Greetings from rainy Ulaanbaatar,

Having been recently bitten (rather HARD) by the Traxxas bug, I now find myself wanting a 4WD to add to my small fleet (Sla2h, Pede/Rustler hybrid). I had been looking at the Platinum Slash and the 4x4 Stampede VXL until...

Well, I started looking at the X-Maxx as a possible addition. Am I ready? Is it too early? Am I trying to fly before I learn to walk? Okay, a bit dramatic, but you get the point I think.

So, I ask you, is the Xmaxx really worth $900? I mean, I have looked at Tekno chassis kits that would go well over a grand, and that is for a 1:10, so I guess you could say the X-Maxx is a deal?

Please offer your opinion based on your experiences as owners of what imagine to be one of the coolest, most bad *** RC trucks of all time.

I LOVE the green one, by the way, and the Snap On editions are amazing as well!

Thanks,

MongolPete

I have owned several Traxxas RC's over the years. My favorites are the X-maxx, and E-revo. I currently have 2 X-maxx's and would buy it again if I had to. Its on version 2 now, and has made strides to fix things the Version 1 had wrong. Yes, it is expensive, but with a 1/5th scale electronics, metal geared servo, and a good radio, its pretty good stuff. The E-revo is a close 2nd in my book. Its a monster truck/truggy and can handle anything you throw at it, some people complain about the diffs, but I never had a failure. But then again I don't jump off buildings, or over houses.

A 1000 dollar tekno kit car is more durable than a 1000 dollar Xmaxx. The only category the Xmaxx wins at is size. The tekno or losi etc kit cars will be faster.... more durable... last longer... etc. Plus with a kit car you get to pick your own electronics. Which I like because I get to pick the motor and servo that would work best for my application... not whatever a manufacture provides.

I have yet to see a RTR car that is as durable as a 1/8 scale kit buggy.

Thank you hobbipro and Zinergy. I appreciate you guys trying to help me avoid making newbie mistakes.

I'm not saying you have to buy a kit car. There are plenty of RTR cars that work great.

My only point was just because a 1000 dollar xmaxx is bigger than 1000 dollar 1/8 scale buggy... doesn't necessarily mean it is a deal.

Thanks again Zinergy, understood. If you were after your 1st 4wd RC truck, and you wanted the best value for your money, which models would you look at?

That depends on a lot. On what batteries you have/plan to buy, what you are going to use it for etc.

For 400 bucks or less I think the TEN-MT is a great basher in 10th scale. 10th scale electronics means you can run 2s and 3s lipo batteries. If you want to run 1/8 scale electronics meaning 4s or 6s batteries and have a charger that can support that the Arrma Kraton is hard to beat for 500 bucks. And with coupons you can get them down to 450 or less in some cases.

You want bigger than a Kraton or 1/8th scale I have little knowledge as my biggest cars are 1/8th scale.

Thanks again, I have been looking at Arrma, and now I'm reading about the TeknoMT410 kit a bit. The thing is, I can likely get a really good deal on traxxas models. Oh well, the research goes on...

I have had fun with traxxas cars but when compared to others they are overpriced IMO. I mean 550 bucks for a top of the line slash 4x4? You can almost build a kit short course truck for that price and have something that is better in every way.

It's hard to compare to other because of size. I've got 1/8 buggy(Hpi Vorza), 1/7 ScorpionXXL and 1/5 Baja Flux. The X can run in places they can't because of its size.

Yes I've broken a ton of parts on the 6s. Most I know broke from what I was doing. Not a design flaw.

The Tekno is in a league of its own. Its a pure race kit, not designed to be a basher. I'm not saying you cant run it at the local skate park, but most racers are low C.G. machines meant for track use. You have to ask yourself what you want out of your R/C. I own both racers and bashers, Bashers such as Traxxas are designed around flexible plastics that will stand up to abuse over and over again. Just watch some videos of what people are doing with these things. Right now my 8s Xmaxx is my fastest R/C. Because of its size, its almost scary fast. I did say almost

Whether or not 1/8th scale kit cars are designed to be bashers is irrelevant. 1/8 scale buggy/truggy kit cars can still take more abuse than pretty much anything on the market.

This is the reason I built a basher buggy. I bought a losi 8ight e 3.0 roller used from this site. I bought a castle sensorless setup(as they didn't sell sensored motors at the time) a 80 dollar waterproof servo and for about 550 bucks had a RTR basher buggy. I have jumped it, raced it, crashed it, nose dived it on 25+ft jumps... the only thing I have ever broken was a spur gear, the battery tray(from a huge nose dive which resulted in the entire battery coming out) and stripped out a turnbuckle.

And if you want speed I can swap out the pinion and spur, put 6s in it and hit 100mph.

+1

Top notch race kits are also durable where it counts; the drivetrain. Racing puts way more stress on bearings and outdrives than bashing does.

I would buy a used tekno. If you can't find an mt410 just go for the eb48.3, they can go pretty cheap rtr (usually without a tx/rx.)

True.

I really don't understand this statement. Racing usually puts way more wear and tear on a vehicle than "normal" bashing. Yes I know some people like to launch on to concrete, with those few instances being the exception. These race vehicles HAVE to be durable in order to last. They have CNC machined aluminum chassis/shock towers/shocks/motor mount, CNC machined hardened steel differentials/driveshafts/outdrives, very thick plastic arms/suspension/gear boxes, chassis braces, and on and on. Most RTR vehicles do not have any of this, especially not Traxxas. Having a low center of gravity, why would you not want this? Do you want poor handling and a truck that flips over all the time? If you want more ground clearance, you just put huge monster truck tires on it, it's that simple. The level of engineering and design is so far apart they're just not comparible at all. Every single piece on the truck is beefy and is designed to be durable and is designed to be easy to work on. There's a reason why there's almost no aftermarket support for Teknos, it's because they don't need any. Pictures are one thing but if you were able to hold these two in your hands side by side, it's like night and day.

Tekno quality is 2nd to none