Street Price as tested about $170 each.
Initially when I first wrote this I begged for the opportunity to evaluate some test units from Traxxas, so I had to steal some test time with friends' new XL-5 rigs, but since then I have gotten my hands on both of these models and also the new Bandit as I reviewed in the July 2007 issue of RC Car Magazine. Done full tear downs, and detailed inspections.
The Initial Gut Review - Style Points
Although not new from the ground up, Traxxas has done a great job of bringing some cool to the party with these newly updated entry level R/Cs. To barrow a phase from Paris Hilton, the first time I looked at the pair I though "That's Hot". Traxxas definitely hit all my urban redneck buttons on this redo with the style update. Both just look fast even standing still - that is if have the willpower to just let them sit there.
Although a skeptic of the new gray chassis material, it does look a lot better in person than the old
The wheels and tires are just too cool. Yes gone are the redneck cowboy 1990'ish hard as plastic "when the heck are these going to actually wear out so I can buy good tires." In are some Jato inspired low profile style tires with stickier compound and an actual usable tread pattern. Oversized rims retain standard overall tire dimensions all while performing better and providing that slammed look unlike any stock tire/wheel combo available.
Again thinking that Paris Hilton phase, the ESC looks like a mini nuclear fusion reactor dressed in yellow. Personally I love it. An ESC with style, leave it to Traxxas to bring it with a little of "the my ESC is better than yours and mine is stock" look with technical specs to back it up. I would image there will be a lot of these little buggers sold as upgrade ESCs for the vintage electrics still out there in circulation. Way to go Traxxas.
The Titan, is not much in the way of looks, stainless can with a torque sleeve and sticker applied, but it sure does look beefy. And perceptively bigger than the old Stinger.
The gray shocks I could take or leave. My initial impression is that they are attempting to make you think they are aluminum. After a second look I would imagine that the new material color combo was simply used for major components (chassis to shocks) and as a result the shocks were also gray like the chassis. Sure, whatever, my R/Cs tends to spend more time in use than as art work, so as long as they work, (they should work even better now with improved seals), I am a happy camper. Others in the market are offering adjustable camber links, bearings, and adjustable shocks at this price so Traxxas better start to step up a little with the amenities.
The new transmitter gun includes updated graphics, but other than that it seems and feels like the same old reliable transmitter that has been wedged in my hand over the last couple of years. No complaints last time, none now.
The Want List - Give it to me Now!
Like the little brat in Willy Wonka, we all want it all and we all want it now, whether actually feasible or financially do-able. Let's take a look as the top requests for the new Rustler and Stampede and what everyone was hoping for and see whether Traxxas delivered.
More Power & Speed
Did Traxxas deliver? Yes, definitely with a new XL-5 ESC with low turn limit and a huge fan cooled torquey 550 sized 12 turn motor.
The real answer is that it depends on you RC experience. If this is one of the first R/Cs you have purchased or are even a seasoned RC'er, you are going to be mighty impressed with the power that Traxxas has dropped in these new ready-to-race models. There is a ton of torque and both models supply some
Luckily, if you are just starting out or have a "less experienced" driver taking the wheel, such as your father, son, daughter, or best friend's kid, Traxxas' new XL-5 has a "Training Mode" that comes to the rescue preventing damage from the less experienced drivers. It does this all while allowing you to be the generous person people know you are, remember it's nice to share your toys but it's also great that your toys not get trashed in the process. Never fear. This handy training mode cuts the power by 50% of the battery's power and also doubles the run time - very nice. Crashes are thus taken down to a breakage limiting speed of about 10-15 MPH. The new XL-5 also features a "Sport Mode" (Forward / Brake / Reverse) for normal use and "Race Mode" - (Forward / Brake) for track runs, 12-Turn motor limit for high torque low current 550 size motors,15-Turn motor limit for standard 540 size motors, Integrated push button on/off switch, Traxxas EZ-Set one-button setup, Large heat sink for cooler running, and high-
Yes, we were able to get the Stampede to wheelie. The Rustler? Nope, sorry, not going to happen not unless you plug in more than 6 cells, it wants to but lofting the wheel on command is not in the cards. Wheelie test aside, the acceleration and torque was outstanding and more than expected.
