ECX Ruckus 1/18 Monster Truck RTR w/2.4GHz Radio

I bought one of these for my son's birthday (r/c car themed b-day). Overall it's a tough, decent handling vehicle. I have bought all the parts and converted it to the Short Course Truck setup since they are the same chassis. I have about 10 battery packs run through it and it is a lot of fun, especially for only $99. One upgrade that must be done is to buy and install is ball bearings at the wheel hubs. My bushings were shot after the 4th battery was exhausted. The drivetrain has bearings throughout though. I love this little thing and intend to put a brushless setup on it eventually...

One heck of a car for the price. I was new and learning I needed to add loctite to the the wheel nuts didn’t know the nuts came loose and caused a little problem. Then I stripped a gear. Other than this you can beat the car up and not really worry about it. I broke the short course body upgraded to the ruckus body. I have also added traxxas e revo wheels and tires with a little trimming and it is so much fun. I am going to upgrade the motor eventually and maybe suspension. At 100 when I bought the car it was very worth it. I jump the car from loading docks and it has fell at over 6 plus feet off a slide at the park it is pretty nice.

What did you expect from a 99 dollar 18th scale truck. Buy a Losi SCTE 2.0 for 500 dollars and you won't have that problem. Don't expect champagne on a beer budget. I haven't had any problems with mines, but I bought mines to give to a 5 year old.

When you upgrade any Rc , it's not only one or two components that you upgrade . You have to know which parts to upgrade , for example motor, gears, battery, transmission , etc. It has to be upgrade at the same time and done correctly . Lack of understand the Rc or upgradable parts is what you did. Don't blame the product , research the Rc first before you blame the truck.





ECX BRUSHLESS RUCKUS OWNER

Bottom line: It's okay, not great.

I was one of the first people who bought one of these; I bought it on the day it came out, and it arrived quickly. For a starter vehicle, it's a very good choice -- literally everything you need is in the box, including batteries for the controller.

However, it has a few problems. First of all, the stock motor is pretty weak, despite being the larger 380-size which isn't generally used in mini vehicles. Also, the stock battery is only rated for 900mAh, which means it runs down in just a few minutes, and the included charger is a trickle-charger rated for 100mAh per hour, so it takes 9 hours to recharge the battery.

So, I swapped in a better 380-size brushed motor (one of the old rebuildable LRP motors), and I replaced the 2-in-1 receiver/ESC so I could use a modular ESC with LiPo battery support. I didn't go crazy, I just stuck with 2S, but even that was enough to destroy the rear diff in a couple weeks. A lot of the suspension and drivetrain components are plastic, and quite soft plastic at that -- and to make matters worse, the interfaces between the differential output gears and the axle outdrives are *tiny* -- so the plastic sockets round-out very easily. After destroying the replacement differential too, I managed to get the damage under control by loosening the slipper clutch, but suffice it to say it's impossible to do wheelies with this thing -- the drivetrain just won't withstand the load.

Also, the stock transmitter *only* works with the stock receiver -- if you replace the stock receiver, you will need a new transmitter to go along with it. And the suspension is very difficult to tune such that it doesn't oversteer and spin-around every single time you turn a corner without pegging the throttle. And the tires don't have any foam inside, so they're supported only by the stiffness of the sidewalls. And the bottom-loading battery tray is a nice idea, but in real life you still have to remove the body cover to plug the battery into the ESC. And there are no upgrade parts available for it yet.

A lot of this wouldn't matter to a little kid, or to someone who's new to the hobby and doesn't want to dive in headfirst, but this is definitely not a vehicle for someone who considers themselves advanced in the hobby, or wants something they can upgrade as their skill improves. Hopefully ECX will get its act together and offer metal upgrade parts and better wheels/tires in the next couple months.