Traxxas Rustler VXL 3708 Radio Controlled Truck

Nice truck, but the stock electronic speed control cuts out while using LIPO batteries too easily. Disappointing for a 10 year old sons present. I ordered a Castle system and now it's awesome. I got the idea of getting the castle system because my older son has it in his Stampede. I like this vehicle can use the same big tires as the stampede, but has a lower center of gravity so it flips less. I wish ebay didn't delete your past purchases so I could look up and thank whoever it was we bought the stampede with the castle system from years ago. LIPO battery packs make these cars much better than anything I had as a kid. Highly recommend the rustler.

Very good product. Traxxas has done a very good job, almost perfect(details later). Before buying rustler, i have been considering all my other options from HPI, Losi etc.. But I am happy that I made the right decision. Good features, durable, and upgradable. Also, the availability of parts on the hobby shop is excellent as that is required with this hobby, specially when the truck is exceeding speeds of 50 mph.

There are three thing till now that I think traxxas can work on to get the Excellent rating from me.

One, they should be using the composite plastic material for the suspension parts (similar to the ones available from RPM, and perhaps that same material used on the chases of rustler). Till they do that, one has to spend separately on RPM manufactured parts as the traxxas parts (in crashes etc.) break along the way. But then again, there may be a valid business case justification of not going composite nylon parts on stock.. to keep the cash coming in.

Second, the transmission cover should be designed in a way that it is sealed when closed, but can also accommodate the big spur gears. The seal should be strong enough to block at-least 98% of the dirt. This will significantly reduce the maintenance time and cost, but that again may have a valid business case justification as mentioned above. There is an RPM gear cover available, but with that we cannot use the bigger spur gear.. So it is more of a design issue from Traxxas. Also, i have heard that the micro dirt particles still manage to enter the transmission with the RPM part, but way better that the stock that I will simply prohibits you to go off-road. With stock cover, within 1 minute, there are small stones stock between my pinion and spur gear.. what kind of a design is that???

Third, the battery compartment should accommodate larger size of batteries. I have a 3S lipo, that does not fit even if i use the battery compartment expansion pack from Traxxas. The compartment should be very adjustable. I just to come with with a lot of innovative ideas to hold the battery in place.

Forth, the suspension should be even more dynamically adjustable by the owner. Currently, we can use spacers to increase the ride height, but that also stiffens the suspension. Traxxas engineers should some up with some intuitive design that can separate the height adjustment from the suspension stiffness. I am not sure if the competition has this feature, hence this forth one is just a wish of mine.

Despite the above issues, it is an excellent product. Please note that one can come over with all these issues with technical changes on trail and error bases. One has to be technical minded (which most of the ppl are if they are into this hobby).

I bought this truck based on Traxxas's claim of being the fastest truck around - IT IS!
The VXL is exceptionally fast and does require some large spaces to keep it at full speed. On large open tracks with some good straights it will thrash all other cars as the VXL will handle an 11.1 lipo upto 8000mah.
This car is great fun to, pulling wheelies on demand and lands some spectacular jumps on an off road track.
The most important improvements to make are to change the shock towers for some alloy ones offering more choice on clearance - it adds strength to. These are easily found and bought on ebay. Another essential is a wheelie bar as this aids not flipping the car over, traxxas's own version of this breaks to easy so buy one from Integy or T-Bone.
There are loads of hop-ups available for this car and spares are easy to source.
I have had a few different cars over the years and this is by far the best!

The Traxxas Rustler VXL Is very nice!! It's my first R/C truck car buggy !! I'm very glad I decided to buy Traxxas!! It a lot of fun, especially with a Venom 5000Mah 35C 11.1 volt battery. It will do wheelies on command & you will deffinately need the wheely-bar. You wont go wrong getting a Rustler with a brushless motor !!

Great truck love it way more power then you really need down side to all the power besides the front always being up which is really cool i have broken alot of drive shafts and strip the stock plastic trans gear up graded to new alloy gears and alloy driveshafts its insane on road off road jumps everything great truck