An oversized "speed pinion" is even included for use on smooth road surfaces, however it should be noted that it didn't work the best in grass and rough off road surfaces. The "speed pinion" is for on road high speed endeavors and not intended for off road use. Personally I would never use the bigger pinion more than a couple times, but nice it was included. According to our handy GPS we saw speeds in excess of 45 MPH for both vehicles with some 8 cell GP3300 battery packs. Although my buddies are all excited about the ability to use 6-8 cell packs, I was happy that both models performed well with industry standard 6 cell packs as I am just a 6 cell kind of guy and unless it involves stacking 6 cell packs, I have never really liked the trouble and expense that come with higher cell count packs.
The other part of the answer is that if you are a crazy as hell RC modifier, such as yours truly, you are not going to get brushless level performance from the new XL-5/motor combo. You will get a level of performance that is darn close to a Trinity Speed Gem 14-15 turn motor - very good, outstanding in fact, better than anything else out there good, just don't expect brushless level performance. The combo will blow away almost everything else out there with a nice 8 cell set of charged batteries from the entry to mid level electric R/Cs category and quite a few of the vintage nitro R/Cs. At 30MPH'ish you have something that can really move and considering the customer target of the Stampede and Rustler, this is as fast as most of the entry and re-entry level folks can handle without making parts replacement a job instead of a hobby.
The motor although more menacing looking than the old finger blistering Stinger motor and certainly a HUGE upgrade, it still looks cheap compared to... well any other motor. Both my buddies had already performed my old Stampede Project "remove the sticker and brush with a ScotchBrite pad" mod to bump up the bling factor of the motors which now looked pretty sharp. Thankfully the new Titan is not the heater the old Stinger was and runs at about the some temperature as any standard aftermarket motor. I think a lot of this is due to the fact that both the motor and ESC are now designed to handle the power of the newer battery packs everyone is now using. Back at the introduction of the old XL-1 and Stinger, 1500Mh packs were the best available and NiCad were still all the rage. Today we have 4400Mh pack that delivery 30 Amps per cell and now we have a stock motor and ESC designed to handle that power and delivery it to the ground efficiently.
Better Tires
Did Traxxas deliver? Yes. As mentioned in the "Initial Gut Review", the Jato inspired tires have style a plenty and in my opinion are simply way cooler than any other rollers I have seen on an RC coming
The tires are also loads grippier than their predecessors. Are they Proline level grippy? I think so close you probably won't notice and so cool looking you will probably replace them with the same stock units once they wear out. Although my buddies' RCs were only a couple days old, the tires were starting to show the type of wear I see from my Proline tires, the type of wear you should see from good tires after a week of hard use. This is a good thing and means these tires are doing their job. Unlike the old terra style (Stampede) and pin and rib (Rustler) versions, the new tires will wear much quicker than the vintage versions' mega-hard compound. But that is fine with me, I would rather have a tire that grips and wears than one that makes the car
The Jato inspired tires really are pretty good all around performers and provide a good combination of on and off road traction and cornering performance. Traxxas also promises the tires to limit tire ballooning during terminal velocity speeds. Like any good racer will tell you tuning your tires to the track is 90% of the tuning battle so you may still need a couple various sets of tires for the track, but these new stockers should get you through your first couple of track sessions without worry and may perform better than a less than optimal aftermarket tire on the track. Again I am betting lots of vintage rigs get upgraded to this new stock Traxxas part that proved great all around performers.
Better Servo
Did Traxxas deliver? Yes, the good old heavy duty 2055 is now the resident servo for both the Rustler and
Although later upgraded in the later Stampede releases to the 2055, the older 2018 servos simple didn't have the might to get the job done in the steering department on the old Stampede and Rustler models. As a result this was a pretty big complaint from owners as steering response was greatly hindered due to the lack of servo power. The reliability of the 2018 never seemed to wear out as long as you don't mind a gear replacement here and there, as an example after 3 years of service my old 2018 servo has taken up residence in the Tri-Pede as it's steering servo. The 2055 has proven itself over the years to be even more durable and is much less prone to gear breakage. The 2055 was and is a much better choice and is up to the task of making both units change direction with authority. Sure a super high torque metal gear servo would have been nice but not necessary in for this application. The 2055 is the same servo I have in all my Traxxas rigs and is great servo for the job and takes crazy amounts of abuse.
