ESP Stampede Wheelie Bar

On many upgraded RC trucks, wheelie bars are practically mandatory. The Stampede is no exception, as wheelies come very easy with just minor modifications. The transmission housing can suffer damage and eventually be ground down unless there's something to protect it. Many people fabricate their own wheelie bar, or sometimes they just use a protective aluminum plate.

ESP offers a simple wheelie bar that's designed to protect the back of the Stampede and allow you to ride out long wheelies. It works great, in the beginning. Unfortunately the bar suffers damage very easily due to cheap materials, and from my experience with three of them, is suited to Stampedes that are street driven and never jumped.

Problems

The first area of the ESP wheelie bar that gave me problems was the screws that were used to secure the wheels to the bar. They are a very soft metal and bend extremely easily, breaking soon afterwards. If you've ever experience removing a broken screw I can assure you it's not fun. The good news is that most of the screws I broke left enough sticking out of the bar for me to grip onto them with pliers. Therefore, with some effort, I was able to remove them and replace them. However that was just the beginning of the problems with this upgrade item. The wheels use very weak plastic rims that are not very durable. So it didn't take long for the rims to become damaged and break, obviously reducing their effectiveness.

Necessary Modifications

Due to these problems, I had to upgrade the wheelie bar soon after spending $30 on it. For information regarding what I did, you can read my Wheelie Bar Section. Since I have made these modifications, the ESP bar has performed well for the most part. The aluminum sheet that connects the bar to the Stampede chassis is pretty soft, but due to the way it hugs the chassis this weakness is minor compared to the other problems, and is tolerable. However after paying $30 for the wheelie bar I still find having to deal with these weak components unacceptable. Someone shouldn't have to modify an upgrade part in this manner for it to perform as it should in the first place.

Conclusion

If you need a wheelie bar to protect your Stampede, you are much better off building your own or looking elsewhere for one to purchase. For the $30 you spend the ESP wheelie bar just isn't worth it.

Durability 1 Instructions 6 Looks 6 Quality 1 Value 1

Overall Score 3.0

Rants	Raves

Inflated Price For Materials Used Cheap Materials

Gives Your Stampede An Aggressive Look

Source: ESP Hobby

Reviewed 08.28.2003