Team Associated MGT (Problem)

[Sam Rothstein]

Well I got talked into buying a MGT from my hobby shop (I think now he is just trying to get rid of them) I finished break-in and started some slow driving, after two tanks every set-screw practically came loose? No real big problem. This is when it gets ugly. I was doing some minor jumping with the engine still at a rich setting, the truck got three feet in the air and landed upside-down and all hell broke loose. Not only did the engine break off its mount the mountings screw almost pulled thru the chassis. I’m so not impressed with the durability of this truck. My buddy has a savage and a Tmax and I have yet to see him total the truck in one jump. Now I need a new chassis and engine mounts. I also noticed a hairline facture on the engine crank case I guess I need to replace that as well. I really don’t feel like attempting rebuilding my entire truck with an exploded view manual. I think I will stick to Micros and cut my losses.

http://pic9.picturetrail.com/VOL282/1577616/3018868/36923342.jpg

[TitanAD]

it's nitro.. Nitro= loc-tite on every metal to metal surface before you run it.

the only time I have ever seen an engine sepertate like that is for 2 reasons. the motormount screws were not loc-tited and/or the engine somehow hit as well when the accident took place.

An engine can come loose in a matter of seconds if no loc-tite has been applied. sounds like the crash was alot worse than explained as well, hence the damage.

Hang in there, we nitro guys have all dealt with it at one time or another. but if you prefer to cut your losses and stick to the micros, i can email you my address and you can send me the MGT.

[Ninja Viper]

Let me know qhat you want for it Sam, I would gladly take er off your hands if the price is right.

[QUAKE&SHAKE]

You damaged it that bad from just a 3' high jump! It must not be a strong truck afterall. My quake landed upside-down from a 10 foot high jump (It kept running btw) broke some body posts, no big deal there and bent my rear shock tower, bent it back. MGT not been out long and have read a number of posts now about issues.

Set-screws coming loose well thats RTR for you in general. Ready To Repair :)

[RCRACER2471]

Ive had mine for about a week now and I havent broken any parts. Ive also gone off some good size jumps and some full speed runs. I think its just people can be careless at times and blame the truck rather than themselves.....:rolleyes:

[Sam Rothstein]

RCRACER2471,

I blame the truck for being brittle and not taking the abuse that my friend’s trucks take

QUAKE&SHAKE,

I was very surprised at how easily it broke and the amount of parts that were damaged.

Ninja Viper,

I have invested too much to back out just yet. But trust me; you’ll be seeing a boat load of these bad boys on E-bay soon.

TitanAD,

Thanks for the help??? I think?

[RCRACER2471]

Well you said that the engine screws were nt tight enough out of the box maybe you can work out a deal with Associated and see if they can give you a free replacement. It may not be the engine mount that is brittle it was probly the cause of the engine being loose...

[Bansheeman]

Well, I went to my friend house today to show him this post. (he's a MGT owner) And after he saw this he knew it had to be a bigger jump then three feet. So we went out back set a jump and started bashing. We took the body OFF first, jumped it (at least six feet), hit the brakes in mid-air (you know what that means!), and it landed flat one the top with out rebound (!) NO DAMAGE! Now I'm not callin' you a lier, I just think you not tellin' us the whole truth.
BTW-We were jumping the truck on dirt and not the street, we aren't that stupid. And tell use if you had a body on the truck and how your truck landed on the top. Tell us the whole story!:mad:

[RCRACER2471]

I agree. The MGT is pretty durable. I would also like to know more about what happened....(with details) :rolleyes:

[Sam Rothstein]

RCRACER2471,

I never said that the engine screws came loose! SET SCREWS! Maybe it’s my fault for ASSUMING that some sweat shop worker at thunder tiger built my truck correctly

Bansheeman,

I’m would get little satisfaction out of lying on some RC forum. I was driving my truck, I went off a jump got three feet of air, tried to correct the attitude of the truck by using breaks but because the breaks barely work this did not help. The truck flipped forward and landed on the cheap wire handle and the engine head! Hence the busted chassis, busted engine mount, busted engine crank case. No lie the truck was at about waist high at the arc before falling.

RCRACER2471,

Whatever:mad: NOSTRADOMIS! What details do you want?
:( :(

[atm92484_3]

Did you have a body on?

[Sam Rothstein]

atm92484_3,

Yes, it landed flat on the roof squarely impacting the head and roll bar wire

[Puffnstuff]

My savages have taken multiple hits like that and apart from the place where the roll bar cut into the body and the scratches on the cooling head there was no harm done. That is a very cheesy roll bar to be trying to support so much weight. I'm glad the savage bar is so sturdy.

