It wasn't that deep, I just blasted through it.. how can I know if the reciever or esc is damaged??

Hello all,

I've been out of the hobby for quite some time(early 80's). I have read all 15 pages dealing with the duratrax evader and took a chance and purchased one off an auction site 3/23/02. My question is When did they make the corrections to their plastic compound? By purchasing it on this date will I have problems of parts breaking with little force? I'm hoping not but for the price of $175.00 including shipping and handling, insurance, and a free battery I couldn't pass it up.

Here's a picture of our Evader, it has all titanium hinge pins, titanium front axles, aluminum rear chassis plate, and a unbrakeable bulkhead made out of solid nylon. All custom made by myself. It also has a Novak c2, p2k2, or a old p2k2 with a chameleon arm in it, a Losi Fury body, we're new to rc so it's our first body we painted.

Tested my Evader today no problems, whatever it was, it's gone, was running great until I had full throttle frontal collision, broke bulkhead, front shock tower, and both front shocks... now in pits...

RemainObsolete, If any of the plastic parts break, DuraTrax will replace them for free.

Hmm ive read 3/4 of this and cant make up my mind on what to tell my parents to get my brother for his birthday. Do these late model evaders come with the new hydrated parts or are they still breaknig like crazy :rolleyes: , if they still are junk , what should I get that is tough , but also competitive. My freind says get the rustler , but I want someones opinion who has gotten a late model evader and post ther eexperience with it , I dont think my parents want o go over $200 ether. Thanks! :thumbsup:

I ordered mine off an auction site(ebay) for 174.99 including shipping+handling,insurance and a free battery. I asked the seller about the hydrated parts and he had said that the truck will come with without any of the defects. I guess it's just a matter of trust. I don't personally know this person.

Is see they are out of stock at Tower and my guess is the new kits coming in will have the proper parts in them.

Very kind of Duratrax to replace broken parts, however let's keep in mind they are " factory defect " parts!

My question is who is going to replace the time and effort I have put in to rebuilding this truck time and time again. Who is going to replace the money that I wasted driving to the track, paying race fees just to watch a " factory defect " break time and time again?

Who here has ever had a factory recall on a passenger car? Take it to the dealership, they fix the problem. Do they ship you the parts and tell you to fix it? NO... I had a hair dryer that was recalled, send it back they send you a new one. When the microwave oven was recalled because it was going to burn my house down, I bought a new one sent them the reciept they sent me money then sent a repairman to my house to repair the defective microwave. Service, standing behind " factory defects"

All Duratrax is doing is sending out parts to replace the " factory defect". We are doing all of the work for them, what are we getting in return????????/

N O T H I N G

Thanks Duratrax, I truly enjoy rebuilding a RTR truck for you at no charge, what else can I do for you today?

Hello all,

It's been quite some time since I have been in the hobby(80's)and even though I'm not that old I seem to have forgotten quite a bit. I have just purchased a new truck(evader). My question is about the motors. From what I remember I used to just see how many rpm's the motor had(more rpm's=faster motor)and maybe change the pinion gear. All I see now is 13,19,20 turns and so on. Can someone tell me how this is used to determine the motors speed? and what brand of motors are quality motors? ? Thanks.



I know this doesnt pertain to the duratrax evader but I wasn't getting any replies in my other thread.

Generally, lower "turns" means more power and RPM. You can detailed motor info in the Ask Big Jim discussion or read the Motor Black Book at http://teamrcv.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=listarticles&secid=3

Thank you Hankster

TL xx wannabee,
My son has had a Rustler for a over a year and a half. In dec. we bought a Evader for our two boys (and me). The Rustler is solid chassis wise but I bet we have more $ in it than the Evader with out as many hop ups. Rustlers have there weak spots also, If you buy bearings the wheel ones are to small and come apart and a few other things.the Evader is much faster. Not to say we haven't broke any parts on the Evader, my last count about 12. It can be frustrating but last time we went to practice off road my sons friend (losi mf)broke a front a-arm and a caster block we didn't break anything. I think my next truck will be a losi just because the local track doesn't carry duratrax parts.

how do I figuere out the gear ratio, I've checked some info on the Evader, and it's supposed to be 4.88:1, that's just de #of teeth from the spur divided by the # teeth of the pinion gear, aren't you supposed to multiply this by the value of the reduction of the transmission??

