How can you determine the production date of evader? I just purchased a new evader of of ebay but would like to know if it is a new one or an old with the brittle parts problems. any feedback would be greatly appreciated. :)

Sky...

It will be interesting to see if anyone can tell us how to determine our Evaders birthday's. I don't know either and would like to.

The Evader ST has been a hot item so I would guess that if you just bought it, it is one of the newer ones. I got mine in Sept. of this year and it's fine.

Bill

I KNOW! I KNOW!!!!!!
You have a OLD evader if you dont have any ribbing on your chassis.(like mine :( )if you have a bulky upper front bulkhead brace you have the NEW evader.If you have the shinny slipper clutch you have the OLD evader (like mine)...This link will take you to a pic of the new chassis remember the cross ribbs on either side of the white battery (not my evader) New evader chassis (http://www.teamevader.com/images/Battery_Tray.JPG)

2nd Gear

I have the ribbed chassis but the thinner slipper. I thought the new slipper system was just now becoming available. Was there a slipper modification prior to this current one?

Bill

Dang double post I never done that b4 lol:hat:

I KNOW! I KNOW!!!!!!
You have a OLD evader if you dont have any ribbing on your chassis.(like mine :( )if you have a bulky upper front bulkhead brace you have the NEW evader.If you have the shinny slipper clutch you have the OLD evader (like mine)...This link will take you to a pic of the new chassis remember the cross ribbs on either side of the white battery (not my evader) New evader chassis (http://www.teamevader.com/images/Battery_Tray.JPG)

OLD Evader chassis (http://www.duratrax.com/cars/dtxd20b.html)

Originally posted by Bill
2nd Gear

I have the ribbed chassis but the thinner slipper. I thought the new slipper system was just now becoming available. Was there a slipper modification prior to this current one?

Bill

Do you have the "shinny" slipper.Natural looking aluminum?

Ty for the advice. After some investigating I found a rather small sticker on the box that read "20011030". Since I am a service technician for various things ;) to me this seems to be a date code. IE: Oct 30 2001 manufacture date. In your opinion would this consider a new evader or old? also y'all may want to take a close look at the box and see if you can find the date. Mine was on the back in the middle near the bottom .:)

In my opioniion that is a OLD one.Does it have the ribbing like in the links I posted ??If not then it is old.(Like mine :thumbsup: )

LOL I was just in the process of editing my previous post to say that mine is the older one as compared to your photos. Thank you again for the input. Since it is going on winter winter here in Virginia I thnk I will spend this time beefing up the chassis ann doing what I can to prevent some of the previously posted problems I have ssen concerning this older chassis. Thanks again for your help :D

2nd,

Yes, shinny alum. housing with white teflon slip ring. In other words, newer chassis older slipper, right?

Bill

wow, guess i got a new one, 2002 06 05 :)

Jon - figures the schmuck would do that to avoid anyone copying his circuit. I doubt he used anything that spectacular; he probably did it to keep others from seeing how easy it is to copy and make their own or even compete with him for sales :rolleyes:

22Racer - I definitely remember what you did with the gearing in your tranny. I'm pretty sure I have it all copied to a text file somewhere. I'm sorry that you received such poor reception from someone at Duratrax. I have a very good rapport with my contact there and will mention what you wrote. Have you checked into the diff gear for the B2 that's made by Hammad Ghuman? If I had access to proper machining equipment, I'd do the same thing as you did with the diff gear. I have to take my tranny apart within the next day or two for a possible diff rebuild and will be checking all gears out a lot more closely. If my diff gear is wearing/worn, I'd be interested in one of your modifieds if the price is decent.

CJ - the bad batch of parts were the first-run and I've been told that they pulled all the parts that were set to be replacements and destroyed them. My source is a super nice guy and I doubt that he'd lie to me about that, but it wouldn't be unbelievable if someone at Hobby Services stashed some of the old parts to save money.

Have you raced your Evader competitively? If so, what kind of reception have you received from other drivers for racing an Evader?

Bill - Thanks for clearing that up. Maybe it was on that other BBS heh I still wub you anyway :D

2ndGear - I see what you mean about the new versus the old chassis. I have one of each in bags and the new one definitely has a number of gussets on it. By "upper front bulkhead brace" I'm certain that you mean the top brace. The newer ones definitely are different. I have one each of those too, in both old a new styles. The newer top braces have wider "bars" (for lack of a better term) and a "X" pattern cross bracing. It also feels like it's made of a slightly better compound. The older ones break pretty easily, even by giving them a slight twist to check for flexibility. The newer one has a very slight flex to it, but is far more forgiving (ie, doesn't break when you do what I did to my other heh).

