Pretend 5B

[Brushlessboy]

Hey guys and gals. The other day I bought the FG Monster Jeep, (pics up soon) and Jetpro V1 power pipe and wheelie bar, (which needed modifying because of the pipe) but it is so gorgeous I am afraid to bash it.
SO,, I went and bought a pretend Baja, the Kingmotor.
WHY?
Because the SS kit is 1 month away and I wanted something NOW, and although they had RTR Bajas for $1400 with the 23 CY, the Kingmotor with the 23 CY was only $750.
Since the parts are 95% interchangeable I decided with the money saved I would hop-up the KM with the proper stuff when she inevitably breaks.
3/4 through the first tank I broke the turnbuckle between the steering servo and the bellcrank, and 1 full tank in suddenly there was a metallic noise and she stopped dead in her tracks.
It turns out a mounting bolt for the magneto came loose and fell into the fan, sheering off half the teeth and jamming her solid. $40 big ones later and she was running again.
I have landed nose heavy about 20 times and it is still in one piece.
It certainly isn't up to the SS kit but I am very happy with the cheap thrills of the knock off, at least until I am ready to make the Jeep go hard.....

 

[CharliesTheMan]

I'm glad to hear you're having fun, bot sorry to hear about all those parts breaking. I haven't broken a part on my baja yet, and Pete and I have both abused the everliving snot out of it.

 

[Brushlessboy]

I'll tell you what Charlie. I HATED Bajas, and I can't say why, no reason really! But after work saturday some mates bought their bajas out to my sand pit and I ended up with 5 running around. Within 3 minutes 2 were broken, (clips on front suspension, 3 times) and a bit later on one broke the adjustable top arm on the rear end. I told him to get some solid ones, but I will admit they were doing stuff I wouldn't do with a nitro, and wouldnt dream of attempting with the FG. (its my baby)
I was REALLY impressed with their handling, and surviveability, and thats why I went to the hobby shop.
There's no doubt they DO break, but lets face it everything does, (except shelf pussies) and I am now a fan, no question.....

 

[GH Racing]

I do agree with you.. everything do break..
the most important thing is that you're having fun
and they do look identical
its hard to tell

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Yeah they do break. But after running trucks like the T-Maxx, Savage, stuff like that, you can understand my relief to find an RC that you can bash for months at a time without breaking parts. Now it can go either way, you can run it for 10 minutes and destroy more in parts than the RC is worth, or you can bash it for months and get lucky. But to see the abuse that this baja has taken, and to be as durable and reliable as it is, I would buy another one in a heartbeat if I was going to buy something to bash.

For the motor, just pick up one of those 29 CC head kits from DDM. I think they're like $80 or something like that, maybe a little more. It's been months since I've bought hop ups for the baja because I have a drawer slap full of parts but I haevn't found a need to put them on because I just can't seem to break anything. We have a guy here in town that runs a 30.5 CC fully ported and polished engine on race gas (jet fuel) and it's insane. The badlands do get better traction the the stop 5b tires if you use the same size wheels on the one you got, but the Hostile Hobbies are by far the best tire on the market, but I don't know if you can get them over there or not. I would think so since large scale seems to be so big over there.

 

[Brushlessboy]

Check out the FG...