Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ My VMG first impressions, Including bearing install

Check out the MiniG mod list for a fairly coprehensive list of mods to get the most from your miniG!

Mod List

Plase note that this will be lacking pictures, I will try to get pictures up soon but it's late at night now so they will have to wait. Many MG pics can be seen on the web and in our own forum.

Today I recieved my Venom Mini Giant and spent an hour or two breaking in motors, installing bearings and the such, sadly not much driving time. But here I will post my first impressions:

Out of the box the MG is nice and RTR with just some batteries added. Venom has taken this opportunity to introduce some ideas into this pint size truck that mostly seem like they are trying to make sure this truck appeals to the younger or less experienced crowd as well as the RC enthusiast.

First I will touch on the parts that seem like firsts in the business. The biggest being the non polarity battery pack. This little feature seems like an awful lot of trouble, because I don't recall often instally batteries the wrong way. After all don't we all know by now the negative goes to the spring? Well anyhow, there is nothing magical about this system, it actually makes the system a little less compatible with some batteries!

This system assumes you are using the standar type batteries that are flat on the neg end, and with only a small tip on the pos end. Most of us have only this kind of battery. But some batteries (and I believe this to be more true of rechargeables) have a wide tip on the pos end, almost as wide as the neg base. This poses a problem because the way the non polarity system works is by place 3 contacts at each end of each battery. 1 in the middle (where the pointy end would touch it) and one on either side of that (where it could contact the wide flat base of the neg battery end, hopefully pictures to make it easier to explain soon). If your battery has the large flat pos end it will short with these and cuase battery damage and of course non functionality of the truck.

Also I have read that this battery box is made with the slimmer AA in mind. Some AA are slimer than others and if you happen to have the fatter ones (some brands just are) they will not fit side by side in this box.

Fortunately I had a kind that worked fine and while I don't think I would have gotten it backwards, I guess the non polarity system took some possibility of error out of my setup.


And the last thing that struck me as novel is the way the body attaches. The lexan body attaches in the rear via 2 body posts that come out of the battery box holder. with quick release clips as per usual. The front however is screwed into a rotating bar under the hood. This allows you to upclip the back, and then lift the body up like a hood on a car and access the battery area without fully removing the body.

I have to ask "Why?". After all was it that hard to remove 2 more clips? I guess it's an interesting way to go about it, but the body does not move sufficiently up or foward to access anything but the batteries, so not tinkering with the insides without unscrewing the 2 screws.

Other than that it all seems prett standard hobbie class stuff right down to the full sized servo (VERY nice touch).

As I mentioned I got a bearing set as I believe they are an important addition to any quality RC. With 22 bushings to replace the bearing set is a fairly formidable job to install. The installation requires pretty much stripping the truck entirely down except for electronics, and if you don't know what you're doing (I didn't) you will proably end up taking every part totally apart. Hopefully I can save you some time.

First off make sure you have the right screw driver, I think you can get away with one, but if you have 2 or 3 sizes for the different screws or a jewelers set, not a bad idea. Just make sure you have at least one with a reasonable sized handle, as a lot of the screws are torqued down pretty tight. Some ziplocks would be a good idea too to keep the parts all seperate and in groups. There are only 3 or 4 kinds of screws used, but some of them are very close in size so I sugest working on one area at a time (front diff, rear diff, transfer box) and getting the parts back together quickly. Also possibly take a piece of paper, draw an outlie of the truck, and stab the screws through the paper at approrpiate places to help keep in mind where they go. And DONT LOOSE THEM!

And get a roll of paper towels. Trust me, you will need it.

First of all, the bearings are all installed in the bottom area of the truck. It should be obvious but the top is all electronics and there is no use for bearings there.

If you look at your exploded view of your MG you should be able to spot the bigger bushings right off, they look like bearings but have one flat side. Also try looking in teh parts list for bushings (I think they are 46 47 48) and find the numbers on the chart.

Easier still though is just to open it all up and look for red plastic, the bearings are all red and the rest is all either white or black. Only tricky spot is the smallest ones, most of which go in the transfer box.

I sugest unscrewing the suspenion and whatever those red bars are. That leaves the front and rear attached only by the one screw in the triangular thing (I know, specific aren't I, I am tired, you be quiet) and the front attached to the server. The servo and the triangular thing were two of the hardest parts to get to for me.

For the servo I sugest manually moving the servo all the way to one side, then you can access it from the front, the traingular things, just work at it.

The transfer box is pretty self explanitory as there are 8 screws holding it to the frame. Getting it out can be a bit difficult, I sugest removing the plastic plate under the battery box area, I removed the ESC and electronics and that was not worth it.

From here it's pretty much unscrew screws and pull it apart, the exploded diagram can help here if it gets tricky but it should be pretty self explanitory, if it gets difficult at all, you proably missed a screw.

And the axles come out of the differentials for getting at the bushings actually on the axles. Be aware that it seems common that one axle is slightly larger than the others and getting the bearing on is difficult, recommended solution is to sand it with fine sandpaper until it fits, my solution was to lightly tap it with a hammer. It worked but it may have very slightly bent the axle, hard to tell.

The front steering knuckles have bushings inside as well, look close for those.

After that, regrease anywhere that needs it and reasemble.

As I said I never tried it without bearings, but with I am happy with it so it's not a bad idea to be sure.

