Customer Reviews

Traxxas Slash 2WD RTR 1/10 Electric Race Truck with 7-Cell Battery & Charger

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are a lot of things that can be said about the hobby of RC, but affordable and durable generally aren't words used to describe it. That's changed with the Slash. The only thing required that isn't in the box is a battery and battery charger.

If you're a 'basher' rather than a serious racer or just a newcomer, this is the truck for you. It even has settings on the included radio for training which limit the total throttle input. The tuning, if you're into that, is adequate and allows for changes in the handling to suit your style without investing any additional dollars (though there are a a LOT of after-market hop-ups out there made specifically for this vehicle).

I received my Slash right before winter set in, a time when all the rest of my nitro RCs are hibernating! Not so with the Slash. It provided entertainment throughout the winter season. While it's not a snowmobile, it is a LOT of fun in the snow. 'Wet' runs like that are made possible by its waterproof electronics package (servo and ESC). This type of wet running isn't really possible with nitro RCs for many reasons, not the least of which is fried electronics or cracked heads.

By way of comparison, no one gets handed the controls to my nitro RCs. They're too expensive to repair. They're too fast and too easy to lose control of to FORCE those repairs. I have no hesitation, however, handing the control to others with the Slash. It's durable and stands up against bashing very well. Even if damage does occur, the replacement parts are available and reasonably priced at most online hobby stores.

The only problem I've had with my Slash is that I foolishly let my wife run it and now she wants one of her own!!

Traxxas' new Slash is a great little race truck, but you don't have to be a racer to enjoy it! It's built on a combination chassis based on the Stampede/Rustler designs, and is very stable, even at speed. The body is HUGE! though the chassis is technically 1/10th scale, the body looks more to be 1/8th scale. It departs from all other Traxxas trucks in that the wheels are covered, not sticking waaaaay out of the wheel wells a la Monster Truck. Stock, the Slash is peppy, but I put in one of Traxxas' new Velineon brushless motor and speed control systems. WOW! Now it can do wheelies on demand, and controllable powerslides around corners!

The TQ radio Traxxas includes with the Slash is adequate, but if you plan to race this truck (and the truck just begs to BE raced!), an aftermarket transmitter is advisable, as it would have the adjustments necessasry to tailor the truck to any track condition. Spektrum makes an excellent one. I also recommend a different tire/wheel combo, as the stockers aren't a good choice to race with. I replaced them with a tire/wheel combo from Pro-line, which are smaller diameter wise, but a bit wider than the stockers, and they just wake the truck up! Now the Slash can power through corners MUCH faster than before!

Traxxas has outdone itself with this truck! The Slash is a great truck to start racing with, because of it's forgiving nature in most areas, and it's exceptional handling. Some judicious application of aftermarket parts outlined above (which are obtainable here, on Amazon), will make it a truck to beat! Don't be surprised if people come up to you asking about it, because the Slash is one unique truck!

I also race 1/8 scale nitro buggies and purchased this truck to participate in some local Slash racing, which is becoming extremely popular all over the US.

I changed the shock oil and made some camber adjustments based on some setup suggestions from the Traxxas site and this thing is just plain amazing on a dirt track. The truck is fast, durable, simple and easy to work on. I couldn't believe how well the truck handled the bumps and ruts and is an absolute bargain for around $200. When you get a group of these together and race them side by side, it's absolutely incredible!

This would also be a great truck for someone new to RC due to the low cost, durability and simplicity.

While the other reviewers here pointed out how fun this truck is, and fast, one thing that I'm disappointed about is they designed this truck to be high centered (the heavy battery pack sits up pretty high) to create body roll similar to the real trucks. This creates a nice visual as you watch is roll into corners, but I've found it makes the truck very easy to roll over.

I purchased this recently as my old Team Losi XX-T is pretty obsolete at this point. I wanted an exciting upgrade and this truck was cheap and highly raved about. Now, my XX-T, I could throw it hard into corners (on pavement too), and the battery pack on it sits about level with the center of the wheels, which keeps the center of gravity low, and allows you to really get into the corners. Course, it also goes about half the speed of my Slash, so perhaps with more speed it would cause it to rollover more, but I just don't think it'd be as easy to flip as the Slash, where the battery pack sits closer to the top of the wheels.