Robb,
Sure it sucks to lose a day at the track because of busted parts but who hasn't busted parts on every truck they own? Duratrax offers the return on all of their plastic stuff, not just the "factory defect" stuff. They offered it before they knew they had a problem. Yes, you spend way too much time on it. So, buy a different truck.:rolleyes:
it would be nice if nobody ever had manufacturing problems but that is life. Would you prefer to have to send the whole truck out and wait a couple weeks for it to come back. And don't you feel better knowing that you put the stuff back together? How many times have you come back from a car dealership with more troubles than you had when you went there?
Peace. Chris

I think Duratrax did the responsible thing in the end by admitting there was a problem, and doing the best they could to resolve it and keep the customers happy. A lot of companies don't do that.

Chris, I would rather wait a couple of weeks to get what I paid for. 3 trips to the the track and the same result 3 times DNF due to brittle " factory defect " parts. I own many RC vehicles and I have never had problems like this. Sure parts break, it is part of the hobby and I have no problem with that. My problem with Duratrax is they did not give me the option to return my truck and have it replaced with the parts that they advertised. I have sunk too much time and money in this truck to be happy and feel good about spending my time fixing it every weekend. As far as buying another truck....If I plan on racing I will have to buy another truck for my Evader is not durable enough to handle racing. I'll keep it as a back yard basher. I just want people to know that this is not a great first time truck due to the never ending parts breakage.

I can certainly understand that point of view. I wonder though whether, at least initially, Duratrax even understood what the problem was. I know lots of people got the bad replacement parts and just kept going through the same thing over and over. AND they had horrible turn-around times.

I am real new to this game and seriously considered getting an Evader as my first truck but was scared away by just this problem, Hankster convinced me that for my needs (backyard basher initially) that a Traxxas truck would be sturdier and easier to fix. It is only now, after seeing many more posts that imply the problem has been fixed that I am considering get an Evader. It is bad enough to bust it up and have the games end when you are at home. I can only imagine your frustration and anger at the loss of time and money by having it die at the track. At the same time though, aren't more people having good race results and not breaking things with the new stuff?

Best of luck. Chris

Dang, I just posted, but I think I sent it to the wrong thread. I just got my Evader, and I took it to the track to practice this weekend. I'm a new driver and there was a big nitro race across town, so I went to the other track to practice without the big crowds. The lap times I ran would have been very competitive with what I saw last weekend, so I'm going to race it and see how it does in the next week or two. No breakage problems, and it had run-ins with monster trucks and several 1/8 scale buggies. I also let my son drive it, and he ran full speed into the wall at the end of the straight. I noticed what Hank did, that it wanted to nose off the jumps, so I moved 2/3 of the foam damper in front of the battery. It jumped perfectly after, and was very quick through both sets of triples. I noticed 2 things 1) the ball assemblies for the camber links were working loose (where they're threaded into the A-arm, I guess it's called), and I had to tighten them frequently. Anything I can do to stop this? 2) The diff sounds terrible (the grating sound mentioned by others). Any way to seal the diff better so I don't have to rebuild as often? I ran about 10 packs through it, and these were the only problems I noticed.

Hi I think the Evader is a great truck, I really don't know about the breakage problems with other trucks, at least you have a warranty, and if anything goes wrong you will have your parts replaced, and with a pretty good turn around time( aprox. 1 week in my case), and they're customer support has been good too, fast response in everything, they even replaced the bottom plastic part from the front shocks that I broke, and these parts aren't listed as warranty protected....

im wondering that too ag. how bout you get one before me , and tell me how it goes :devil:

If you read my post on the previous page, you'll see my Evader has been pretty durable. I've run the crap out of it for about 2 weeks, and no breakage problems so far (knock on wood). It was even stepped on this weekend by a couple of Clydesdales who weren't paying attention when they ran across the track to upright their trucks. Whatever the problem was, they seem to have fixed it.

