I am just about ready to jump into the R/C Hobbie with my 9 yr old son. He has played with many TOY R/C cars and he really wants to get an Evader BX. My 30 yr old neighbor has let him play with his new BX and says he is ready. I am thinking about getting an Evader ST for myself (because I can't just watch them!) I am aware of the opinions about Duramax vs. Traxxas and others, but I am not sure the extra expense is justified at this stage. I want to get the same basic types of vehicles so that I will become familar with the maintenance and repair needs.

What do you think? :confused:

ANY and All advice would be appreciated.

I don't know much about the specific vehicles you mention. But, it is a very good idea to get the same type if not brand and model of vehicle that you get for your son. It will be beneficial when it comes to maintenance and repair. Also, when he decides he can smoke you on the track you can compare apples to apples.:)

You will get what you pay for in most cases.

This is a great hobby to spend time with your son. Have fun!

And coming here to HobbyTalk will give you an invaluable resource for information.

first off, welcome to this intoxicating hobby. In past expirence, you might want to go with traxxas. It seems more durable, and parts are in abundence at every hobby shop I have ever been to (thats a lot). They have good customer service to. Im sure you and your son will enjoy it very much. Save youself some trouble and get a decent charger and batteries, it is worth it in the long run.

WELL ITS A DURATRAX EVADER NOT A DURAMAX DEISEL. JUST MY OPINION I HAVE OWNED AN EVADER NITRO VERSION AND LOVED IT, BACK THEN BEST TRUCK FOR THE MONEY. THE OTHER GREAT THING ABOUT THIS TRUCK IS THAT YOU CAN PUT A TON OF HOP UPS ON IT. I WILL WARN YOU ABOUT ONE THING SINCE YOU ARE NEW TO RC RACING BE PREPARED TO USE YOU CHECK BOOK BUT WORTH EVERY PENNIE HAVE NO REGRETS GOOD LUCK ANY QUESTIONS FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME WhoaD4u@aim.com

Welcome!! first off as a former evader owner, I will point out both the up and down sides. The evader is a very durable car/ Truck. my son and I both had one about 4 years ago , and they took us from bashing in the backyard to the track when he was ready.I dropped out of the racing world for about 4 years due to job circumstances, so the evader BX was my RE-entry car. The cars themselves are actually a copy of one of the first all composite racers, the losi XX.So the supension is very forgiving. One nice point about the duratrax cars is there is a guarantee against breakage on all the plastic components.So if you break them you can return the part and they will ship you anew one. When my son started off I found that this saved us a boat load of money in the long run.I found that if we broke a part I would order a replace ment to put back on the car, so when I sent the broken peice in to be replaced we could just put it in our pit box as a spare when we got the new one back. this way we always had spares.There are some up sides for you, now for the downsides. The first is the motor that comes in them, it is fairly fast but they seem to wear out quickly due to being cheap motors with poorly ballanced armatures in them, But when they go out dont get a new one of the photon motors , just spend the extra few bucks and get a good 27T stock motor for the car.It will last much longer than 2 of the photon motors will. The second bad point is the new version truck they just released,the evader EXT, STAY AWAY FROM IT!! it has a very fragile gear type differential in it where the the standard evaders come with a durable ball-type differentials. The EXT version also comes with cheap plastic bodied shocks that leak shock oil like sivs, where the standard versions come with alloy shocks that are of losi desighn and are actually really nice shocks.. the last down side is the RTR versions come with cheap plastic geared servos, that dont usually live to long in the hands of a beginner.associated makes a very affordable, tough as nails metal gear servo you can get for around 20.00(AE part# 1903MG). Convikt is right , while the cheapo charger and 1500 mah sport batteries will work for a little while, look at getting a decent charger and some ok sport packs. EPIC makes a 3000mah battery you can get for around 20.00 a battery. and heres the way it works the more MAH the more run time , so a 1500mah battery will runn for about 6-10 minutes, a 3000mah battery will runn for around 20 min. which actually equalls more bang for your buck. Hope that helped.

Thanks for the info, everyone.

420 Teck, the info regarding the EXT was exactly what I was looking for. :thumbsup: I was considering it, but have now certainly ruled that one out. The Duramax guarantee is one of my factors. I plan on getting some good 3800 NiMH batteries and a good digital peak charger. I have tried to do my research and I think I am aware of a few of the trade-offs. I am looking forward to having something new to do with my son while teaching some mechanical interest.

Any other Evader or Battery/Charger tips that I should know? :confused:

Joe

associated wheels will work on the evader,kimbrough 48pitch spur gears will work on them(NOT the ones for the B4)and I actually recomend them, because the tooth profile on the duratrax gears is kind of shallow,and just dont over tighten any screw threaded into the plastic,I recomend the buggies over the trucks because they will teach you more throttle control, if you get to the point where you want to go run on a track get some good tires, because the stock tires are vERY hard so they dont hook up very well on packed soil, but are awesome for loose dirt,if you have never re-bilt a ball diff before study the manual real well before you try it.also after a few runs there are spring roll pins in the universal joints that will try and wiggle their way loose,just make sure you check them and if you loose one you can get the roll pins in question at the hardware store for about .10 cents each.save your self some money and get some rechargeable AA's for the transmitters. remember these things WILL break, but they are easilly fixed , and teach the boy how to as you learn and life will be much easier on you in the long run and the boy will learn all sorts of skills. My 11 year old takes care of all the maintenance on his cars now, the only things I have to do for him are paint bodies, and solder wires. Speaking of which pick up a good soldering iron and teach yourself to solder if you dont already know how. Another point, the tamiya plugs on the spped control and battery will give you problems after while so when they do replace them with deans plugs. I think that about covers it. Just have fun above all.I f you get a chance go and watch a race day at yor local track. Your son will lovee it, and it will show him that these arent just play toys but very competitive machines that are capable of much more than most people think!!

one thing to remember about associated and losi rims for the evader st. either will bolt up but the associated rims are a wider offset and will make the truck illegal if you ever decide to race it.
losi rims have the same offset as the evader st rims and will keep it legal. just food for thought so you dont invest in a lot of rims and then decide to start racing.