To help clarify about slipper clutches, the ones that appear to be shiny are plain aluminum. The new ones are hard anodised and have a dull appearance. And yes, the date code of manufacture is on the bottom of the box. Those made prior to this month should have the new slipper assembly as well as the newer chassis. I'm unsure as to when they changed the chassis design. My truck was made last year, but interestingly enough, the chassis on mine is still fully intact, so I have two spares hehehe

Jon - which chassis did yours come with? That may help us narrow down about when they made the change.

kitty, im not sure how many different types of chassis's were produced. mines has the anodized slipper and blue pad thingy. as for the leds i dont think the inside of the box is that complicated at all, i think its just a switch and some resistors or caps. nothing fancy but neither was the esc i traded for it :) it was pretty nicely put together tho, you can tell he's done a lot of these kits by the workmanship. lmk if you find any leds that can be used on a r/c car. it'd be great to save some money and pick some cheap ones up!

Originally posted by Bill
2nd,

Yes, shinny alum. housing with white teflon slip ring. In other words, newer chassis older slipper, right?

Bill











:thumbsup:

I've raced the Evader a couple of times. The first time was against nitro trucks, and it finished 3rd in the A main. The 2nd time was against electic trucks and I finished 3rd again, but it wasn't running well. The 2 that beat me were buggies with 11 and 12 turn triples, and the way it was running I didn't have a chance. There have been a couple of Associated's at the track when I went to practice. They kept telling me I should have gotten the AE until I started lapping them.

The problem is that the track closest to me is now running 10 min mains for the nitro cars, and I can't pit fast enough to do that. Almost no electric there. That's why I bought a nitro buggy, but I like the Evader better. Going to try to get to New Caney this weekend, because apparently that's where the serious electric is. I'm just learning, so I need to get some education from somebody that knows what they're doing. Going to try to go this weekend if I can work it around my daughter's softball tournament. Got a new Orion Core stock motor and I'm going to see how I can do in the Sportsman class.

Hi All:

I climbed up into the box storage black hole and found my Evader box. Discovered that my sticker date was 20020505. When I moved the box into the light I noticed that the sticker was stuck on another sticker so I move into better light and discovered that the one below said 20020410.

In other words, I don't think my truck was built twice I think it was ready to be shipped twice.

It's the new chassis, old slipper.

What ya all think?

Bill

so now we've narrowed it down to them changing the slipper between 2002 04, and 2002 06.

pne,

I went back to the slipper thread and found some clues for you. On 11-03-02 cjtamu posted that Duratrax had posted the change notice. 11-06-02 EvaderMaster said he was using one, but when asked on the 7th when he got his, all he said was that it was his second one. Haven't heard from him sence.

Bill

Kitty,

On the slipper problem thread I also found the Duratrax contact person. It's Ronbeck and his post was on 11-08-02.

Bill

FYI, I posted about the slipper on 11/03, but I'd actually found the info on the Duratrax website about a week before that, so at least end of October the info was up there.

I have been out of the hobby for 6 years now, when my wife bought me an Evader. I have a few questions.

1. what would you do to make it race ready? I know everyone is going to have their own opinion, but I'd like variety. Also include tires and wheels.


2. where do you get most of your parts online? My LHS doesn't have much of a selection. I shop at tower hobbies, but they don't sell losi.

3. when making race ready please tell me why you would choose that part.

I don't know to much about the speed controls or motors of now days, but I do know alittle about the radios and servos.

4. I have read that you should break in your motor with a 4 cell pack. I don't have one, what other ways can I do it, or can I make one?

5. I'm intending on building my own track, please give me tips on surface, type of soil, and layout.

Any thing else you can think of please put it in,

thanks in advance,

JR

Originally posted by Jester_yj

I have been out of the hobby for 6 years now, when my wife bought me an Evader. I have a few questions.

Welcome back to a great hobby!

1. what would you do to make it race ready? I know everyone is going to have their own opinion, but I'd like variety. Also include tires and wheels.

Check out the thread in this forum titled Jerrit's Evader ST FAQ for lots of info

2. where do you get most of your parts online? My LHS doesn't have much of a selection. I shop at tower hobbies, but they don't sell losi.

Evader Parts: Tower Hobbies, Losi Parts: eBay and Horizon Hobbies.

