36cc vs 29cc. Is it really a 36cc? Where is the proof other than a sticker?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
@gasserbob a bit touchy huh? I was not speaking ill of Rovan I was stating a fact. To be cheaper than other people in business with a limited amount of costumers, you have to save money somewhere. This is business101. If the Rovan did not run they would soon go out of business. The question is, while your experience is good , what are you comparing it to? All the other various brands 5th scales you owned? Your old 10 scale electrics?, because in that case I can totally understand why you feel in heaven. Large gassers are just a completely different beast. Just wait until you get your hands on the high end stuff or upgrade yours to high end. The build quality, the tolerances are so different you will be wondering why they arent more expensive.
 
Last edited:
Touchy? Hmm. Is everyone that responds to you with a valid answer Touchy?
Get Real. We are just talking here.

Yes to when looking at a less expensive product one can say that it is because of lesser quality materials. Yes that is a fair observation. I do not think that is the case with Rovan. How can I think otherwise while having such a good experience ?

But lets look at the big picture here.
On the other hand the companies selling a product for a exorbitant amount does not always mean better quality. Most of the time when other "supposed" better name brands sell products at a higher price its not because the quality is so wonderful, Perhaps "And here is an Idea" they are greedy and or are ripping people off. Not to say that is the case but it is within the scope of possibilities.
It happens everyday on the free market.
I totally expect people to stand by what they purchase and believe in their purchase. Of Course Losi and all of the other RC companies are making a good product, to me so is Rovan.
Only thing is Rovan is a fraction of the cost.

I have seen countless videos of people opening the box for their new Rovan and tossing in some fuel and running them.
Then they write about how the nutts and bolts are falling out.
One video the guy says this is the first start of my new Rovan. I watched him prime the carb for almost one min. Then he starts pull starting the heck out if it. Right away you can hear the motor pop and thats when he should have taken the choke off but instead the guy stopped and primed the motor probably 8 or 9 more times, then he starts pulling on it again. The guy starts getting tired and only then he takes the choke off and after he goes back and forth with the choke on and off a few more times and more priming he gets it started. Clearly did not read the Rovan instructions and I think that kind of scenario happens more often than not.

A lot of people talk about the pull starts on Rovan and how cheap they are. Well I work with small 2 stroke equipment everyday at my job and I can tell you the pull start on a Rovan is as durable as a Echo or a Sthill Chain saw pull start for that matter the entire motor is as well built as any Echo or Sthil.

So far the tech support has been flawless at Rovan. They actually respond to me within a day or two of any questions I have had and to me that is unheard of now days.
Just after owning my Rovan for 1 week and 1 day I have truly gotten my $Money$ worth out of it.

Just so dang cool.

BTW
Buzzsaw those 4x4s look super fun.

I cant imagine what that must be like have that much power with 4wd.

Got my back up head in today.

Anyone have any tips for opening up those ports or getting them smoother?

Got the head for next to nothing just to experiment with.

I used to port heads back in the day on the old 5.0 Mustang 302 heads, We always used die grinders but that was cast not Aluminum.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4966.JPG
    IMG_4966.JPG
    164.2 KB · Views: 5
  • IMG_4954.JPG
    IMG_4954.JPG
    170.8 KB · Views: 5
  • IMG_4967.JPG
    IMG_4967.JPG
    174.8 KB · Views: 7
  • IMG_4973.JPG
    IMG_4973.JPG
    185.2 KB · Views: 9
  • IMG_4972.JPG
    IMG_4972.JPG
    181.2 KB · Views: 9
"Is everyone that responds to you with a valid answer Touchy?"

No, but someone that starts giving me a speech about how the only people who complain about Rovan are people who bought more expensive brands because obviously they are all the same Rovan just happens to be cheaper, on the mere mention that Rovan have to cut their costs somewhere, sure seems to be. Especially considering that my primary point was that regardless of reputation, you should be able to trust them. You are on your first 5th scale is this correct?

I have heard Buzzsaw46's story so often its not even funny. I think Rovan is getting better but it also comes down to driving style. If you drive it a bit up and down the road, I think all RC's can deal with that. Take it out for some proper bashing, get back to us.

Take a look at large scale racing series and try and count how many Rovans, KM's etc you can spot. If Rovan was build the same as Losi, Mecatech, Elcon, FG, etc. you would see nothing else. Why spend more if you can spend less, right?! Currently the cheaper brands sell a lot of all alloy vehicles for so little you'd think they were stolen, but ofcourse as someone working with engines you know full well that not aluminium is created equal. Good for Rovan that most people that buy an all alloy RC do so to get a shelf queen to pride the living room.

