Jaycar XSTR 4wd Buggy

[remotebandit]

Item name : XSTR 4wd buggy

Brand : HSB

Price : $210 retail .... $185 trade card

Where purchased : Jaycar

RTR / Roller : RTR



Run down review :

First things first and very obviously , this is a thrasher toy , its not for racing .

I went to jaycar to buy some AA batteries for the kids toys today and saw this 4wd off road rtr buggy . There was someone i knew behind the counter so scored it for $160 so for that price i couldnt knock it back .

The car comes with all radio gear , 1800mah NiMh pack , slow wall charger an esc and a stock 540 motor .

Upon charging the battery pack on a fast charger i gave it a run . Car had a fair amount of power for the stock motor and actually gave a fair run time .

2 main things that needed to be done to this car to bring it up to scratch were that the camber needed to be adjusted as the tops of the tyres were pointing out so ive cambered them all toed in -2 degrees and i pulled all 4 shocks off and filled them with oil as they had nothing in themapart from a bit of lube . ( they do not leak after filling and are sealed ) .

After i did these things the cars handling transformed and turned from a bouncing spring to a nice smooth runner . Also drove perfectly straight after the camber adjutments .

As i had a spare speed passion brushelss motor floating around i couldnt resist throwing it in . Now this thing rocks . Its only a tame 17.5 i think and running a 7.4 4000 lipo and doesnt seem at this stage to put much stress on any of the drive train .




Pros :

Cheap , attractive , rtr , camber adjustments , toe adjustments , solid , perfect as a basher as its cheap .


Cons :

you will need to spend an hour on it to adjust camber on all wheels plus you will need to put oil in all the shocks to stop it bouncing like a spring over jumps . Parts are available through Jaycar but they will have to order them .





Suggestions / upgrades :

brushless system ... tame to keep it safe on the drivetrain ??





Stars out of 10 :

Im rating this as a cheap alternative as an entry level cheap affordable basher for kids and on those conditions i say 7 stars ... as a pro racer 3 stars

[Nissanmania]

This looks exactly the same as the unit I bought for $99 US (when our dollar was near-parity) so this is a good price.

It's actually a pretty good piece of gear for the price. I had exactly the same scenario with the shocks - drove around like it was on 4 pogo sticks! The front shock tower is the weak link in the chain and will bend after the first roll over or hit. The drive train is rock solid with minature 1/8 buggy-style metal gear diffs so can handle a bigger motor OK. Just no slipper so could chew out the spur but mines been run with a 5.5 Novac BL no probs!

Certainly much better than anything punters will buy from Dick Smith! And the bonus is you can source parts over the internet( eg http://www.nitrorcx.com ). Or just buy 2!

[remotebandit]

O definately mate , i just realised now how tough the drive train is .

Today i read up on the assembly manual and worked out all the bearings it needed so i could run a full bearing kit into it . After spending $45 on bearings , i get home , pull the thing apart and bloody shit ... the drivetrain has full bearings allready .

As far as the diff , the bloody things steel .... harsher brushless coming ... lol

[Nissanmania]

Yeah, the bearings are metal sealed so used teflon sealed spares I had for the D4. The diff uses grease internally so runs better with some silicone diff oil. As it only uses a single gear internally it needs a relatively heavy oil.

Shot below shows a few hopups/mods - CNS shock tower/steering assembly and Tamiya wheels and better rubber. Pretty much all I've done and goes well. No race winner but survives big jumps/falls etc without bending front shock tower and steering improved with alloy parts.

[BIG PETE]

i have the nitro version of that with all the spanky ally bits
looks like the diffs arms and other bits are the same

[robdit]

I was gonna get one of those from jaycar but decided not to. but after reading this they don't sound too bad

[remotebandit]

hey robdit , their definately no competition buggy but i tell ya what , ive since thrown a mamba 7700kv into it and i still cant rip the gearbox . its built tough .

I guess with a few upgrades shocks etc it just may be competative

[robdit]

yeah i was a bit worried about it killing the gearbox if i put a nice brushless system in. Might have to go have a look at them again.

[remotebandit]

haha , no chance of killing the gearbox mate ... no chance .

The only thing youll kill is the spur gear so buy spares but its more because of crap like stones getting in and cracking teeth etc .

