How to tell when it's time for new driveshafts
 

I'm not sure, but this seems to be a fairly good sign:
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8799/0502091904.jpg
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8531/0502091905.jpg
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3541/0502091906.jpg
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9906/0502091907.jpg

:lol: those dogbones have lasted me over a year, and they only cost like $5. but they get really noisy when the drive cups wear out like that, so I'm going to go back to stock universal joints and sliders I think. I hear the VXL Rustler ones are stronger than the old XL-1 shafts, which were the ones that gave me trouble.

Brijar!!!

:lol:

Dude. I have that motor, that heat sink but blue, snaped my dogbone last week, and my outdrives look like that. ahaha

lol awesome! I bet it's a great truck :mdr:! Does anyone think I should just get new dogbones and outdrives, or should I switch back to sliders? So far I'm leaning toward the sliders because I don't like all the vibration that worn outdrives make.

Thanx,
Brijar!!!

I think that getting some CVD's would be good. I run the standard length CVD's from FLM and they work beautifully. No sign of wear at all, aside from scratching at the CVD balls. They don't make the regular length anymore though, so unless FLM does custom work, you would have to buy the extended rear arms so you could use the extended CVD's from FLM.

I can't really afford the CVD's. It costs about $15 for dogbones, axles, and 2 drive cups which will last me about 2 years, so I think I'd rather stick with those. I'm going to try the newer sliders first, though, unless they are proven to not be worth the time.

Brijar!!!

I had a VXL rusty running on 8 cell NiMh with stock gearing. After a summer of use the metal pins of the universal joints elongated the holes of the all the plastic parts they sit in. And from what I've been told a popular upgrade for the vxl rusty is the jato shafts and metal tranny output yokes. Wish I had pics to show how bad it was, but I'd say I could probably get another season out of them before having to worry about breakage.

I have steel output yokes ($20) and Jato shafts (got them off ebay for $15, I think) with VXL stub axles and I hate this setup. I twist the U-Joint right off of the stub axles every month or two and my Jato shafts are developing a lot of play at the joints. I'm even wearing out the steel outputs, so next breakage I'm going with HPI RS4 MT dogbones as I'm told they will last a lot longer.

I ran jato shafts on my rustler(had to sell sadly).Its a pretty simple mod. All I did was dremel away the outer lip on the end of the drive shaft that goes into the diff. Its a lot cheaper with the same performance.

i ran the stock sliders on my vxl for a year and a half, 3s and no breakage

My Rustler has been running the HPI dogbone setup for quite some time. The cups show wear similar to what everyone else experiences. However, it seems nobody has mentioned anything about bending the dogbones, which I've done at least 4 times. Overall they hold up very well, though.