If you are happy with your Rovan, I am genuinely happy for you and hope and want you to have fun. I just come from a place where copy products have put off more people from a sport and hobby I love than it has served as a cheap entry level experience.

Roven and KM has upped their game the last couple of years from what I can gather. KM in particular are now seen as a viable racing platform if you just replace all the essential bits, so I hope your experience with these cheaper models is what is to come in the future.
 
Last edited:
Cool

Yeah I try not to Bash on my little Rovan.

Hot Rod buggy.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4990.JPG
    IMG_4990.JPG
    210.5 KB · Views: 10
  • IMG_4991.JPG
    IMG_4991.JPG
    224.2 KB · Views: 9
  • IMG_4992.JPG
    IMG_4992.JPG
    262.9 KB · Views: 7
Bob, the Losi 5ive is an unbelievably awesome rig! This will be my third season racing and all the guys I run with now have 5ives. Two guys started with Bajas one an HPI SS, the other a Rovan and two guys started with DBXLs, one of those guys tried a Vekta.5 last season. All have 5ives now, why? Reliability! We play HARD, and the 5ive has been the most reliable platform of those we have experience with. One guy did buy a lightly used KM clone but he did a bunch of work on it over the winter and it looks and feels well sorted now, looking forward to seeing how it does this summer.

The really amazing part of the Losi is how few parts have broke, yes I've wore stuff out on it but I've only broken a few plastic parts in the four years I've had the truck and those parts took a ton of abuse before they broke, so you could say they just wore out also.

We're having a track maintenance day tomorrow and I can't wait to hang out with my buds and talk racing, I'm going to bring the "Rovan" just I case the track is dry enough to do a couple laps. My new carb has a leak on the fuel inlet nipple so the new Losi mill needs some TLC before it sees any track time.
 
Cool

U better fix that nipple on that carb buddy. :D LOL

That sounds Like fun, Glad you are having such good luck with your 5.

Ive done some digging on the net and don't see any kind of track anywhere near the Dallas,Texas area, and the Dallas Ft Worth area has a massive poppulation of arund 7.6 Million people and appears Im not finding any 1/5th scale off road tracks.
I believe there is a guy in the a town south of Ft Worth who has some property and a few poeple possibly used to gather for a group run. But even if they were a active race track that is still nearly 70 miles away from me in Dallas.

As long as I did not have to drop a bunch of cash to join and make yearly payment dues I would totally race my Rovan for sure.

Not really looking to drop a bunch of cash just to race my Rovan and drive several hours to do so.

But I would totally put my stock 5B Rovan up against any HPI or Losi any day.
Not saying I could out drive someone else but I sure as heck would try.

I kind of have a trick for when I used to Run my 3.3 70mph Rustler.


Get up as high as possible to have a better view of the car.
Makes all the difference in the world when navagating on a track.

Im sure that right away someone would get sideways if I showed up with a 25ft folding ladder to use while racing my %500 Dollar Rovan against $1500 Dollar Losi's and HPI's. Hahahahahaha I would prob be kicked off the track.

The most dangerous notion a young man can acquire is that there is no more room for originality.

All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed--only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle. Nikola Tesla
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4994.JPG
    IMG_4994.JPG
    340.5 KB · Views: 4
when I started running with this group I was quite impressed with how well the Bajas did against the 4x4s at first. Then I started tuning my chassis, LaMonte dumped his Baja pretty quick after that, Mark got tiered of the issues he was having with his Rovan Baja so he bought a Rovan SLT buggy and the problems continued, unfortunately.


The two DBXLs did pretty well with a few mods and tuning but they were both having issues.

The Vektas were pretty good but both guys running them were breaking rims so they both got alloy rims and started breaking stub axles, I think the solid rear axle is just too rigid, land a jump wrong and something has to give. Sounds like one of the Vektas got a bunch of billet upgrades this winter and one is being replaced with a 5ive, so there will be one non 5ive based truck yet this year.

I would like to get an MCD W5 Max, but with only two places in North America selling them parts could be an issue. Amazing engineering on them though!
 
Speaking of silencers, do they hurt performance? And what about the hose you can use to connect them? I think I saw somewhere that the hoses kill power
 
I know add on silencers kill HP, tried one on my Losi pipe. Not so sure with pipes like the silenced Victory, Bartolone, olimat,ect, ect. I know my buddies that run unsilenced sound more powerfull but my silenced victory piped 5ive has always been competitive on the track.
 
