Building Rustler
 

I'm going to be making my sons Old School Rustler into BL. I need to know what to get as far as tranny, and if there is a diff-how to beef it up. I have the idler for it on it's way. I'm sure the half case is needed. Anything else?

Thanks

The best upgrade are, the vxl tranny internals and FLM Tranny case. After that the jato driveshaft mod is a nice thing to have, if the stock ones fail.

So the VXL Tranny should handle it all? What about the Diffs? I have an old version. and i mean old!

The new diff from the VXL has a steel outer gear which will hold up much better than the old plastic style. Also, the new slipper from the XL-5 or VXL version is a much better alternative to the old peg style slipper.

what bl are you putting in there?

thinking the MM 4600, 2s and 3s

I have used the Mamba maxes and personally I prefer the vxl. If I were to build another rustler I would get a mamba max esc, and a vxl motor. the best of both worlds IMO

If you buy the new vxl diff beware that the diff internal gears (planetary gears) are very hard and tend to break the teeth off I broke 3 sets in about 15 total minutes of drive time). I ended up using a set of really old planetary gears (shiny looking steel) and they work fine. Just a heads up in case you have issues.

I personally like the 4400kv 8s feigao, 12T and 8L c40 hackers with the mamba ESC. 6s1p A123 with the hackers is just nuts. I like the fact that the vxl is rebuildable, but its not a motor of my choice. I've driven the 4600KV with 4s1p A123 and it's impressive to say the least. I have the 7700kv mamba and that thing just runs hot all the time. Now it does dragracing duties only. The 5700 was ok for a while, but getting it replaced every so often got annoying.

Hey Lincpimp,

what kinda system do u have that make you break 3 sets of planetary gears. I have yet to break mine and I don't run a slipper at all.

It was in a ful flm pede with hyper 7 suspension. Had a 9l on 3s lipo with 18/56 gearing and 4.5" tall tires. The teeth on the planetary geras kept shearing off, like they we too brittle. I tried a vxl diff and the rcm all metal diff too with no difference. Only after I put the old gears back in the vxl diff did it work correctly.

Aaah, good to know man. When u say 18/56 gearing...was that with 32P gears

My cousin is running a mm5700 on 8 and 10 cells in a xl5. He broke a stock plastic diff, stock idler, and the stock axles. I would get the vxl diff gear, RCM idler (A+), and mip cvds.

So sounds like VXL with VXL gears(or old gears). I have the idler on the way as we speak. I will keep the old gears just in case. Seems easy to get to. I will get the half case as well. It's not going to be insane, just more power. My son is only 6! lol, but also want to play a little myself. I'll go with the VXL and see how it runs. If it is not up to par, I will change it out. I was thinking the CVD's as well, but will see how everything goes. Any other suggestions? I'm not looking to go crazy on this...just light BL

For the price of a new VXL Rusty, i may just do that. It comes iwth everything that is needed.

Not a bad idea. It really is hard to beat the price on them now. You can pick one up from Tower for just under $280 shipped (or for $265 shipped if you're a super saver member). About the only real hop up needed out of the box are the big bore AL shock caps or just replacing the shocks altogether. Oh, and of course, an upgraded radio certainly won't hurt.