[Bansheeman]

If you hit the brakes on any car it will flip forword. Were you expecting it to lift the nose up when you hit them? To lift the nose up you hit the gas. Don't blame the truck's brakes for you mistake. Plus, they work fine if you know how to use them. (he might be used to electice's brakes)

P.S. Where were you jumping? (Grass, dirt, concrete)

[Sam Rothstein]

Bansheeman,

Dude! The jump had a lip that threw the truck into a back flip so YES I hit the brakes to try and bring the nose back around. But because the brakes are not strong and I wasn’t in the air very high there was no time for correction. I have seen my friend take the same jump many of times. By the way I race dirt bikes professionally so please don’t even attempt to tell me how control a vehicle in air. :mad:

All the posts you’ve ever made are defending the MGT? What’s up with that? Does associated pay you to defend the MGT?

Puffnstuff,

Maybe I can “trade” my MGT for my friend’s savage. :D

[Bansheeman]

Oh, well I guess my crystal ball was broken!:mad: Maybe if you learn how to explain your self a little (a lot) better I wouldn't be makin' mistakes!

BTW-BRAKES WORK FINE! Micros brake a lot faster then a 12 lbs. truck so just get used to it!:)

[eurylokhos]

Really, the botom line is that things happen. There are quite a few Savage owners who the broke their engines in half (right in the crankcase) doing the same thing. IF you hit your head on something, the engine is going to break. Also, don't buy a RTR if you aren't willing to tear it down and locktite everything. Out of all my RTRs, the MGT was the best assembled and needed the least things torqued down and locktited. It sucks that that happened, but it can happen on any nitro. If it had happened when the truck landed on its tires, then you would have every right to complain, but it didn't, you said it landed upside down on the engine and rollbar. Don't blame it on the brakes being weak, you sholuld have gone through the truck when you got it and adjusted the brakes so they are stronger.

[Bansheeman]

Alright I'm goin' to try and help you out. Replace the dinky ''Brake-pressure'' spring (or what ever you call it) with fuel tubing. That makes a BIG difference.

[raderrustler]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck with your mgt. Any vehicle has a vulnerable spot and hitting the head of the engine on an inversion should have bent the head or at least bent the motor mounts..The castings in your pic show it shattered and a solid aluminum mounting set-up should help...dont leave the nitro scene just because of a bad situation we are here to HELP not to bash you or your story...right guys!?!. hang in there Sam
Randy

[BigBadTahoe]

All that time and this is what you get after waiting an extra year. :( I didn't plan on buying one and I still don't. This may be the worst AE ever made, do ya think? :confused: :eek:

[eurylokhos]

That's just idiotic. You wait a year and this is what you get? Huh? He jumped his truck and landed it upside down on the engine head. WHat do you expect to happen? It just to continue rolling? Take any car/truck and drop it upside down from 3 feet. It WILL break. THe only way it won't is if you install an aftermarket rollcage, or a high SUV style body that totally protects the head. This same thing happens with Savages, Maxxes, and everythign else. WHat do you think the best nitro on the market is? Let's say an Inferno Kanai. Take that and drop it upside down from 3 feet onto the head. The engine will break. IF anything, this was a good failure. Rather than the engine breaking ($150 part) the mount took the shock. I'd call that a good design.

[raderrustler]

I have totally inverted hard slammed my 1/8th buggies and have found that the cooling heads snap off before the mounts break, but if the eng mounts were the only part that broke then a good design flaw. and cheap to fix too

[fuzzy2133]

this looks and sounds like a bad casting of the part on the production line. any vehicle that lands on its lid where there is little protection makes me cring.

[eurylokhos]

Oh, I completely agree, but the whole thing is that you try your best not to land upsied down, and if you do, I mean, come on. You have to expect something to break, and if nothing does, count yourself as extremely lucky. It does look like there was a casting flaw because of how it broke, and he should be happy that he was lucky enough to have it break that way.

[GTX]

I didn't get a chance to read all the posts, but I read most of them...

Did you have the body on? The T-Maxx engine mounts are very weak and will break as well. I broke mine about 3 times in one day.

Does your engine head have a few scratches on it?

If your screws were PULLED, then the landing didn't cause this. Pulling the screws from the top (engine) would not be physically possible if you landed upside down.

Was it still running when it landed? They have that awesome fuel tank on there, lol!

[k_sw31]

Before you do anything with the truck/broken parts, contact associated...

Most likely you can send the parts in for review, along with the story of what happend. I know a lot of people did this with their b4s when they first came out (had a weak bulkhead problem) and it was soon fixed.

