mossman2

iTrader: (5)

Ok, a short background. Many RC’s over the years, Traxxas mostly until I bought my first TLR with a 8ight T 2.0 (converted to electric). I ended up getting a bunch of spare parts so I really haven’t had to buy anything over the past years. Fast forward 4 years and my 12 yr old son decides he has the RC bug. We sell the stampede and find him a 8ight TE 4.0 for a very reasonable price that came with plenty of spare as well (including 13 sets of tires). The thought was that the pile of spares shared across both trucks would help with coats.

Now that he is very excited to race, I want to feed to addiction!

Now to my point, the TLR’s have been good to us. No major issues once I got the difs sorted out on the 2.0. We would like to add a couple 1/10 cars for the winter here in Cleveland (indoors), and I can’t help but want to build a buggy!

before I go out and just stick to a brand and build a pile of TLR cars, am I making a mistake? We are not going to be national champs, the budget is not unlimited and durability is key.

I know this is a ford vs Chevy topic, but there does seem to some constant brands in the top of the opinion polls. Does that change as the classes change, I.e is Techno the car to have in 1/10 but Mugen is the 1/8 buggy of choice? Or TLR is good enough?

Is it a waste to try to keep the same brand across all models? How many of you are single brand for your regularly used cars?

thanks in advance!

Juglenaut

iTrader: (19)

Hmm I am 99% TLR even if I get one different 1:8 kit



V

Juglenaut

iTrader: (19)

While the 8ight 4.0 ep and gp has reached a technical pinnacle by tlr. That does not mean there are no desirable updates or changes that can benefit durability. If there are any look to the threads dedicated to the models.

If I had to put a figure to it.. one main 8ight-e 4.0 rig thats been going thru changes.

Rcdad42

10th scale buggy, stadium truck, short course truck, or 4wd buggy?

mossman2

iTrader: (5)

We are thinking two 1/10 2wd buggies for winter. Some carpet off-road and maybe a little indoor dirt. I would love to go wheeler, but after buying the Truggy and the potential for another 1/8 next spring, trying to keep the winter costs down.

mes

The only real downside to the TLR 2WD buggies is that you need to undo a couple of screws more than on other cars to access the differential. For carpet, both the 22 5.0 AC and the Associated B6.3 offer great bang for your buck, parts and set-up advice are easy to get. If you are biased towards TLR and not in a hurry, I'd wait a few weeks to see whether there will be a new buggy in time for the winter season, other than that I'd recommend checking out the manuals of both options and decide which one you prefer. There are other manufacturers, too, but you cannot go wrong with the two biggest ones.

Silverbullet555

iTrader: (16)

What do other's run in your area? What's your parts support look like.

We run Associated in this house. When I got back into racing, the perception shared by some people who I know in the racing scene was that the associated cars were more durable. I don't know that they are, but we have very little breakage and that is across 5 buggies being raced 1-2x per week for the past 9 months. Not as many TLR at our track. One guy has them and has some constant issues. Another is one of the fastest guys there.

There will be very little crossover between the 1/8th scale stuff and the 1/10th scale stuff so you can change platform without it costing you extra.

DirkW

iTrader: (1)

In our area (for off-road, tracks are mostly 1/10th scale only and usually outdoor astroturf tracks, some carpet indoor), the vast majority of people drive Associated, Xray, Schumacher or Yokomo (probably in that order as well). I haven't seen any TLR or Tekno car for years (and very rarely a Kyosho or Tamiya) at our track - I think not even when we hosted the national championship (4WD and ST) were there any TLR or Tekno cars involved. TLR cars don't enjoy a good reputation here for these kinds of surfaces (deserved ot not, I don't know), plus there's basically no spares available anymore, unless you order directly from the US. Tekno was popular in the 4WD SC days, but has pretty much disappeared since, except maybe on the 1/8th scale tracks.
Tracks here also mostly have no shop located or associated with them, so going with what most people drive, is certainly a good point for support, be it spares or help with setup, so check what most people at your go-to-track are using, and strongly consider that option.

Cromulent

iTrader: (8)

All of the major brands make competent and capable cars, but the 1/10 scene is mostly AE, TLR, Xray, with a few Schumacher in our area.

The most important things to consider are:
1. What spares do the tracks in your area sell?
2. What are the local fast guys running? If you're on the same chassis, you can likely get setup help.

I run TLR 1/8 on dirt (seem to be very few at my track), and AE 1/10 on carpet. Most of the fast guys at my local carpet track are running TLR, but there's enough AE talent to keep them in their toes.

Juglenaut

iTrader: (19)

I could only dream of the local shops carrying any of the brands listed in this thread.

But the local track supports Xray only kinda of one sided everything has become.. so

I run what I like..for the most part was running Team Associated 1:10 for over a decade from 1992-2005. Got shelved, then started looking into 1:8 around 2010 which I really wanted to get into back in the 90’s instead of 1:10 onroad with HPI. 1:8 cost was a major reason why I simply could not jump scales.

Through moving my collection over the years I am now able to immerse myself in 1:8 as the cost to me has come down across the board even though prices do trend up ward, the cost of 1:8 in the late 80’s to mid 90’s was up there and its may stay started in nitro.. engines were cheap or well less expensive bit probably not near as good as they are today.

mossman2

iTrader: (5)

Our outdoor scene isn’t huge, so no brands really hit critical mass. It’s a complete mix.

There really isn’t any support at the track and most of the shops focus on Traxxas and Aarma, so buying parts online is the norm.

I guess there doesn’t seem to be any significant reasons to either stay with TLR or not, so I will probably do that since we are part way down that path with the truggys.

I kind of figured that, but wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something. Given the level we will be competing at, I am sure it won’t be the car holding us back!

Rcdad42

My local 10th scale track is mostly made of AE, TLR, Yokomo, and the occasional xray & schumacher. The inside store only supports AE, TLR, & Yokomo.

Depends on your support, and how much you want to spend. My top 2wd buggy pick is xray, followed by AE, and then TLR.