3. when making race ready please tell me why you would choose that part.

I don't know to much about the speed controls or motors of now days, but I do know alittle about the radios and servos.

4. I have read that you should break in your motor with a 4 cell pack. I don't have one, what other ways can I do it, or can I make one?

You can simply run motor connected to the car (no load) with the throttle at about 1/4 position (I tie it there with some string). Run it for a couple minutes, or until the brushes are fully seated.

5. I'm intending on building my own track, please give me tips on surface, type of soil, and layout.

Wow, big topic - there are lots of pics of tracks on-line, search at GOOGLE. Rules of thumb include; 12' wide straights, 8' wide turns, any soil will work, but avoid very hard packed dusty surfaces.

Any thing else you can think of please put it in,

Start with Jerrit's FAQ - most of it is there

Jep
Jep-R/C Products

Everyone -

I just posted an idea of how to reinforce the rear a-arm mounts in the "Jerrit's Evader FAQ" thread. I have heard a lot of people ripping these off when they catch a rear wheel at speed. Let me know if anyone tries it out.

Jep

Hey Jester,
as Jep said, welcome back.

he's right, check out Jerrits page for tons of great tips. one thing i didnt see Jep mention was wheels/tires. i'm still running the stock wheels but i went to Dirt Hawg tires in the back. they work great for bashing in the back yard on just about any surface but they dont grip on hard pan which is what my local track is. so for hard pan or hard pack surfaces i would recomend a bowtie type tire, for anything else off road i'd recomend the dirt hawgs.

Q

to break in the motor,

you can just run it at 1/4 throttle for a few mins with a fan on it like jep said. try to keep it cool, dont let it get hot to the touch. oil the bearings/bushings with a *tiny* drop of bushing oil. you can also give it a motor bath, which involves running it submerged under warm water for a minute or two. i tried this out with the photon after i got my speedgems and found it works very well. the water washes away all the grit and grime and you're left with a clean motor and seated brushes. plus it cant overheat. dont over throttle cuz there is the load of the arm turning the water. after breaking in, spray it out with motor spray, check the brushes are seated, and gently clean with a comm stick. then spray again. if you ran it underwater you can relube the bushings too.

A good way to brake in your motor/brushes is to use the black plastic 4 AA cell holder that comes with a lot of kits that use MSC's. Cut the plug off the two small wires, strip them back about 1/2", and direct wire to the motor. Use 4 cheap double A's and let them run until dead or until your brushes seat.

Alright, I've heard a lot about this, but I don't understand completely. What exactly does the term "seat the brushes" mean?

basically when you run your motor (with new brushes) with less current it allows the comm to shape the brushes to its curvature. your just shaping your brushes so theres more contact with the comm, which means more speed.

the comm acts like a grinder to grind away excess material so the brushes and the comm fit together better..

that make sense?
Q

appreciate the help, now what motors are better. I get that lower turn are faster, but are the doubles or triples better? and how?

What about speed controls, who makes a good one, and what makes it so good?

What should I look for in a replacement steering servo?

I read that I need to "put a little heat shrink on the u-joint covering the pins in the dogbone" where and what is that??

Thanks
JR

Jester,

ESCs, like motors, cars, or just about everything else in this hobby comes in many forms. The primary concern with your ESC is its ability to handle the motor required current. The lower the number of turns in the motor the more current the ESC needs to handle. If you plan to race then look for an ESC that is rated as unlimited or at least one capable of handeling the lowest number of turns in the motor you plan on running. I'm using the stock ESC that came with my ST and I'm running a 17T motor.

If you need to replace your servo go with a Hitec mg. If you keep your servo saver functioning properly you should not need to worry to much about it.

Dinner time, back soon.
Bill

Jester_yj,
motors: the lower the turns, the higher the rpm. the high the turns the more torque.lower winds give more torque and higher winds give more top end.

escs: novak makes good esc's. one of the best revserables out there is the super rooster.. its good because it can handle any motor, even two motors in certain configurations, and 10 cells.

heat shrink is optional but good for keeping the dirt out. im guessing it is where the universals joint is. which is where the shaft connects to the axel. right next to the wheel. (in the rear)

:)

so, if I wanted a 12 turn quint it would be for top end and hi rpm's, a 25 turn single would be for low end.

What kind of circunstances would I need either of the two?

And then I'd just need to match up the Esc to what motor I have.

