I've been running my Kraton 6S for about two weeks now, and it's finally been upgraded/repaired out of the box to the point where I finally like it. I own 10+ RCs so I would say my experience is intermediate, a 50mph basher feels right at home for me. The list of pros about this truck is very long, as it should be for a $560 basher. However, there are several cons as well which shouldn't exist at this price point, let alone any hobby grade RC, which I'll get to. Pros: * 6S power. Hits 50+mph right out of the box. It will wheelie and flip onto its lid if you mash the throttle. * All terrain basher. 1/8 size with chonker tires and 3+ inches of ground clearance means you can drive this anywhere. * Durable. I've crashed head first a couple times with no broken parts so far. * Very stable. Long, wide, and relatively low center of gravity make this really easy to drive and controllable at any speed. * Sway bars included. This prevents the truck from rolling over during hard turns, unless you intentionally want to flip it. * Programmable ESC. You can set the punch and brake settings. * Lots of features on the radio, such as throttle limit (50/75/100), servo endpoints, and steering rate. * Big battery tray with velco straps. This makes it easy to use a wide range of battery sizes. * Relatively easy to work on and modular design. Although I haven't taken the truck apart yet to work on it, it doesn't look too difficult. Cons: * Screws are set with red threadlocker from the factory. This makes it a HUGE pain to take apart and do basic maintenance/repair. Why would Arrma do this? Why not just use blue threadlocker? * Servo saver is way too flexible, nonadjustable, and red threadlocked together. This causes the steering to be extremely sloppy out of the box, leading to a huge turning radius on hard cornering or when driving offroad, since every little bump will cause the servo saver to flex and the wheels to straighten out again. This is a V4 and V5 issue, the previous Kratons did not have this design. * Servo not centered and endpoints not set from the factory. This is just laziness, and the not set endpoints have been leading to tons of failed servos only a few runs in. * Spektrum servo is crap. Mine died after two runs, although I suspect it could have been because I didn't set the endpoints first. * Spektrum Firma motor runs HOT. On a 40 degree day after 30 minutes of running on 6S, my motor was at 170 degrees, which is the absolute limit the motor should be running at. If it was a 70 degree day, the motor would've been well into the 200+ degree range and I'd have a fried motor. Recommended out of the box upgrades/repairs: * Set the servo endpoints. * Add shims to the servo saver spring to tighten the steering. * Get a heatsink and fan for the motor. * Add a wheelie bar. Don't get me wrong, I really like the Kraton so far. At 50mph it's really controllable and stable, which is saying a lot. Most of my trucks are 1/10th scale and once they get past 40mph they become wild and uncontrollable, and they get bumped around by rough terrain due to their smaller scale. The Kraton is easy to drive at any speed on any terrain (once you fix the sloppy steering), tough, and easy to work on.
