So, whats wrong with the Hellfire?
 

I'm not going to race or anything, just to drive around in the back yard.

I would like pro's and cons, please. :) Thanks everyone.

IIRC (honestly forgot bout it), they had many bulkhead failures, or toe plates on the bulkhead. somethin to that affect. was down to fact that it was being all held together on chassis at 1 place by only 1 bolt. long time ago, lil fuzzy on that 1. it was a tick heavy then, but now with every1 in the truggy game and the conversions long gone, its real bloated in comparison.

R

if the parts availability is good in your area and that is what you want then go for it..

I know someone who had one, but sold it cause it was only a one speed, but he said he would have kept that instead if it was a two speed. He said he would have kept it over the savage.

i do not think that you will be dissapointed.. just make sure you have a good place to buy things that you will need

its hpi. alot of lhs dont carry hpi proucts and the what a hellfire is hpi. and plus

friends dont let friendds drive hellfires :nod:

:rolleyes:

Theres nothing wrong with them.

Why would you even bother to reply if you HAVE NO CLUE on what your talking about..Really..Honestly if your going to bad mouth a truggy you should at least have your facts straight before you say anything..and last you should really own one to critique it..because if you had one you would know that your statement of "being all held together on chassis at 1 place by only 1 bolt" is incorrect.
1..The Hellfire is not heavy..it's in the middle..
2..I was not aware of any "bulkhead" failures..care to elaborate on this..and the construction as far as bulkheads go is pretty standard stuff..
3..The Hellfire has gotten a "bad rap"..it did have some problems but they were all fixable. for bashing it's a great truggy..99% of the guys that talk shit about the Hellfire never owned one..typical Internet "experts"..:rolleyes:

for bashing they are good if you can get parts at your local hobby shop but i would rather get a savage for bashing just beause the fact that you can crawl rocks better because you get borade just driving fast on flat ground? just my .02

I like the truggy style more, but if I find a good savage, I'll defiantly think about getting it.

bump

I ran a hellfire for a season and I can tell you that for bashing it would be just fine. I also own several monster trucks and would recommend the savage for bashing over the hellfire. Parts and hop ups are much easier to get and you will like the extra ground clearance, two speed and reverse. Monster trucks are just more fun to bash in my opinion. One more thing, the savage is far less likely to break in me experence.

The hellfire is a great rig for bashing and club racing...I picked an RTR up in '05 for bashing duties...I have been an on-road racer up until I purchased the HF. I ran one season of club races at my local track with the RTR and some upgrades. Last season I picked up the HF SS kit on closeout from my LHS and raced it for a season as well. The HF is a bit heavier than other truggies, but the chassis is much stiffer as well. This forces the setup to be more accurate and is actually helpful for beginers as they are forced to learn how to set up a rig for a specific track condition. I recently purchasd a RC8T as my driving skills have developed beyond the HF's capabilities.

<Shameless Plug> I have my HF up for sale if anyone's interested.


http://www.rctech.net/forum/r-c-item...llfire-ss.html

Hello or perhaps Hey Now, before you go running out saying i can see a liar, lets start here...

i'm feeling a bit saucy tonight, well perhaps even a lil supersonic sittin here with my gin and tonic poetically enuff. so fitting as it be some1 called 'oasis' popping off on my big mouth before you knew what you were dealing with as well. d'you know what i mean ?

if we all can recall, the truck was delayed 3 times b/c of issues encountered by HPI. after its release, little by little it didnt take long to find the cracks, some might say ...

The flashpoint that exposed the biggest weakness in the hellfire, not to mention diff failures. the truck really aint got nothin for the new breed.

http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/s...&pp=25&page=16

starts on page 16, the 1st pics are on 17, the initial fixes for that problem are shown on 18 and on. the truggyracers problem threads were deleted in 2nd half of 2006 when they killed off the hellfire forum, they've brought it back, but much of that good old info is gone.

http://tema.pri.ee/rccar/IMG_6409.jpg here's a fix from late 2007.

dont worry its getting better man !

as reported from rcca jan 2007 "The broken CV axle and diff were flukes because I did not here of any such failures at the track or on the various RC forums, but broken suspension arms were common enough to make HPI design new ones and send them out to their customers who reported problems" enquote. the cv and diffs were not flukes, folks have tried all sorts of combos and even after adding more substantial stiffening braces, these failures still exist. i forgot bout the arm change they made. talk about service packs. still only helped exposed hinge pin issues that dont go away til folks tried other non-hpi pins and other mods.

forgot bout this too!!!! shock towers that bend...