Improved Motor Mount
Did Traxxas deliver? Yes and no. Through a simple upgrade to wider washer head screws, a portion of this frustrating problem has been eliminated. No longer will your motor mount screws burrow deeply into the motor mount when you snug up and adjust the motor. No longer will these mini-caverns make it all but impossible to properly adjust your pinion/spur gap. And no longer will you have to fuss over the washers you used under each motor mount screw to prevent this issue. The wider washer head screws work.
The down side is that these new fangled wide washer head screws are still Phillips head screws and the heads will eventually still strip although it may now take a little longer. Why hex head machine screws were not used for this application is beyond me, but I would eventually end up going back to machine screws with washers to assure a nice tight worry free motor-to-motor mount union.
Improved Slipper
Did Traxxas deliver? Yes
Although once upgraded from slipper pegs to differential balls, I have had zero problems with any of my vintage rigs. That said, the new and improved Revo inspired slipper clutch should be a better all around performer right out of the box and a whole lot easier to tune. The foreseeable downside is that now we can ONLY use Traxxas spur gears and can't grab whatever X brand is available to fix a broken spur. All be it probably less prone to breakage, I will also bet that those Revo inspired spur gears are going to be a
On the flip side new slipper clutch should be much more durable over the life of the RC and allows spurs to be changed easily WITHOUT changing or altering slipper settings. Unscrew three spur bolts, remove spur, install new spur - done all without touching the slipper. This is a huge deal as the old slipper was a complete pain to tune properly and once set you didn't want to tear it all apart to swap out a different sized spur gear for track tuning. Further the Revo inspired slipper is much easier to actually tune. Thank you Traxxas.
Aluminum Idler Gear
Did Traxxas deliver? Kind off the new Idler gear is black and seems to be tougher. I hope the durability is improved in some way that their marketing department missed (unlikely), this is still an ongoing issue. Although this is a easy and simply upgrade, I believe this is an issue which will start to rear it's ugly head as the stress of the higher output motor and ESC is delivered through the transmission. I blew my idler with a Trinity15T Titanite, the new 12T 550 motor looks to have about the same power and certainly the torque so I would expect a rash of broken idler gears in the next six months. My guess is the 7-8 cell bashers will need this replacement quickly.
Should this happen, the $10 aluminum idler gear upgrade will take about an hour and all will be forever well after that upgrade. I just think this should have been part of the Stampede and Rustler update upfront. Personally I would do the upgrade before I put one hour on either RC, because picking pieces of a blown gear out of your tranny and then cleaning it to a surgical level is not fun.
5x11 Bearing and Carriers
Did Traxxas deliver? No
My speculation why Traxxas passed on this upgrade was simply due to expense. This upgrade would have easily pushed the price of the new R/Cs well over a $200 street price and easily added $30-$50 to the price of the units. Although some would argue otherwise, full bearings and carriers would have been nice, they were not really a required upgrade for this class of RC. I think Traxxas would have been pushing the intended price point of these new models past what most people are willing to pay for a starter RC.
Stuff is getting competitive in this category - time for bearings Traxxas.
Wide Conversion
Did Traxxas deliver? No
I have some mixed feelings on why Traxxas didn't widen out the Rustler and Stampede. On one side I really think it is nuts that Traxxas have different front and rear wheel offsets and the screwball front wheels. This just makes wheel buying and tire rotation a pain. I personally along with tons of other folks swear by the wide-pede/wide-rusty conversions, however that doesn't necessarily make it the right thing to do for everyone. On the other side of the argument, doing a proper wide conversion and designing it correctly into the whole RC would have entailed more than a simple update than Traxxas provided on this go around. Still some new extended front arms would have been all that would have been required and...hint... would be a great upgrade part.
