Traxxas Rustler VXL Review (RC car)
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 10:04 pm
So, I've spent quite some time reading up on current RC cars/trucks/truggies and watching youtube footage of various models. I was always a fan of nitro, however never owned one. Those things are pricey and the maintenance on them sounds more like work than fun. Instead I got into the brushless electric models a little while but never upgraded or got too serious about it. I finally decided, since I enjoyed it so much before, why not get another one now?
During all my reading, I determined that Traxxas seems to be the leading name in this hobby. It just so happens, that HobbyTown USA in Middletown, stocks Traxxas cars/trucks and a ton of spare parts/upgrades. I narrowed my selection down to the Rustler, Slash and E-maxx (VXL models only). Unfortunately I had no access to sample any of these models, so I had to rely on youtube footage and asking questions in the comment sections of those videos. I tried to avoid videos with only one car in them because obviously the owner will be biased toward that one. My selection came down to the Rustler because I mostly play in parking lots and a minimal amount of time spent off-road. I like high speeds and stability.
Out of the box, the car felt great. Plenty of weight to it that it didn't feel like it was going to break easily on impacts. Of course the body-shell is thin and flimsy but those are expected to be broken and replaced some times. The stock battery charger sucks. It's an 8 hour wait time, so I spent money up front and bought a 1 hour charger while still in HobbyTown. During the 1 hour wait for my first charge, I used all the included tools to go over every nut and screw to make sure I wouldn't find out something is loose during a 45 mph run. It was nice to receive all those tools in the package by the way. Getting it run ready was literally a breeze and once I checked all the nuts/screws, I read the owners manual to see if there were important details to look out for. Most important was information about running LiPo batteries but that's not important right now. I got the NiMh battery with mine, which is stock configuration. Within an hour of plugging the battery up, I was out bashing in the parking lots. I've got about 10 or 12 runs under my belt and felt it was time for a review under 5 star standards.
Speed: 5 stars. It's freakishly fast and super punchy, even stock. I've owned nothing quite like this before. At nearly its max speed, if you nail it, the front tires still come off the ground. The wheelies are difficult to control. It's very easy to dump it over backwards if you're not careful. I even swapped out the factory pinion gear, for the optional higher gear ratio. Again, the speed is insane and wheelies still happen fairly easily. I'll try to upload footage of a speed pass I filmed earlier just to show off. With the optional pinion gear and an upgraded LiPo battery it is supposed to achieve 70 m.p.h and I've even found videos with passes as high as 145 m.p.h. with a multitude of upgrades. Obviously those upgrades would limit what kind of driving you can or can't do anymore. Not my cup of tea. I'll stick to nearly stock.
Stability: 4 stars. I only deducted because of the wheelies but it's partly my fault. In time I will master the power but it would be nice to punch it without flipping. It steers on pavement good and on dirt/short grass GREAT. I had trouble at first, flipping on pavement during turns. That was my fault as well. I had added the thickest included spring spacers to the front AND the back shock springs. Once I removed the ones up front, she started to do power slides and donuts with ease. Once in a while it gets traction and throws it into a summersault but not like at first.
Durability: 5 stars. Nothing to brag about, but so far I've flipped this thing more than the number of times that I've driven it. This would include backflips, wrecking during jumps, flipping during high speed turns, cartwheeling into a street sign pole, a mailbox, my sisters parked car, a curb...Every time it happened I was thinking $$$ just went bye-bye. Flip her back to right-side up and bash on. This thing is tough!
User Friendliness: 5 stars. Everything in this car that you can work on, is for the most part very easy to access. The included pinion gear that I swapped, took all of about 4 minutes, mostly time spent to pause a How To video on youtube. The controls are pretty standard. Trigger pulled is go, trigger pushed forward is reverse, steering is a wheel on the right side of your gun and there are steering trim setting knobs and such as well. I can look inside this thing and feel confident that I can work on it myself. It even has adjustable settings for beginners to get confident with it. This reduces the power to 50%
Price: 4 stars. It was $348 before tax and the cost of the 1 hour charger put me right at $400. That's a lot of dough for a "toy" per se but you're getting your money's worth in the package. It's a lot of fun and if I had the spare money again, I would purchase another Traxxas product without hesitation.