http://www.truggyracers.com/forum/in...howtopic=17021

a nice link page to many fixes and improvements to your hellfire

http://www.truggyracers.com/forum/in...showtopic=4038

sorry, the nature of reality shows that there are many other trucks out there that are newer (not partially/totally discontinued) with more support and less design flaws that it. best of luck to all who run it indeed, they will surely soldier on, but i'm afraid this truck is going nowhere. cant sit here and say lets all make believe and ignore the writing on the wall.

hmmm i dig the 'expert' tag, think i might roll with it!!! somethin like this...

i hope, i think, i know . that and i put my money where my mouth is.

c'mon oasis, who feels love? c'mon go let it out. i'm sure i can make a hot bodies fan laugh and work in a shock of the lightning diss on truck but i'll bag it up as i'm outta time .

cant ya tell its new year's ;)

oasis, when the lights go down me and you go shoot em up!!! just hope the lord dont slow down me down ....even more in '09

best wishes

R

Funny..the bulkhead mod was something I never had to do because I never had a problem with it an most guys I know that ran a hellfire never had any problems. Most of your other links pertain to the RTR..the SS did not really have the problems that the RTR had..I can still WIN with mine..it's not my truggy of choice..but for bashing it's fine..all you proved is that you know how to use the search feature. You are corect about HPI and their lack of suport for the hellfire..but the real problem with the hellfire is it was to stiff..no:batman::batman: flex..so when people crashed the force had to go somewhere..the SS did address most of these areas..you can believe what you want to..I still have one so I know what's really needed.

I drove a Hellfire SS and liked it. I normally race a Mugen, but was not disappointed by the Hellfire. I thought it handled well, steering was good. It should be great if you're not racing. Even then, I'm sure you can still have some fun until you're ready for more serious racing. I did feel it was a little on the heavy side. The thing I disliked the most about it was that it appeared to take longer in taking it apart for maintenance/repairs.

+11111111111
i am so regret to buy one and the HF has no resale value and its a money pit..now i have a CRT much better....

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

I've been racing mine for 3 yrs. What bulkhead problems? I'm still using the same one that it came with. Hinge plates never had a problem with them either but they was upgrade to speedtech hinge plates. 9 lbs is heavy that what mine is I think the CRT was heavier. I even ran the same CVD's for all this time too. Look how many times the H9 was pushed back who else haven't pushed back there release of product. You seem to think since it was pushed back there was something wrong with it. Theres many things that can delay it you know it

Tell me what r/c vehicle that poeple don't upgrade including kyosho. The all r/c vehicles somewhat turn into money pits with no resale value.

Speaking of truggyracers.com you don't even know why it got deleted in the 1st place. It had nothing to do with lose of support or poeple.

Wow. I didn't make this topic so people would argue about how well it is or how bad it is and tell me not to buy one. I just wanted to know the pros and cons. >_>

One of my first cars was a used hellfire. The stock motor was blown when i got it and i had a good savage 28 so I ran it rather than rebuilding the stocker so my opinion of power could be a little different. I thought power with the Savage motor was good though.
The truck is really fun to drive, it was probably my favorite out of all the trucks I have had actually. Not as tall as a monster truck but handles much better IMO and can still tackle smaller obsticales easily (larger ones just need more speed lol). The stock steering servo should be replaced upon purchase, maybe it was just mine but i thought it was very weak. I kept my brakes biased to the rear so i could "slide" around coners rather than try to get all those large stock tires spinning. I came up from a RC10GT when i got this hellfire so my braking style could just be inherited from that. A roll cage woudnt be a bad idea, the enough tumbles and you will take out the stock body. I also used a Sportwerks HT pipe and header and that gave it alot more bottom end over the stock pipe (but i didnt have the stock motor).
I say if you like it, get it. If your going to use it anything like i used mine, just out-right enjoyment, I think it would be a great choice and company's like integy make all kinds of aluminum upgrades for them
Hope this helps
-Will

I'm getting 3 extra engines with mine. They are hpi .25, a cen matrix .28, losi mach 427, and a picco 0-1, idk what the picco 0-1 is though >_>

friends don't let friends drive hellfires. :lol:

Pros:

1: Heavily built which means for the most part it can take a real beating
2: it has a lot of aluminum so it can take a real beating
3: it comes with tires

Cons:

1: Its really heavy which means it isnt race worthy in comparison
2: parts are getting harder to find
3: it steers like a gumby dump truck
4: it isnt pretty to look at
5: you have to change all the electronics in it to make it reasonable to drive
6: its clumsy
7: it can accelerate hard but its a guess if it will hold a straight line

Basically when they developed the truck they did not have anything as a base so they tossed some stuff together to call it a truggy. On the other hand it is tough and if your looking for a good bashing truck then its great but if you have any other intentions i would seriously consider ANY other truggy.

