Should I buy one??
 

Been out of the hobby for a few year but jumped back in with an enduro and a gatekeeper. But the lhs has a used venture for $300 minus radio and receiver. I asked the nest they could do and they said $250. It looks to be in good shape and I wanted one back when they were first announced but it seems parts are hard to come by. Good idea to buy or not??

Re: Should I buy one??
 

I still enjoy mine. That being said, I wouldn't buy one now with parts availability being what it is. You can still pick up a builders kit off of eBay if you really want one. At least everything would be new.

Re: Should I buy one??
 

I love mine since it has been my first crawler but I also I own a FJ Cruiser. But now that I know the playing field, I see the benefit of getting one at it's debut was mainly the factory forward motor mount setup.

Re: Should I buy one??
 

I love the Venture but I would also say no, parts are pretty scarce as well as upgrades.

Re: Should I buy one??
 

Yea I kinda thought that would be the case. I did take a look at it today and was surprised how upgraded it was
Hh torquemaster 27t 1080esc. Alloy links,aluminum beadlocks class one hyrax tires. Decent for the money but I worry about the axle gear availability

Re: Should I buy one??
 

I've got quite a bit of hiking trail mileage on mine and they're still good but my plan is to convert to AR44s or 45s and get custom links made when that time comes. That's more money of course but you get the point lol.

Re: Should I buy one??
 

My brother let his son drive his Venture, he likes to bash more than crawl. The diff gears are just starting to skip after 2 bashing runs.

The teeth on these gears are on the small side compared to others. https://www.ebay.com/itm/HPI-Racing-...75.c100623.m-1

Re: Should I buy one??
 

I really like mine, crawls really well, would I buy one now, probably not, just due to parts availability. Mine was the kit version which has a few upgrades out of the box compared to the rtr version. If your handy and don't mind fabbing stuff down the road to adapt different axles in later if needed then go for it. I've done it to many rigs, not hard just time consuming.

Re: Should I buy one??
 

Having had, and really enjoyed one, I'd say no.

The Venture doesn't really do anything that other kits don't do. And the other kits not only have more features, but as other have said, parts are still available for those kits.

I'd much rather have an SCX 10.2 for upgrade options.

Re: Should I buy one??
 

I really enjoy mine, even won some comps with it. I think its a good truck overall, but it's hard to reccomend it when parts availability is a huge unknown. In almost three years of abuse I've busted the stock cvd's (replaced with also discontinued Ascender cvds), chipped a ring gear tooth, and wore out a few driveshaft pins and rod ends. I certainly wouldn't call it fragile. It holds it's own on the trail, and its biggest fault isn't itself but its parent company seemingly being on the verge of bankruptcy every 6 months.

Re: Should I buy one??
 

Well I took everyone's advice and did the opposite. I talked him down to $200. I figured at that rate it was worth even if just for the wheels and tires and electronics. So for the folks that have these what parts tend to break and should ikerp an eye out for

Re: Should I buy one??
 

Some posts already mentioned what parts they've worn out. Not sure if you can buy axle gears still, but you can find most replacement parts on eBay. Go over the whole truck to do maintenance like shock oil change and greasing.

Re: Should I buy one??
 

For 200 you did well IMO. We like pics by the way.

Re: Should I buy one??
 

Agreed on both points.

Re: Should I buy one??
 

Well, in the 2 years or so that I drove mine, the parts that broke were as follows:

Nothing.

I let my 9-10 year old (at the time) son do a lot of driving with it too. I had Beef Tubes brass in the axles, which probably helped save axle housings, but they probably would have been fine without. Mine saw a lot of use being driven more as an Ultra 4 car than a crawler too. And nothing broke.

So all of our parts complaints, which I also echo, might be completely null.

Re: Should I buy one??
 

I've been driving mine since release day and I've never broken a gear in it, not diff, transmission or transfer case. Using Holmes puller pro 2200kv on 3S. I actually bought myself an SBK to keep for parts and I haven't even opened it except to sell a couple items from it.

I love my Venture, I love the bta steering links and the truck is incredibly well balance, it's a performer.

It needs the same upgrades almost every truck needs from the factory: metal links, aluminum/brass c-hubs & knuckles and better servo/saver delete.

Parts are getting scarce, but fortunately it doesn't need a lot. I'd recommend picking up an SBK to have parts, they're pretty cheap now.

Glad to hear you got a good deal, it's a great rig and it's really tragic that HPI was/is so badly managed that they completely flubbed the release of this rig.

Re: Should I buy one??
 

I'll figure out how to upload pics again. Luckily it does have a decent servo and an aluminum servo arm so no servo saver and some of the other upgrades are already done. I've wheeled it a few times and it's been great so far

Re: Should I buy one??
 

I still have mine from the day they came out, very heavily modified. I has many miles on it and the drive train is bulletproof.