i brought my evader to the track and had 2 things break, i had a 17 turn in it and went off a double and hit a metal pole(indoor track) it did about 3 spins but everything was fine there is a tripple(very big),i have seen some t3's snap chassis on it and i landed on the back at the last jump and it caused me to do a few flips and when i landed it wouldnt go anywhere, i head this grinding noise and i was like oh ****. i ran and picked it up by the backplate(i think thats what its called) and the motor guard fell off cause the "backplate" broke thats what caused the motor to move stripping the spur and also on that jump after i fixed the "backplate" with ca glue:D i landed upside down breaking the front body mount, it cartainly wasnt a flaw in the plastic cause ive seed losis break on that one

have fun with all your evaders:thumbsup:

I know that Duratrax will replace any of the plastic parts that break on the truck, but what about other parts? My LHS doesn't carry Duratrax at all. (well, they had an Evader for $399...). It is a Hobbytown and they basically carry what they are told to carry I think. I know Tower carries a ton of parts for practically all the cars/trucks they sell but the Evader is noticably absent from their parts page. Any other sites I can check?
Thanx! Chris

Tower carries every part of the Evader. Do a search on EVST to find them.

Thanks Hank!
I just got the latest Speedmart from Tower and for the first time they had the listing of the parts and had noted the absence of the Evader. Glad they have the stuff. Guess I have no more excuses for not owning one of these beasts!;)
Chris

Hi,can anyone recommend motor brushes for the evader, or I'm a better off with the stock ones, I've ran about 15-20 packs, is it normal to have to replace the brushes after that?? thanks for the help...

That is about right for brush replacement, maybe should have gotten a few more runs out of them but that's not bad. If you clean the motor and comm often the brushes last longer.

Use the same brush or even better are Reedy 729 Quasar brush.

I'm pretty new to R/C, so I hope someone can help me out. I cleaned the motor on my Evader and re-built the diff. It took a couple of tries to get the gear mesh set to what I think is proper (too loose the 1st time and it squealed, too tight the 2nd and the motor would shut off after a few seconds). The motor seems to be running a little hotter than before I cleaned and re-installed. Is it possible the gear mesh is still a little too tight? The temperature here has gone up about 15 degrees since I ran it last weekend, so could that be part of it? Thanks to anyone who can help.

Are you sure the diff is tight enough? Try the old paper trick for gear mesh. Place some notebook paper between the gears and start to tighten pull on paper if it rips you have your mesh to tight.

Yeah, I did the paper trick with the gear mesh. The paper pulls out fine, but it's tight enough that I don't get the ugly grinding noise when I decelerate that I got when I tried it the 1st time. I think I have the diff adjusted properly. I followed the instructions and snugged it down, then backed off 1/8 turn. If it's too loose, will it cause the motor to run hot?

You will be back at your lhs buying a diff rebuild kit. To loose and you will damage the diff. I have found that launching my vehicle from a high traction surface such as carpet helps. I continue to tighten the diff little by little until no noise is heard from diff. I you tighten your slipper up you will have enough traction to pull wheelies. I don't recomend that for anything but diff adjustment :thumbsup:

I roll mine across the carpet and then nail the gas to see if there is any noise. I keep adjusting till there is little or no noise.

The esc can handle 16 turn motors or more. I've got a 17 turn speed gem 2 in mine and it works great.

Are you running the Sprint ESC? I thought they could handle 20-27 turn motors.

Yes, I am using the sprint esc;. I emailed carsupport@duratrax.com and they said it could handle 16 turns or higher. At my lhs the guy said it could take only 20. That was the second time I had heard that, so I decided to stick with a 20. It's just my luck that they were out. I got 17 turn motor and I haven't fried my esc.
You should try Trinity's P-94 big brush conversion kit(about 12 bucks). A magazine put one of those on a speed gem 9 turn double wind. The power was increased by 16%, a well as torque and efficiency.

FYI, Duratrax gave me the same info when I e-mailed them (16 turn motor is OK). How much difference are you seeing with the 17 turn motor as opposed to the stock? There are 2 tracks here in the Houston area. One is tight enough that I can run great with the stock motor. The other is longer and has a huge honking triple, and I need more speed and power there. Most of the guys are running 11 or 12 turn double winds at that track. I'm thinking maybe I just need to replace the Sprint with an ESC w/ no motor limit. Has anybody swapped the stock connectors yet for a set of Dean's or something similar to see how much difference that makes? As far as the big brush conversion kit, won't that create a lot more comm wear?

