Gedrick
Very Active Member
Howdy folks!
I've been ripping around my Kraton 4S since early September of last year, and I gotta say - I still absolutely love this thing. I think it's the perfect balance between size, power, and durability. I got it as an upgrade for my main basher (and what was my first RC of many), the Rustler 4x4 that I made brushless and spent probably combined $800 upgrading and replacing parts over the past two years. It's not even a fair comparison to the Kraton so I won't bother, but this was a massive upgrade for me. It meshes perfectly with the places I run, my "send level" (that is, how much I send it), and type of terrain (lots of open fields, but all with short grass. Not a lotta dirt lots near me).
Durability:
I'd estimate I've run through about ~45 battery packs in total (hey, it was winter here! I know 45 packs isn't much for some of you maniacs lol). Most of it was blasting through fields, dirt lots, and a lot of jumping. 15-20 feet in the air, no problem. This thing is so lightweight that the loudest thing you hear when it lands is a slight "bonk" of the body. Heck even when you land it terribly it doesn't even mind, I landed right on the nose and it went "boop" and popped right over. I've done some dumb things and countless cartwheels, and this truck handled it all and asked for more.
One of the few things I've realized since picking it up is just how great it would be to have a center differential. Of course, the 4S line-up and down only has slippers, and I've had just fine luck with mine, but boy this thing does not turn at all at speed. You basically have to stop completely to make a turn - the "half throttle turn radius" is probably a quarter mile lol. If you want actually decent turning, it's an easy solution - get a good servo, and/or narrower tires.
Let's talk breakages. I have broken extremely little on this car. In fact let's just do a damage report.
Damage Report:
Repairability:
I love working on this truck. Aside from this, my Losi 22X-4 is my second favorite car to work on. Everything is just so accessible. The power module slides out, the diffs come apart with a few screws, and the spring-loaded center driveshaft is awesome. One of my least favorite parts of working on my Rustler was the aluminum center shaft was stupidly difficult to connect to both sides; you had to actually use gravity to dangle the detached front or rear part of the car and pray to Thor himself that it would connect when you lined it all up. 9 times out of 10, it didn't.
That's not a problem in the slightest for the Kraton and Arrma should be commended for their engineering. Everything's in a place that makes sense to me, who is also an engineer (albeit on the software side). In short: I like it. I appreciate it.
Upgrades:
I don't like the feeling of sensorless setups since I got into club racing (I really miss that smooth throttle) and the stock combo felt very "on/off" with regards to the throttle control. I put a Hobbywing G3 combo in there, bumped the pinion from a stock 13t to a 15t. Even with the dust cover and 100% grass runs through two 5000mAh 4S LiPos, you can still hold your finger on it for 4-5 seconds.
I also put the aluminum rear hubs like I said from Hotracing, they are a great product.
And the first thing I put on there were rear mudguards from @Tex Koder , to protect my shrink-wrap job on the driveshafts. I recently (finally) broke one of them, so I designed some myself and printed them (cause I know how to do that now and I have a 3d printer
). I recommend these anyway because 4S+ likes to LAUNCH crap at your rear shafts, particularly with these wide tires.
My future plans are a new servo, because the stock one is terrible.
Overall, I couldn't be happier with this truck. For the price I can't believe the size and durability of this thing.
Here are some videos I've got of her:
Lastly, while realizing there was no conceivable way to get a center diff into this chassis, it dawned on me that a 6S would have also done the job and been just as robust (relative to the size increase), and of course had the center diff. It got me to thinking, there's such a huge discrepancy with the weight once you move up to 8S rigs. It seems like 4S-6S is the "sweet spot" of RC bashers where you get the durability (because it's big yet lightweight, and has far beefier parts) and the ability (plenty of voltage and size to rip through grass and any other rough terrain without getting too hot or falling apart like some smaller 3S rigs). 4S is personally my sweet spot, because any bigger and I wouldn't have any place to run it. This thing scares people lol.
Anyway, that's the end of my rant. Thanks for reading!\
EDITED to add repairability section and miscellaneous other things.
I've been ripping around my Kraton 4S since early September of last year, and I gotta say - I still absolutely love this thing. I think it's the perfect balance between size, power, and durability. I got it as an upgrade for my main basher (and what was my first RC of many), the Rustler 4x4 that I made brushless and spent probably combined $800 upgrading and replacing parts over the past two years. It's not even a fair comparison to the Kraton so I won't bother, but this was a massive upgrade for me. It meshes perfectly with the places I run, my "send level" (that is, how much I send it), and type of terrain (lots of open fields, but all with short grass. Not a lotta dirt lots near me).
