lessons learned

[bifft it]

dont break your truck......treat it like piece of finely crafted silk. everybody else has broken those parts and you will wait at least 6 weeks to get the replacement parts. if the parts are available, you will wait at least 10 days for them to arrive at your doorstep.
dont ask your 3 not so local hobby shops(100 miles away) about specific servos as they have never heard of them and they are sold out at the website
dont go to ofna website and try to find 9.5 bellhousing mounts as they are nowhere to be found and any info as to where to find the tank is almost non-existent!
so any of you new guys that have a nice pretty shiny new gas powered traxxas car, my advise to you is to build a nice pretty shelf in your garage and set that bad-boy on it so you can go out and stare at your investment knowing that there are hundreds of hobbiests out there pulling their hair out trying to get parts and yours is on that shelf as pristine as the day you got it out of the box!

[newtmaxxguy]

LOL wher do you live that it takes that long to get parts ?? triy e bay there are allot of chop shops that but brand new t maxx trucks and tear them down and sell them as parts.

[gforce54]

Err..... doesn't happen to me often.... I also keep some extra parts that I break every once in a while just so I don't have to order them (my LHS is 30 mins away, but I do go there sometimes anyway, since the guys there are very nice). Anyway, I agree with newtmaxxguy that ebay is a great place to get parts. Buytraxxas.com is the place I always go if I don't feel like buying aftermarket parts. Although, Texas is a 3 day drive away, but that's not that long of a wait for me.

[newtmaxxguy]

once you get some good strong parts in key area's you will see these trucks can take a beating. The strongest out there are RPM a-arms and shock towers.
you should alwase ask on this site before buying parts you can get allot of good info on this site and it will save you allot of $$ in parts and allot of time.

[rcdriver5]

Wow I must be lucky, there's two (used to be like 5) hobby shops within 15 miles if my house. But like they said, once you break stuff and update it with stronger parts, you won't be needing to get parts as often.

[bifft it]

yea, well truck new "out of the box" had some cut wires. 8 day wait for new harness from plano.edited out for language filter, i coulda drove to texas and back in the time it took for postal service.
I live in Jamestown, ND
its hard to get a toolbox full of spare parts when nobody has the parts to sell. ordered a kit of integey suspension parts the other day. they dont even expect to fill the order till end of may! ordered $300 worth of parts and all they could ship today was the aluminum bulkhead braces lol $2.98

You have 45 minutes to edit out anything that triggers the language filter, it will replace anything it deems inappropriate with asterisks, failure to do so can get you a warning or points

[guardog]

Many great R/C stores on Ebay that have tons of parts and super fast shipping

[brett.schroder]

Unless you were serious about making a shelf queen, you may want to cancel the Integy order. Read a few of the reviews and threads on forums where they talk about Integy products, they only have a few select parts that are worth while (none are suspension related). Look at RPM for whatever you can, especially A-Arms. Once the Integy bulkhead gives out you may want to look into a higher quality aluminum one. Shock towers will probably get you mixed reviews, some say alum whule others say RPM, I think you'll be okay with the RPM as long as you don't try the 4 shock set up. If you do get the Integy kit I wish you the best of luck with it, maybe you'll luck out and have a decent set.

[Wildman4910]

ordered a kit of integey suspension parts the other day. they dont even expect to fill the order till end of may! ordered $300 worth of parts and all they could ship today was the aluminum bulkhead braces lol $2.98

Cancel that order, Integy only for shock springs & Ti tools, the rest of their junk is junk.
It's real pretty but soft like warm butter.

Getcha some RPM arms, some good bulkheads~traxxas, ancnm, great assembly, golden horizons to name a few.

If you look at the Big Bores they need stiffer springs right away the ones that come on them are weak.

Ebay has almost any stock part you want when you want it when other sources don't have it.

Before droppin a huge pile of coin on "upgrades" ask first, it can save you lots of aggravation & wallet pain.

[Phil Mc Cracken]

maybe you should have reserched that stuff before getting into this hobby have more than 1 truck running like the others stated ebay is a great source for parts and stay away from integy parts i beat the heck out of my max its 4 yrs old alot of my parts are still stock!!

[guardog]

I put integy A-arms on my maxx and tore them back off in two weeks. They rubbed on the axles bad. A real pain. I agree that RPM is the way to go however I just put my stock ones back on and they are holding up fine

[maddasterd]

A quick search at tower hobbies turned up an
ofna violator tank part# 40109 in stock for under
14$.
Also I think your looking for ofna part# 36740
It's the servo saver kit but has the mounts you want
for the tank. Under 13$.
Also check out this servo part# 32645s. It's
Well worth the 32$.
All parts listed are in stock and they offer many
Options on shipping so you could be off the shelf
By this weekend!
Good luck.

[bifft it]

the aluminum a-arms are bought now.....will try them out n see how long till they break. i have not broken an a arm yet just 3 sets of bulkheads and an exhaust manifold. ordered the tank and a bunch of other stuff yesterday. wifeys tellin me i need to slow down after 1k in the last week. so will see how things go after i get all these new parts

[bifft it]

what kinda springs? i noticed right off the bat that the suspension seemed mushy

[maddasterd]

I kept the springs and put 80k shock oil in mine.
Very noticeable difference.

[Wildman4910]

what kinda springs? i noticed right off the bat that the suspension seemed mushy

Traxxas progressives, RCRaven, RCBoyz, VG racing, Integy springs are all good choices for a stiffer rate/duel rate spring.

[Nitronaught]

Ahh the frustrations of this hobby....

You will find in the early stages of this hobby money seems to fly out the window and parts seem to break a lot....

I add this up to 1 thing.... Experience....

First thing I had to learn was how to drive and how to tune.... One important part is those things called brakes.....

After that, it was not to get into the hop ups too soon. Take your time. You will find after a little bit that crashes aren't as bad, things to upgrade to help those occasional nasty wrecks.... I'd say after my first year things started to break much less... Now it's mainly maintenance, upgrades, mods.... Not repairs....

The more experience you get with the TMAXX the more you will learn what to upgrade and what not... And what to use...

Always search (advanced search works best), on any upgrade you are planning or purchasing BEFORE you make that jump.... It can save you a bundle..

[bifft it]

good advice