So its safe to get the evader now? all the new parts got the hydrating process , and everyone is a happy camper?

I am fairly sure (95%) that all new kits have the proper parts.

Broke my 2nd chassis, my fault. Called Duratrax and they have priority mailed it. I should have it before the weekend. I have been very happy with my truck and customer service. :thumbsup:

In response to cjtamu's question about the big brush conversion kit, The article that I read about it in said that the comm had less wear because of the reduced pressure per square inch, or in this case, square millimeter. Check out www.rccaraction.com, go to articles, and select the one about the p-94.

Can anyone tell me why my evader makes so much noise when I accelerate forward? I adjusted the diff. according to the directions(snug it up and back it off an 1/8th of a turn). It seems to be slipping quite a bit. Also when I hold the car up off the ground and hit the gas the left tire will stop before the right(almost like it's a brake) Thanks alot:eek:

I had the same problem one time when I was adjsting the diff. I just tightened it all the way and didn't back it off, and it works fine.

I tried that also but no luck. When I turn the left tire the right will spin in the opposite direction BUT when I spin the right tire the left tire doesn't turn.

Sounds like something is wrong. You'll have to disammeble and see what is different from the right to the left. Could be a number of things. Some things to look for is the left rim is tightened too tight on axle, bad bearing or a bent part.

This is my Evader, most of it is stock, except for rims and tires as you can see... it's my first rc, great hobby!!!!
http://teamrcv.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=My_eGallery&file=index&do=showpic&pid=605&orderby=dateD

Y'all are a couple of geniuses. You were right on about the diff being too loose. Being new to R/C, I guess I didn't know what a loose diff sounded like (I do now). Motor is staying much cooler. My definition of "tighten until it's just snug" must be a whole lot different than Duratrax's. Thanks for the help.

Looks GOOD! Ought to run good on pavement with those tires.

I have to say I personally am very disapointed with the Duratrax Evader. It seems every time I take my truck out something breaks and I have yet to take it off road racing or do any serious bashing with it(I'd be affraid of what would happen if I did).
I have now broken at least 14 parts(probably more) some more then once in the 4 months I have owned the truck.

BROKEN PARTS (I'm sure i'm leaving some out)

Front Bulk Head - 2
Front Hub Carrier - 3
Front Bumper - 2
Front Brace - 1
Font Body Mount - 1
Front Knuckle Arm - 1
Shock Tower Front - 2
Front Suspension Arm - 1

And most recently the Rear Chassis Plate broke right where the Rear Suspension Arm attaches. It has gotten to the point where I don't even want to take the truck out anymore, and when I do, if I hit anything or even if another truck runs into me the first thing that goes through my mind is "I wonder what broke this time". I mean I can understand to a certain extent that if I was bashing this thing and being really rough on it that things are bound to break, but I'm not doing that. I know people that do some pretty crazy things with their trucks and have been doing it for along time and they haven't had half the problems I'm having with the Evader. In the 4 months that I've had the truck I've only been able to get through 1 day( that's 2 battery packs) of racing without something breaking...that's pretty sad if you ask me.

And now on top of all that I have to pay for shipping to send this stuff in to have the "Free" Replacement Guarantee parts replaced. That's $7 I have to pay everytime something breaks(which is pretty much everytime I run the truck)...that's alot to pay for something that's suppose to be Replaced for "Free". And what happens at the end of 1 year when the Guaruntee runs out but the parts still break?

I bought the Duratrax Evader partly because it is a RTR Truck and yet I've been spending most of my time rebuilding it.

Thanks for listening to me rant...i'm just really frustrated.

:mad: :mad:

I have a friend who just started racing and he keeps breaking parts he has losi front arms and hub carriers and breaks them just as easily. I've had great service, I haven't had to send a part in yet, I have a few in stock that I bought and when I break I just request what I've broken online and I have them in about 4 days. I've broken about 12-14. Try boiling even the new ones it should help also ( I haven't tried it myself yet)