Stiffer Chassis
Did Traxxas deliver? Yes
Contoured identical to the old chassis the new gray is an upgrade all be it slight. Stepping into the voodoo that is plastic chemistry, Traxxas is using a new graphite impregnated material that is harder, stronger and marginally lighter than the old black stuff. Although not immediately noticeable, the chassis is also stiffer when flexed than the old black chassis. Don't argue with the chemists - it's better and it's gray.
Better Shocks
Did Traxxas deliver? Yes
The Ultra-Shocks are back and now new and improved with X-Ring seals and made from the newer, supposedly more durable, gray plastic composite material. The X-Ring seals promise, longer life, a better seal, and lower friction than traditional O-ring seals. The new springs aside from color remain unchanged, although some have said the front springs are a little lighter on the Rustler (I didn't find that when comparing my buddies' R/Cs to my stock springs). They looked like the same length and weight as the old versions and are still too hard to provide a full range of adjustment. On the Stampede that harder spring rate is fine, because almost everyone is
Lighter Overall Weight
Did Traxxas deliver? Kind of.
Most of the components have either gone down in weight or are the same, however the new motor and ESC tip the scale to slightly heavier R/Cs than last year. I personally think the weight increase was worth it, new ESC, motor, motor mount, heavier servo, and tires and wheels, all great things that are worth the extra ounces and will more than make up for the weight with enormous performance increases.
On the Rustler - Make it an E-Jato and for the Stampede - Make it like an E-SportMaxx
Did Traxxas deliver? Kind of and kind of not. I think we were all hoping for a complete top to bottom redo of both trucks where we would see the Rustler receive a super high performance chassis and steering system and the Stampede get a little wider, meatier looking, and have the option for even a drop in 4 wheel drive kit.
Overall I think the Stampede seemed to make the biggest change toward meeting expectations simply because it has less of a distance to go than the Rustler. On the Stampede you accept the limitations of direct servo steering and the chassis as the trade off of amazing bashing durability. The design goals were to simply tweak a great design. I think that Traxxas really missed the boat with not doing a wide conversion and really should have been an update on this version of the Stampede. This would have simply required two new molds for front arms and would have guaranteed ancillary sales of everyone upgrading the vintage Rustler and Stampedes with this easy upgrade part.
On the Rustler there was a little further to go. We have seen three generations of better steering linkage systems, huge leaps in chassis design, wheels, transmission designs, and overall looks come to market. This was a lot to expect and are pretty lofty goals for a sub $200 RC. 
My Take on the Upgrades
The designers and engineers at Traxxas can only do so much while maintaining a reasonable price point. Overall Traxxas took a giant leap forward on performance that actually makes the Stampede and Rustlers pretty impressive 1/10 scale R/Cs. Upgrades cost money and there is no way around that material fact. Would we have liked it better with this upgrade and some additional that, absolutely, however we would have been looking at a whole different price point on these new Traxxas rigs instead of sub-$200 prices.
If you buy a new Xl-5 Stampede or Rustler will you still feel compelled to upgrade? With the new upgrades, the answer is yes but without as much urgency as the older units. The last round required...no mandated, an almost immediate upgrade to a better ESC and motor - that big upgrade already done upgrades are not as pressing. Personally, if I was to suddenly come into possession of one of these new units (hint to the Traxxas marketing department as your number one and highest visited Stampede and Rustler resource), aside from my personal little tweaks, I think an RPM bumper and the bearings and carriers upgrade would be about it for a while until wore out a couple sets of tires. It used to be that a stock Stampede or Rustler would literally get eaten alive right out of the box, with these new versions that has changed. These new Traxxas R/Cs are back on the top of the heap with loads of top speed, power, and performance and will do a fair job holding their own in all but the most competitive environments and engagements. Also with the Training Mode on the ESC, this is truly a long-term RC that a newbie or youngster can grow into for a long time to come all while giving the more advanced driver in the house plenty of excitement in regular modes all from one RC.
Grumbles aside I think, Traxxas has done a great job on this go around, although I might request the NEXT revision not take another 10-15 years.
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