Bummer on the new truck dude.

[Bansheeman]

My friend truck still ran (strong) after our crash. Maybe it was the dis-placing of the soft dirt? I do know that the so called "crappy'' roll-bar helped to protect some (a lot). But really, what did you expect it to do?!?!

P.S. There was something like this in the Xtreme MGT review. They where on a skate park and it was there last jump (meaning it was jumped a lot before) and they jump it six feet, and it smashed down on its lid. They broke an engine mount and bent the cooling head. Seven dollars later it was still jumping!:p

[Pro3/nmt105]

It could have been worse
http://www.radiocontrolzone.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=1178246
http://www.radiocontrolzone.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=1178248

Its definitly your fault because you should never jump without a body, but it could also have been a faulty casting. Im sure AE will replace it for free and the chassi too if that needs replacing. These things happen all the time, when a new kit just comes out by any company, there are always problems with it in the first few months of production. AE is one of the best companys at solving these problems. Take the b4 for instance, it had a problem with the chassi cracking and AE redesigned the chassi so that it wouldnt. Kits are usually perfected by the 2nd or 3rd gen.

[eurylokhos]

That's the Savage pic I was looking for! REally, if AE designed the truck to bust the engine mount before the engine, then I applaud AE. THe engine mount is only like $12. I did see in the new Xtreme RC Car that they had the same thing happen, they landed upside down from 7feet in a concrete skatepark. They however, didn't blame AE, THey said that it was their fault.

[Bansheeman]

Oh, thats a Savage!:o Well atleast it didn't brake the motor mount.:rolleyes: :p LOL What the excuss for that one?

BTW-I agree with you. That is a good design ''flaw''!

[GILLAGAN]

The engine mount on the MGT is mostly hollow with self locking nuts that install from the bottom to hold the engine on. I was very happy to see this when installing a 24.7 as you dont need to drill or tap anything to install differant engines.

[Natedog]

Originally posted by Bansheeman
BTW-We were jumping the truck on dirt and not the street, we aren't that stupid.

Well some of us don't have a large dirt area handy and therefore sometimes run in the street or an empty parking lot!!! I use my x-factor skateboard ramp and get good amounts of air at speed. Yes, I've broken some maxx parts, but not as many as some people.

BTW one of the first hop-ups I did was a full-force rollbar that has saved my truck engine several times!

Oh and the stock savage rollbar is pretty weak.

[Bansheeman]

I wasn't calling people that jump there cars on the street stupid; I was just saying if you jumping on the street, don't whin about broken parts. Plus, we were planing on crashing the truck, so, I was also trying to say that WE (as in me and my friend) aren't as stupid as my post made us sound.:o Sorry for the mix up, I'm sure your very intelligent.:rolleyes:

[Natedog]

Agreed that more parts break on asphalt or concrete than if same crash occured on dirt (even hard-packed dirt.)

Sam,
Donn't give up on nitro mt yet...call associated and see what they say. There can be design or quality control issues especially with a new product.

BTW breaking stuff is part of learning what to beef up, what not to do, and what to do.

[TraxMaxST]

This board would be so much better if some people would swallow their pride (and shut their mouths) and just look and listen for a change.

I've seen trucks of all sizes and varieties take unreal abuse, things that happen and you just *know* something has to be broken, but somehow they come out ok. Then, all of a sudden you're driving around, and have a very minor crash and all hell breaks loose.

Example: my friend had his TC out and was doing some insane jumps with it. Flips, rolls, crashes, the works. The truck survived all the abuse just fine. We later went to an open gravel area and just driving around, hit a small clod of dirt and sent the truck rolling, and ended up busting some drive line components. Sometimes freak stuff happens. Things that can't be duplicated, you just happen to hit just right and things break.

I doubt Sam would post lies about a truck he just spent $500 on. Most people don't like to jump up and down and admit "I just dropped a great sum of cash on a pile of crap!" The opposite is true. Someone posts they break something on truck "X" and all the 14 year olds on the board have to proudly boast they have never broke a thing on their truck "X," when in reality they most likely have, or they never drive their truck. People are just too proud to admit their truck has failed. Let's get real, all nitro vehicles break sooner or later, there is no getting around that.

Sam, sorry to see your truck took a dump on you. Like others have said, contact Associated and see what they can do for you. Most likely they will hook you up with what you need to get your truck running. Stuff happens, don't bail on nitro just yet. Like my friend says, as long as you come to grips with the fact every time you fire up your vehicle you may break something, you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of the hobby. Just don't be surprised when something does break.