Backpack sized off-roader?
 

Hi there everyone, getting back into RC again after a good period away from the fun!

I'm looking for something brushless which I can cycle with, on my back. I bought a Brushless E-Revo last year but due to the size of it, I had to cycle with a massive holdall bag on my side, which was just no use at all.

So something backpack sized, preferably brushless. Reccomendations? I was thinking along the lines of a Rustler or Mini E-Revo etc...

Edit: Forgot to mention, it will be used for light off-road duty, grass, gravel drifting fun and small-medium jumps.

Thanks,
Darren :smile:

The mini revo can be fun but only on smooth surfaces doig high speed runs. In my experience it doesn't handle jumps all that well nor does it handle grass very well. The tires are to small to make it through grass or over much more than a pebble, it also doesn't handle turns very well. The new 4x4 Stampede might be a better choice if you want 4 wheel drive. If 2wd will fill your needs something like a Rustler or RC10T4 would be good choices, or you could go with a short course truck and get into some racing action here and there and have a blast. However the short course trucks do get rather large with the body on them.

The new brushless Summit will probably be good. Mini E-revo size, with bigger wheels and some minor upgrades. http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...y-Wall-Charger

Check out the youtube vids. It handles offroad terrain extremely well.

Either that, or you could buy a 1:10 or 1:8 sized monster, like the Flux, Summit, AX10 crawler, etc, and take off the wheels and just screw them back on when you've arrived. I think that will easily fit in a backpack, and it just takes a minute to screw the wheels back on.

I went with a tamiya madbull for my back-pack sized basher; just have to take the wheels off and it fits perfectly, along with a Spetrum DX6i stick radio, 2x 2s 3000mah lipos & a few essential tools. Only 2wd but its a lot of fun on grass, dirt and tarmac.

Glad to see other guys coming back to rc (like me :-)

Though I'd recommend something 1/10 scale for backpack use as even a 1/8th buggy is heavy loaded with batteries, radio, tools and spare parts. I would say a RC10T4.1 running 2s on a brushless 5700kv motor would hold up well to minor abuse bashing and be track worthy for light racing. Just make sure to get the version with a geared differential vs ball as it will cut down on maintenance. (this weekend castle creations has the mamba max/motor combos on sale for $150 minus 20% for black Friday. Can't beat that, period.)

A pair of hard case 5000mah 2s lipo's with a 40c constant rating should give you better than an hours worth of play time without a recharge... If you can go that long without breaking something :-)

If you wanted to do some HARD bashing without breakage then I'd go 8th scale buggy, 6s lipo, and not carry many spares/tools in the pack. Three or four spare batts for run time, a nutrigrain bar and an energy drink to get you home if there are hills involved hahaha :-)

The Hyper TT 1/10 scale truggy!

http://www.nitrohouse.com/Car-Kits-E...duct_info.html

I just ordered one. Seem incredibly tough, small, and fun. Run it on various 2s lipos...

I like to be able to go out and bash without breaking stuff. For that, you are pretty much limited to 8th scale stuff, or maybe something like a Losi TenT (but that's really close to an 8th scale buggy in size) or a CRT.5.

Sorry to hijack, but everyone brags about how durrable the CRT.5 is. I got rid of mine, I think I found every week point on the truck, I spent more time waiting for parts than enjoying it! 1/8 scale is by far the most durable thing I have ever had but hardly something you can throw in a back pack. It's hard to have a compromise of size and durability. If you weren't going off road with it a rc18t would be perfect, next to my 1/8 scale it's the most reliable thing I have, if the shocks weren't so far forward and didn't get damaged so easily it would be rock solid.

I guess everyone has their "Achilles Heel" vehicle (mine is the XT8), but I've beat the snot out of the CRT.5 and the only troubles I have had is finding a micro steering servo that will hold up and breaking one of the diff ring gears (I think it was a bad mold because it broke in an odd place).

One thing to add to this thread, it doesn't matter what vehicle we are talking about, the faster it can go the more parts you can break!

Yeah, true that!

I've owned two Savages, a Revo, brushless E-Revo, twin 9XL Supermaxx. I know how strong the 10th and 8th scale monster trucks are, but I really dont plan to be jumping this thing off buildings any time soon. It's mostly going to be used for flying quickly over difficult terrain, practice my driving skill, with the occasional jump, nothing higher than 3 feet or so, I don't think.

I forgot to mention, weight isn't much of an issue, I cycle upwards of 100 miles a week :).

The new 4x4 VXL Stampede looks very nice, if I don't go too nuts with the wheels and tyres, I think it may just fit into a backpack.

Just noticed that the Hyper 10TT uses a 540 sized motor, must be... interesting.

Mini Hyper STe, or the 10TT, with light 1/8 motor(novak, 1509 NEU, medusa 50). Fast fun.

Thomas G

On the topic of backpack sized offroaders, I just received my Mini Hyper ST-E a couple of days ago. Haven't seen it yet (Not home at the moment.), but really looking forward to trying it out. Anyone have any idea what size mount that comes with it?

Yeah, a lot of people are running short course 540 motors, or small 550 cans.
The total length is 14 inches (WB of 11"), and 12 inches wide. With electronics and a 2s battery the thing weighs under 6lbs.

Also, if you wanted to bash, you can always get the stock rims and some 2.2 masher 2ks or badlands or something...

The CC 1410 1Y would be a pretty good motor for that truck

Hi,I use bungies to hold my MMM'd summit when I'm heading up the hills.Just hook 'em up to the carry loop/top of shoulder straps( Above where it'll dig in) and loop 'em through the bumper/A arms.I sewed some straps onto a different back pack,but it got covered in dog poo from the truck :(

Or get a bike designed for hauling.