So, this truck flips easy. I guess it's supposed to power slide through corners on dirt, but I have lawn and pavement in my area to drive it on, and in both environments, I have to slow down a lot to corner, and the inside rear tire will often come off the ground and lose cornering acceleration. I'm thinking I should of went with the Rustler, but I do really like the looks of the full body on the Slash.

I've tinkered with the suspension settings as advised by the Traxxas manual for smooth surfaces, and it helped a bit, but you just cannot turn on pavement with any kind of speed. Grass is a bit more forgiving, but my lawn has enough roughness that I just cannot power slide it well or reliably.

Also, something I haven't seen in any reviews for the Slash, I run this with the 8.4V Tenergy 5000mAh Flat NiMH Battery Pack with Traxxas Connector, and get around 30 minutes of runtime with it, and stock it performs rather fast. Figured some of you might want a runtime estimate. I'd say the packs give a good 20 minutes of hard performance, easily.

You will need a charger and at least one battery to run this "Ready to Run" truck.

One other flaw. The rear bumper has one screw support on the gear cover side (two on the other) and this causes the one screw side to pop off the slotted area when you get a hard enough impact to the bumper. This basically leaves a shaft sticking out towards the ground near the rear suspension. If yer bashing, you'll have to fix this a lot. RPM makes an aftermarket part that addresses this, I've ordered it, but won't receive it till later this week. If it works or not, I'll put a review on the product page for it: Bumper / Wheely Bar Mount, Black:ERU,EST,EBA,SLH.

UPDATE 6/2/2010: There is a newer version of this truck with the new 2.4 Ghz radio system. The 2.4 Ghz Transmitter has a nicer antenna and requires only 4 AA batteries instead of 8. There is also a 4x4 version as well, which will likely help this truck a lot, as it's performance in grass and loose gravel as a 2WD with the stock tires is pretty abysmal. The 2WD version with the 2.4 Ghz radio system is also currently cheaper, and comes with a battery and charger offering a significantly better value.
Available here: Slash RTR w/ 2.4 Radio &7-cell Battery and Charger

I've also got some new tires/wheels by ProLine that have helped with it's stability and performance.

I'm having a blast with this truck! We bought one for my 9 year old son for his birthday and within a couple of weeks I bought one for myself. These are our first rc cars so we have nothing to compare against. But they were recommended to us as a great beginner rc truck.

They are very solid feeling and are very tough. We have rolled them on pavement at 20mph and only scratched the lexan body. They are in their element in the dirt. You can slid them around and do donughts very easily and they do not loose control. My son was doing figure-8 donughts the first time he drove it! They jump well off ramps. They are not so great on the pavement at full speed. Straight line is fine but when cornering you need to slow down or they will roll. In the grass they are fine, they don't slide or flip. If the grass is long they will get stuck.

They came packaged with everything you need, including battery, charger and controller. They even came with allan keys and some extra parts.

The only negative I have is that the included battery charger is a 350mA wall-type. It takes 8 hours to charge the battery. (Thats too long to wait!!!) We plan on getting a 4A peak charger that will take about an hour to charge the battery, for around 35-40 dollars. We seem to be getting at least 30 minutes out of the included battery. Which is a lot better than we were told.

I highly recommend the Slash for rc fun in the dirt and on the street.

For starters I only run electric. I have other models from other manufacturers and wasn't expecting much out of this related to the price. This truck surprised me so much that I am a Traxxas convert. I will not buy anything other than Traxxas now.

The handling of the Slash is what sold me. The turning on the pavement is amazing to watch with the suspension in action. This is the most fun I have had driving any of my vehicles. I always upgrade my vehicles with after market products to increase the fun factor. Out of the box this RTR truck is absolutely incredible. I have been driving it in my culdesac on pavement and it handles incredibly. My buddy came and drove it and wants one for himself now.

I took it to the local off-road track and raced it around in the dirt. I didn't have to power to jump like the Nitro trucks that were at the track. However, everyone liked my Slash and said it was a good entry truck and basher.

