Really hate soldering deans and was thinking about switching up to xt60 as long as they can handle the load. Any opinions on this? XT90 is also an option but not sure I want to deal with a connector of that size.

I use XT90 for Ebuggy. I don't find them big at all. They are much better suited to handle the load of 8th scale. I switched all my stuff to XT90 and love them.

Been running XT-60 connectors in my ebuggy for over a year without any issues.

Almost any new style of connector will be better than a Deans connector. I used XT-60's and 90's, and both are top quality connectors.

I run everything as EC5 and/or 5mm bullets now.

I've tried a bunch of different connectors and I use the xt90's in all of my 1/10 scale and larger, the rest get the tx-60's I have liked them the best so far.