Review: HoBao Hyper MT Sport Plus Monster Truck

Being a racer, there are times when I just want to set aside all my competition Touring Cars, Short Course trucks and 2WD buggies and just grab a big, honkin’ RC rig to just play with. That feeling doesn’t come very often (I love the competition), but when it does I want to have something fast, capable and built like a tank to make the best of my free time. Recently I received a big ol’ box on my doorstep, in it was one of HoBao’s new Hyper MT Sport Plus E-Monster Trucks. I can’t wait to try it out – I wonder if it’s fast? I’m also curious if it’s tough. When it’s play time I’m all about letting it all hang out so this truck has to be able to keep up with me. Play time equals full throttle time – managing power is for racing. Let’s load some LiPo packs up and see what this MT has to offer.

Features

Chassis
The Hyper MT’s chassis starts off as a 3mm sheet of aluminum, stamped and then folded to form a monocoque design. A pair of 2mm chassis plates (one in the front and one in the rear) key into slots in the chassis and are screwed into the front and rear bulkheads. The transmission housing doubles as a mid-brace for the chassis, finalizing the very rigid platform. A dual-bellcrank steering system sits snugly in the chassis while a pair of adjustable battery boxes hang off each side of the truck. A molded rollover hoop acts as a carrying handle (with the body off) but is mainly used to help the body maintain it’s shape should a rollover occur.

Suspension
HoBao has designed a suspension that is truly designed for severe use. There’s quite a bit of plastic used in the symmetrical front rear suspension arms as well as the muscular shock towers. The toe and camber turnbuckles are 5mm thick and are capped with chunky rod ends. Lots of plastic is used in the knuckles and uprights as well for maximum durability. The shining star with this suspension, though, are the Big Bore threaded shocks. They’re very smooth and feature aluminum caps and long, rubber boots to protect the shafts from being damaged. They’re the perfect size for this 10lb truck with the spring rates being spot on. Only on the largest jumps did the suspension actually bottom out – most of the time it floated over the rough terrain.

Drivetrain
The centrally-mounted transmission takes the power from the brushless motor and transfers it to the front and rear gearboxes via 4mm drive axles. Both gearboxes also include a full set of metal gears, and 4mm CVD’s (up front) and dogbones (in the rear) extend the power to the 17mm hexes at the wheels. The hex system used on the Hyper MT is unique; it uses a 17mm serrated nuts to grip the wheels, but then adds a 5mm bolt through the center of the nuts for added security. Great idea, but I would suggest removing these and adding a light drop of threadlocker before running. A couple of my screws were already loose (on the truck, not my head).

One thing I found odd with the drivetrain, however, was the lack of a slipper clutch. While I know metal gear drivetrains can be strong, a slipper is always recommended. Thankfully HoBao does offer one as a option part.

Steering
Keeping the front tires in the right direction is a dual-bellcrank steering system that is tucked away inside teh monocoque chassis. It has an integrated servo saver and uses a standard-sized, HB-5514mg Digital servo to control the direction. A metal servo horn is included as is a steel turnbuckle, the whole system doing a pretty good job of keeping the truck pointed straight. I did notice a bit of lag at higher speeds when I wanted the Hyper MT to do anything, but a quick turn of the servo saver collar helped that out a little. If I were to choose one upgrade area, though, it would be the servo. It’s not bad but I think after a few extended fun runs it might be the first part to fail.

Battery Mount
The Hyper MT has a set of long battery holders on each side of the chassis. These holders accept 2S and 3S LiPo packs in either short or long configuration. If you’re using shorter packs, you’ll be able to take advantage of altering the weight bias by shifting the batteries either forward or back with the included foam block. There’s no lid on the box; instead, dual Velcro straps keep the batteries firmly secured. This system worked perfectly throughout the day even with some of the more, ummm, horrendous crashes this truck went through.

Electronics
Powering the Hyper MT is a 150A, waterproof WP-8BL150 ESC. It is mounted to the left of the motor with a ziptie around it for added security. Power wires run from it to the 2000kV brushless motor that is strapped in with single aluminum hoop. This system is really powerful, however you might have an issue getting it to run properly from the get-go. The issue I had was that the ESC was set backwards from the factory; it would go in reverse when I hit the throttle and in forward when I applied the brakes. I tried recalibrating it per the included instructions, but that didn’t seem to help. To actually make it work, I swapped two of the power wires with each other; in this case yellow and orange. After that, the Hyper MT was good to go.

The receiver is set inside of a large box mounted near the front of the chassis. Opening it up reveals a rather large space for such a tiny receiver, however this setup is also used for the Nitro version which also needs room for a receiver pack. The receiver itself is not mounted; it’s just sort of set in there to flop around. I added a piece of double-sided tape to secure it; this is suggested so that it doesn’t bang all over and potentially fail. Two screws, 2 minutes – it’s definitely worth doing.

