The Traxxas XMAXX
Review by Luke @ SHELDINATOR
After a long hiatus since childhood without touching an rc car I was always fascinated at these new style rcs with their recent trending category “called bashers”. Since I was aiming for a car that can do all of it at a very good level, my eyes were towards the XMAXX for its fascinating size, durability, very lightweight and cheap and easy maintenance.
From my 2 years’ experience now after owning the XMAXX, I can confirm that Traxxas works the opposite of Arrma. I found that Traxxas in general but especially in the XMAXX and now also the XRT, that the price tag can misguide people looking to buy an affordable RC, however, what most don’t understand is that the maintenance is quite cheap and easy to work on.
All the time working on the truck and money avoided in breaking or bending metal parts like most Arrma vehicles in the long run will bypass the slightly bigger price tag by miles.
What breaks and what are the easy and cheap solutions?
During my 2 years of experience with the truck all I have broken are the fans on the motor and the stock servo plastic gears inside it. The easy solution was to switch to the Traxxas metal gear set and upgrade to rocket fans which give much more cooling power and more durability for the fan itself.
What can be upgraded?
The one thing I definitely recommend upgrading is the rear Traxxas pin system as it does work but it shoots the pin out a lot on impact to prevent the hub from braking. So a good concept but annoying to have to put it back in every time. RPM hinge pins eliminate this issue by having a nut on the other end which prevents it from going anywhere! and boom no more breakages!
The Traxxas esc has a bad reputation due to the version 1 of the XMAXX and other cars from the past however I had never had an issue with mine for over a year before upgrading to the Hobbywing MAX6 as it is a direct fit in the truck and will allow for a wider range of gearing and a 160 amps power were as the stock Traxxas esc can go up to 120 amps.
Th rear hubs could be swapped with rpm enlarged and the front with the Traxxas enlarged hubs if you wish to, however not a very big difference if yours is the latest version as the newest version XMAXX (V3) comes stock with all the larger inner bearings from the box.
This mod was done on mine to be able to put bigger bearings since the version 1 and 2s didn’t come with it. But now you’re in the clear!
Overall, there is no doubt that purchasing an XMAXX as your first basher is the best thing you can do for yourself. Trust me… you’ll spend less than if you bought a cheap 200 dollar basher! because you’ll just end up getting another basher anyways ! and testing the waters with a cheap RC in my opinion is absolutely bs ! trying out bashing with a cheap car will not give you the same feeling that if your driving a 1/5 scale(ish) RC car at over 50 mph ! and jumping it over 20 ft in the air ! that’s an experience most cheap RCs will never give you !