For the price I think this is a must buy. I would like to be able to run my Lipo batteries in this vehicle. I did run it for 20 minutes to see how it would handle, knowing that I might burn it out. The power was incredible. I DO NOT RECOMMEND YOU RUN A LIPO BATTERY IN THIS VEHICLE THOUGH. It will burn it out and the potential for damage is high.

After running my durable little truck now I have bought the Spur gear, 90-tooth (48-pitch) and ran the truck for $3. Completely worth it. Just depends if you want more aggressive speeds. To access the spur gear and adjust the tightness of the tranny is incredibly easy. I like the fact that Traxxas has metal transmission components in this vehicle.

For a 2 wheel drive vehicle I am very impressed. The body makes this vehicle look larger than I thought. It is durable and can run through water. The first time I have not had to worry about that. I want another one so my son and I can race together.

The Traxxas Slash is a great RTR RC truck. Just be careful to shop this price! The 2 Wheel drive truck should not be more than $230-$250 or so... And make sure that you get the edition with the 2.4 GHz Radio! Earlier radios have specific frequencies and can have interference with other RC vehicles... The newer 2.4 GHz radios eliminates this problem. A truck with the older radio should sell for even less, around $200-$220. I hate when companies go onto Amazon and sell a truly great product for a super inflated price... It is taking advantage of good parents, looking to buy a quality product for their kids! Anyway, 5-star Product... 1-star seller... (I put 1-star as my overall rating only to try and get people to read my review and shop that price!)

12/2011 update - the seller has lowered his price to a more reasonable level... I retract my one star seller comment... so long as the price stays at a fair level!

I am writing this review because I am a proud owner the Traxxas Slash. I recently, September 18th, bought a Stampede (see my Stampede review Traxxas Stampede RTR Electric R/C Monster Truck w/XL-5 ESC - 3605 I was hooked on Traxxas with the Stampede but my motor blew (Traxxas sent me a new one and a new gear free!) Sooo while I waited for my motor to come in I went down to the local hobby shop and was going to pick out a Rustler. After looking around I noticed the Slash and bought it instead. Wow! what a difference from my Stampede. The Slash ate up my backyard dirt track!! Full speed, it took the turns, jumps and outperformed the Stampede OffRoad. The Stampede has a lot more power and speed but the Slash is the OffRoad king. It sits low & wide allowing it to eat up turns in the dirt or grass. I haven't added any mods but stock this truck is an offroad machine. If you are looking for a pavement toy I would check out the Rustler or Stampede. The Slash is more of a "race" offroad truck, after all it is modeled after the real course racing trucks. I will write an update as soon as my motor is back in my Stampede and I can race 'em!

There are few drawbacks: The tires rub the body when turning, especially tight turns, and the back bumper mount keeps coming off when the back gets hit hard. As another review said "you end up with the "grass catcher". The butt of the Slash is low so if you hit a bump to hard it will flip up the back and cause the truck to go end over end causing this piece to pop out. I haven't experimented with adjusting the shocks so maybe that will help.

i bought the slah for my 10 year old son his first r/c, it seems that is a bid to fast for him at first but now he's becoming a pro it is a tough truck he rolled and crashed int the curb so many times but keeps on going i saw how much fun he was having i went and got myself one for father's day now we both have fun racing each other. very durable easy to work on it,the only draw back is the batteries are too expensive the good ones anyway.

I ordered this truck as a christmas gift for my 7 year old daughter. I was hoping it would give us some fun daddy daughter time and it paid off in a BIG way. We take this to the park where we have pavement, wood chip play area, dirt on the baseball diamond, grass in the field and a few jumps in the spare diamond dirt. We've rammed this full speed into bleachers, walls, flipped forwards backwards and sideways. NO DAMAGE. After running it about 5 times I asked her what she liked it about it. Her reply "we can't break it!"
She definitly cannot steer it with any precision and so any sort of track or even a straight away jump is out of the question at her age. However, she gets it on the diamond dirt and tears it up with figure 8's or runs in giant circles. It has tons of torque with a LiPo battery but we enjoy it with the included battery as well.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!!