yeh the ball studs are not cheap. but you only have to get 4 for the rear end. but the associated ball studs break just as the losi ones do. im told that when the truck lands just wrong off a jump the rear end is put under a lot of load. ive broken 4 stock ball studs (2 losi and 2 associated) bent 2 titanium turnbuckles and ive even broken a rear hub. ive only had my xxxt for a few months, and when it happend i didnt crash into a pipe, wall or other truck. it was landing off a set of tripples or doubles just off camber or a little sideways. if you realy want to you can get alluminum rear hubs titanium ball studs and alluminum arm mounts to realy take care breakage.