Kraton Kraton 6s - too much maintenance - 1/8th scale breaks too easily - should I have went 1/10th - did I make a mistake?

[mfish]

I'm basically new to RC for all intents and purposes. I had an Associated RC10T as a teenager but that was 25 year ago. I did my research and was prepared to spend $1,000 give or take with batteries and a charger to get a high qualify hobby grade RC monster truck and get back into the hobby. I decided on the Kraton 6S V5 RTR, and just purchased it along with a charger and 4 6s Lipo's. I know some would say this is too much for a newb.

The truck does have awesome performance, no doubt. But it seems like the price I'm going to pay for that is a lot of repairs and maintenance which I'm not looking forward to.

As I've continued to read I'm realizing I likely I should have done more research. At this stage in life I don't have the time or inclination to put a ton of time and money into wrenching on the truck. I know some folks find that part of the hobby fun and enjoyable but not me. I'd prefer to spend most of my time driving with minimal time spent repairing and performing maintenance.

The more I read the more it sounds like heavier 1/8th scale RC's don't hold up as well with hard landings, cartwheels and crashes. Sounds like their lighter 1/10th scale cousins can take the abuse a lot better. Is this true? I don't want to always have down time, waiting on parts in the mail, ending up dumping endless $$$ into the truck with upgraded parts every time I break a stock part, etc.

As far as maintenance it seems like the Kraton is high maintenance. I don't look forward to changing the oil the diffs every 20 packs or so - is that really necessary? Is it true that I should expect to be constantly changing out bearings too on a regular basis?

I'm trying to ascertain if the forums paint a real world picture of a typical Kraton 6S owner. Obviously the people here are probably bashing the hardest and want their trucks performing at their absolute best probably, more so than folks that don't visit the forums. So is what I see on here more of the ideal maintenance patterns? in other words if I slack on the maintenance can I still have the truck performing at let's say 80% - 90% of its potential - I'd be fine with that.

As far as repairs if someone's truck isn't broken they're not going to post about repairs so maybe all the posts I see about breaking parts isn't really indicative of how much I should expect to break parts. Maybe for every one post i see about someone smashing up their truck they're are 20 other people who have been running for long stretches of time without breaking things.

For the most part I want to drive fast on big grass open fields and a little bit of pavement here and there. I have no immediate plans to jump my truck but once I get bored of flat surfaces I may buy a conservative jump to have some more fun with the vehicle.

In short, am I in over my head for what I'm looking to do?

I don't want to start a Traxxas vs. Aarma war but if I'm fine with 1/10th scale, want a low maintenance truck that's built like a tank out of the box and still want to go fast. should I have went with something like the Traxxas maxx? Or maybe and an Aarma BRCC?

Hate to sell the Kraton 6s and 6s batteries at a loss after just buying it but I am considering doing that.

Looking forward to the feedback.

 

[SentFlying]

Get an Xmaxx and bash on...

 

[Senton_Prime]

I think you are over thinking it.. From what i gather in my stent with the hobby, a year and a half.. Mostly i see broken rigs that are mistreated and abused.. More often than not an OP will post pics of a rig thats broke and you can just tell that its neglected and mistreated!! Honestly i think due diligence on key maintenance and just fundamental cleanliness is the key to a successful rig!! Of coarse its gonna break, and of coarse u will need to do regular maintenance.. That is part of this hobby and no matter what rig u choose.. trashaxx, arrma, losi, tekno, tamiya, mugan, kyosho, ect.. These will all require the same fundamental maintenance and cleaning!! If u arent prepared to put in the time, work, and money, your rig will slowly parish!! If you are willing, than your rig will last for many years to come!! Bash on bro

 

[Matt05]

For flat grass and pavement I think you’ll be fine. Parts do unfortunately break. I started with a Maxx and as I got bolder really put it through hell. A few cheap broken pieces here and there, but I think it’s a great start. Didn’t love the idea of wrenching at first, but I grew into it and now it’s half the fun.

 

[Yas]

There is no machine in the world that doesn't require maintenance. If you want to look after your truck and prolong it's life, just take it easy! 6S power is seriously overlooked and underestimated. You can try lowering the throttle range, taking it easy at standstill takeoffs or lowering the ESC punch, begin on light jumps etc. Running it in the DRY will make every so much easier too

Don't feel intimidated by the maintenance or repairs. You don't necessarily need to check diffs or shocks after 20 packs if there isn't a reason to. I've had my Noto last 6 months before I took a screw driver to it after a breakage. My Felony diffs will probably last 2-3 years without being changed! Once you've collected parts, bought decent tools and set your self time aside, repairs and upgrades can actually become interesting. The more you dig in, the more you learn

The 6S trucks are very well built and have made a name for it. Aftermarket support is second to none too. Once you experience the weight and power of these, I feel the 3S rigs aren't as exciting in my opinion, albeit still fun

 

[419RC]

the arrma 3s lineup certainly cannot take the large jumps that the 6s lineup can. My BRCC breaks "enough," by bashing at the skate park or taking a large enough high speed tumble so its not that tough. I think if I wanted to toughest 10th scale id probably look at a slash or a maxx 4s, although, you poke around enough you'll find every complaint in the book on those. I do love my BRCC and it takes a beating but my sons slash can take some harder landing and tumbles and not break in comparison. I have put a fair amount for the slash to handle the 3s though.

