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

[Vortex 2wd]

I love my kraton 6s. Same as yours. Yeah. Parts wear. But for the power speed and what it does. I'm surprised it holds up at all


I been running mine hard almost every day for 3 months.

Haven't really broken any parts per say... but parts do wear out

So yes. It's part of the hobby. Play fix repeat. Take time off if you need to

First and foremost learning to drive will save you the most money

 

[RC_Noob]

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.

I've always found the all plastic rigs tend to do better with bad landings, cartwheels, landing on its back, nose diving, bad rear landings than the ones with the aluminum stuff. When I owned a traxxas Maxx I gave that thing absolute hell and had the worst landings ever and it kept going. I cannot treat my current kraton 6s the same way as it will break for sure.

Seems to me that the 1/8th arrma rigs like the kraton 6s is for better performance, which I know first hand. That thing straight flies, has awesome air control with some great speed. The Maxx on the otherhand, I had a lot of trouble keeping that thing straight, it was goofy, constantly rolled over, and would not launch nearly as easily as the Kraton 6s. I had so many nosedives landings with the Maxx, landing on its side and never broke anything. With my Kraton 6s I had 1 nosedive and it bent a shock tower.

My Kraton 6s was all stock so im sure all the M2C heads out there will differ on the durability with all the M2c stuff, but the point is the cost. So if you are looking for awesome performance then for sure the Kraton 6s is king, but if you are looking for sheer durabilty in terms of being a noob like me than the all plastic stuff in my experience was way cheaper.

 

[Spawne32]

I've always found the all plastic rigs tend to do better with bad landings, cartwheels, landing on its back, nose diving, bad rear landings than the ones with the aluminum stuff. When I owned a traxxas Maxx I gave that thing absolute hell and had the worst landings ever and it kept going. I cannot treat my current kraton 6s the same way as it will break for sure.

Seems to me that the 1/8th arrma rigs like the kraton 6s is for better performance, which I know first hand. That thing straight flies, has awesome air control with some great speed. The Maxx on the otherhand, I had a lot of trouble keeping that thing straight, it was goofy, constantly rolled over, and would not launch nearly as easily as the Kraton 6s. I had so many nosedives landings with the Maxx, landing on its side and never broke anything. With my Kraton 6s I had 1 nosedive and it bent a shock tower.

My Kraton 6s was all stock so im sure all the M2C heads out there will differ on the durability with all the M2c stuff, but the point is the cost. So if you are looking for awesome performance then for sure the Kraton 6s is king, but if you are looking for sheer durabilty in terms of being a noob like me than the all plastic stuff in my experience was way cheaper.

It's about weight/mass and...kinetic energy. A 8.5lb 1/10th scale vs a 22 lb 1/8th scale is going to have way less kinetic energy to impart on impact at the same speed. The low weight allows it to flex the plastic parts without actually snapping them in half, part of the reason the gorgon is so durable even when you hit something rock solid at full speed. One of the things I love about the gorgon is the plastic fixed tie rods in the front with the ball ends. My 5 year old nephew has a thing with trees and one impact with a tree catching the corner of my notorious will bend the tie rods, snap an arm, bend a shock, etc where as the gorgon will basically just bounce right off because of its low weight and high flexibility.

 

[Vortex 2wd]

I've always found the all plastic rigs tend to do better with bad landings, cartwheels, landing on its back, nose diving, bad rear landings than the ones with the aluminum stuff. When I owned a traxxas Maxx I gave that thing absolute hell and had the worst landings ever and it kept going. I cannot treat my current kraton 6s the same way as it will break for sure.

Seems to me that the 1/8th arrma rigs like the kraton 6s is for better performance, which I know first hand. That thing straight flies, has awesome air control with some great speed. The Maxx on the otherhand, I had a lot of trouble keeping that thing straight, it was goofy, constantly rolled over, and would not launch nearly as easily as the Kraton 6s. I had so many nosedives landings with the Maxx, landing on its side and never broke anything. With my Kraton 6s I had 1 nosedive and it bent a shock tower.

My Kraton 6s was all stock so im sure all the M2C heads out there will differ on the durability with all the M2c stuff, but the point is the cost. So if you are looking for awesome performance then for sure the Kraton 6s is king, but if you are looking for sheer durabilty in terms of being a noob like me than the all plastic stuff in my experience was way cheaper.

I think most people find that out eventually.

All in how they drive.

Thunder rc proves how crazy the xmaxx is with all plastic.

And yes kraton 6s is king imo. V5 more plastic seems to hold up well.

 

[HoppyHop84]

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.

I have both the Maxx and the kraton 6s. I am the demon that regularly torture tests my rigs because I’m not sure if I like driving them or working on them more. That being said out of the box they share a few of the same pain points with the front end but the maxx is less fragile and it’s not really close. However 80% of the time I still prefer my kraton. The maxx is wonderful though but it’s all a trade off. If your core worry is doing as little maintenance as possible between the 2 go maxx. But there’s no comparison in how much better the kraton is as far as stability goes.

 

[NitroK]

Rc hobby is supposed to be fun, push the limits..sometimes the limits push back. Stuff will break...repair/upgrade and repeat. Lots of forums of plastic vs aluminum, each has its pros and cons. Takes time to work out all the issues with your own rig and the ability of knowing how much you can push to keep it within the limits. No shortcut as each rc driver is unique and cannot copy someone's specifications hoping it will work for you.