Two Savage 25's - restore, convert to electric, or just sell?

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bklein

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13
I have two Savage 25's, bought around the same time. One for my son, one for me. Don't know for sure how old they are but many years. Fuel can has 2004 label.. His is kind of thrashed, but I am getting it back up to shape. Mine is much nicer, I rarely ran it. So the teenage son is now a 31 year old Berkeley grad and programmer 1000 miles from me (no, playing with an RC truck when you are a kid doesn't lead to a life of ruin). I'm debating what to do after I prove both are running 100% trucks. Do I convert one to electric? Will I like it (I'm 67, plus running a nitro truck in my neighborhood now would likely tick off the neighbors I'm sure)? I kind of worry about a truck this size moving so fast around anything living or valuable. My son drove his into his foot one time and we had to go to the ER for stitches. I am confused with the used pricing on these on Craigslist or Ebay. Ranges from $100-$700! I'm not sure what converting to electric does to the value - I would guess a conversion would be in the $300 area? And not as easy as it was getting parts to do it it seems from a brief readthrough of information. What are your thoughts? It will be satisfying to get these restored but what then?
 
If u want to convert the 25 it’s going to add up pretty quick with mods it needs but worth it IMO. Mine started alas a 25 and ended up with an 1/5 brushless conversion haha. If it were me I would keep one nitro and one brushless best of both worlds
 
I have a couple of savage 25 too. I converted one to electric and it was very satisfying to do the conversion. (I love building). But parts were very difficult to find as HPI went bankrupt around that time. Changing it to electric was a lot more work than I initially thought as the extra power required me to upgrade the whole driveline (dog bones, driveshafts, diffs, etc), plus change some gears in the transmission to give it reverse and handle the extra power. It ended up costing a lot more than $300 (mine was closer to $600) when you take into account the motor, ESC, batteries, battery boxes, motor mounts, motor plates as well as the previously mentioned parts. I went the route of converting it to a savage flux and needed to change the TVPs too. Once the conversion was done I realized I needed to upgrade the wheel hexes too as the power was stripping the 12mm hexes. So that ended up being new wheels too. The “new” truck was great and a lot more usable than the nitro. It was very powerful and that meant I needed to find open areas to drive it, my yard just wasn’t big enough. When winter came I put paddle tires on it and ran it in deep snow without any issues. My only concern was getting parts when something broke. I eventually found a monster truck kit by tekno so I stripped the electronics from the savage and built the tekno. Then converted the savage back to a nitro. It was great fun to do the conversion both to electric and back to nitro, I’m glad I did the electric conversion as it became a plug and play truck and I had many hours of fun both building it and running it. But it cost a lot to do the conversion. You would be better off (financially) buying something like the tekno for an electric truck and keeping the savages as nitro and either play in the summer or selling them. I hope this helps...
 
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I was a hardcore 1/8 scale nitro Savage 25 guy back around 2002 and lost interest and sold all my 1/8 scale stuff around 2008 . Recently I have had and urge to get back in 1/8 nitro . I even was able to buy one of my Savages back from my nephew (whom I sold it to back in 2007). So I too am involved in a Savage build. I also bought a 5.9 roller , and i'm pretty happy with all the upgrades that HPI has done since the older S25's . I also picked up a new Losi 8ight T RTR . It's a bit of a re-learn with the assembly of the Savages but it's all coming back. I'm SO disappointed that the nitro industry in general is just dead. There's almost NO support currently for nitro. Compared to the early 2000's when there was a LOT of nitro choices available. This current lack of nitro support, and the troubles HPI has faced makes in tough to find Savage parts but there is stuff out there . Big block .28+ Nitro engine in particular are just nowhere to be had. There is a few choices but nowhere near what the selection was back along 2004 .
 
Conversion will be expensive as you really need the stronger diffs and shafts/axles and centre diff is usually the best solution. Give them a clean and sell as is.
 
Thanks guys. I will go through them and restore to working condition as Nitro and eventually sell. What would be a reasonable offer price? Both stock but only one in near new condition, if I can find a 49T spur gear somewhere. Only one I see is over $30. I would think there would be several guys with 3D printers making replacement parts for this truck - why not?
 
here is a bit of advice you kind of answered your own questions but I will chime in .. I was in your situation I’m a lifelong RC hobbyist and took out my savage out of storage last year and converted it from nitro into a brushless beast probably spent way to much but I enjoyed it and really enjoying it now with my grandson and kids in the neighborhood. we have a jump we set up and it’s loads of fun ! Who doesn’t want to play with big boy toys lol.

I didn’t want the noise of an big block nitro buzzing around and making all the dogs bark in the neighborhood. Also for the ease of use electric is really nice I really enjoy the simplicity. I take the old savage truck with us on family vacations much fun !

so if I were you I would sell one of the trucks to help fiancé the conversion and do the conversion if you have the time and alittle coin. You have the resources right here to help you with the build.
 
I totally agree with Chris, sell one and convert the other one.
I have personally converted all of my Savages to electric and continue to but some from the boxes of spare parts that I still have. The Savage was KING for a very long time and for a reason, it will always be that truck you wish you had in your collection. Here are just a few that I have converted from Nitro or built from spare parts. I currently work on two more Savages and will post them once done. I also love to build them as you can tell....lol20210208_121303.jpg20210208_121546.jpg20210208_121610.jpg20210208_121842.jpg20210208_122118.jpg20210208_121759.jpg
 
I’m still a nitro head. I still have 3 savages. One xl with a brand new picco .28 barely broken in with a ton of mods. Truck is pristine! Also an x with an LRP .30 with plenty of mods, it’s a beast, and a 25 with the extended innovative chassis, mid tank mod, blah blah and
I just purchased a brand new LRP ZR.28 for it. I’ll never get rid of my stuff. I also have 3 nitro Revos with os. .18tm’s and plenty of mods too. Nitro is awesome lol
 

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