I have seen alot of threads latley questioning the durability and power of the Rampage. I was in the same boat before recieving mine. So i thought i would share my thoughts coming from a newbie's perspective.
Out of the box this thing was alot bigger than i thought it was. When i pulled it out of the box, the first thing i did was look at the instructions and they were a joke. I threw them back in the box and decided to wing it. It was pretty self explanatory.
The first thing i was going to do was the Pre-Run Checklist but to be honest i didnt do it. I went over the buggy looking for any loose screws or anything that didnt look right. I noticed the nut on one of the gears was loose. I tightened it up ( Mistake ). I then loctited the wheels and put the stock batteries on the charger.
The next day i picked up some gas on the way home from work and this thing fired up in a few pulls. I did some adjustment to the throttle and went for its first test drive before it got dark. This thing was insanely slow and wouldnt even go through grass or up my driveway. I figured it needed some tuning.
The next day was a half day at work. I couldnt wait to get home and get this thing tuned. I grabbed my tools and headed to an abandoned parking lot. i started looking things over before i fired it up and realized the tranny was binding. After some thought i realized that i should have not tightened the gear nut. I backed it off about 1/2 a turn and fired the buggy up ( first pull ). I guess the binding tranny was my problem because it took off much better. I tuned the carb a bit and quickly realized this thing has definate power. I ran about a gallon through it that day as the rain poured down on me. I had flipped it, hit curbs at wot, jumped about 6' landing on concrete. You name it, i did it. I put it through pure torture and just tweaked my front bumper a bit and knocked off the exhaust pipe during a rollover ( it runs much better without it).
Next day was my day off and i planned on bashing all day. When i went out in the garage that morning my throttle servo wasnt working. I fiddled with it, nothing. I then took it apart and put it back together and it would work but glitched a ton. I tried to take it out and ended up with a runaway truck. I am thinking some rain had gotten into the servo from the day before. I ended up pulling a servo out of a traxxas i had laying around. Worked great!
Yesterday i pulled it out for some more heavy bashing. Everything worked flawlessly until the end. A dogbone pin came out on me ( if i would have followed the checklist, it wouldnt have happened). I ran down to Harbour Frieght and got some roll pins. Problem fixed and i bashed for about another hour.
This is by far the toughest RC i have ever owned. I have already wrecked it several times that would have crippled a smaller scale car. I am also very surprised on the power once tuned right. I was really expecting something slow, but this thing almost instantly gets into the powerband and likes to stay there. The 4wd works great and this buggy handles very well. You really don't notice how heavy it is because of the agility. I am extremly happy with the buggy and cannot find any complaints. The very few issues i have had, is my own fault.
By the way, the buggy is completly stock. I have not changed anything out on it except for the throttle servo which i replaced with a junk one.
Out of the box this thing was alot bigger than i thought it was. When i pulled it out of the box, the first thing i did was look at the instructions and they were a joke. I threw them back in the box and decided to wing it. It was pretty self explanatory.
The first thing i was going to do was the Pre-Run Checklist but to be honest i didnt do it. I went over the buggy looking for any loose screws or anything that didnt look right. I noticed the nut on one of the gears was loose. I tightened it up ( Mistake ). I then loctited the wheels and put the stock batteries on the charger.
The next day i picked up some gas on the way home from work and this thing fired up in a few pulls. I did some adjustment to the throttle and went for its first test drive before it got dark. This thing was insanely slow and wouldnt even go through grass or up my driveway. I figured it needed some tuning.
The next day was a half day at work. I couldnt wait to get home and get this thing tuned. I grabbed my tools and headed to an abandoned parking lot. i started looking things over before i fired it up and realized the tranny was binding. After some thought i realized that i should have not tightened the gear nut. I backed it off about 1/2 a turn and fired the buggy up ( first pull ). I guess the binding tranny was my problem because it took off much better. I tuned the carb a bit and quickly realized this thing has definate power. I ran about a gallon through it that day as the rain poured down on me. I had flipped it, hit curbs at wot, jumped about 6' landing on concrete. You name it, i did it. I put it through pure torture and just tweaked my front bumper a bit and knocked off the exhaust pipe during a rollover ( it runs much better without it).
Next day was my day off and i planned on bashing all day. When i went out in the garage that morning my throttle servo wasnt working. I fiddled with it, nothing. I then took it apart and put it back together and it would work but glitched a ton. I tried to take it out and ended up with a runaway truck. I am thinking some rain had gotten into the servo from the day before. I ended up pulling a servo out of a traxxas i had laying around. Worked great!
Yesterday i pulled it out for some more heavy bashing. Everything worked flawlessly until the end. A dogbone pin came out on me ( if i would have followed the checklist, it wouldnt have happened). I ran down to Harbour Frieght and got some roll pins. Problem fixed and i bashed for about another hour.
This is by far the toughest RC i have ever owned. I have already wrecked it several times that would have crippled a smaller scale car. I am also very surprised on the power once tuned right. I was really expecting something slow, but this thing almost instantly gets into the powerband and likes to stay there. The 4wd works great and this buggy handles very well. You really don't notice how heavy it is because of the agility. I am extremly happy with the buggy and cannot find any complaints. The very few issues i have had, is my own fault.
By the way, the buggy is completly stock. I have not changed anything out on it except for the throttle servo which i replaced with a junk one.