Noob Crawler
 

Greetings,
I have been dispatched by a couple friends to track down a good crawler for a complete beginner with no RC experience or support equipment. I don't know anything about these things, and dont really care to learn as they dont interest me in the least. I do however want to be able to give good advice. So I feel like if anyone can, it would be you guys who can provide good advise and a clear direction on what to look at and i can steal these ideas and look like the smart one :lol::sneaky::cool:

I would also like to know what to steer clear of (i hear some mixed feelings on Axial?). I dont want these guys to get frustrated with constant repairs because i turned them onto a money pit. I suspect a budget of $600 or under for the rig. RTR would be great. I told them to have a look at gmade and rc4wd to start with and I will report back with my findings. Thanks in advance.

Best bang for the crawler buck. Losi nightcrawler. $299 rtr. This is a true crawler not a scaler. For a scaler or rock racer axial is king. Wraith is my favorite all around do all be all rig.

Anything Axial RTR is mostly plastic break down over and over type of stuff.
They are awesome, once you sink another couple hundred in to them. They would push one right to that budget limit, and still not be a true crawler. Most of that stuff is scale and trail, or rock racer-rish. (I'm not a Ax fan)

Definitely not a new crawler guy friendly experience.

The Night Crawler is good. It is sloooow, because as mentioned it is about the climb. It isn't a rock racer, so someone expecting that kind of excitement might be disappointed. But when I think crawlers it is exactly what I imagine.
There is a little crawler that is smaller and more suited to indoor and small back yard stuff, the Slick Rock by Vaterra. It is a 1/18 scale and strictly a crawler. I have heard pretty decent reports on it. ($200 -ish)

There are other options that would be even better for around the same $, but it requires buying a platform and upgrading before you even start running. Seems too involved for a new guy.

One of the first things i mentioned to him was that the crawlers are not going to be fun bashing in the yard jumping ramps and such. Its going to be at home on a rock pile or bank that you may have in the yard. He was quick to point out that this is exactly what he wants, and that running around his back yard just does not interest him at the moment.

He seems pretty sold on the Nightcrawler right now, but his only gripe is that it doesnt "look" like a real truck. I think he is hoping to put a Chevy or Ford body on it and make it look more realistic. From speaking to him it seems that he isnt looking for ultra realistic, but would like the option to add a few things (body and winch is what he keeps mentioning) to make it more fun

Thank you both for the input.

Best of both worlds I'm is the tamiya cr01 chassis. I had one and it worked great. And has lots of hop ups. Might be a little pricey and is a kit. Check them out at rcmart

Sounds like you friend is looking for a scale truck, not a "crawler" per se. The names are sometimes used interchangeably. Couple of good scaler options are Gmade Komodo, SCX0 II, and Vaterra Asender. All can be had in RTR variants, and all have a decent aftermarket following.

The Ascender would be at the top of the heap if you ask me. Typical Losi quality. The New SCX10 II is light years ahead of the old one, and has unlimited hop up potential. Gmades are somewhat underrated, but very good rigs.

Going a bit more aggressive, there's always Wraith's and Bombers, but sounds like he's pretty set on going more scale.

Nightcrawler is a decent crawling rig, but there's nothing scale about it. If he wants a winch, you need a scale (ish) chassis to mount it to. Same with the body.

Hope that helps.