Will post video and pictures as soon as I can.
During all my reading, I determined that Traxxas seems to be the leading name in this hobby. It just so happens, that HobbyTown USA in Middletown, stocks Traxxas cars/trucks and a ton of spare parts/upgrades. I narrowed my selection down to the Rustler, Slash and E-maxx (VXL models only). Unfortunately I had no access to sample any of these models, so I had to rely on youtube footage and asking questions in the comment sections of those videos. I tried to avoid videos with only one car in them because obviously the owner will be biased toward that one. My selection came down to the Rustler because I mostly play in parking lots and a minimal amount of time spent off-road. I like high speeds and stability.
Out of the box, the car felt great. Plenty of weight to it that it didn't feel like it was going to break easily on impacts. Of course the body-shell is thin and flimsy but those are expected to be broken and replaced some times. The stock battery charger sucks. It's an 8 hour wait time, so I spent money up front and bought a 1 hour charger while still in HobbyTown. During the 1 hour wait for my first charge, I used all the included tools to go over every nut and screw to make sure I wouldn't find out something is loose during a 45 mph run. It was nice to receive all those tools in the package by the way. Getting it run ready was literally a breeze and once I checked all the nuts/screws, I read the owners manual to see if there were important details to look out for. Most important was information about running LiPo batteries but that's not important right now. I got the NiMh battery with mine, which is stock configuration. Within an hour of plugging the battery up, I was out bashing in the parking lots. I've got about 10 or 12 runs under my belt and felt it was time for a review under 5 star standards.
Speed: 5 stars. It's freakishly fast and super punchy, even stock. I've owned nothing quite like this before. At nearly its max speed, if you nail it, the front tires still come off the ground. The wheelies are difficult to control. It's very easy to dump it over backwards if you're not careful. I even swapped out the factory pinion gear, for the optional higher gear ratio. Again, the speed is insane and wheelies still happen fairly easily. I'll try to upload footage of a speed pass I filmed earlier just to show off. With the optional pinion gear and an upgraded LiPo battery it is supposed to achieve 70 m.p.h and I've even found videos with passes as high as 145 m.p.h. with a multitude of upgrades. Obviously those upgrades would limit what kind of driving you can or can't do anymore. Not my cup of tea. I'll stick to nearly stock.
Stability: 4 stars. I only deducted because of the wheelies but it's partly my fault. In time I will master the power but it would be nice to punch it without flipping. It steers on pavement good and on dirt/short grass GREAT. I had trouble at first, flipping on pavement during turns. That was my fault as well. I had added the thickest included spring spacers to the front AND the back shock springs. Once I removed the ones up front, she started to do power slides and donuts with ease. Once in a while it gets traction and throws it into a summersault but not like at first.
Durability: 5 stars. Nothing to brag about, but so far I've flipped this thing more than the number of times that I've driven it. This would include backflips, wrecking during jumps, flipping during high speed turns, cartwheeling into a street sign pole, a mailbox, my sisters parked car, a curb...Every time it happened I was thinking $$$ just went bye-bye. Flip her back to right-side up and bash on. This thing is tough!
User Friendliness: 5 stars. Everything in this car that you can work on, is for the most part very easy to access. The included pinion gear that I swapped, took all of about 4 minutes, mostly time spent to pause a How To video on youtube. The controls are pretty standard. Trigger pulled is go, trigger pushed forward is reverse, steering is a wheel on the right side of your gun and there are steering trim setting knobs and such as well. I can look inside this thing and feel confident that I can work on it myself. It even has adjustable settings for beginners to get confident with it. This reduces the power to 50%
Price: 4 stars. It was $348 before tax and the cost of the 1 hour charger put me right at $400. That's a lot of dough for a "toy" per se but you're getting your money's worth in the package. It's a lot of fun and if I had the spare money again, I would purchase another Traxxas product without hesitation.
Will post video and pictures as soon as I can.