Old Bruiser type Vs The newer high lift 350 type?
 

I always wanted a bruiser,I thought they always looked awesome. But now they have these newer collection on kits such as the 350 high lift,Is it anything like the older bruiser type? From the outside just by looks it looks very scale like the older kits,but how do they differ on the inside? Also if you were to get one,would you try to get a hold of a old one,or just buy a newer kit?
If anyone has both by chance how do they compare in weight? one heavier then the other? I plan on getting something scale over the summer,and the old ones are hard to get a hold of but could be had from ebay or some place for 500-600,and the new kits are in the ball park price range,,so just gathering some general info,Thanks

I dont have either but just from seeing them at the local gtg's I can tell you the bruiser looks much more scale underneath. beautiful chassis and axles. the hilift/hilux newer kit doesnt look nearly as scale. plenty of pictures around of the stock newer kit.

bruiser looks like this:
http://www.robobugs.net/FOR%20SALE%2...%20lot%202.JPG


hilift hilux looks like this
http://www.tamiya.com/english/produc...ux/chassis.jpg

BINGO! Pablo hit the nail on the head in my opinion.

IMHO, I would build my own with parts from RC4wd. They have so much stuff now you could build one that blows the brusier out of the water as far as scale goes.

And the RC4wd version has 4wd in reverse (the Bruiser does not, unless you upgrade the front hubs)

I have a Bruiser that I am in the process of restoring. I picked it up for $200 complete, but It needed a major cleanup, all metal parts polished, Body painted etc. Let me tell you, the Bruiser is a great truck and you will not find a more scale kit, but once you put some dough and do some research on how rare a good one goes for, you may be hesitant to take it to the rocks...I know I am ! I think its going to become my shelf queen as I would probably cry if it got scratched!! Heres my advice, if you want a runner , buy the high lift, or build a rc4wd clone. If you want a piece of RC history or a restoration project, BUY THE BRUISER!

P.s The bruiser with High Capacity Battery can weigh around 14-15lbs....it is definitely a BRUISER!

Personally, I have liked the Bruiser/Mountainer since they first came out. they were what I thought was the best looking truck on the market and still are. "thumbsup"

Your absolutely right ! When you take one apart you really appreciate that they most certainly don't build em like that anymore!!

Yep....the next best thing.

OG new
http://rc4wdstore.com/product_info.p...roducts_id=637

Semi OG new
http://rc4wdstore.com/product_info.p...roducts_id=878

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q...s/IMG_5374.jpg

Wow! Those look like nice kits but pretty pricey!
If they had some kind of payment plan I would go for it!

This is all based on if you want a scaler: (a little long sorry just really trying to help you out.

Ive had a couple of Bruisers and two hi lifts and IMO its all in what you want. The Bruiser is great BUT you are going to be doing some modifiying to some pretty expensive and fragil parts if you are wanting to go REALLY scale. The axles are great but the hub design like stated above doesnt allow for 4x4 reverse and you can only run Bruiser/Mountie/Blazer/OG Hilux rims on the hubs without mods or adaptors because of they dont run hexes like the std. wheel needs.

Second the axles are not the same width. The rear is wider than the front. To be scale this would need to be remidied somehow rather it be modifying the rear axle or offset wheels or installing rummyrc.com's mod.

Third, like I said before the metal used for certain parts such as the axles and tranny is VERY soft and just isnt made to take the beating like the modern crawlers are.

Fourth, again back to that soft metal thing. The king pins on the axles tend to wear badly making for very loose steering.

I could go on and on. I moded out a Bruiser like crazy trying to bring it to modern specs and in the end ended up trading with rc4wd for a 2speed Bruiser truck kit with TREX60 axles. I agree with RM25x and racer4life....find a kit such as the F-350 or even if you want a scale 4 link the new SCX-10 and start selling off the parts you dont need and buy the stuff you want from rc4wd.

I have never built a kit according to manufactures specs. i have never kept a kit whole until the scx which in my opinion is the best single speed kit out there. I sold the stock axles and bought the plastic trex60 from rc4wd to give it a little more realism. Thats all.

SORRY I GOT TYPE HAPPY....:lol:

Here ya go to sum it up:

Tamiya F-350/Tundra/HiLux
-GOOD- three speed, parts availability, leaf sprung (even though they go flat after a while), hard bodied rigs.
-BAD- axles not really scale, chassis not really scale, very little ground clearence because of skid, shocks not scale) TOO MANY SCREWS!!

Tamiya Bruiser/mountaineer/OG Hilux/Blazing Blazer
-Good- Very scale, collector item. awesome 3 speed tranny)
-Bad- All stated above....plus very heavy, parts availabilty

RC4wd

........PRICE

SCX-10
-Good- Scale, Beadlocks, proline flat irons, great design, scale shocks, very customizable, very easy to assemble and modify (few screws) PARTS ARE EVERYWHERE, CHEAP!!
-Bad-axles not scale at all BUT in hi demand;-), the 3 link set up is only bad if your wanting leafs

IMO if you are looking to spend 500.00 and you dont care about 3 speed take a little scroll through the SCX section. They run about 240.00 for the kit and that leaves you enough to go CRAZY with the truck. Sell what you dont need build up a PayPal coushion and build you a very nice yet capable scaler. You might be the first to do a leaf sprung SCX-10. ;-)"thumbsup"

Thanks you made some real good points,there was alot of things I didnt know about the bruiser. Yea the SCX10 looks decent and cheap to get into scale trail runners.
I did like the look of the leaf springs though. I seen the Trail finder chassis on rc4wd site with the leafs and was wondering,does anyone know if the axial axles will line up with the holes on the leaf spring from the chassis? If so I think I will just get that chassis and buy parts here and there and peice together a truck rather then buy the scx10 kit.
Also im sure with the leafs performance will be limited,could this thing do any type of climbing with the trailfinder chassis,or will be pretty much for looks and trails hence the name "trail finder"

The leaf spring trucks are mainly trail rigs not really made for serious crawling. I run leafs on the rear of my scaler Bronco with coils up front and its my trail/show rig. As for crawling I am building a scaler but I am doing it with the SCX-10 and going for link for proformance. The trailfinder is a good chassis. Again though I know I keep pushing this scx-10 but you might be able to mount leafs on it using the F-350 leaf kit. You can find them on ebay for any where between 40-60 dollars.

As far as the axles go I dont think they line up. I have never seen a leafed truck with axial axles. What you would spen for a set of axials is close to what you would spend on a set of the plastic Trex60 rc4wd axles. You would get better quality and looks with those.

Again this is only my opinion. Like I said before I always start with a kit for these reasons:
-All the hardware is there (screws, nuts, bolts)
-Tranny is there
-You can pick and choose what to use
-Cheaper to start with a kit then build from scratch

I did forget to mention though rc4wd is making a sick set of shackles that would increase the proformance of the trailfinder. They are under the vendors section. Its one of the most recent posts.