My Rustler VXL Brushless: This Buggy Hates Me

A few months ago my brother in law, Matt, gifted me my first “real” (read: fast, expensive, not from Wal-Mart) car. Within 10 minutes of driving it, it just died. Judging by the smoke that came out of it when I plopped a new battery into it, it was doing it’s own version of spontaneous combustion.

So before I could bond with it, it dies. Matt takes it back to the hobby shop he goes to and they send it back to Traxxas in Texas. Two weeks later, the buggy is returned and appears to have a different motor in it, but a used one that’s chipped up. They take it for a test drive to make sure things are ok. It decides to melt itself again. Nice job Traxxas!! So, the hobby shop guy takes a brand new Rustler and pirates the guts out of it and plops it into mine. A week or so later we see Matt and he gives it to me. We drive it around the hotel parking lot a bit until the battery dies and that’s that. I own a problem free Rustler! Finally!

Little did I know.

I get it home and decide to take it for a little spin at the basketball court near our apartment. Literally one minute into driving it, the left front wheel just goes flying off and bouncing down the court. No crash, no dramatic turn — it just comes off.

Obviously, something must have come loose. I scour the area for the wheel parts but can’t find them. Evidently, the lug nut came off somewhere else.

The next morning I go to RC Country off of Folsom Blvd and get the replacement parts.  I fix the wheel and tighten up the other lugs. I own a problem free Rustler! Finally!

Not so fast…

The next time I drive it, I bump it into a curb at a pretty slow speed and some very important part that holds things together for the front right linkage / assembly or whatever the hell you call it just snaps. Nothing dramatic, just a little bump at 45 degree angle. But apparently, that’s a weak spot and my Rustler now has the equivalent of a leg fracture. I think I’ve driven it about 15 minutes total at this point. Maybe.

No worries though! Just get more parts! So I stop by RC Country after my Crossfit workout but they don’t open until 10:30 AM. This is annoying. I go home. I wait. I go back to RC Country and bring in the whole buggy with me because I have no idea what part or parts I need.

They don’t have the part but manage to find it in a package with some other things I’ll probably need at some point. I fix the part. I own a problem free Rustler! Finally!

Hold on now…

So two weeks ago we were up in Redding seeing Matt again and things were going swimmingly. I’d put the bigger / faster gear into my Rustler and he’d given me an early Christmas present of a big ass battery (a 5500) and a better charger along with some road tires. I’m tooling around this huge ass convention parking lot with my new road tires on and loving it. After a few minutes Matt gets his Nitro buggy going and just bangs it into mine just right, shattering the right rear linkage. Again, nothing dramatic, just a bump in just the right spot.

This buggy hates me.

So it’s back to the RC store and Matt sportingly gets the parts and winds up putting in stronger RPM parts on both sides in about five minutes. It would have taken me much, much longer. We go back to the lot and drive around and we’re amazed to see that the Rustler is almost as fast as his Nitro. This is without a LiPo battery. Putting a LiPo in will probably force him to put his 3.8 engine back in his Nitro. Ah, competition.

In the meantime, I’m just wondering which part is going to fly off or break next time.