I will not be maintaining my Noto 6s with changing diff oil every 20 packs because I don't count how many runs it has. It's not a 1:1 race car so I don't plan on maintaining it that way. With a wife and soon-to-be 3 kids, there is no time for that. Probbaly 90% of what people post about on here is when they bash the snot out of their cars and reporting what breaks.

 

[pug]

There is no low maintenance RC out there, it’s just not possible. Your best bet is to go with a Traxxas X-Maxx.

 

[3d-rc.myshopify.com]

20+ years in the hobby….
Arrma 1/8 is a maintenance pig no matter what upgrades you do.
1/10 have been amazing
As far as the brand war I own a little of everything and every brand has ups and downs. If you want something very reliable arrma 1/10 if you want to build a monster cheap and xmaxx if you want something to build, have crazy speed and repair often then arrma 1/8
If you want my personal opinion I recommend everyone new to get a granite. Very reliable and cheap to fix. Good luck. If you want a novice recommendation then tekno mt10

 

[FlipSide]

Yes, I do think the 3S line is much less time-consuming than the 6S line, but the 6S are more interesting and fun to work on. Once the common issues and weak point of the 6S are addressed, I find they are quite reliable if you don't go crazy with speed and jumps.

In my opinion, if you really want to minimize the wrenching time:
- Only drive in dry conditions if you want to avoid changing bearings all the time
- Avoid big jumps and full-throttle shredding on rough terrain (often leading to cartwheel action)
- Make sure the truck is in perfect working order at all time, with diffs correctly shimmed and filled with fluid, no loose screws, no seized bearings, gear mesh perfect.
- Ditch the weakest RTR parts right away, like the plastic chassis braces.
- Upgrade with better parts as you break stuff. If you bend the Ackerman, shock towers or chassis, replace by M2C (or other high-end) upgrade parts and you will have a peace of mind. I like wrenching, but I have no patience for hammering straight an RTR Kraton shock tower for the nth-time.
- Have upgrade parts ready at home. A simple breakage like a control arm is a quick fix, but quite an annoyance if you have to drive to the LHS just for that. I personally even have replacement diffs ready to go and already properly shimmed in bulkheads. I find that maintenance is annoying when you don't have the time to do it, so I like being prepared.

 

[JT58]

All depends on how you run it. My Notorious always tends to be in pieces because I beat on it. My Talion spends most of it's time on pavement or relatively flat dirt and rarely leaves the ground so it never seems to need repairs other than tires.

 

[morrjr71]

Be aware that regardless of what type of forum you are on, the majority of the posts will be about problems people have encountered because they are looking for solutions. As far as a Traxxas Maxx being less prone to breaking, I not sure that is the case. I asked my local RC shop owners why they carry more parts for Traxxas than they do for Arrma, and they told me Traxxas vehicles break far more than Arrma vehicles. I don't care what brand or scale of RC vehicle you own, a RC vehicle will require regular maintenance to keep it running the way it is designed to run.

 

[FlipSide]

I don't care what brand or scale of RC vehicle you own, a RC vehicle will require regular maintenance to keep it running the way it is designed to run.

True. I don't see how a basher RC could run without breaking often if you don't maintain it at least a minimum.

 

[Pablo1980]

Like yourself ive just come back into the hobby after a long time out. I jumped back into it by getting the kraton exb 6s with a max6 combo and i absolutely love it, i did lots of research before hand and thought the same in regards of maintaining it and how they can potentially easily break but after owning it now for over a year ive had no major breakages but i have been on top of the maintenance tho. Like the others have all said any rc out there needs maintenance to keep it working. All i will say its a very addictive hobby that puts a huge smile on my face every time i go out and thats why ive now got myself an Xmaxx at Christmas to see how i get on with the bigger rigs

 

[JABzNY1]

I will be completely honest with you, if maintenance is a bother to you, then you have definitely chosen the wrong hobby. Every rc requires maintenance, certainly some more than others. If you don't want to do any maintenance then order an aliexpress rc drive till it breaks, throw it away and buy another. Once a vehicle goes over 10mph or jumps higher than 2 ft off the ground there is a chance for it to break. I honestly think the Typhon is the most resilient being so compact. I've only broken 2 things on it and both my fault 1 was a shock mount at the skate park, and the second was blowing the whole rear end of clipping a steel railing @ 70 mph. Go through your vehicle and make sure its shimmed, diffs are filled, and all screws are tightened and loctite as necessary and you will have a lot of time without worry, unless you do like most and go full send and then act like its Arrma's fault.

 

[grihn]

You really have to approach the hobby the same way that you would with 1:1 automotive performance. If you want the performance of a Ferrari, you have to cough up the money to maintain that Ferrari, and it will need it often if you're pedal to the floor every time you drive. If you want the cheap and easy low-maintenance bliss of a Ford Focus, than you have to live with the blandness of its performance. But as others have said, there is no RC that is maintenance free, and the way you drive has huge impacts on how much maintenance you are going to do. If you're launching something off of jumps going 50mph+, it's going to break sooner rather than later, if you're just driving around on short grass or pavement and not constantly wrecking, you'll [probably] get by a while without needing to do much.

