THE ARRMA OUTCAST 8S
Review by Evo RC
The Outcast delivers the torque, acceleration and speed you need for extreme action in 5 scale. The truck used to come as ready to run RTR and as a roller EXB. The EXB series was discontinued in 2022.
Bigger than big, the Outcast is engineered for brute power and toughness. The truck features a metal reinforced design, metal shafts, turnbuckles and outdrives, metal internal gears and an extra rigid, laser etched, anodized aluminum chassis plate. It has a multi structured center brace system, rear lower chassis brace and strong composite chassis side pods. Extra thick molded composite front and rear shock towers that hold massive oil filled adjustable shocks.
The body arrives factory trimmed, painted and decaled. A center protection tower on the chassis interfaces with the roll cage for increased body durability. Its tough stunt truck wheels come outfitted with metal 24mm hex inserts and multi-terrain backflip tires.
The RTR version comes with the metallic red body, the Spektrum DX3 radio, AVC receiver, Spektrum Firma 160A smart ESC, Spektrum Firma 1250KV motor and the Spektrum S905 metal geared servo.
THE EXB VERSION
The RTR and the EXB version look very similar and some might think it’s just the electronics that’s missing in the EXB but it’s not so. The EXB comes with a range of upgraded parts which are not present in the RTR version.
“Designed Fast, Designed Tough” may be an understatement when describing the Outcast EXB. The EXB roller comes with a black matt body, no electronics but with upgraded tougher parts. Specifically tougher, thicker and stronger chassis plating, turnbuckles, suspension rods, turnbuckles, braces, bulkheads, front differential and rear differential.
The Outcast is a cool rig and is tough, we drove it off road, took it to the skateparks and it can really take the beating. With a Hobbywing 1100KV, a Hobbywing 160AMP MAX6, a 65KG Power HD king size servo.
Replaced the stock shocks with triple stock thick GPM springs. A word of caution on such large trucks, the chassis has to slap at some point, so replacing the stock shock fluid with a thicker fluid like 80W is really not a good idea. The shocks will be just too stiff and the weight of the rig will bend those shock rods.
If you’re planning on bashing and jumping then keep one thing in mind, weight. But keep it in mind on whatever you decide to install. The 3 sections to look out for are batteries, motor and ESC.
For jumps, go for light batteries with less MAH figures. Both the MAX6 and the MAX5 will do well in this truck but look out for the weight difference between. Even the weight difference between the Hobbywing 800KV and the 1100KV is worth noting. I mean, it depends what you’re going to use it for.
Gearing is tricky as the Outcast doesn’t have a spur, it has a gearbox, so gearing is difficult to calculate. A good guideline to keep in mind is that the gearbox results in a theoretical spur of around 60T. Hence pinions under 27T will not be enough. Some online experts have recommended using a pinion ranging between 27T and 34T. For bashing start off with a 27T pinion.
Also suggest going for some sort of chassis support if you’re going to bash it hard like the Radial RC bash bars.
It’s not all good with the Outcast, you can see a bunch of issues online which honestly have had no issues with so far. The arms shattering was something one would be weary about but it hasn’t been an issue either. Issues encountered so far, worth mentioning is the tires come off the glue from the rim.
The glue comes off and have started using really really good tire glue and they still come off. Very strange as with the smaller backflip tires on the 6S Fireteam it’s not an issue. We think it’s the tire rubber composition on the Outcast backflips, it’s a little too soft. This will probably not be an issue under normal usage, like driving around. But when you start giving it the throttle to pop up wheelies, yeah the issues start. We haven’t figured this one out yet. Going to try different tires and we’ll check back on this post with the results. A word of caution, putting in Proline Badlands is not a good idea if you’re going to jump it, those tires are too rigid and hard and will tremendously effect shock pistons, shock rods, arms and shock towers. The Outcast needs soft tires for harsh landings.
Overall our experience with the Outcast was a positive one. It’s a pity that the EXB version has been discontinued. That just sucks for who is into bashing like we are.