RC Off Road Trucks - Big Fun In A Small Package

Losi Mini Desert Truck RTR

Features
Just like its big brother, the Mini Desert truck comes with a front skid plate, front and rear bumpers and a rear roll cage. Chrome desert wheels and all-terrain tires allow the truck to transition between on-road and off-road driving. The extended long chassis offers increased stability. The installed Mini-280 motor provides plenty of power for the little lightweight. Oil-filled shocks and true to life long-travel suspension keeps the whoops at bay.

Drive Review
The Mini didn't last 10 minutes in the box once it showed up in our office. Not only did we find this car a ton of fun off-road, we found it to be great as an in-office carpet-racer that can thoroughly annoy your co-workers. Both on and off the road, the Mini has plenty of power, but unfortunately because of its 1/18th scale size, anything but hard-packed dirt quickly became a problem. The small tires don't move it well in sand or loose gravel. Hard-packed dirt, grass and pavement are where this car shines and left all of us with ear-to-ear grins. We got a good 15 minutes of runtime out of each battery. This is the perfect R/C car for a younger child looking to break into bigger R/C models.

Traxxas Summit Extreme Terrain Monster Truck RTR

Features
Although the Summit is capable of doing its fair share of rock crawling, it is capable of so much more. The Summit can shift from a stump-pulling 70:1 low ratio to a speedy 25:1 high range for over 20-plus mph fun. Combine that with remote-locking differentials and you have an industry first. The Traxxas T-Lock system lets you select open front and rear diffs, front-only locked, or front and rear locked - all with a flick of a switch on the radio, no stopping required. Other features include waterproof electronics, a Titan 775 motor, dual high torque steering servos, a 10-LED light system, soft-compound Canyon AT tires, and a state-of-the-art cantilever suspension that puts 120mm of travel at each corner.

Drive Review
The Summit combines go-anywhere and go-fast in one package. At 22-inches long with a track width of 18.48-inches, it's a big car. Looking at the exoskeleton cage formed to the outside of the body and the massively huge tires, the vehicle looks to be aching to climb over boulders and up walls. Dual batteries, 4WD and a powerful motor kept the car conquering everything in its path. The ability to change from high to low range by flicking a switch on the controller is something we had never tried before. Crossing through streams is usually a big no-no in the R/C world, but our waterproof components left us with no worries. When slow time was over, we flipped car into high and set it off railing corners and jumping over the rocks. Out of the box the suspension is setup soft for crawling but after only a few quick adjustments to the shocks, we dialed in a solid smooth high-speed ride. Where would we choose to drive the Summit on a daily basis? We had a hard time trying to find a place we wouldn't want to take it. You decide.