The diffs ... their steel

[Dazz 68]

I took a phone call yesterday from 2 kids keen to come and race these at West Coast.They were quite exited and very keen .It will be interesting to see how they go ,its good to hear they are quite tough hopefully the pair will have a good run from them that is if they dont manage to break them before we resume racing

[remotebandit]

lol , keep me posted Dazz as id love to know how they go in race situations against other brands atleast that way when people ask me i can give them a definate yay or nay

[eukol]

I was thinking of this vs Tamiya DF03 series. Probably won't race it, but the DF03 is (much) more outlay but better performance and much cheaper hop-up parts (!!!) ... and you get to put it together (good therapy). No slipper option on the XSTR.
You can get the XSTR-Pro (inc BL motor and many HopUps) For about $245 from 'Super and Cheaper' - need to buy a much better battery ($60-100 ?).
I've seen the normal XSTR for as low as $135 (RC Hobby Estore).
I wouldn't get Jaycar ordering parts - plenty of AU(? HK) online sites have parts in stock.
ALso RC Hobby Estore had the 1/8 version BL for $277 (not listed anymore - hopefully they'll restock it). I've seen it elsewhere (mainly in the US) and it has been received fairly well. In AU it's mainly branded as HSP (http://www.hispeedmodel.com/) whereas in the US it's Exceed.
So what do you think? DF03 and more initial outlay, or XSTR Pro and quick fun but breaks easy and expensive parts?
Must say, the 1/8th model was tempting.
This is the early Exceed version - the one for sale had a more bling anodised motor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV6pDwmjsxQ&feature and here's the final version which looks alot like the one I saw for sale - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3FbmBQdmHA&feature=channel.

[valyau2002]

Honestly the DF-03 is probably not as strong as the XSTR in my opinion. I have 2 DF-03's and the truck version of the XSTR on brushless. I have spent a lot on spares for the DF-03's but hardly any at all for the truck and both have had their fair share of bashing.

[Matt]

Regarding bearings, is the entire car ball raced, or just the gearboxes?

[eukol]

Honestly the DF-03 is probably not as strong as the XSTR .....
Cool, thanks for the heads-up.
I've just seen it for $185 with brushless. I reckon a set of slightly bigger diameter buggy wheels would be good. Looks and performance - struggles in grass and sand. Lose a bit of chrome too ;)
Edit - just for the sake of accuracy ... that video I linked to in earlier post is not of the HSP 1/8 BL. It's of Nanda Racing's BD8e 1/8 BL. Nice package - selling for $US299 takes two battery packs NiMH or LiPo. http://www.nandaracing.cn/en/cpzs/car/BD8E/BD8E_js.html

[Matt]

Has anyone put the XSTR on a track yet?

[obzELiTe]

two raced last friday at west coast

[gazza]

my nephew has one of these with a cheap ebay brushless and and cheap ebay lipo and runs ok he love it had it for few weeks now and no problems so far

[Grantly]

these a good car to get , and parts are they hard to come by ?

[valyau2002]

these a good car to get , and parts are they hard to come by ?

HSP parts are plentiful and fairly cheap. I get mine from http://www.rcaction.com.au/index.html

I don't have the buggy but a monster truck (Brontasaurus). It's great for bashing around.

[rcslave]

I had one it went great on a 2s lipo and truggy wheels but the power wasnt very controllable, so not the best for racing, great basher though.
plaig rc is a great aussie supplier of hsp parts.

[Rocketman]

HI Guys,
Has anyone tried the XSTR Pro models they are selling now (2010 Models) with the brushless motors?
I can see there are spares available for it, but wanted to know if there's any chance of winning races with it.

[Rod]

I have had an HSP xstr pro for about 6 months.

It goes like the clappers with a 2S lipo battery but is very heavy compared to other cars. I have had a few breakages, mostly due to my bad driving. Have raced it a few times in the novice class at West Coast with a MiNH battery but I have not got the hang of it yet.

[Mugenville]

Parts for these are easy to come by, try Plaig RC in melbourne all he deals with are HSP (which these are) all parts at a very good price runs the business from his house and also has online sale in Ebay, I also have to Nitro version in offroad and onroad, he also runs a forum which i'm a moderator of, you might even pick up a bargin in the for sale section there are some good upgrade option for this car also

[jonnyd1986]

For the money these are pretty good considering the brushless setup to buy seperatly would be at least 80 bucks.

Nice work hsp.

[remotebandit]

Great bashers definately but yeah do8ubt theyd keep up with the big boys