Savage Flux Is Now Shipping

[himalaya]

IMO the E-REVO is more of a runner or racer, the Savages are more of a fun maker or joker. Savage's significantly higher center of gravity made that difference.
Also, flat plate chassis makes every part in E-Revo much easier to access than the Savage.

Thanks for the comparisons. It sounds like people believe that each truck has its purpose - Revo for racing, Savage for bashing. I wonder, however, how close you could get each truck to be close to the other in their respective strengths. Ex: LT rockers and higher GC for the Revo and stiffer, lower suspension for the Savage. My Revo is relatively stiff as I don't take it into excessively bumpy areas frequently, but when I do hit up a construction site that's been torn up by earth movers, I sometimes wish it was a little more plush to handle the giant ruts in the ground. Maybe I should get both?

[Finnster]

I've had two converted Revos, and now a nitro Sav XL.
Gotta say that the Revo's been on the shelf for a while w/ no plans to run it again. The Revo def out handles the Savage, but anymore I think a revo is a half assed truggy w/ a tranny. Not to be harsh, but it seems a jack of all trades/master of neither sort of truck. I have a very nice and inexpensive Ofna Hyper ST truggy for amazing handling and hi spd running, and a big burly savage to offroad with. Both are better than the Revo at what they do, and stronger IMO.

I seemed to have constant little things break w/ it. The tranny is weak, and takes 40 million screws to get apart (as do the diffs.) Now this is a nitro ver, so can't speak for the Erevo version.
Also, I hate the suspension. It is really hard to get right for a hvy BL truck. It always sags, and tends to bend the rocker posts alot, and pushrods sometimes. The shocks are actually quite small and overworked IMO, and the whole setup is needlessly complicated and hard to service. I also hate the pillow balls (tho strengthened in the Erevo) and the fact that so much needs to be changed to RPM stuff to stay durable. I hate how gimmicky and under-engineered alot of TRX stuff tends to be.

Very few things I dislike about the Savage. Overall its very ez to work on and get to things. Diffs are cake, and can use many 1/8th scale diffs as a mod. Tranny is ez to open and get to, as is really everything. Its not terribly complicated and is tough and well protected all around.

It is not adjustible at all lol. Forget about caster and camber (tho there is a adj arm kit.) You get toe, that's it. Not a whole lot of options on shock mounting with the stock towers either (tho the FLM towers are nice.) The turn radius sucks. My hyper ST can do a fig-8 in the savvy's turn circle, seriously.

The truck is for jumping, driving over stuff and general mayhem. For that, its awesome. It drives over everything my revo would have got stuck on long before. It has a real drive train, not plastic tubes. The stock shocks are ok, but BB or LST shocks are luxurious.

Originally Posted by Finnster

Not to be harsh, but it seems a jack of all trades/master of neither sort of truck.

I don't think that's harsh. It seems pretty accurate given your other vehicles. Since this is my only truck, that works out pretty well for me. I agree that if I wanted a pure racer, I'd buy a 4wd buggy such as an 8ight-E, and the Savage may have the edge on the Revo for extreme terrain. If you've driven both, you'd know better than I do. I do wonder about the suspension travel and whether the Savage really has the upper hand. Traxxas has boasted about "more suspension travel than any monster truck" for years. If the crown now goes to the Savage, is that all that makes it a better off road truck? Ground clearance? How do the two trucks compare when the Revo is jacked up on the inner pushrod mounting points and LT rockers?

Many of the shortcomings you cite on the Revo stem from the nitro version; some of which have been improved on the E-Revo (as you already mentioned). Most drivetrain issues I've seen have been with the plastic driveshafts, not the new single speed tranny. Some say the new Summit driveshafts will be stronger still and would be a direct swap for the Revo shafts. I've also read about a few blown diffs, but nothing that leads me to believe that they're a major weak point. Then again, I'm pretty satisfied with the speed of 4s on this thing and I have a little more mechanical empathy than most. :) I can't speak of how easy it is to access the guts of the truck as I haven't broken anything yet!

The turning radius of the Savage concerns me, just as it did on the Revo before I installed the new steering stop and longer servo horns, included optional part. Then again, if I were to compare it to a truggy it may feel wide as well.

[Finnster]

I've only blown one diff, and that was from power launching it on pavement after I did my 2nd revo as a 3.3 (testing out wheeling, trying to stop it.) Otherwise diffs were ok, but I don't abuse my stuff FWIW.

The big thing I hated about the diffs was that they tended to leak and you about need epoxy to get any diff action out of them due to the 4 spider design. Where I have 5K oil in my 1/8 diffs, you need 30-50K in the Revo diffs to get the same action. For the C diff kit you need 500000 wt oil. At that point its not even oil, its sticky putty. Filling a diff w/ it sucks. Even at that it diff'd out badly. Then its major surgery to remove the diff. 1st time you do this and you'll know what I mean.

