Aarma Senton - First Dirt (Video) and Written First Impressions

[rkj__]

Well, after about a year with my Ascender crawler, I ended up walking out of the local RC shop with something a lot faster than my crawler - the Aarma Senton 3S BLX. I wanted something I could have fun with, when I find myself places that don't have good terrain for crawling. Aarma has a pretty good reputation for durability, and that was important to me, being new to fast RCs.


I'm still getting to know the truck, but it is so different from my crawler. Simply put, it can't crawl. Not even a little bit. Open differentials and crazy high gearing, mean that this truck wants to go fast, and only fast. High speeds really pull the mAh out of a LiPo fast, but I'm learning to get the most out of it. I think the 50C rating on my 3S battery is a little low, as the low voltage cutoff seems to kick in pretty early if I hit full throttle after I've got a little runtime on the pack. 75% throttle is plenty for most situations though, other than hitting top speed in a straight line. Keeping the throttle set to 75% allows me to get significantly more run time.


I'm a rookie driver when it comes to high speed RCs, so I'm trying my best to be gentle while I build my driving skills. But, that does not mean I don't send it for the occasional cartwheel... I've cracked the front and rear bumper springs, likely due in part to the cold winter temperatures, but other than that, it seems to be holding up well after the first 5 packs through it.


Overall, I feel like the truck is a pretty good value. I've had a lot of fun with it so far. It's pretty stable, and jumps pretty well. Those open diffs I mentioned earlier really help keep the rubber side down. When the truck is cornering, and gets up on it's outside wheels, and starts to tip, those wheels loose power (as power is transferred to inside wheels, which are in the air), which helps bring the truck back down onto all four tires.


This truck has plenty of power to kick up dirt, gravel, snow, and sand. As a result, it gets really dirty! It sure needs a cleaning after a run. The tray-like design of the chassis likes to collect dirt. This is a problem on gravel, as stones can jam up the steering linkage. Some users make up mesh / breathable covers to help block dirt and stones. I may need to come up with something myself.


Anyway, these are some of my first impressions. As promised, here is a very short run video.




Edit: New video.