Durability:
I'd estimate I've run through about ~45 battery packs in total (hey, it was winter here! I know 45 packs isn't much for some of you maniacs lol). Most of it was blasting through fields, dirt lots, and a lot of jumping. 15-20 feet in the air, no problem. This thing is so lightweight that the loudest thing you hear when it lands is a slight "bonk" of the body. Heck even when you land it terribly it doesn't even mind, I landed right on the nose and it went "boop" and popped right over. I've done some dumb things and countless cartwheels, and this truck handled it all and asked for more.
One of the few things I've realized since picking it up is just how great it would be to have a center differential. Of course, the 4S line-up and down only has slippers, and I've had just fine luck with mine, but boy this thing does not turn at all at speed. You basically have to stop completely to make a turn - the "half throttle turn radius" is probably a quarter mile lol. If you want actually decent turning, it's an easy solution - get a good servo, and/or narrower tires.
Let's talk breakages. I have broken extremely little on this car. In fact let's just do a damage report.
Damage Report:
- Two destroyed center driveshafts - rocks getting wedged between the chassis and shaft is a huge problem in the areas I run.
- This issue has been permanently mitigated with a dust cover from DustyMotors. I leave it loose in the front and back and cooling has not been an issue.
- Broken rear hub - happened on a terrible landing after doing a huge step-down off a hill with a steep drop-off.
- These are completely out of stock EVERYWHERE so I ended up buying the aluminum+carbon fiber version from Hotracing, great product and I don't foresee an issue here again. Will eventually do the same to the front but it's $120 (!!) total for the C-blocks and the steering knuckles in aluminum. That $120 would probably be better in the form of a new servo.
- Destroyed pinion - my own fault, bad mesh.
- Driveshaft clip broke off - just general use.
- I had this happen on the very first run, luckily the pin that is protected by the clip did not pop out. More details and a hack detailed in my post here.
- Rod end - just a rod end, it happens.
- This sucked to replace because you need to spend $14 on an entire set + $5 shipping from HH, so such a simple and stupid part cost me $20. It was frustrating to say the least, but I should have bought some ahead of time since they break occasionally.
Repairability:
I love working on this truck. Aside from this, my Losi 22X-4 is my second favorite car to work on. Everything is just so accessible. The power module slides out, the diffs come apart with a few screws, and the spring-loaded center driveshaft is awesome. One of my least favorite parts of working on my Rustler was the aluminum center shaft was stupidly difficult to connect to both sides; you had to actually use gravity to dangle the detached front or rear part of the car and pray to Thor himself that it would connect when you lined it all up. 9 times out of 10, it didn't.
That's not a problem in the slightest for the Kraton and Arrma should be commended for their engineering. Everything's in a place that makes sense to me, who is also an engineer (albeit on the software side). In short: I like it. I appreciate it.
Upgrades:
I don't like the feeling of sensorless setups since I got into club racing (I really miss that smooth throttle) and the stock combo felt very "on/off" with regards to the throttle control. I put a Hobbywing G3 combo in there, bumped the pinion from a stock 13t to a 15t. Even with the dust cover and 100% grass runs through two 5000mAh 4S LiPos, you can still hold your finger on it for 4-5 seconds.
I also put the aluminum rear hubs like I said from Hotracing, they are a great product.
And the first thing I put on there were rear mudguards from @Tex Koder , to protect my shrink-wrap job on the driveshafts. I recently (finally) broke one of them, so I designed some myself and printed them (cause I know how to do that now and I have a 3d printer
). I recommend these anyway because 4S+ likes to LAUNCH crap at your rear shafts, particularly with these wide tires.My future plans are a new servo, because the stock one is terrible.
Overall, I couldn't be happier with this truck. For the price I can't believe the size and durability of this thing.
Here are some videos I've got of her:
Lastly, while realizing there was no conceivable way to get a center diff into this chassis, it dawned on me that a 6S would have also done the job and been just as robust (relative to the size increase), and of course had the center diff. It got me to thinking, there's such a huge discrepancy with the weight once you move up to 8S rigs. It seems like 4S-6S is the "sweet spot" of RC bashers where you get the durability (because it's big yet lightweight, and has far beefier parts) and the ability (plenty of voltage and size to rip through grass and any other rough terrain without getting too hot or falling apart like some smaller 3S rigs). 4S is personally my sweet spot, because any bigger and I wouldn't have any place to run it. This thing scares people lol.
Anyway, that's the end of my rant. Thanks for reading!\
EDITED to add repairability section and miscellaneous other things.
Last edited:
