Best bang for the buck
 

If you're looking for a ready to run crawler, you currently have three options:

PTI Goliath
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXTWL6&P=ML

Losi MRC
http://www.tcscrawlers.com/Pre-Order...R-p-16947.html

Duratrax Cliff Climber
http://www.tcscrawlers.com/Pre-Order...R-p-16939.html

The other path is to purchase a built rig from the For Sale thread here on RCC (become a supporting member with a $20 donation, get a star, and you can access that thread) or just get the satisfaction of building one. The Axial Scorpion in either ARTR or kit form are both killer. If you know you want a ready to crawl rig, and scale doesn't matter to you, I'd hold out for the Losi MRC.

another option is the axial rtr

Forgot about that one ;-)

Not a bad choice either, but for someone who's afraid to tinker, having to crack open the front axle to install the locker may be intimidating.

I don’t want to sound mean but if you don’t like tinkering or modifying things, I don’t think this hobby is for you. I think you will get frustrated and sell it within a month because this hobby takes lots of tinkering to get things set up to be a good crawler no matter what platform you start with. On the other hand I really think you are under estimating your skills and just how easy it is to assemble a crawler. All you need is an allen wrench and a Phillips head screw driver to take apart a crawler. Most of the stuff on the axial ax10 only goes in one way anyhow. And you can add 4ws to any platform you just need a 3 channel remote and a steering kit with servo from aftermarket parts. I would suggest the ax10 because it has a big aftermarket following for upgrades and is relatively cheap. Good luck and have fun.

Hobby grade RC vehicles look intimidating, but once you break one of these things down and go for it, they are actually very simple to work on. The kits I have had come with excellent instructions and labels.

Well said, and I agree 100%, it just sounded like he wasn't interested in wrenching at all (which is half the fun of course). I work part time at my LHS, and you'd be amazed at the number of people who either cannot, or simply don't want to work on their trucks. Had a guy last night that needed a new throttle servo for his T Maxx...guess who put it in?

Anyway, back to the point at hand, either Scorpion platform is a sure bet as was said. Don't be afraid to learn the mechanics of it all, the pay off is worth any bit of frustration you may encounter.

What ever you buy in the long run if you get good electronics it will save you money. If you go cheap you'll just end up buying the good stuff later anyway.

Servo, ECS and Radio are the backbone of your rig. Motor is not as important because there is no way to keep up in that department any way.

Batteries and charger can be another area it's important to buy right as well.

The Novak Goat is about $200 and runs really well on a 6 cell pack that you can charge with a inexpensive charger. It also has a built in 6v BEC to power your servo best bang for the buck IMO. There are many other brushless options but you will need more voltage to get decent preformance typically a lipo 11.1v battery and a lipo capable charger preferably with a balancer.

If you go brushed your going to need more voltage 7-8 cell packs and if you go lipo to get the voltage you'll need a much better charger.

To me this is where your going to spent the majority of your budget money is not on the kit or chassis.

IMO the best kit for a shafty is the AX-10. For a shafless truck right now its the Berg axles with a number of chassis choices. RC4WD will ave another shaftless axle out soon so in the chassis market the decisions are many and complicated. It is possible that the shafty type trucks might not be able to compete with the shaftless trucks so this decision is not as simple as it seems right now.

Lot's to think about' take your time the season will be ending soon in most places anyway and it seems the off season always produces new options on everything. :D

Ahhh.. one of the few advantages of Houston. 365 RC'ing. (Even though I would like to get all my rigs in the snow at least once!)

Good point about new options coming out during this time though.

*

Yup we get a seasonal break as does most of the country ever notice not a lot is going on during that time of year? :D

i have the ax10 rtr and just love it! its cheap and you can use all the upgrades that they have for the ax10!

Best bang for the buck
 

I having fun with my Axial AX10 RTR-I depends how much you want to spend? Got mine on sell for 269.00 bought a battery 30.00 and a charger 30.00 added 8 aaa batterys and was running with the front locked and lower gears in about 2 hours after I bought it!-took longer to charge teh batterys then to install the locker and smaller pinion-Matt

X2.

Ax10 Rtr

Hey Creepy Sorry for the late response, I appreciate your suggestions. I have to be honest, I have been intimidated by building a kit because everyone that I've ever known has always had gas powered rc's and are always having issues that they themselves cannot resolve. I also don't have as much spare time as I used to as I have a two year old son. I'm going to go forward and purchase a kit. The only way to learn is to jump into it with two feet right? Anyway, I have been eye bawling two kits because I like the scale and the reviews. Obviously the Axial Scorpian kit is the top choice due to price and all of the great reviews and I was looking at the Tamiya FJ40 kit. A bit more money, but I dig the body. Would you lean toward the Axial or would you consider them comparable?

I appreciate you telling it like it is. I'm going to go forward and dive in. I figure worse case scenerio, if I do get caught in a pinch I could either go to a local RC shop or get some tips from this awesome forum.

Hey Shafty, I hate to admit this but you are just talking light years ahead of what I know about this hobby. I will definately keep what you said handy when I make those types of purchases. First things first and that's going to be buying the kit and building it. Once I get over that hurdle, I'll start looking into the controller, batteries, charger, etc.

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking I'd like to spend about $500 to get started into crawling. If I like it and decide to keep it going, I'll go the extra mile down the line. I live in south Florida and there are no local tracks at this time. The good thing is that if and when they do set them up, I'd already have a leg up. With regard to the rig, I just want to make sure that I make the right purchases to eventually end up with a 4 wheel steer, 4 wheel drive truck.

Thank you to everyone that has given me advice! I really appreciate it.