Follow Up Review - HobbyKing Quanum Vandal (also sold as: FTX Vantage, INTEGY i10B, VRX/RiverHobby Spirit, Arrowind - truggy)

Follow Up Review - HobbyKing Quanum Vandal

Intro

The initial review ended with a brushed choice of motor and ESC. They were terrible!!! At first run with 3S LiFePO4 after 20 meters the ESC would stop... And the speed was sooo lame, like 5 Mph.

After this I went back to brushless 3300KV and the truggy body. It was fun to run at the track, and in the park. That is until a screw untightened and I lost a dogbone from the back. That was fun... at HobbyKing it was in BACKORDER, at the local store not in stock as well, a 4mm shorter version from HSP/Ebay proved to be too short after a pack and popped out (lost). The FTX Vantage part from Ebay (FTX Vantage: Rear Drive Shaft (1pc) FTX6214) saved me, as it was a perfect fit :)

Mods

CVD's

Some more pack (yes, one) and the front left CVD broke! I think the reason was the big wheels (the chassis would not bottom out before suspension and that may have caused stress on the CVD's)! The CVD's are among the expensive parts for this buggy, so i had to search for a replacement/workaround (I also ordered a spare from HobbyKing just in case). I thought that a stronger (and cheaper) alternative would be to use regular dogbones, but that wasn't an option for none of the buggies on the market (Vandal, Vantage, Spirit, etc.). Next thought was to use back wheel axle and dogbones in the front, but the dogbones were too short. This is the part that is long enough to reach the cup holders:

06061 Dogbone 84mm 2P RC HSP 1/10th 4WD Off-Road Car Truck 94166 94155

So, yeah, the back wheel axle with these dogbones and you have a dogbone front powertrain (i have them in my toolbox as a quick fix/backup) :)

Almost forgot, but now I have installed the old CVD that was broken! The part that broke was a small 2.5mm pin near the wheel. I replaced that with a portion of a body clip (same thickness, 2.5mm) and it is working great!

Front Bumper

Another reason for the broken CVD pin may have been the lack of front bumper adjusted for the bigger wheels!

See the tiny bumper above

I wanted to buy the truggy (MT) bumper from VRX Sword (FTX Carnage) but that was not in stock with the local store! What was in stock was even better! The SC (yes, there is also a short course using the same platform - different chassis, arm length - but same gearboxes, mounting points, shocks, shock towers, etc.) bumper:

RO link: http://www.speedrc.ro/cumpara/set-bara-de-protectie-fata-pentru-vrx-dt5-sc-ebd-7729867

Here are the results (with a new beetle body):

The bumper was a perfect fit (I needed 2 longer screws) and seems to be pretty flexible! i don't know how it holds, but time will tell!

Shock covers

I like to run it in the dirt. I don't like to replace oil and clean the shocks! Shock cover had to be made, so I did using a sewing machine and waterproof kite fabric from ebay.

Final thoughts

This buggy (well, not so buggy now, is it) is fast on 3S (I need new tires, these that I have are terrible - no grip on any surface) and fun to drive. Except the unloose screw, broken CVD pin and body posts nothing broke! The plastic is pretty flexible and durable!