Originally Posted by RockRunner

Ok...long post...

Like I mentioned I own a brushed Bomber and SCX10, brushless Yeti and Rock Rey.

I think that vid was with the 35T motor on 3S...the RTR rig like that isn't really 3S ready and things will likely burn out (BEC will get the ESC too hot, ESC will cook, motor probably etc). Some may say different though...

Basher/trailer, get the Rock Rey as it's BY FAR the most affordable and fast and tough straight out of the box.

The Axials are tough when run within certain limits but need work when running faster than designed. The Yeti is not built to handle 3S no matter what people say. It needs HD gears, all metal links, metal rack/c hubs/knuckles/rear lockouts, beefy VP style lower trailing arms and a good servo horn simply to be reliable and take 3S power. The stock Yeti ESC is frankly pretty hopeless and gets incredibly hot going slow but a Hobbywing SCT MAX10 120A non sensored ESC is cheap and awesome with it. The stock motor is excellent.

Add all that up and you have about $500-600AUD on top of a truck that costs $650AUD. If you bought the kit, you still need to add about $500 worth of extras (motor/servo/ESC/RX/TX etc) regardless to get it running. I bought second hand and got all the metal bits and I installed all new bearings (only about $25), the ESC, HD diff gears all round and it's going great. Lots of fun and the total cost was about what a kit or RTR alone would cost. It's been very reliable with all this stuff. I am very impressed with the Yeti.

The Bomber as a rock bouncer/crawler and on 3S brushed is awesome fun and very capable. Plenty fast for trailing and zooming around. Drifts great on loose stuff and after 6 months of use, not a single thing has gone wrong with it. It's got a $6 metal servo horn on it and is totally RTR apart from that and the ESC/motor. I haven't put metal links on it because then I'll need metal everything as a chain reaction occurs that breaks everything including the servo. I'll need a few hundred dollars ready to do that so I haven't bothered...it's not exactly a precision device with the plastic links etc atm. Think of the Bomber as about Yeti strength stock.

The Bomber is my favourite all round truck because it's like a little mountain goat. The brushed motor is a big bonus as if it burns out, it's cheap to replace. I figure I'll replace one every 6-9 months and couldn't care less if it gets wet which makes the truck even more fun. I want to do river crossings and crazy stuff with it.

The Bomber needs a 2sp for seriously slow speed crawling or an expensive sensored setup. I'll go 2sp personally as over 15mph the truck would be a total pig so I'm loath to make it faster and have it constantly crash and tear off lights and wreck stuff. It doesn't handle at all well even now.

The RR would be awesome with locked front and centre diffs, drag brake and sensored setup, billet third member/rear axle and front gearbox housing. It would crawl and trail great but all that could easily cost $600 extra. Wide pan would limit proper crawling (it would also be geared too high) but it would definite be a cool trail truck like this and be so much more capable...nice cross over truck.

Speeds:

3S brushed Bomber ~15mph
3S 3150kv Yeti ~28mph
2S 2800kv Rock Rey ~28mph
3S 2800kv Rock Rey ~40mph

The Rock Rey totally stock is just as good as the modified Yeti for bashing and is a far better jumper. It is just as fast on 2S (Yeti on 3S) and totally reliable unlike a stock Yeti. Plus it comes with a cool light bar which is great for night driving. On 3S is seriously fast but realistically too fast for trailing and rock racing. 3S use is like running a Yeti on 4S and realistically needs some beef up parts for reliability. You're also far more likely to break it running it at high speed into solid objects too as it'll be out of control on bumpy stuff at those speeds. 2S for the RR is kind of perfect and 5000 2S 60C Turnigy hard pack batteries are dirt cheap (prob $20USD) and are excellent lipos. It's a load of fun at a loose surface BMX track as is the Yeti (if you can keep the Yeti from donkey kicking and crashing over jumps anyway).

I went with all these trucks because they have solid axles. Love this stuff and it's WAY easier to work on. Love the scale stuff and have no interest in the non scale trucks like independent front/rear bashers like Traxxas and Arrma even though I know they are cool trucks and built tough for bashing. The Rock Rey is a pain to work on compared to the Axials but I've barely needed to touch it; just greasing diffs and installing a $6 centre gearbox locker.

I don't personally believe you can get crawling AND speed in the one truck without major dollars and huge compromises which is why I have rock racers and rock crawlers; my son and I trail/crawl together so we constantly can compare our trucks. Heat issues, drag brake, locked diffs, solid axles and crawler suspension make terrible high speed trucks and vice versa. A fast brushless SCT which great at a track, crawls and likely trails like a two legged dog dragging its belly and might easily overheat doing it.