I just popped out the diff in my Savvy and it takes 3 mins. 6 ez to get to M4 screws and the front of the diff case just pops out. Don't have to touch hingepins or shocks at all. Same as an 'uggy basically. Then its normal wt oils to fill it and proper gaskets instead of those crappy rubber rings TRX has on theirs that tear way too ez and then can only get in a $5 parts pack w/ a new diff cup.

As far as suspension goes, part of it is that the Sav is just so much bigger (esp the XL I have.) Its taller and wider, and easily fits 40 series tires on it. You can run it higher and its not as dramatically tippy as lifting the Revo all the way up. Revo handles great on the middle or lower position, but not so great on the highest.
But also its also the difficulty of swapping around all that stuff to change the handling. You can put other rockers on (like LTs) but then you have to change the pushrods (and all that disassembly) and if you change the height you are supposed to change all the ball joints around for the bumpsteer. Ok, get out the manual, look up the setting, ok, tall hollow ball...where did I put it?.. pop it out the middle ball I had in there, save it..., put in the new one... rescrew everything back together.. oh don't forget the springs, take apart the shocks now... ad infinitum.

I changed around the ride height and the rockers once in 3yrs I had the Revos it was such a PITA. Screw it, just left the P2s and middle pushrod and kicked off the ruts I got stuck on. With a normal shock setup, you just move one maybe two screws to adj ride height and progressiveness.

Now I'm not trying to start a Revo vs Sav thread, or Revo sucks thread or whatever. Its still quite a good truck, and is a good all around truck that is a million times more durable than the Emaxxes (esp 1st additions.) I just got pissed at it for enough little things over the years that it just annoys me now. That and the half-assed chintzy TRX engineering. And all the nickel and diming TRX manages to engineer into them. (Death by a million little upgrades and option parts.)

However, if someone were looking to get a truck to go bash around the yard and never race with or try to set spd records with, I would highly rec the Sav over the Revo. None of this is aimed at you btw beatle, just an opinion on a general comment.

Originally Posted by Finnster

That and the half-assed chintzy TRX engineering. And all the nickel and diming TRX manages to engineer into them. (Death by a million little upgrades and option parts.)

I can honestly say that Traxxas has greatly improved on that in the last couple years. The entire electric line has all metal gears and waterproof parts now (except for the brushless ESCs) and mostly all of their RCs now have metric hex head screws. Ball bearings are also mostly standard. This is a far cry from the plastic bushings, plastic gears, and philips screws that stripped all too easily of just a couple years ago. Their plastic however still is the same lousy compound it's always been.

Traxxas has been very innovative lately with their waterproof electrics and the strangely simple yet fun Slash.

I'm no fanboy of any particular brand. If you look at my signature you'll see I have RCs of quite a few different brands. All have a certain appeal.

I definitely agree with the previous comment that the Revo is a jack of all trades, master of none, but for those that don't have multiple RCs as I do, that's perfect. It's very versatile and can adapt to many situations. The Savage however makes a great basher.

The bottom line is no one RC is the best at everything. No brand makes every RC perfect every time. The best thing to do is run what you're happy with. For those trying to decide between the E-Revo BL and the Savage Flux, I'd recommend they try for themselves first if they can. If you can't find anyone that has one that will let you try it out, the Revo 3.3 or Savage X is also reasonably comparable if you can get your hands on one, at least as far as handling is concerned.

[doo540]

I just what to weigh in on the diffs, My e-revo has snapped pinion shafts on 4s power and turned pinion gears into razor blades on 6s. My BL XL runs 4s and I went threw about 4 diffs before I did the CEN GEN conversion. (so far so good on the conversion). I firgured that the flux would have diff problem too, I had heard it used a "new" design (different material?) but I haven't opened one up yet. When I bash I take both trucks (revo & XL) becasue they are both a blast to drive. XL will out jump the erevo any day of the week.

I honestly don't know why Traxxas even makes the E-Maxx still. It's $80 cheaper, sure, but I've never heard of people taking a stock E-Maxx out and not breaking something. I can see why people may give Traxxas a bad rap based on that truck, but the E-Revo is in a completely different league in almost all aspects.

Originally Posted by beatle

I honestly don't know why Traxxas even makes the E-Maxx still. It's $80 cheaper, sure, but I've never heard of people taking a stock E-Maxx out and not breaking something. I can see why people may give Traxxas a bad rap based on that truck, but the E-Revo is in a completely different league in almost all aspects.

The E-Maxx still sells, and the replacement parts is where they really make their money. Though I do agree that the E-Revo is the superior truck, I've broken A-Arms on my E-Maxx, E-Revo, and most recently on my Savage Flux. No RC will take all abuse. And with RPM parts, the E-Maxx is darn near bulletproof.