Damn the more you guys talk about them the more i wana buy one. Yamarider i know you said a gallon of gas cost about 30 bucks and fills up the car about 50 times but how long does a tank of gas last in those things? and if i were to buy one what would be a good one to buy and how much do they cost? wonder if they sell them on ebay...
The best thing to do is to go to your local hobby shops and decide what you want based on what they sell. If you get into this hobby, chances are you will break stuff. My buddy has that Redkat thing he got on ebay for $180, but it's near impossible to find parts because it's not a brand that any of the hobby shops carry.
I got mine at a little local hobby/rc/camping store for $250, and that came with everything I needed, including batteries. The only thing I needed to buy was a gallon of gas (which is $22 there, i got a different kind of gas somewhere else which is $30 a gallon). The evader is a pretty common car, so almost all r/c shops will stock the most common parts for them. So every time i break something, i can just drive 10 minutes, pick up the part for $5, and go home and fix it right away. My buddy with his off-brand buggy will have to order the parts directly from the manufacturer and wait a couple weeks for the parts. If you get a buggy, you WILL break parts. So far, here's what i've spent on repairs. Bear in mind, i'm still getting used to the whole thing and i've made a few mistakes. But I shattered both front a-arms already, in seperate crashes. A left and right a-arm are $5 for the pair. In one of those crashes i also broke the bottom shock pivot and lost the spring retainer. It was $3 for 2 pivots, 2 retainers, and a bunch of other little shock parts. I burned up the differntial gear doing donuts. That was $5 for the gear and $3 for new bearings. Wore the rear tires down to nothing. I got a new set that will last much longer for $16. Glue to mount them to the wheels was $5. I spent $5 on a bottle of filter oil, and another 4 on a bottle of heavier weight shock oil, which will refill all 4 shocks about 5 times. And 1 glow plug at $5. The little costs do add up, but most of that was beginner mistakes.
How much are you looking to spend? I picked one of the cheapest routes possible to get into the hobby, which came out to just under $300 with taxes and a gallon of gas.
My buddy Jon spent about twice as much on his truck, but has a much nicer machine. He's bounced his 7 feet into the air, landed on rocks, and didn't break anything on it. And his comes with a bunch of extra parts to add adjustability and all that good stuff. Plus reverse. 4 wheel drive. Electric start. Very smooth, long travel suspension. Big tires and enough ground clearance to go anywhere. 2 speed transmission, tops out at at least 45 or 50 mph if you have the balls to hang onto it for that long. He just has to be real careful on pavement, because even being a good 18 inches wide, it'll still flip over on him real easy. So they're not the thing if you want to play around in parking lots much.
A tank of gas in mine can last anywhere from 8 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on how hard i'm running it.