 

[LiamG]

fixing RC cars and doing maintenance is part of the hobby, you can't escape it unless you want to pay a hobbyshop to do it, but then that comes with extra money down the drain.

IMO, the best advice i can give you is to acquire a fleet of cars that all serve a different purpose. I've got a losi lasernut, Big Rock, Losi LMT, 6S Kraton EXB and 8S Outcast EXB. Each one of them was purchased for the different ways i like to drive.

My Big Rock and Kraton are mainly used for stunts, jumps and the skatepark.

My Lasernut and LMT is used for pure off road driving.

And my Outcast is used as an all rounder, but mostly i drive it in the tall grass as its the only car i have that can do that because of the size of the wheels. I'm very hesitant to go balls out with this car as i know parts are more expensive and bad crashes will lead to bigger dents in my wallet.

You mention you only have one car, i think this is the problem. You just don't know when cars will break and unless you can predict the future, you often don't know which parts you are going to need to replace. Not saying you should spend a ton more money, but some good 1/10 cars can be picked up for a few hundred quid. You'll find yourself very unlucky if all your cars are out of action. With my five, i think at most i've only ever had two on the bench at once.

fixing cars can be a pain, but if you approach it like a puzzle it can actually be very enjoyable.. best of luck and hope you figure it out.

 

[KnowAir]

Like yourself ive just come back into the hobby after a long time out. I jumped back into it by getting the kraton exb 6s with a max6 combo and i absolutely love it, i did lots of research before hand and thought the same in regards of maintaining it and how they can potentially easily break but after owning it now for over a year ive had no major breakages but i have been on top of the maintenance tho. Like the others have all said any rc out there needs maintenance to keep it working. All i will say its a very addictive hobby that puts a huge smile on my face every time i go out and thats why ive now got myself an Xmaxx at Christmas to see how i get on with the bigger rigs

I'd say this post pretty well sums up the durability of the kexb.. grossly overpowered for a year and a half without breakage is impressive (IMO). As to 1/10 being more durable, they do tend to run longer with less money needed to keep em going. They just don't give me the wow factor
I must confess I don't pay much attention to the maintenance intervals specified in the manual. If I find the need to look at a diff, then sure I'll clean it out and put fresh fluid in, but if it's working fine, I'm not taking it out..same for shock fluids. Unless it leaked out or I'm changing weights, it's .. but that's just my take. If you run in mud/snow, your def gonna go through bearings, but they're cheap enough. Key is to find the actual size of the bearing, not the part number. Then find them at Amazon or wherever..
It's easy to start overthinking these things and then it takes away from the fun. You already own it, so get out and enjoy it
I do find that having multiple rigs that cater to different types of terrain also enhances the fun(of course)

 

[BulletRCs_NZ]

3s vs 6s rig, IMO you have made the right choice in the long run. So far my Typhon 6s has been more durable than any of my Arrma 3s rigs. Much longer lasting to the point I now don't bother with an Arrma 3s because I destroy them (4 of them in less than 12 months) I do beat on them and they do require wrenching but that's the hobby.

Sounds like you've talked yourself into a corner bro. Put the radio on 50% power and go out and learn to drive that puppy. You don't have to do any diff work, not at this stage. Just keep the rig away from any moisture.

I honesty can't get about of my 6s Typhon. I want a Noto next.

 

[milehighspeed]

Pictures are worth a thousand words. Take this for what it is but i just threw a quick 30 second comp of crashes with my Kraton EXB over the last two months and this is about 1/2 the crazy crashes i've put this thing through.

Combine that with all the jumps and bumps and bashing that didn't result in damage (example below with a kraton and 3s typhon) and all i've had to replace so far is a wing mount on the Kraton. The 3s vehicles also have withstood a lot but did have a few more replacements here and there, but nothing major...$12 here, $20 there. The exb for sure is pretty darn tough . I do wrench on mine a lot... i enjoy that as much as running them, but flipping, rolling, landing bad, and smashing up like this is beyond what bench time can save. Its either tough or its not and i'd say Arrma cars are pretty tough for what we do to them. If your just going to generally bash without big air then I'd say you'll be fine with either really. Some stuff will break and wear out, that's part of the deal but i generally think these things are pretty solid across the board.

 

[RC-RAD]

IMO for any hobby there is always going to be an associated cost over time. For the RC hobby, that's buying replacement parts, buying upgraded parts, buying tools, buying batteries, and so on. It's all part of the RC hobby.

It's going to suck in the beginning because we all broke our first RC cars and ending up paying $$$ for replacement/upgraded parts. There will be times where your wrenching on your rigs more then driving them and that's okay, just part of the hobby.

Your driving style will change over time and you'll learn the limits of your RC cars and how they run. No upgraded part can prevent a terrible landing. Just comes with time and experience.

If you're thinking that this is not the hobby for you, then go ahead and sell what you got. There shouldn't be a regret in trying new hobbies.