:thumbsup: I really appreciate the info you guys provided. I will be milking your brains frequently as I love to play hard and upgrade to the best.

JR

Jester,

How your car gets set up (motor, ESC, tires, shocks, spur/pinion gearing, etc) will depend on your needs and goals. I've been driving an Evader ST for about 3 months now and have not made many mods to the car at all. I'm still learning to drive so high speed is not what I'm looking for at this time. Learning to handle the car, make sound set up changes to the suppension, learn the maintenance processes and so on.

I just installed a Speed Gem Pro 17T and it provides more power than I need at this time. I got it, amoung other reasons, because my ESC can handle it. But, with pinion gear tooth changes, I can make it faster or with more torque depending on my planned driving needs for that day.

Track conditions will be a big influence. Jumps? Soil type? How long of a straight away and will you have room to get the car up to speed?

Lots to think about.
Bill

Morning Yaw'll

hey jester, what Bill and pne said is right. you have a lot to plan for that will determine how you set up your truck. i immediately went down to a 17T Jaguar motor (great motor for the $$) because i knew my stock Sprint ESC could handle that low. it was a huge difference and like Bill said, its probably more than i need right now. luckily i drive mostly in wide open areas.

stay with the stock ESC for now. if i were you i'd drop in a 17T when you think your ready to go faster and try out different size pinions gears. go up one or down one to see if you notice any differences. smaller pinions will give you more torque, more teeth will give you a higher top end.

when your ready to go even faster i would recomend buying a Super Rooster unlimited ESC and pick up a lower wind motor. by then you'll have an idea of what you want but pay attention to gearing.

Bill also mentioned the Hitec mg servo. mg = medal gears. this is what i'm running and i noticed that it has more torque than the stock one and the medal gears prevent me from stripping them. if you strip the gears in the stock servo your looking at $5 to replace them. A Hitec MG servo will run you around $40-50.

since your building your own track your not bound to setting your truck up for anyone elses. personally i like long straigtaways, so theres plenty of time to line up for jumps and turns. keep your lanes and jumps wide, even if you plan on being the only truck on the track most of the time.

anymore questions:thumbsup:

Q

Q, well said.

Thanks Bill.

Ronbeck,

thanks for showing your 911 porche body back so many pages ago. i took that idea and finished up a Subaru Legacy Rally body for my Evader. if i can figure out the body mounts tonight i'll shoot some pictures of it for tomorrow.

was going to click some new pics of the porsche. but have been sick so i haven't rebuilt my street shocks yet.:dude:

what did you use for street shocks?

i neeed street wheels and tires for my the subaru setup. or even something like a set of bowties all the way around on some nice rims would look pretty sweet.

can anyone tell me a good on and off road tire? more a rally type that does well on all surfaces..

i have Dirthawgs on the rear and stock evader tires on the front. they work great off road but not so great at the track or on street.

are my on road shocks, and i run premounted losi street tires. not sure the type.

I would say these will be your best bet if Dirt hawgs arent doing it for you.But keep in mind nothing that works good on the "street" wont do good at the track.And if you run boe ties on the street they wont last long.Anything with a spike for that matter.

Here they are Dirt works


http://www.pro-lineracing.com/proline/tires/1072/1072.jpg

I bought a set of Losi XXT or XXXT shocks w/ pink springs on Evilbay. Bob T or anyone else running similar have suggestions on shock oil wt for this setup?

Agree with Bill, p.n.e and Q on the esc's and motors. Things to remember: 1) If you're going racing, most tracks require either a forward only ESC or a reversible ESC that can lockout the reverse; 2) The hotter the motor the better your battery needs to be; 3) Motors with multiple winds will take longer to spool up, so if you were running on the short tracks around here you probably wouldn't see the top speed. Even the experts I've seen around here are running 11 and 12 turn doubles on the short tracks. If you want to go racing, start with a stock motor and work up from there.

BTW, there is a great motor and battery FAQ on the Team Orion website with more info than you could ever remember.

whoa.. when i looked at the image the first time it was a Dirt Hawg on a yellow losi type rim.. then when i clicked "post reply" it now showes a different tire mounted on a chrome rim. WIERD. the Dirt Hawgs wont hook up on my local track. its too packed. theres actually black marks on the dirt where people have left rubber down.. which also hurts when you dont land right..

this looks like a solid tread pattern. i'll see if my lhs has a set. i might just buy a new set of rims for easy swapping.


Thanks Peter, i'll look into those.

Q, did you get your leds working yet?