Here is my Giant Transport. I use it every weekend in the summer to go to the track. Strap the truggy on the front rack, and the pit bag to the rear.

It's a neat bike, because the racks are hinged and can collapse. Very heavy duty. Here it is. In the second pic, it's the center bike (see how the racks can fold down over the rear tire). Pardon the pics with adult content:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...g?t=1290904721
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...g?t=1290904721

Love the first pic !
Thats gettin' R done .

Loving that Transport, definetly seems the best solution. Panniers are a possibility I guess... but it's hard to find a front one for my bike. I'm sure I could whip up something though.

So, panniers that can fit an 10th or 8th scale truck are a possibility... Bye bye student loan :yipi:!

I dont know what kind Mountain Biking you do, but I'd stick with a back pack load if it were me. Putting it on the front and that 10 lb load would greatly impact my ability to lift the front wheel off the ground. Putting it on the back might be dangerous for my family life in crashes.....

Get yourself something along the lines of a stampede or RC10GT.

I do lots of road riding on an XC bike during the week to Uni, other than that I do a bit of Downhill. I can stick to the road and ride like an old lady, refusing to remove tyres from the road if I have to, it's not much of a problem. A backpack just seems more secure and weatherproof to me...

You can always get a backpack designed for skateboarding, they have a big strap on the back to hold skateboards, maybe you could use it to hold water car you want and but the rest of the stuff inside the bag? As for an actual RC, if I was in your position I'd get a 4x4 Stampede, Hyper 10 Truggy, or an 1/8 buggy.

Honestly I've found ways to bike with a hyper st with hpi terra pins an lx1-e and an e-maxx (all with wheels off) all in a regular school bag or one of my huge army bags. It all works out if you pack it well an make sure the zippers won't open when your riding.

Decided on a Revo VXL. Bought another of the Traxxas packs with it, along with a series and parallel connector set. Got the extended rear arms too. Should be here tomorrow, can't wait to give it a blast in the snow!

Couldn't find a reliable answer to this though: Does the Traxxas 2.4GHz use 4 or 8 AA batteries? The manual says four, towerhobbies and other places say eight.

According to the box art it says 4 AAs too, so I'd trust that over towerhobbies. Then again, traxxas may be lying just to annoy you... :lol:

Hi,My traxxas 2.4ghz takes 8 batteries.The losi 2.4's take 4 though :)

Both of mine are 4 AA's. Mine are the "Link" 5 channel versions.

Mine took 4, just sold it

So, got the truck this morning, perfect little thing, great size! However, I got the Traxxas battery and charged it at 1A for about 40 minutes and I was somewhat unimpressed with the power of the truck. Perhaps the burn-in of the motor is the problem, but I tried to charge the battery and the charge light flashed, usually it glows. So I'm thinking there's a problem with the battery... I charged another pack and the performance seemed the same, just seemed like the acceleration wasn't as good as what I'd expected from watching videos of other stock ones. Could be my slipper set quite loose...

Are the standard battery packs really that bad?

1A for 40 minutes isn't a full charge from dead. I would try charging at 2A. Power from the stock battery isn't incredible but it is decent. Also take into account that most of the videos you see, they will be using 2 or 3s lipos, the truck is still stock but it doesn't mean the battery is. Also yes, out of the box the slipper is loose, I had to tighten mine up.

I know, but comparing my truck to this video where he is using the included battery : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbRAGuXmPZM, mine isnt close to that.

I know it's not a full charge aswell, but i'd expect even a half charge to give a good indication of the power in the system. My brushless cars of the past were just as quick at half charge pretty much, as they were at full charge.

I'll give it a proper going over tomorrow, and try get a snow video using the phone I get tomorrow when it arrives! :)

Had it out today in the snow, and it suddenly started cogging, really badly. To the point where you almost need to stay on full throttle to avoid it. Batteries are fine (Using the standard packs), sometimes the steering servo -when turned slowly and not moving the truck- doesn't respond until you give a bit of throttle, even a single 'cog' to send some power through the truck. I tried changing the CH1 position on the reciever and the problem remains. I also re-linked the Tx/Rx, still the same problem.

Here is a video of what happens when I put two 6 cell packs in series and try to run the truck:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt0y8Cx8lQM

Any thoughts?

To me it sounds like the battery is crap. It could be dropping to a low voltage and causing drop outs in the rx. Would explain the weak servo and low power output.

Are you sure you are running them in series? That's ~12-14V+
If that's true, you may have other problems...

Yup, the video was done in series. I have tried a single pack and two in parallel, all with the same result.

Both batteries are pretty much fully charged.

Try disconnecting the servo, try another receiver and radio, and go over the wires to make sure its all connected tight and right.

It almost sounds like there is a pebble in the gears or something

Checked everything just now, everything's connected fine. Tried disconnecting the servo and still had the same problem.

I don't think there is, everything's sealed and if you put it on a single 6 cell pack, the wheels will spin consistantly as long as you give it 60%+ throttle.


I'm starting to think that the ESC is at fault and I should just return it to get replaced under warranty? Also the front bulkheads have a few 'holes' in them. Like there has been bubbles in the plastic moulds :neutral:, interesting.

I had a "hole" in my front bulk too. I figured out what it was for though, just before I sold it I had to replace the front diff. There is a long screw that you access through that hole after you pull the suspension pin out

Aah, that makes sense.

On the plus-side. I tried the revo again this morning, and its fine :mdr:.

What did you do to fix it. Did you read the manual or was it some other last resort?:mdr: