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The Project Stampede
Ultra-Pede
& Thoughts on Upgrading
Complete Upgrade List

Street Price as tested about $170 each.

First off let me say I am apparently not on Traxxas's radar and was not a recipient of one of the complimentary  review and test kits like a couple other notable sites...
Full Review Here

First off the question you are asking is "Why a 4.5R on a Stampede?"  The answer is because no one else has done it, it brings just a stupid amount of power to the Stampede Project Ultra-Pede that makes it almost untouchable by a vast majority of electric and gas powered cars in almost any configuration, and it scares the living hell out of everyone at the track.  ...
Full Review Here

RPM Wide Bumper - (REQUIRED ITEM) What ever model you chose MSC or ESC, buy the freaking $5 RPM wide bumper.  The RPM bumper will save you a lot of money. Even in stock form the Stampede is a little faster than you would think and despite your best efforts you WILL hammer the front of the Stampede into poles, the garage, the curb, the wall, your friends, your car,...your get the idea.  When this happens without that huge RPM bumper you could crack or break the body, the front shock tower, camber links, stripe servo gears,... again you get the picture. A very wise investment indeed that will pay for itself over and over.  While you are at it also pick up some of the shock spring retainers, they will not break like the stock ones.

Traxxas Aluminum Shock Caps for Rustler/Stampede - Everyone says the stock plastic ones pop off and blow silicon shock oil every where (you don't want to have to clean this stuff up), having swapped them out the the aluminum versions before even a first run, I have never had a problem. (See Mis-Behaving-RC in Useful Links for the how to).  Note pick up a roll of Teflon tape form the hardware store and some Trinity Buggy Blast and some 50wt Silicon Oil from your hobby shop while you are at it.  If you follow the directions on Mis-behaving-RC you will have a shock almost as strong as aluminum model at far less the price.  You will thank me for telling you this the first 2-3 foot jump the Stampede makes un-eventfully.  From a long term perspective, I see no reason for me upgrade to better shock, the rebuild takes the best plastic shock in the industry and makes it handle anything I've been able to throw at it.

RPM Gear Cover for Rustler/Stampede - The reason for this upgrade is that the stock gear cover on the original Stampede, Rustler, and Bandit leaves a small gap near the axel and allows debris to get into the gear box., The $5 RPM gear cover one provides complete coverage.  If you are all about color, your can get the RPM cover in a rainbow of colors. The first time you pull a small twig or leaf into your gear box and shred a spur gear you will wish you had bought one.

Motor Heat Sink - Associated Motor Heat Sink TC4 #31048

This was more of an adventure than simply snapping the thing on the motor can.

First off, as expected and stated on Misbehavin-Rc's site, the transmission housing requires modification (i.e. removal of some of the motor housing.  This was no big deal, grab the Dremel with a cut off bit and make three linear cuts - done. 

Second, the heat sink doesn't fit with the lower fins so those needed to be removed, more grinding with the Dremel.

Third and possibly the most frustrating part of the project was locating and positioning the heatsink so that the motor could be bolted up on the motor plate.  The stickers needed to be removed from the can (the can has a permanent mark indicating 0 for timing), and sliding the heatsink on to the shaft end.  What I finally ended up doing was installing the motor as normal without the heatsink and then marking which fin lined up with the timing mark and then removed the motor, attached the heat sink and then re-installed the motor.

The heatsink works great, I have yet to hit the 5 second touch test limit and the motor runs much much cooler.  Would I do the project again? In a heartbeat, however I would recommend buying a Integy heatsink such as the one pictured without lower heat fins or one of their fan assisted models (see note below.)  I think in reality if you are gearing everything correctly you really don't need a heatsink, however everyone always overgears and/or does some high stress bashing with stock gearing when it should be geared even lower, so in my opinion this optional accessory give you motor some extra stay cool insurance.

Long-Term Update: I definitely would not go for the fan assisted model on an off road vehicle.  These is just way too much junk that ends up in the fins.  I have been exceptionally happy with the heat sink and have yet to get the motor to it's previous flesh searing temps.

Bad Horsie Shock Covers

I saw these nice little covers over in the E-Rustler forum and within 5 minutes of reading the one line post I was $8 poorer in my Paypal account with some BadHorsie.com shock covers on the way to me.



Although I have blathered incessantly about the clay soil of Nebraska and how it gets everywhere, I wanted, correction, needed a pair of shock covers to prevent almost constant cleaning of my shocks on my Stampede Project Ultra-Pede. After the entire Stampede Project has been all about reducing maintenance and increasing durability.

They arrived quickly in about 4 days via a padded USPS envelop with only a hobby accessory style bag with with what looked like a ink jet printer card stapled to the top stating is was for a Stampede/Rustler/Sport SE/Bandit. God bless resourceful small businesses. Made me feel like I was supporting the little guy. No complaints, just observations. Had the shock covers been from one of our larger aftermarket accessory brethren, I am sure they would have cost twice as much.

They must have figured that installation was pretty intuitive, because no instructions or assembly diagrams were included. Note to BadHorsie.com, maybe some online documentation would be helpful for those that need a little more handholding, I think "Remove spring, slip over spring, tuck ends into inside of spring, re-install" would be enough if printed on the card attached to the bag. And that's how easy they were to install.

These ingeniously simple little accessories slip easily over your spring, the extra material get tucked inside the spring and slide back on the shocks. Everything is held in place just like normal, except you now have these little scotch guard coated shock dust-boots that keep all the junk off of the shock rods and ultimately junk from working it's way inside your shocks. They also look trick.

Wonderful. Another neat little product that is sure to reduce ongoing maintenance.