The new Basher Nitro Circus 4×4 has just come through our front door and we put in on the RCD Reveal bench to see what it has to offer. This is an almost ready to run truck with electronics installed and only requires you to purchase a battery, charger and radio to get it in the dirt. The truck has a fairly basic layout and looks easy to work on and tune. We do have a few more thoughts to share on this truck so check out the photos and captions for our findings.
The body styling on the truck looks pretty good, the tan bed section looks odd initially, but looks better with the graphics applied.
The body shape fits the short course bill, but the plastic seems a little flimsy, we’ll see how it holds up to crashes in our tests.
We’ll give Basher some props here, the box art looks good. We even noticed that the Nitro Circus name is officially licensed.
The box contents is simple, an assembled truck, basic manual and decals for you to apply.
Adhesive backed plastic discs protect the silver trim on the wheels in shipping, but when we pulled the plastic off, some of the silver paint came with it.
The layout of the chassis is user friendly and the machined aluminum upper deck looks great.
That is one big aluminum plate. The chassis seems to be 6065 aluminum but with the upper bracing should fare fine when running.
Oil filled aluminum shocks feature threaded collars to adjust preload. The bumper has some flex to absorb impacts.
The rear section mimics the front. This means fewer unique parts to purchase if you want to stock up on spares.
Void of a label, Basher states that this is a high torque servo. The servo mates up with a servo saver on the main steering crank.
The supplied brushless system consists of a 2080KV motor and 35 Amp sensorless ESC. We like the clamping heatsink motor mount.
The center diff features a steel spur gear and a stubby aluminum center shaft sends power to the front gearbox.
The battery box has tall posts to accommodate batteries of varying height.
Bulky steering knuckles support large bearings and the aluminum hex hubs are 12mm. Steel dogbones transfer the power to the wheels.
The rear pillow-ball suspension is set-up just like the front. We did notice the arms are VERY flexible. Perhaps Basher is going for flex over breakage.
The red rims are cool, but the trim is paint and may scrape off easily. The tread on the tires will work on many terrains and the firm compound should last some time.