I've been looking at add-on silencers on DDM and really just want to quiet my machine, it's got the Baja SS tuned pipe and you can hear the freaking thing from half a mile away. I'm considering the x-can and dual silencers but don't know enough to make a decent decision
 
When I added the ddm carbon fiber silencer to my Losi pipe I could have just been running the stock can muffler, power was horrible. I have silenced Victorys on both of my trucks now and am very happy, but I still wonder if an unsilenced pipe would give me even more of the good stuff. Next time ddm has a deal of the day on unsilenced Victorys I might pick one up just for grins.
 
I added a silencer to the stock tuned pipe that came on my 36cc rovan and it did hurt performance a little but with some tuning wasn’t too bad.. still wheeled like crazy.. I just installed a silenced big-bore victory side pipe.. currently on sale at DDM just to try it... you know.. since it was on sale lol and OMG its a whole new buggy... doesn’t wheelie but only because it blisters the tires every time you stab the throttle... even after gearing it up to 18-56... May try going up another tooth if for no other reason but to save tires.. lol on my fourth set and only half way threw my 4th gallon of fuel... very impressed with the victory pipe so far though
 
"still wheeled like crazy"

Is that from a standstill?

I would love to see some video of that.

Muffler after a tuned pipe.

I would not think a muffler on the tip of a tuned pipe would take away any motor power.
There is no restrictions on a muffler that is mounted on the tip of a tuned pipe.Its only absorbing the sound waves.
By the time the exhaust gasses have gotten to the tip they are just exiting.
The tuned pipe makes the power inside of the pipe.
As long as the flow is not restricted for the gasses to exit.
I would say any notice in performance from a after tip muffler would just be from the weight of the muffler.

I have two different mufflers that go onto the end of my tuned pipe.
Both of them have the same diameter size flow as the tuned pipe tip.

The mufflers are straight threw.

Take a look.

IMG_5095.JPG
IMG_5096.JPG
IMG_5098.JPG
IMG_5099.JPG
 
Yes that was from a standstill.. after I installed a turtle racing snapper clutch just as it came with the “out of the box” springs and weights....I’ve since bought the tuning kit and changed to green springs and #4 weights which 1.. change the engagement from stock 6500rpm to around 7500-8000rpm and 2 the weight change from stock to #4 makes the clutch engage as hard as it can be VS stock having a bit of a slip to it which I think added in the instant wheelies... after making the changes above it made it surprisingly more drivable for me at least... and also ended the wheelies unless you were to hit a bump mid acceleration... then back on the wheelie bar it would go which to me was honestly useless because if you stayed in it it would over power it and flip on its roof anyways.. since changing to a silenced victory big bore side pipe it surprisingly added a ton more power down low and mid range but somehow made it more stable under all conditions while at the same time literally leaving black marks on concrete from a standstill now while also accelerating like mad.. also at the same time I removed the factory rovan wheelie bar and added a modified RC rear bumper.. the long version with the optional wheelie bar add on.. and so far I’ve tryed 2 different sets of rear tires and both sets were equally annihilated apon stabbing the throttle from a standstill from the over abundance of low end torque generated from the new pipe so I’ve yet to be able to test out the new wheelie bar.. but man is it a blast to drive! Lol
gasserbob said:
"still wheeled like crazy"

Is that from a standstill?

I would love to see some video of that.
Click to expand...
 
Wow thats really cool

Im gonna take a look at that clutch.
Do you remember who you bought it from?

You are saying the Snapper clutch hits really hard and you have toned it down a bit by installing the green springs with the #4 weights?

With the snapper clutch and the green springs and # 4 weights will it still wheelie from a standstill?
Currently my little rovan has a metal on metal clutch.
Im not sure If I will need the bucket or what is needed for the snapper 8000rpm clutch.
IMG_4991.JPG
 
I got mine while it was on sale at DDM... you will also have to purchase a snapper basket for the type of pinion you have... I’ve already upgraded to turtle racings HD clutch system... way more reliable than factory...and yes it toned it down by changing springs and weights because with the stock springs and weights the clutch would engage around 6500... however if you stab the throttle it would slip causing it to rev to almost 10,000 before full engagement which is what was causing the instant wheelies...there are several YouTube videos on the snapper clutch which will show you what I’m talking about.. a lot of people don’t like the snapper clutch... to each there own as they say.. I love mine... especially after tuning it with the tuning kit to get it to do what I want... and don’t get me wrong wheelies are awesome but after you have to go flip it back over about 20 times it begins to get really old lol
 
Back
Top
✖
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks