sevin7
Active Member
I've now drove my Notorious (Outcast) about 40 times. In my first drive impressions I did some comparisons between the outcast my uber Traxxas Slash 4x4 (my spell check just auto corrected 'Traxxas' to 'trash' while I was typing that... the spell check is right!).
I only drove my outcast a few times before changing out the body and adding new front and rear bumpers, see this post for more details about my build. First, let me list the things that I don't like about the outcast:
Everything (except for the things I complained about above)
I have a Traxxas Slash 4x4 and Traxxas Stampede 4x4 that both cost well over $1,000 with all of their upgrades. The outcast handles far better than both of my Traxxas cars and when it comes to durability its the outcast is in a different league. My outcast cost about $700 with all of its upgrades and its so much better than my $1,000+ Traxxas cars. I did some side by side driving comparisons between my outcast and my Traxxas cars and it was amazingly clear that the outcast was far more fun to drive on every surface. Since getting my outcast I've drove my Traxxas cars about 5 times, and they ended up with something breaking every time except once. The Traxxas cars are fully upgraded, almost every part is an expensive 3rd party part that is more durable than the stock parts, yet they still break, and an almost all stock outcast does not break! The only thing I that I've broke on my outcast (other than pinion gear and center diff issue mentioned above) is one of the shock rod ends, and that was caused by running into a giant metal pole at ~20 MPH; I was amazed that it didn't cause far more damage.
The last time I drove my outcast I also drove my Slash right after it. The Slash ended up doing some intense cartwheels on pavement and it broke a few parts (my outcast has done hundreds of cartwheels with nothing breaking). This pissed me off so much that I decided its time to cut my losses with Traxxas. I originally thought that if I upgraded everything on the cars that they would no longer break, but I now know that is not the case. As soon as I get some time I'm putting all my Traxxas trash up for sale.
I started this hobby 6 months ago and until I bought my outcast (2 months ago) I thought the hobby required spending more time fixing and upgrading cars than it did driving cars. I wasn't very happy about this but I continued on because I enjoyed driving so much. I've now drove my Outcast ~15 times in a row with zero maintenance, and I'm doing a lot of big jumps (nothing insane like @Rich Duperbash ).
I only drove my outcast a few times before changing out the body and adding new front and rear bumpers, see this post for more details about my build. First, let me list the things that I don't like about the outcast:
- The user manual is terrible (especially compared to Traxxas).
- My stock center diff leaked fluid since the first time I ran it (but was not leaking out of the box). I tightened it many times and it continued to leak. I rebuilt it and it still leaked. The hot racing aluminum diff cup solved the problem in the end (post about this here). Many other people have had similar issues. Note that I have not had any issues with the front or rear diffs.
- The stock center diff fluid is down right stupid (100k weight I think), it makes all of the power transfer to the front wheels if you accelerate hard. I tried both 500k and 1 million weight diff fluid and both worked well but I ended up sticking with 1 million weight. For comparison, the E-Revo 2.0 comes with super thick center diff fluid. My friend has a E-Revo 2.0 and the center diff feels at least as thick as mine with 1 million weight. I don't know why Arrma is still using nonsensical light center diff fluid. At first I thought perhaps its for durability, but I've now run my car ~5 times with 500k at ~30 times with 1 million weight and I've had no durability issues (and I'm doing a lot of jumping).
- The first time I drove the Outcast I measured the motor temp at 175* after the run (15 minute run with 6s 100 watt hour battery, all out driving, in 90* weather). I added a Yeah Racing dual fan heatsink after this and my motor temp never went over 160*, but I have broke 3 of the yeah racing fans (they are fragile and don't like hard hits, I'm working on a solution with a bigger fan). From what I've read, the Outcast heat issues are likely related to the fact that the chassis is exceptionally well sealed from the outside, which is great for preventing crap from getting in the car, but terrible for air flow. See this post for pictures I took that demonstrate how well the inside of the chassis is sealed from debris.
- The included pinion gear on my Outcast broke after ~10 runs and I had to cut it off. I replaced it with a Tekno RC pinion (which also uses a larger diameter mounting screw - great for many reasons) and I have not had a problem since then.
- I've read that the stock wing mounts break easily. I only used the stock body a few times, and I took off the wing before the first run because I heard it makes the wing mounts break faster (I kept the wheelie bar on). Since changing my body out I no longer use the stock wing or wheelie bar and I cut the end of the wing mounts off as they are no longer needed and they prevent a normal body from fitting on.
- I hate the look of the stock body and I hate the fact that a monster truck comes with a wing. Even if you replace the stock body, you will have to cut a huge hole out of your new body to keep the stock wheelie bar. The stock wheelie bar works great and lets you do standing back flips, but in the end I got rid of the stock setup for a T-bone rear bumper and wheelie bar because I didn't want to cut a huge hole in the back of my new body.
- The stock font bumper doesn't seem very durable. I didn't have any problems with it in the few runs I used it, but I quickly replaced it with a T-bone front bumper to hopefully prevent issues.
- It doesn't come with any skid plates on the chassis. I fixed this by getting T-bone front and rear bumpers (which also act as front and rear skid plates).
- The few times that I did run the stock body, I managed to break 2 of the stock body mounting posts. These things are not durable enough, but its not an issue if you use my indestructible body (and mounts) mod.
Everything (except for the things I complained about above)
I have a Traxxas Slash 4x4 and Traxxas Stampede 4x4 that both cost well over $1,000 with all of their upgrades. The outcast handles far better than both of my Traxxas cars and when it comes to durability its the outcast is in a different league. My outcast cost about $700 with all of its upgrades and its so much better than my $1,000+ Traxxas cars. I did some side by side driving comparisons between my outcast and my Traxxas cars and it was amazingly clear that the outcast was far more fun to drive on every surface. Since getting my outcast I've drove my Traxxas cars about 5 times, and they ended up with something breaking every time except once. The Traxxas cars are fully upgraded, almost every part is an expensive 3rd party part that is more durable than the stock parts, yet they still break, and an almost all stock outcast does not break! The only thing I that I've broke on my outcast (other than pinion gear and center diff issue mentioned above) is one of the shock rod ends, and that was caused by running into a giant metal pole at ~20 MPH; I was amazed that it didn't cause far more damage.
The last time I drove my outcast I also drove my Slash right after it. The Slash ended up doing some intense cartwheels on pavement and it broke a few parts (my outcast has done hundreds of cartwheels with nothing breaking). This pissed me off so much that I decided its time to cut my losses with Traxxas. I originally thought that if I upgraded everything on the cars that they would no longer break, but I now know that is not the case. As soon as I get some time I'm putting all my Traxxas trash up for sale.
I started this hobby 6 months ago and until I bought my outcast (2 months ago) I thought the hobby required spending more time fixing and upgrading cars than it did driving cars. I wasn't very happy about this but I continued on because I enjoyed driving so much. I've now drove my Outcast ~15 times in a row with zero maintenance, and I'm doing a lot of big jumps (nothing insane like @Rich Duperbash ).