Welcome to my first low injury hobby, :cool: .

I can only help you out with charger advice...even though you plan on using 3800's get a charger capable of charging LiPO batteries too, you'll go that route soon enough.

Personally I use the checkpoint TC1030, http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0095P?FVSEARCH=checkpoint it may look a little pricey but in this hobby you usually get what you pay for, and this charger will most likley outlast all your other start-up parts and pieces by years :thumbsup: .

Enjoy...

Wow, that charger is a bit more $$ than what I was looking at. Since my son is spending his own money that he has earned while mowing lawns and that he saved from Christmas, I was looking at something more affordable at this point, but still with a five year warranty.

Is there any special need or method to break-in a new NiMH battery when charging it for the for the first time? High amp vs. low amp?

Joe

you can get a used ice charger for under 100 bucks, They are having problems with the checkpoint failing when used to discharge batteries

i also say whatever you do to the boys car do to yours, theres nothing more fun than running two models that are the same, makes for good racing

Take a look at the MRC Superbrain 977 charger. It will charge two batteries at the same time. It does not matter if they are nihm, nicd, li-po, li-ion, or lead acid. You can charge, or discharge any combonation of them. but you can only discharge one battery at a time. It costs right around $100. It also comes with a power supply.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXLCJ6&P=ML

you can get a used ice charger for under 100 bucks, They are having problems with the checkpoint failing when used to discharge batteries

i also say whatever you do to the boys car do to yours, theres nothing more fun than running two models that are the same, makes for good racing

Hmmm, I didn't know about the discharge problems, but I stand by my statement a good charger will outlast all the other stuff except your radio...So get a good one, think of it this way $175 for 10 years of use is $17.50 per year :wave:

Well, we ordered our electric cars. :woohoo: My son got the Evader BX buggy and I ordered the Evader ST truck. We also got a Piranha Digital Peak charger and four 3800 batteries. Total cost $405

During my research, I also found that there is a shop with a track that is only 3 miles from our house. We were planning on checking that out yesterday but it rained almost all day.

I rehabilitated two toy RC trucks (I have two sons and they both had the same toy) and we practiced running them in the street yesterday between storms. My neighbor brought out his BX and we had a blast running all over the cul-de-sac.

We both can't wait to get our cars, but I need alot more practice with the toy model first! :p

Joe

Wow, I wish my local track was only 3 miles away!!!The closest track we have to race at is about 1/2hr away.BUT we do have a small dirt track in the back yard(40x70) but it is way more fun to go run with other people..Sounds like you bought gear that will be race worthy joe, good deal.You'll want to pick up a second charger soon though.Trust me. It makes it way nicer than having to wait on 2 batteries to charge when you can charge them both at once.

Great choices for your 1st equipment.
You will want to get a second charger.
Excellent choice is the Integy 16 X3 or 16X4. OR if you think you want Lipo compatibility in the future.. get a Duratrax ICE. Awesome charger

We received our cars on Friday, and in between rains, we have been racing around the Cul-de-sac all weekend. I have already blown out one servo gear in my ST (I hit a 2x4 at top speed) and chipped my front rim in the crash, also. I took the servo apart and rotated the gear around to some teeth that weren’t stripped to get back on the road. We also had to re-build the differential in my son’s BX as it started making noise on the second battery. I think we had a thrust ball jump out.

I am now well practiced at both the front end and back end repairs of our vehicles. We’re having lots of fun. Gonna need some new tires soon!

We're also still having fun with our old toy RC cars, too.

Joe

;) i also recently got a nitro evader st and im warning u not 2 use it in cold weather i got mine 4 x-mas and i really love rc so u know i couldnt wait 2 use it so i started useing it in the winter and i live indiana and during the winter its always cold and i use anyways but after about a couple weeks i started 2 notice gigantic increase in spedings on the truck and then i asked my local hobby shop why is this hapening 2 me and then he tells me that during cold wheather plastic parts get very fragile i bought the truck for 250 i almost doubled the amount in parts and accesarys but i u live somewhere where it is warm year round then good luck to u hope this helps in the future

Well this the third weekend and (weeknights) for our Evaders. We have been tearing up the cul-de-sac and made a dirt track at the local greenbelt.

Everything has been working well, the charger peaks the batteries in around 70 minutes each and we get almost 30 minutes of fast racing out of them. We both need replacment motor guards and he needs a front bumper. :freak:

Fun, Fun, Fun!

Well this the third weekend and (weeknights) for our Evaders. We have been tearing up the cul-de-sac and made a dirt track at the local greenbelt.

Everything has been working well, the charger peaks the batteries in around 70 minutes each and we get almost 30 minutes of fast racing out of them. We both need replacment motor guards and he needs a front bumper. :freak:

Fun, Fun, Fun!

That is great. That is what it is all about... FUN! FUN! FUN!