Exceed RC 1/8Th Mad Torque Rock Crawler Ready to Run (Orange)

First impression out of the box, This truck is a monster!First impression wile driving, This truck turns like a bus.The first run I made was decent, but with the stock shock position, I found myself high centering in places it really shouldn't have. This is mostly due to the length of this crawler, and the stock location being at its lowest setting.After the first run, I raised the shocks to the highest position, and gained near 2 inches of clearance. Then moved the top of the shock towers to the outside of the frame, because it seemed they binded a little being mounted on the inside as they come stock. I also installed a rear steer kit, that I unfortunately had to order from another site. I also removed the stock radio and installed it to a 6 chan stick radio, to gain independent control over the front and rear steering, as well as a few other nifty things the radio does.The second run was at nite. The built in light system is good, could use a little more forward projection, but the lights lit up a area all around the truck out about 2 foot in all directions. The lights ( led ) are powered from a spare channel on the receiver and can be unplugged manually, otherwise they go on and off with the power switch.During the second run, I easily cleared all obstacles I high centered on the first run, and did a few more that I flat out just couldn't do with the stock configuration. with the rear steer mod installed, it turns in about a 3.5 foot circle, before the mod it was more I like a 7 or 8 foot circle. so the mod was definitely worth doing.My only real complaints are.1 The tires are a little hard for a crawler, but still decent.2 It uses banana plugs for the battery to esc connection3 The truck is soooo long, standard servo Leeds barely make it back to the receiver in the middle.4 A on off switch for the lights or even better, a radio controlled switch, would have been much better5 does not come with rear steer, or in a rear steer separate version.6 Nothing on this truck indicates that anything is waterproof.Now for some things I like.1 the battery compartment will fit my lipos and flat 6 cell packs. ( it will not fit a hump pack )2 6 inch tall tires.3 the servos sit almost 5 inches off the ground ( allows you to drive in 4 inches of water without getting them submerged )4 Built in large LED lights !5 twin 540 motors provide plenty of power.6 the stock shock/springs seem to be just about right for stiffness, Enough movement to articulate and rebound well.So overall, A good starting point. I highly recommend the rear steer mod. I feel this truck will easily clear obstacles that are difficult or impossible for my 1/10th rockslide crawler. I also recommend using some foam to better hold the battery still in the holder, it is not a snug fit.

This is a great starter crawler. There isn't much to compare it to in the way of other scale crawlers so everyone is compelled to put it up against the axial xr10. By doing that they are essentially comparing a xr10 which is not ready to run out of box, costs well over double what the mad torque costs and thats before electronics and radio. Or you could compare it to the Gmade crawler which comes disassembled and with no electronics or radio for $50 dollars more. Yes, you could get a Wraith for double the price and then have to upgrade it just about as much as you would the mad torque. But of course this rig does have room to improve, with some ingenuity a few home made mods and a few inexpensive upgrades can make this a fairly good crawler.Cheap mods to make it better.I have found the tires to be pretty hard, so a simple fix is to soak them in WD40 and put them in a ziplock bag. This will soften the compound of the tire. JUST KEEP AN EYE ON THEM, they can swell and ruin.(recommend soaking about an hour) but if they do there are cheap replacements out there online but not on Amazon.The tire foams are as hard as a rock. I star cut both my front and rear and it gives it some more desired tire flex while climbing over the rock. If you would like to know how to do this simply google it, Youtube is full of tutorials on how to star cut your tire foams.The electronics all say they are water proof, though you can never really be sure, Pick up a can of plasti-dip and give them all a good coating. Again if you would like to know exactly how to do this simply google it, there are videos out there.when crawling I noticed a lot of hangups on the axles and motors. I did expect this since this is a motor on axle setup but it was bad. I took some old sheet metal and cut out a couple skid plates. They help protect the motors as well as making it easier to slide past rocks.I have heard many people have problems with the steering knuckles breaking under heavy load. I have ran 4 5000 nimihy batteries through mine while going through a couple different rock gardens, creeks and tank traps and I have had nothing break yet. If you are worried about them the aluminum xr10 steering knuckles fit this rig. With that being said after I unplugged the lights that come on the mad torque I did start to encounter a big glitch at full throttle. I ordered a glitch buster for about 5 bucks and problem solved. I was going to order one anyways since I plan on ordering a beefier steering servo. The servo does bind under heavy load while rock crawling, but other than that its not that bad for a stocker. I have seen some high clearance lower linkages out there on the interweb so I plan on upgrading those also.

This is my first crawler. We have racing buggies but we wanted a change. After a lot of research we chose this one. We can't be ay happier. This crawler it's all aluminum, you'll get change a premium fee with other brands. We love the way it was built and how goof a crawler is. This rock crawler is big done prepared. We had so much fun with it that we ordered two more in blue and green. We also ordered the parts to make it all wheel steering. Only 15 bucks on exceed website. Plus the servo that we have a few already. I highly recommend this crawler like I said I was amazed on the quality of this one. You'll get a premium built crawler so give it a chance and ignore all the creeps that call this brand a piece of crap. Trust me, this crawler its awesome and extremely well built. Far from a POS. I will continue updating this review but so far this crawler its perfect haven't broken a single part yet and we really hit hard this truck sometimes we think that we hit it more than the truck can handle and it show us that he can handle that and more. We added a go pro to the body and we got beautiful pictures. Like I said this crawler it's great if you are in the market for one this is the one you should buy. It's cheap and built like a 500 crawler out of the box. We love it!!!