tizeye wrote:... . We want to buy about 6-10 short course trucks and hire them out on a per race basis.
... So in a hire situation which brand of truck is going to take the punishment the best. I've been reading that the Slash has a few weak spots in the hub carriers and with the shocks poping their end caps...I've also heard that the HPI Blitz is made of stronger nylon than the Traxxas truck and can take more knocks...so guys what do you think is the best option.? or is there an alternative brand that I don't know of that can take the abuse?
...What I like about the Traxxas is the pro/novice switch, that has all sorts of advantages in a hire situation..
Blitz is a relative newcomer to the field and although last 2-3 mths' user reports sounding very tough,
it really hasn't been out there in the market all that long.
Other problem is that its sold RTR with the SC-15 ESC which is neither waterproof or lipo cutoff equipped.
RX is also exposed; both of which make it rather vulnerable to moisture anywhere (=mud).
Weatherproof electronics are always tougher imho.
Slash otoh... is proving unbreakable (let's just say i've been doing some research

)
Comes stock with XL5 ESC (waterproof, 7c capable, 3 modes incl training 50%) and RX in a sealed box.
Titan 12T 550 motor is no slouch; if you replace that with stock 540s it'll run forever.
Sideways has a deal with Traxxas importer Southern Hobbies so maybe there's some
sweetener involved but even so, its a pretty good truck for any Hertz fleet.
If there's no trouble getting supply & parts from the kiwi distributor, go Slash.
Sideways have upgraded whole fleet to run Spektrum radios (no freq clash) and
Velineon brushless (lower maintenance); all run on 7.2V NiMH packs on non-Traxxas plugs.
For kiddies they simply turn down the ATV on the TX to 50%... just program 2 model profiles
Failures so far are mainly popping the caps off the shocks - they have a crazy skijump arena btw.
Solved by topping the plastic shocks with the option alloy caps. Shocktower screws undo themselves;
they've been supergluing them in but i've suggested to them to replace each pair of screws
(shock + bodymount has 1 screw each) with single longer screw and use a nyloc nut instead.
Servosaver gets loose & sloppy after a few hits, they just replace with std stock spare.
They're running stock gearcase covers if you don't mind cleaning out every so often;
swap to RPM cover if you want to avoid the silly gap which lets crud in.