Looking for cheap truck are these any good?

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M

muell

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highland
Im looking for a cheap firehammer, carson or other mt saw these on ebay just wondered if anyone had any experience with them. They look almost identical to the firehammer except fro the front bumper. He also sells them with a truck body but cant find any auctions going right now. I really just want to know if there the same qaulity as firehammer or carson or smartech and if that is a good bin price. thanks

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-5-SCALE-RC-RT...ryZ19168QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
That is identical to a Firehammer MT by Duratrax (or Smartech Bigfoot, etc.). I'm not certain about the engine though. I wonder who makes it (either CY or Zenoah or someone else). I would only stick with a CY or a Zenoah. It's probably a CY but it would be a good question to ask this guy selling it.

The radios that come with these (including the duratrax) suck. A 2.4ghz radio is the way to go so you would eventually want to upgrade.

The best and most needed upgrades: Steel pinion/steel spur (72 bucks on ebay), alloy diff housing (80 bucks, made by fg)- the plastic will eventually break and then you'll also be out the gears it strips, a tuned pipe (between 75 and 170 bucks), outerwears, alloy motor mounts (around 80 bucks plus from Germany).

The thing that bugs me about that deal is that it is 500 bucks and 150+ shipping.

The quality should be the same since it's all supposedly made in the same factory (duratrax,smartech, etc.)
 
Also, to be honest, with the price of a RTR HPI Baja, you can't go wrong right now. I have the FHMT and the HPI Baja. I prefer the Baja...don't get me wrong, I love my FHMT, but the parts support for the Baja is outstanding. You get a helluva car for an extra couple hundred. Go check out hpibajaforum.com and read up. It would be worth saving a bit up to get the Baja, in my opinion.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-BAJA-5B-GAS...ryZ44029QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
These are the TQ brand, and to be honest....they SUCK! I had to replace nearly every part with Duratrax parts. The engine is a really cheap knock-off. The outershell is cheap, brittle ABS plastic, not lexan, and breaks if you look at it. If I had my time over, I would go with the Baja, or the Smartech Titan/Carson Gas-Devil.

Having said that, I have mine to a point where I am very happy with it...but it costs $$$.
 
millrod96 said:
These are the TQ brand, and to be honest....they SUCK! I had to replace nearly every part with Duratrax parts. The engine is a really cheap knock-off. The outershell is cheap, brittle ABS plastic, not lexan, and breaks if you look at it. If I had my time over, I would go with the Baja, or the Smartech Titan/Carson Gas-Devil.

Having said that, I have mine to a point where I am very happy with it...but it costs $$$.
Click to expand...

That's not good!
 
Thanks for the link seams like decent prices. And thanks for the warning about the TQ brand. I already have a baja ss (not built yet) Im just looking for a truck also.
 
Yep, TQ are NOT made in the same factory as Carson/Firehammer. They are garbage. I got one from the factory to test prior to selling them and that was the last one I got.
There is another factory starting to make their own version of this truck and I have tried them and I do like this one. Comes with front disc brakes, tuned pipe, programmable radio (or no radio), CY27 and has other little improvements here and there which make it better than all the others.
 
After further testing I'm not real happy. Once you have experienced decent cars that are not made in China (or made in China by a non Chinese company) you soon realise what utter garbage most of the Chinese stuff is, its like they deliberatey make them with problems.
 
If your looking for cheap !! here's one for you www.hobbytron.com they have what looks like a Firehammer 489.00 plus $21.00 for shipping. It's on there, you just have to look around the website for it. I think it's under rc buggys. I believe that it's also a TQ, but not 100% sure.
 
I have 2 of the Tq's since i live near the guy that you posted on ebay and i pick them up from him directly. You are correct about the plastics quality. But i paid $460 for the first truck and it cost me about $75 from tower to get most of the troublesome plastic parts replaced with duratrax parts. The rims are also shotty on this truck and you will break the square hub right out of them eventually but I don't like the black rims, or the white ones that come with duratrax so i wasnt worried since i was going to fleabay some FG chrome rims. The body is garbage but i like to custom paint clear ones anyhow ( my g/f wont drive hers if it aint Hot PINK lol) The most problematic plastics on this truck was the rear suspension. The shock tower will break on you and when it does it will probably take out one of the lower arm ball cups and will rip the support for the upper arm pin on the bulkhead. On the second truck i fabricated an aluminum shock tower that mounts directly to the existing one with spacers so the shock bolt is supported on both sides instead of just one. The shock tower on that truck with the support has been fine so far. Lets see , oh yeah the air filter looks cool but you better replace it with a better one. Also it does not come with the side guards that the duratrax MT comes with. The receiver battery holder sucks. The batteries will pop out and you will lose control of the truck so you can either throw in a prebuilt pack or electrical tape the batteries in so they don't Jar loose. The engine has been fine. So far i have put about $250 into it ($75 parts, $70 clear body and paint, and alittle over $100 for wheels) all together about $700 total for 1 truck. Now im not saying go out and buy them up like crazy. I think for most people they would be better off saving for a firehammer or smartech.
 
PDR_0029.gif

Ok i had a picture laying around of the brace. I just traced out the upper half of the shock tower and cut it out on a band saw, all the screws were long enough so i just added 4 mm thick flat washers, rib washer and nut.

PDR_0033.gif

This is the same one its still the crap plastic TQ shock tower but i cut off the provisions for what im assuming are mounts for sway bars. When the shock tower broke on the other truck the suspension bottomed out immedietly and caused the ballcup to hit the sway bar mount, which in turn broke the ball cup, Once that happened The truck still had some throttle applied to it so the lower suspension arm twisted forward Which then ended up breaking the bulkhead mount for the upper arm and threw the dogbone, which I spent an hour trying to find, I finally gave up looking for it and a couple days later i find it wedged between the motor and the bottom plate hahaha go figure. So anyways i just got rid of the sway bar mounts just in case.

My G/F babies her truck so it will live a sheltered life, but honestly when it comes to me you could just have an ON/OFF switch for the throttle thats all I KNOW!! First 15 minutes after breaking mine in i made it jump a curb, it went 5 feet in the air and landed on pavement on its roof, woooo what a show it put on with broken body pieces exploding everywhere( From the original TQ body that is) lol. Just that crash alone broke one of the front bumper mounts, Took out the rear body mounts ( snapped one right off) And of course obliterated the body.
 
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