Duratrax 8th Scale Buggy Lockup & Bandito Tire Review
Some people want tires to win the IFMAR worlds. Others, mainly bashers, are just looking for an upgrade in traction at a reasonable price point. For all you 8th scale buggy bash fanatics out there, Duratrax recently added a couple of new sets of Pre-Mounted 8th Scale Buggy Tires to their set list. We handed a new set of Lockup off-road tires and Bandito on-road tires to our Bash Crew and told’em to find out if they were any good. Read on to find out what we found out…
From: Duratrax
Direct Link: Lockup & Bandito Pre-Mounted Tires
Review By: Cubby
Pics By: Tim Mohr
Specs
#DTXC3616 Lockup C2 with black wheels, $22 per pair
#DTXC3657 Bandito C2 with black/chrome, $26 per pair
17mm hex
Pre-mounted
Molded in C2 “soft” compound
Set Up Notes
We ran both sets of tires on our 2016 ARRMA Typhon buggy. Cell counts ranged from 4 to 6S of MaxAmps & FlightPower LiPo power.
Build Quality
We handed both sets around the table and had the BigSquidRC Bash Crew inspect them. The plastic wheels looked well done with no excessive flash and the tread on the tires themselves had nice sharp edges. Only when we went to mount them did we find that both sets went on really tightly. We busted out a hobby knife and took away some material, thus making them much easier to slide onto the axle.
Performance – 1/8th Buggy Lockup
The Lockups are molded from Duratrax’s C2 compound which is indeed very soft. The softness of the tires allowed them to get good grip on hard surfaces. However, when driven on hard surfaces (like blue-groove dirt and pavement) their tall lugs tended to fold over, thus leaving them feeling a bit squirmy. However, where the Lockups really excelled was on loamy/loose dirt. On a freshly worked baseball field the lugs on the Lockups could sink right in and provided excellent traction. They also did quite well in the freshly busted up dirt of a construction site. The dirt at the construction site had plenty of quarter sized dirt clods which the Lockups would promptly roost out at warp speed. Another surface that the Lockups excelled at was on grass. The Lockups have a lot of edges and deep tread, making them a really good tire when getting your bash on in grass. Wear was a little more than expected, but not anywhere as bad as a typical race only tire. Oh, and before we forget, the wheels held up just fine, even after smashing various pipes, roof jumps, and general hard bashing.
Performance – 1/8th Buggy Bandito
It is no secret that a whole lot of 8th scale buggies get driven on-road. It is also no secret that there aren’t many tire choices in that product category. We were big fans of the Banditos. Once again the soft C2 compound was great at supplying mechanical grip. In fact, the Banditos turned our test buggy into a traction rolling beast when driven on pavement. And when it wasn’t traction rolling, it was picking up the inside rear tire. Grip from the Banditos was vastly superior to the stock tires on pavement, not only in the corners, but also with their ability to give our test buggy much more forward bite. While the Banditos were absolute money on pavement, they didn’t work very well on loamy dirt or grass (nor were they designed to do so). However, if your local track is outdoor blue-groove or indoor wet clay, they might very well be a good option.
Final Verdict
Did these tires preform like “budget” tires? Nope, the Duratrax 8th scale buggy tires that we got to test did not perform like “budget” tires. Instead, they worked extremely well for the conditions they were designed for. The Banditos gave loads of traction on pavement, while the Lockouts did an extremely good job on loamy dirt. The Duratrax pre-mounts are quite affordable and our test staff thought they looked really sharp. Absolutely, we can highly recommend that you give them a try the next time you need to replace the tires on your buggy, or are just looking for more performance than your stock tires.
