Kraton Recommended Arrma Kraton & Talion Upgrades 2024

[Adamantium]

?? The rpm mudguards are for the rpm arms.

nothing to do with the version.

does say so on all adverts for them that I’ve seen.

 

[Herrsavage]

Aha.. Well that’s annoying. Didn’t seem clear enough when searching “Kraton mudguards”.. Like, FOR RPM ARMS ONLY!!

Or maybe if the RPM arms had the same hole spacing as the stock arms.. That of course would be to expect too much common sense though I guess..

 

[Nineball]

Or maybe if the RPM arms had the same hole spacing as the stock arms.. That of course would be to expect too much common sense though I guess..

Yeah, what are those holes for? Arrma doesn't make mud guards...

 

[Herrsavage]

Make your own out of Coke bottles or something I guess.. Wish I had known that before..

 

[Herrsavage]

When in doubt..., improvise.
With zip ties of course. ?‍

 

[Adamantium]

Or just spend less than 15 bucks on the far superior rpm arms.

 

[Herrsavage]

This thing is more of a money pit already than I wanted… If one of the arms breaks I will, but I am not going to until then.

 

[Nineball]

Or just spend less than 15 bucks on the far superior rpm arms.

Superior? You mean very flexible. Funny thing about A-arms... they should be straight.

I put rpm arms on my senton and bent two on the first run. Never again. Arrma plastic is better.

 

[Herrsavage]

Believe it or not I was heavily into RC cars - nitro 8th scale, including truggy racing, for years and years, before giving it up to take up flying. Largely because cars are just such giant wastes of money. I got sucked back in again during the corona downtime.. And got a Kraton.

Way back when I got my LST2 (in 2006).. Back then everybody said you need this, then that.. And on and on. Well I went and bought tons of stupid mods I didn't really need. Including, it turns out, RPM arms. I had two LST2s - one had them, one didn't. The RPMs were fine, but not necessary IMO. I still have some stupid titanium turnbuckles I never even mounted...

Anyway, I don't want to waste 10 bucks here, 20 bucks there if I can help it.. That's why I got a Kraton and not a Traxxas.. Traxxas is responsible for this whole mentality that you have to "mod" and "upgrade" your already overpriced toy cars... So I just want to keep it to a minimum... And I've already got alu chassis braces, a skid plate, a POS bumper, new body(including one which is meant FOR THE KRATON but which doesn't even fit right... Stupid Dodge Ram whatever...) etc etc... It all adds up. And cars are no longer even my primary hobby - planes are...

So anyway, as I said, if I break a stock arm I'll get some RPMs if they're cheap enough and I don't have to order them from another continent, but I ain't doing it just cuz...

ps I can't stand the new culture of RC videos - a bunch of guys "going big" with trucks they got for free, often with MASSIVELY overpriced M2C stuff they got for free too... Some of us out here actually have to pay for our stuff, and don't want to pay more than necessary...

 

[L3phturn]

I don’t mind the videos, they can be entertaining. That doesn’t mean I am going to be sending my very expensive truck doing 30 foot jumps. It’s enough for me that when I accidentally hit things it usually survives.

Upgrades create more breakage and require more upgrades. These vehicles are designed with failure points that are cheap and easily replaced. Go and overpower it and you will break things. Replace the plastic parts that break with metal and you break different things. Add speed and weight to the car and the forces are far beyond what it was designed for.

When I got started this spring with a little ECX Amp MT kit several people told me all the upgrades I “had” to do and how expensive it would be. I did zero upgrades just a 2S lipo and the thing just does not break. Still running brushed (kids run it too 10 and 8) and it’s great fun. If I go brushless and overpower it I’m sure I will need to upgrade a ton and it will break regularly.

 

[Herrsavage]

People posting Youtube videos way back in like 2005 were a BIG part of what got me into RC. Socalnitro, Slapmafro, and some others.. Back then it was normal guys for the most part bashing their own cars they'd paid for, and normal people would make videos, and often they were cool to watch. Now nobody can compete with these guys sending their freebie modded RC cars off mountains.. I watch some of the videos too, but I think the whole freebie reviewer thing kind of degrades the overall experience.. I mean really, so what if some guy launches his freebie Kraton with freebie modded M2C stuff 50 feet off a mountain?... It's completely detached from how most people will realistically experience the hobby... But it will influence how people think about it.. Which is of course the whole point of marketing - and as such is why it happens.. It convinces people they need to buy this or that - even when often they simply don't need to...

Seriously, do normal people even post videos on this forum? Or is it all just reposting links of the usual suspect freebie bashers?...

 

[jondilly1974]

I don’t get your disdain for the guys who are improving the products for us normal guys. It’s only with their extreme testing that we know what will and won’t hold up. Wether they pay for their parts or not is irrelevant to me. They are bringing tons of people into a dying hobby. This is good for all of us.

 

[Herrsavage]

I disagree.. Products can improve without a select few guys getting freebies and doing things most people would not do who actually paid for their stuff and therefore cared about what happened to it.. I don't need some YT freebie-whxxx with $800 in M2C parts he didn't pay for launching off mountains for my RC experience.. Yes, I have watched some of the videos..(I've pretty much stopped now..) But they'd be better if they were actually paying for the stuff. When you know they're not it's a bit of an eye roller..

For one thing, these guys are doing silly retarded 50 foot triple back flips and the like. People see those videos and think, oh man, cool, I need this and that overpriced M2C part. When they don't. Cuz most normal people are not going to spend a grand on a Kraton and launch it like that... Cuz what those YT guys are doing is basically silly and unrealistic for most people who actually have to pay for the stuff. But it skews the image of "what's cool", and ultimately just makes people go buy a bunch of overpriced tuning crap they don't need.

