Upgrades are loads of fun and they normally serve a few purposes. They make your truck stronger, perform better and hopefully they make it look better too.

There are loads of differing opinions about what 'THE BEST' upgarades to do are as you would imagine but there are a few that just make a load of sense to do asap. It also depends on what your going to be doing with your truck as to whats going to be more useful to you as well.

Here is a bit more info on the upgrades that I've bought and fitted to my truck since getting the standard Savage 3.5 RTR package.

Aluminium Differential Cases

The standard plastic caseings are OK but I soon found out that they are better replaced with the aluminium cases that are now standard on the newer Savage kits at the same time the diffs were shimmed in order to remove excess slack in the gear meshings as they are supplied slightly slack and fail.

Center Skid Plate

The center skid plate is a total must have upgrade as it adds a bottom panel and protects the underside of the truck from any damage to the gearbox and the breaking system. Bashing this truck around without one will end up with some un-wanted damage somewhere at some time so its best to prevent this asap. I went for the Fastrax one from CML distribution.

Upgraded Steering Servo

As you can imagine there are so many options when it come to buying upgraded servos that its a minefield in order to decide which one to go for. Again it depends on what your going to use the truck for and your budget as you could easily spend over £100 on a single servo if you wanted too. The standard SF2 servo clocks in at about 6.5Kg so anything above that is going to improve the steering power and hopefully the response at the same time. This is also dependant on your hump pack (details below) if you upgrade your electrical power source even with the standard servos you will see an improvement. The servo I have upgraded too is a HiTec HS-645MG BB.

Hump Pack

These are a total must have upgrade. They provide more electronic grunt for the whole electrical system in the car. That means more power for the receiver and the servos. Like I said above you will get more performance from the whole electrical system and your servos will have better performance as the Hump Pack will provide more current that a block of 4 AA batteries could ever hope too. Not to mention that you will be able to recharge the hump pack and if you combine this upgrade with a different power switch you won't even have to take the radio box aprt to recharge it!

Power Switch

Another total must have upgrade (required when upgrading to a hump pack). This is just a replacement power switch with different plugs on the cables it accept the input from a hump pack, get a three way number so that you can even charge the hump pack without removing it from the truck.

Charger

This is a great addition to the tool set and also required if your going to be using hump pack. The Edit charger that I went for will charge everything in the setup at the same time - the hump pack, the glow starter and your transmitter.

Fuel Filter

Another total must have upgrade. They are really cheap c£5 (Protech) so there is no excuse not to have one. Any bits of crap that get in the tank will eventually get sucked up through the fuel line and into the engine ... bang goes your engine. Its just not worth NOT having one.

Fail Safe

Eh? Wassat then? A failsafe is installed into the electronics of the truck between the receiver and the throttle/break servo. Its setup to respond to two things. The power in the hump pack drops to a preset (factory set) level or the input to the receiver from your transmitter is either weak or disappers altogether. What it will do is apply a preset (that you can configure) amount of breaking if either of these two things happens. Considering that your truck could be steaming off down the road out of control at 40mph for the sake of £13 its a must have.

Blast Wheels w/Phaltline Tyres

Far from an essential upgrade really but if you are planning on using your truck on concrete or anything hard the standard 'knobblies' are going to be crap really. With lower profiles on the tyres your going to get more grip and less wallowing around corners. That said you'll also get more stress in the drive train as less of the impact of things will be absorbed by the tyres and wotnot. You can see my truck in the picture at the top with these on, looks great!!