Spec Data

General
Scale: 1:8
Power Source: Electric
Length: 22″ (559mm)
Width: 17″ (432mm)
Height: 10″ (254mm)
Weight: 10.3lbs (4582g)

Chassis
Type: Monocoque
Thickness: 3mm
Material: Aluminum

Suspension
Type: 4-wheel independent
Camber: Adjustable turnbuckles
Roll: Adjustable ballstud locations
Wheelbase: Fixed
Shocks: Big Bore threaded aluminum

Steering
Steering: Dual bellcrank
Turnbuckles: Adjustable turnbuckles

Drivetrain
Type: 4WD
Transmission: Single speed, gear-reduced
Clutch: None
Differentials: Gear differential
Bearings: Full shielded
Gearing: Mod-1, optional pinion gears

Body, Wheels, Tires
Body: Pre-painted Monster Truck body
Wheels: Multi-spoke plastic
Wheel hex: 17mm hex
Tires: Multi-block Monster Truck

Performance

Everyone knows when it comes to Monster Trucks, the crazier the terrain is, the more fun you’re going to have. I took the Hyper MT to a local basher’s playground filled with jumps, bumps, berms and hillclimbs. I figured this would be a great place to test the MT’s limits with both 4S and 6S LiPo power. To start off the run and keep things mild while I was learning the traits of this truck, I dropped in a pair of MaxAmps 2S LiPos and headed for the dirt.

Speed and Braking
Amazing. If I could just leave it at that, I would, but I’m sure you want to know what ‘amazing’ actually means. For one, there’s some serious tire-shredding acceleration on just 4S. Simply mashing the throttle is a great way to put a smile on your face as all four tires create a plume of falling dirt behind it. But the speed isn’t just what’s great about it. The throttle is manageable, meaning there’s a pretty good feel to it that allows you to carefully modulate it when needed. Need to square up for a jump coming out of a corner on loose dirt? Roll into the throttle before pegging it for a nice, controlled flight. On the opposite side, the brakes are incredibly strong as well. This is great for pulling the MT down from a high speed pass before a turn or, in my case, hitting something. The problem with speed is that it’s sometimes harder to control braking – I mean really, who likes to slow down? I’m just glad that HoBao included an ESC with excellent brakes as they saved me on more than one occasion from an early trip home.

Steering and Handling
As I mentioned a little earlier, the steering on the Hyper MT is good as long as you cinch the servo saver collar up a bit. After that, it’s just a big truck with big tires that needs a bigger servo (performance-wise) to really steer well. Don’t get me wrong, this servo will perform fine for awhile, but I’m guessing it will soon start to lose it’s edge and slowly taper off to bye-bye land. Run it until it dies, then buy a good servo.

The handling, though, amazing. The entire suspension did a fantastic job on all types of terrain from big jumps to little, hill climbing, hard cornering – you name it, this truck did it right! The grip that the entire system creates is really impressive and actually added to the fun of just driving instead of worrying about it spinning out or acting funny. The Big Bore shocks worked great and helped keep the Hyper MT under control the whole time.

Durability and Maintenance
As far as maintenance, there’s little this MT needs under normal driving conditions. My shocks looked great (no leaks), tires were still glued all the way around and there was nothing hanging off the chassis. Even if you need to do some maintenance, everything is pretty easily accessible thanks to it’s size.

On the playground side, there’s not much you can do to hurt this MT. Normal bumps, tumbles and even the occasional flips did little to damage this massive machine. While I wasn’t out to actually try and break it, I wasn’t taking it easy on it either. So, after pretty much conquering everything in the playground, there was only one last thing to do; equip the MT with 6S (I call this Hyper mode – get it?) and head to the HUGE BMX park a few hundred feet away. When I say huge, I’m talking X-Games huge. Well, ok, X-Games huge reduced down to 1:8 scale, but still big enough to send the Hyper MT way up into the air.

The scenario went something like this – medium throttle over a small rolling hill into a 6’ gapper, down a deep slope and into a near vertical takeoff. This would send the Hyper MT a good 20’ high into the air and, if I controlled the angle of the MT just right, would drop it down to a pillow soft landing on and the backside ramp. That was the plan – and I stuck the landing three times, however on my final showboat attempt, I came down hard on the right front wheel, popping the entire knuckle assembly away from the truck. Ouch.

But wait, was it really broken? Actually, it wasn’t. The hit had flexed the suspension arm so much that the entire knuckle assembly (and hinge pin) simply pulled away from the truck! I only had to remove the hinge pin, slide it back into place (through the arm and knuckle) and I was ready to go again!

Mind you that I didn’t do alot of the rip-roaring on the 6S pack as it was really way to much power (did I just say that?); 4S is extremely fun but I would imagine running full time on 6S is going to be a bit more costly on parts.

Tuning
This isn’t a racing vehicle, so I didn’t expect to see much in the way of tuning. HoBao has added some adjustment to the Hyper MT for those that like to fiddle; things like camber, roll center, shock angles and toe. It’s not alot, but certainly enough to change the way it handles.

GALLERY

LINKS

HoBao, HoBao-USA.com
MaxAmps, Maxamps.com