4: it isnt pretty to look at


That's just an opinion. I like they way it looks. A lot actually. Hmm, going off what I've heard, it's not good for racing, but some people use it for racing and say it's good. I know someone who had one, and loved it, but traded it for a pool pump because it wasn't a 2speed. Hmm, I probably wont be racing it a lot though. Maybe at a local track or something, just to drive it around. Sounds like a good car for me. Thanks.

I'm still laughing at his cons sooo full of it

Lol. Idk I think I'd rather believe my uncle over the guys on here about the Hellfire.

the hellfire was my first truggy, I used to start racing, everything was good, finishing races and everything, and about 2 months later I was starting to get a lot of front/rear diff problems, all the time! but I believe there are some mods to fix that problem, I really enjoyed the hellfire though.

My question is.. why are you even bothering coming onto the forums and asking such a question when you have your thoughts on it anyways. I mean come on you would rather believe your uncle instead of the people on here? Why are you asking the people on here if you dont want thier opinions? Ask around your house in the backyards or in the baseball fields then if thats what you want or is this some kind of 4.5 minutes of fame for you to ask it?

And where was your opinion at? From what I was reading it wasn't one in the 1st place.

The mod is Hot Bodies Lightning diff and pinion gears.

Last time I checked, I could go ask questions here if I wanted too. Maybe I don't have my mind set on what kind of car I want to get. I also don't remember asking for opinions in the first place. I asked for Pros and Cons. I've read every one's post and only replied to a few of them. I'm not even sure why you're all bent out of shape, you never gave an opinion in the first place. Hell, just give me your personal opinion on the car then. I also only said "I'd rather believe my uncle instead" is because he has person experience with it. I'm not saying that you guys don't. So please, don't come lashing out at me because I asked what the pro's and con's are, and not their opinions on the car.


From this post forward, POST YOUR OPINIONS! Seems like that's what he wants.

OOOOHHH wait my bad. You did post your opinion. You said it was ugly to look at and I disagreed. That's why you're all bent out of shape. MY BAD for not thinking the same way as you bro. My bad.

A guy here in my town has a Ford Fairlane painted up to look exactly like a HellFire SS it looks cool but it is always sitting on the shoulder of the road in the same area with the hood up(broke down I guess).I saw him at McDonalds one day and asked him about his paint job. He said he used to build Hellfires and really liked them. I saw that he was wearing an HPI shirt so if you guys want to start bashing this man and his car go ahead.Sometimes it can be fun to poke people and laugh at them but if I were getting a truggy I would probably wait. the RC8T is cool,and if you get a good paint job on it (like the HellFire) you could probably fool people.

Paint a RC8t like a Hellfire?????? Why???? "We're all going to laugh at you. We're all going to laugh at you."

Seriously, why even think about old Hpi truggies when the Losi 8t is on sale at Amain for peanuts.

I said Fool people and I am the only one on here standing up for you. If you want to run one of these then thats fine, but when you need help with it ,or parts try asking .Instead of making fun of me, why don't you just laugh at me ,besides I am not the guy wanting one of these in case you didn't see the title of the thread... so take that you mean old ZERODEFECT, What do you run ????

Well ok then! I thought you were cool with the Hellfire because of your Lightning.

The lightning is ugly to.

:lol: funny stuff. :nod:

I have owned a Hellfire..... And I would not recommend getting one unless your getting it for dirt cheap, as in under $100.00 dirt cheap......Today you can buy a used Mugen MBX5T for $200.00, so unless the Hellfire is a pile cheaper its not worth buying.....

The Mugen is a all around better truck in every single aspect, its much more durable, it performs way better, its built with a much higher standard of quality, from metal quality to plastic quality.... I found the Hellfire to less durable then a Savage and I find a Mugen to be way more durable then a Savage..... If i was buying used today I would aim much higher then a Hellfire, IMO Hellfires are rather fragile when compared to the newer higher end machines like the Mugen.... for bashing a Mugen will give you everything you ask for and then some, the Hellfire on the other hand is going to give you lots of wrench time ! Unless the Hellfire is nearly free I would not touch it !

This guys video say other words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrE4-jHUNXQ


This is the only actual bashing I've found for the Mugen MBX5T.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTGvS...ext=1&index=22

Here is also a savage bashing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0iCW9VYqlU

Also, I'm not saying it's a bad truck.