Q- ProLine bowties are the way to go on hardpack. Most of the tracks around here are hardpack with a little sand on top, and it's about all anybody runs.

Speaking of which, I just mounted a new set of tires on Losi rims, front and back. With the stock Evader front rims I can tighten the nut until it's just tight and they roll great. With the Losi front rims I had to back it off quite a bit to get them to spin freely, and there's a little bit of wheel slop I don't like. Tried it both with and without the washer and it didn't seem to make a lot of difference. Anybody else noticed this?

Diff problems
Please help!
Our Evader diff started making a heavy grinding after running in dirt and rocks this weekend. I purchased a rebuild kit and replaced the thrust bearing only. The thrust bearing housing was cracked, reason it was replaced. When I reassembled, it still feels like its grinding, not very smooth when you counter-turn the outdrives. Is this normal or do I need to replace something else?

Jon - I'm sure his circuit includes resistors and caps, but I'm interested in seeing exactly how he set his circuit up. I know he's using a LM317 voltage regulator and wanted to compare his design with what I have so far. Plus, I do not yet know how the Rooster's brake light wires work. Good to know that you got one of the newer Evaders with the better slipper assembly. I'm jealous =)

CJ - congrats on putting the "you should have bought an AE" guys in their place :D Which nitro buggy did you buy?

Jester_yj - glad to see someone getting back into the hobby after being away from it for a while. You asked where others get their parts online. I get all of my Evader parts through Tower Hobbies. No LHS here sells anything Duratrax. You mentioned that Tower doesn't sell Losi; they do sell a few items for older Losi models, but I think it's Horizon Hobbies that is the distributor for Losi, which would explain the lack of newer Losi stuff at Tower.

About breaking in motors... I don't have a 4-cell pack at this time either, but after reading a number of posts on other threads regarding breaking in motors, I've learned that you can do it with the motor installed on your vehicle and hold the throttle at a low speed for a few minutes. I broke in a new set of brushes in one motor and a new motor last night by setting the throttle trim on my transmitter to power up the motor at low RPMs and it worked just fine. Both motors only needed a very light cleaning of the comms afterwards. I've also read many opinions that unless you are racing a more expensive motor, there isn't much sense in breaking in the brushes. I did it that way when I first bought my Evader because I was planning on buying a better motor anyway. It only took a few minutes for the brushes to break in and I noticed the difference in speed as they became better seated.

Tires. Dirt Hawg IIs are good for basic bashing surfaces, but as I found out yesterday, playing on a loose surface such as red dirt/gravel is like trying to race on wet concrete hehehe ESCs. I'm partial to Novak products, but I've only had experience with theirs and stock ESCs. Steering servos. A lot of guys are using metal-gear servos but I have had only a few minor problems with the stock one. I swapped to a used servo out of an E-Maxx recently and there is a noticeable difference in its strength and speed. I took my stock servo apart and it shows no wear on the gears at all. I feel that any servo that's stronger and faster than the stocker is suitable.

The dog bone is the part of the axle that fits inside the transmission outdrive. I think some were referring to putting heat shrink on the u-joint part of the axle.

Bill - running a 17T with the stock ESC? You do like to live on the edge, don't you? ;) But then you're the one who put a brushless motor in an Evader that cost more than the original RTR did <hides under the table>

Q - It's "y'all" not "yaw'll." Dern yankee! hehe

CJ - I too noticed that when I mounted some street tires on a set of RPM rims made for the XXT. I tried various nut adjustments to obtain maximum rotation without the wobble, but couldn't quite get it. I tried replacing the retaining washer with a flat one; same thing. The only fix I can think of would be to use a short bushing as a spacer on the axle to keep the nut from gripping both the inner and outer races of the bearing at the same time. That's what I'm thinking is keeping us from tightening the lock nut down all the way.

Good Morning All:

Speaking of the brushless Evader, after at least 20 "very hard" runs the trans. started to make noise. A pop here, a grind there, and then lots of bad noises and no forward movement.

After taking the trans out and apart we discovered that Mark (Kitty the guy who put the brushless in his ST) had rounded about 1/3 of the teeth on his diff gear. The point here is he has the older trans, just took moderate care of it, and drove it very hard and still got alot of running time out of it. Remember his goal was to see how weak it was. With proper care and better adjustment he may have been able to keep it running indefinitly.

Now that he is into rebuilding the trans I think he will change his driving style to more of a conservative style.:rolleyes: