Traxxas Nitro Rustler RTR with TRX 2.5, Opinions

[TeamLosiNXT]

Hey, Getting back into the RC's after being out of it for quite some time. Was fixing my old TL NXT and my bros Traxxas TRX .15 from 99' and forgot how fun these trucks were. I went to my hobby store and the guy told me to check out the Traxxas Nitro Rustler RTR. Was reading about and was wondering if anyone has one and what do they think about it. I would like to get a TL truck as that was what I 1st had at 11 but they don’t seem to have 1 that goes as fast for the price. Let me know what yall think. Thanks Chris

 

[HeartBreak]

The rustler is okay, however, it can be a pain to work on. If the motor and electronics are fine in your LXT, I would just get something like the XXX-NT and transplant the gear. You can then sell the "leftovers" on ebay and make back a portion of the money you spent on the new kit.

 

[preludetospeed]

I have a nitro rustler and I like it alright but the only thing about it is mine is a little on the fragile side. It is really fast right up until I hit something , anything and then I am at my lhs . But my lhs has just about everything for it so that is good, just thought I would put my 2cents in.

 

[olds97_lss]

Are you planning on racing? If not, go with the rustler or better yet, go with the Jato. RPM has arms for both.

I just recently got a Jato and I've already hit a few things with it, done a few cartwheels... typical stupidity. It came with RPM arms and an RPM bumper. It has made it this far unscathed.

I started this hobby 7 years ago with a losi xxx-nt sport. Since I've only seen a race track once (indoor carpet...) I've never ran at a purpose built RC track. The XXX-nt is a very fragile truck. I busted more arms, axle carriers, pivot blocks and shock towers than I could count. I did have a chance to run it on a relatively smooth construction site for about a full summer before it got overgrown with weeds. It did really well there. It handled really nice and was pretty easy to work on. The only really sucky thing was that the gas tank was only replaceable by removing the entire top deck which was a fist full of screws into plastic. I broke quite a few fuel tanks as stupid me would rest my thumb on the tank to hold the truck down when starting.

Something that traxxas does (that I never really noticed) is that they use captured ball ends wherever possible. This in itself adds durability as half the time, if you have a non-captured ball end pop off, it allows whatever it was holding to move too far and break something.

I ran the xxx-nt for almost 3 years. I should own stock in losi for all the arms, towers, carriers, battery boxes and pivot blocks I bought. I had two full spare sets of all the above just to get through a decent weekend of general bashing.

The other cool thing about the jato is the two speed. I always wanted more power off the line and more top speed out of my xxx-nt. But, you had to give one to get the other with the single speed. The jato is perfect for me. Depending on what you want to do, it may work well for you as well.

Keep in mind, I've only run about 10-12 tanks through it, but it was used, so none of those were for break-in. The stock tires blow chunks for anything but pavement, but with some nice pro-lines on the front and rear, it's been a lot of fun.

For serious bashing though, I run the aftershock or revo... well, I run the aftershock (heavily mod'd of course).

I intend on taking the Jato to an indoor MX track. It has a lot of nice rhythm sections and some relatively small jumps here and there that should be fun.

Sorry... rambling...

 

[TeamLosiNXT]

I dont think that id be doing any racing. Just me and some friends. Most of these little trucks seem to be fragile. At least i got a F-350 with 36's for when I really go off-roading ha. But ill try to look and see what people tell me. Thanks