A couple years ago I got a drone after seeing a bunch of Youtube clips of it with positive feedback. I ordered it, got it, and it was a dud. Same with a bunch of other normal customers. Turns out the drone had a kind of first wave sent out to Youtubers, who pushed it and gave it good feedback, and I guess they were good, but then the second wave was sent out to normal customers, and that second wave was defective(bad FCs). This was from Gearbest(Furibee Darkmaxx..), who was awful to deal with. But by that point it was like, for them, who cares, they had profited from the initial hype.. Eventually I got my FC replaced, but it was a long PIA process. And it showed me what can really go wrong for normal customers when the whole marketing and hype machine is based on YT reviewers getting freebies... (while at the same time promoting themselves and begging for likes and subs.. ) With cars it's maybe not as bad, but the core principle holds afaic. Social media makes everything more shallow - all about image. The paying customer is an afterthought.. And meanwhile the freebie-whxxxes just keep doing whatever it takes to get free stuff. Often with no longer term perspective, as they just move on to the next free thing. That aspect is maybe less pronounced with RC cars, but is a big problem IMO with lots of other stuff, whether drones, smartphones, whatever... ("Hey guys!! My fill-in-the-blank-smartphone is SSSSOOOO awesome.. I've had it for a week and love it! Be sure to sub and and smash that like button!!" )

Sounds like those EBX diffs aren't so great after all either..........

Further reading:

https://www.boredpanda.com/social-m...oogle&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

ps Not only that, but I'm hesitant to go too big myself because Horizon availability is so awful here in Europe.. I've already had to order from the US twice for this thing...

 

[KratonBash79]

Thanks for catching that, I meant to link the Savox SW-1210SG. I've updated the post and also included a note about using an external BEC or glitch buster, I should have mentioned that from the start as well.

Great tips on the shimming and diff maintenance.

Hey, I bought and installed the Savox 1210 but it still seems sluggish.. It whips the wheels back and forth if they're off the ground but otherwise, they don't seem to want to turn. Any thoughts on why this is happening? Bad servo? Will a BEC (I don't know what that is lol) make a difference?

thanks woodie the castle option looks good . was hoping to find something to throw in with my tower order ,but this came a day too late . if motor temps become an issue i will explore this option .thanks

Actually installing the CC Blower tomorrow so it's nice to see that it's recommended on the forums! ?

 

[FlipSide]

Hey, I bought and installed the Savox 1210 but it still seems sluggish.. It whips the wheels back and forth if they're off the ground but otherwise, they don't seem to want to turn. Any thoughts on why this is happening? Bad servo? Will a BEC (I don't know what that is lol) make a difference?

I guess ~5 weeks late is better than nothing?

The servo saver is notoriously weak on these cars. I strongly recommend you add two 1/2" c-clips to the servo saver. You can check East Tactics on Youtube for a video on how to do it. I also have a picture of the c-clips installed in my build thread.

 

[jeff.bolber]

Hey, I bought and installed the Savox 1210 but it still seems sluggish.. It whips the wheels back and forth if they're off the ground but otherwise, they don't seem to want to turn. Any thoughts on why this is happening? Bad servo? Will a BEC (I don't know what that is lol) make a difference?

Do you have your esc set to High voltage?

 

[guzziboy532]

I break my Kraton 6s V4 every time I take it out. Kids watching Kevin, Superbash and Rcdude are going to be poorly disappointed if they try and even send it a quarter of the height they do. Don’t get me wrong I have researched a heap, read a thousand posts and watched all the videos. I love Kev Talbots videos. I’m no driver but learning. Even good jumps with good landing ramps break things. I have done in two-ish months:

-Rod ends x 3, upgrading atm
-Bumpers both ends (junk)
-Front suspension mount first run when bumper snapped off screws inside it. This part is ridiculously weak, and anyone running these cars with stock bumpers from new has rocks in their heads.
-Shock shaft bent (bad landing). New shaft installed and all oils changed
-Rear wing mount both screws bent or snapped. Dodged up for now.
-just repaired front shocks, changed oil, reset the droop and first run front diff housing gave way at weak mount point and whole front end fell apart. More bent bolts. Grass landing small less than one foot high bump, NO BAD landings...
-remote is a pile of snot
-steering is weak
-front dog bones come out of cups constantly on heavy landings. Taken out spacers on the pillow balls to try alleviate this

getting a bit over it, bought this thinking I was getting a small saving on a traxxas maxx .Could have bought the traxxas and a few slabs already with what I have spent. Also, forget about spare parts in Vic Australia atm with covid, it’s a week min wait from other states if at all. Rant over ??‍ Love the forum

Guzzi

 

[L3phturn]

Watch Rich. Notice he lands his jumps properly consistently. He also is far from stock.

I bash my Notorious pretty hard but don’t jump it super high. I’ve broken one rod end (hit a fence post with the right front wheel at about 40 kph) and I just serviced the diffs and found one sun gear pin broken in 3 pieces. That’s all. I did put RPM front bumper and skid plate on and a skid in the back. I may put another front bumper/skid on the back. In the front it sits in front of the Notorious’s bumper and works great. Amazing truck, has taken a lot of abuse and doesn’t break.

If you are breaking that much you are launching it massively and can’t land a jump properly. The radio on that truck had a delay so it is a female dog for air corrections. Inever ran the stock radio, Inout a DumboRC in it before I put a battery in it.

 

[guzziboy532]

@L3phturn I am landing properly now after breaking lots of stuff learning. The main breaks, shock shaft, bumpers were from from hitting things or bad landings.

I had a good run today after changing out the front diff for an alloy one, and replacing the oils in front and rear. I also vented the tires, its like a new truck to drive now. I cant wait to try a different remote, I have one in the post.

 

[leroychurchill]

@WoodiE when are you going to update this?