot to make a wheely king a good crawler. the only parts on mine that are stock are the axles, shocks, and upper link. all else is upgraded, even the chassis.

i have a vxl, that i bought used with a used 3s venom lipo and misc spare parts for just $250. the only draw back is the 2wd. but the speed and runtime, around 30 minutes, more than makes up for it.

overall, i prefer my vxl to the wheely king, but thats apples to oranges.

drevil

My Feedback: (5)

I doubt its the fuel. More than likely you're either running it too lean or your engine has air leaks. A nitro motor should be able to run for hours without overheating.

For a newbie I'd go with electric. It'll give you a chance to get acquainted to the hobby and how everything works. Then if you're still into it you can get a nitro next time. Nitro can be really frustrating at times (especially when you're new) and it doesn't help not knowing the basics when you're trying to solve advanced problems.

Chris_RC

have you ever used traxxas 20%? It has like 18% oil!

gunnerkc

I agree with the above[X(]

Always Dreamin

This is never going to settle. Knowing that I would like to state my opinion.


Electric beats nitro in most ways I can think of. The only thing that nitro has over electric is that some people just plane love the noise. Other then that, I would side with electric if you were brand new, or if you were a pro.

drevil

My Feedback: (5)

Years ago. I'm not sure what your point is. 18% is slightly more than than other manufacturers use, and if anything it should help cool the engine, not heat it. I think O'Donnell has 17%

EDIT: Looks like O'Donnell uses 18% too.

ElectricGuy007

Nitro isnt for everybody, I mean nitro is awesome when it's running, but when it runs too rich or too lean is when you run into problems.[&:]
I have studied the guys nitro's at the track and some engines have 3 needles to tune on...talk about a pain there....[:@]

Electric is for me, because I used to have a nitro rs4, but couldnt get that darn thing to run correctly, so I traded it off a year ago.

I might end up with another nitro one day...we'll see. Tired of taking sides on threads like this...

Just buy what everyone else is running. I finnally did that, because most guys at my track have B44's now, but a few still run the older BJ4 car.

Most people run T4's at my local track now, but I refuse to drive a 2wd truck at the moment.
Might get a 2wd buggy instead, I'm just not much of a truck kinda guy. Buggies are lighter and sometimes can be faster than the trucks.

Chris_RC

I heard that somebody emailed Odonnell to see how much oil was in the 20% Bash and they replied 16%. I will probably get 20% nitro Race O'Donnell which has 12% oil. The more oil is not always better. Nitro engines only NEED 8% oil to run, and a healthy range is 8-12%. I think Traxxas only makes fuel for the TRX engines.

vishdes

Thanks a lot all for the huge data. Finally narrowed down to two electric models and one notro models

Electric
HPI E savage, Traxxas Emaxx

Nitri
Traxxas T-maxx 2.5

Now tell me why i shouldn't buy these rather than why I should. coz that will help me more to choose

thanks a lot

The Mad Modder

You may want to look at reviews for these trucks.

E-savage
http://www.rcuniverse.com/product_gu...cfm?car_id=844

E-maxx
http://www.rcuniverse.com/product_gu...fm?car_id=1002

T-maxx
http://www.rcuniverse.com/product_gu....cfm?car_id=72

Faults:
The E-maxx has a durability problem with such things as the stock skidplates and bulkhead, so they would need to be upgraded before you bash hard with it.

The E- savage's center drive shafts must be upgraded or modified before they can take the power of a brushless system, should you choose to use one in it.

My friend has had a T-maxx 2.5 and had nothing but problems with the engine. Tuning it was a real pain and it required tuning often with the changing weather. Finally, the engine quit working and that was that. His parents said he could get any more RCs until he got that working. To this day the maxx sits in his closet collecting dust, and he has no more RC's.

Always Dreamin

Take the E-savage off the list. Most people will agree that the E-maxx is better. The E-savage is nice because it's cheaper, but in reality, the E-maxx is a better truck.

Now, it's pretty much nitro vs electric. The T-maxx will obviously be faster. Electric monster trucks aren't as fun when they are slow. They are just too big and in stock form don't have much speed. A brushless MT (quite expensive) is much better then a nitro Mt. You might want to look at 2wd such as the Rustler or Stampede. You will get more for your money when you go with 2wd. Just a suggestion.