I live in South Africa and we have access to limited stock of RC Trucks and even more limited spares: whilst one can source a truck locally it's usually best to order parts from the USA which can be a three week turnaround.
I have just bought a brushless EMaxx and will place one major order from the USA for upgrades to bombproof this truck...help needed! What are the essential upgrades (RPM etc) and nice to haves (eg big bore shocks etc). And the essential spares carry? We drive here in Cape Town mainly on dunes, deep sand and jumps etc but no concrete jungle. I appreciate the help and will post some pictures from the beautiful Cape!!!

First thing you'd want to upgrade right away are the driveshafts on the Emaxx brushless edition. Traxxas driveshafts although improved plastic just can't handle hard starts, stops, and landings. I wish they'd just come out with steel ones right away like the Savage Flux.

I broke the center rear driveshaft the second time out. This was from doing too many wheelies down a street. I also run only 6s which put more strain on the shafts.

I bought part #TRA4951R which is the only center shafts front and rear. On the 4 corners of the rig I am using MIP shafts. Unfortunately MIP does not sell the center driveshaft set which is why I used Traxxas.

After that I would recommend upgrading the arms/shock towers to RPM. Followed by the bulkheads and hinge pins. Bulkheads you'd want aluminum ones...but of course when you do so any flex will be transferred to the hinge pins which is why you'd want to look for titanium replacements.

Some Emaxx owners upgrade the differentials as well depending how bomb proof you want to make your truck. An affordable popular upgrade Emaxx owners do is to replace the stock diffs with Ofna Hyper 7, 8, and 8.5 diffs. I haven't personally upgraded mine or shimmed my stock Traxxas diffs but they are still holding up.

Check out www.unlimitedengineering.com or FLM (Fast Lane Machine) for quality upgrade parts!

Basically driveshafts, arms, bulkheads, hinge pins, and shock towers are the weak spots I've found with the new Emaxx. The Emaxx old and new models have a huge following where you can find other bomb proof builds.

Good luck!

I've got about a year on my E-Maxx, and that includes the first owner being really careless, and then the truck got hit by a car. So I've built it up pretty explosion-proof now.

Must Haves:
Traxxas Steel Center CVD's - TRA5151R
RPM A-Arms
Metal Front and Rear Skidplates (I prefer the Integy Titanium ones.)
Aluminum Rear Gearbox Housing
FLM Diff Cup w/ Modified Gear (For the Rear)
Aluminum Shock Caps if you have Traxxas Ultra Shocks
Aluminum Front Bulkhead (I use the Integy Forged 7075 Bulkhead)
RPM Rear Shock Tower
Robinson Racing Gen3 Spur/Slipper Unit and Hardened Steel Pinion (The TRX one always burned up for me on 5S).

Nice to Have:
RPM Bulkhead Braces
RPM Tru-Track Rear-End
RPM Front Knuckles
Traxxas Big-Bore Shocks w/ RCRaven Springs
RPM Front Shock Tower
RPM 3-Piece Skidplate Set (Saves your truck!)
Aluminum Steering Crank/Servo Saver Set

For what it's worth, I've got a year on my plastic wheelside driveshafts and have yet to break one or twist one, and that's on 5S with 19/65 gearing wearing Pro-Line Trencher-X's. The plastic driveshafts aren't to be underestimated, they'll put up with a thrashing. I beat the utter crap out of this truck and it keeps coming back for more.

The only hingepins you really need to worry about are the front end, and with the forged aluminum bulkhead and RPM arms, you usually shear them off rather then bend them, so it's easy to just replace the pin, though I haven't wrecked a pin in three or four months, and that's using the stock Traxxas pins. I never could justify the heavy-duty titanium/etc pins.

Buy
Flm hybrid bulks with 1/8 diffs-bulletproof
Flm or ue towers With plastic body posts.
Ue super shocks 4 should be fine but buy another set for back up
Rpm Arms
Traxxas cvds and center steel driveshafts
Tekno revo knuckles
Flm chassis
buy another new emaxx bell crank[combine just the bell crank part(the one with the spring) it will get rid of a lot of slop in the knuckles]

If you can find
Hardcore racing skid plates

As for turnbuckles, I don't know

This will be a low budget pretty much bullet proof emaxx.

Or hinge pins buy some 1/8 ejector pins and cut and make your own, a lot cheaper and everyone who did the mod has yet to break one yet.

Here is a link

http://www.plastixs.com/ep01.html

Thanks so much feedback great and I have put togther an order pack. Tell me does anyone make a drop on Landrover Defeneder body for the Emaxx?

Yeah realistically the half shafts are pretty durable and cheap when they wear out. A-arms and shock towers first, these are some of the only parts I suggest changing BEFORE they break. If you break those there is a real possibility of bending a shock and that gets pricey. Starting point, rpm a arms and shock towers

I had thought also that stocker tires are pretty crappy, good area to upgrade as well