Another step is breaking in the motor. I plan on getting a 370 or other upgrade motor soon so I didn't take as much time as I shoudl have with the stock (it still arcs sometimes during use I water dipped for about 5 minutes then forced a lot of nitro force cleaner thorugh it to drive out the water, then relubed. If you won't get an upgrade motor, or just want the most out of your stock, I sugest breaking in thoroughly, which is as easy as hooking up 2 batteries (aa aaa c d whatever) directly to the motor (unplug it from the ESC) and letting it run for about half an hour or hour (if you see no more arcing you are in good shape) it's best to do this with the motor completely out of the truck so it's under no load.

If you water dip remember to dry it quickly to avoid rust, I sugest motor cleaner to make sure the water is pushed out as fast as possible.

So now I have a running truck.

Back to my impressions:

Overall the truck feels very solid, it has everything I want (4wd, a simple gear saving clutch feature, and very good quality electronics) I liked the look of the controller that came with it, but I never used it, I have a nicer one that I went straight to, so sorry no comment on that, but I can't imagine it's not a solid controller.

The suspension feels a little on the bouncy side for what I like, but it does allow for a lot of articulation and all the pictures you see of the truck up on rocks are about what you can expect. Supposedly Mini T shocks will work well on the Mini G and Venom should be out with oil shocks in the near future. Also a spring set is available that may fix this issue. Some of the bounciness comes from the tires, which unlike traditional monster tires are not foam filled, and are actually sealed so the air cannot get out. This makes them very bouncy but for my purposes they are quite reasonable.

The suspension can be adjusted to 3 positions to suite your needs and does a very good job for a stock setup.

Sadly the body of the truck is made of softish black plastic and I stripped a few screw holes in the process of taking the truck apart once. It all still seems to hold together pretty well, but I am not sure how I feel about taking it apart repeatedly. I think it should hold up at least as well as a mini z chasis though.

Fortunately I don't think you wil lhave to take it apart often for much, once you get the right motor and gearset it should be pretty much good to go. Also I am sure aluminum parts will be on their way soon.

One other particularly flimsy part that got to me was the wheel nuts. They are beyond cheap. Simply taking the wheels off once and putting them back on stripped on of the nuts almost entirely to the point 'I sat tightening it for over a minute without ever feeling it tighten. Some upgrade wheel nuts would proably solve this but for a monster truck it seems like a horrible place to skimp.

Another thing that may be bothersome is that the antenna is mounted such that it exits the roof of the cab of the truck. During rollovers this will quickly damage the antenna holder. A simple mod I saw on the net was to drill a hole in the body and glue a nut under it, then install the antenna there. It will be high on my list of mods.

Also during flat out acceleration the truck seemed to pull right. This is somewhat annoying as I would think the center differentials would allow for straight acceleration. Maybe this is just mine or I did something to it, but it does bother me. Could be one of my tires which seems alittle wobbly.

Sadly I coudldn't afford the hex battery or the wheelie bar. At $18 I still think the wheelie bar is overpriced, but I see how useful it would be. I am constantly doing front and rear flips with this thing and during a race I think it would be a absolute necessity. Fortunately I can go crawling alright without one.

So now you have my impressions and here is a breakdown review:

Appearance: The truck looks very monster truckish. The body isn't the most detailed but it's a very small lexan body so I can't expect much. It does come with 4 full body sticker sets so you can customize your look somewhat. The shocks look pretty nice but the struts or whatever the red parts are I think could have been more solid looking. Overall I like the look and you can judge for yourself from the pics, but I give the truck an 8 /10.

Speed: Sadly with the stock motor and gearing it isn't terribly fast. I haven't driven much of a stock anything lately but let's just say your not going to be getting much air with this stock. Probably with different gears I could get more speed, but stock it only gets a 5/10 for speed.

Articulation/suspenion: I took this out for a brief test and had it running up over large rocks, roots and assorted objects. The steering suffered some during bumpy driving and the servo seemed pretty strong, giving me quick responsiveness turns and good manuverability. I think drilling some holes in the tires to alleviate the bounciness would help here, some people on the net have reported it works well. Overall for the speed it goes out of the box and the fact it's all stock I am giving this a 9/10.

Power: Again I am with stock setup but the power of this truck seemed quite adequite for any sort of climbing. It's not going to keep up speed over much of a jump, but it did easily climb some large rocks that were at least a 30-40 degree grade. Also as I mentioned before front and rear flips under acceleration were common. For power I give it a 9/10.

Overall Value: I got this at a great price, but at $140 or less I can honestly say this truck feels like a great deal assuming it holds up under some use. I would strongly sugest this to anyone in the mini monster market. Great wheel clearance, good power and potential for upgrades. 9/10

If you have any questions please let me know. I will try and get some pictures if anyone has anyhting specific in mind.

This post has been edited by Devedander: Oct 3 2004, 04:48 PM

there is a gate at the back end of the truck. remove the bodyclip on the one side and you can swing the gate open and pull out the battery pack. no need for removing the 4 screws and u shaped bar.

i picked up some unitedrc kan cells (only $1.25 ea) and made my own "hex cell" pack. made a huge difference on top speed. i also noticed a lot more low end "punch".

Thanks, I was tired last night and just overlooked the gate to remove the batteries, much better!

I will look for a good way to make a hex pack, I was just gonna use AAA batts but I may look for the correct batteries to make a real set. Not to mention most of my AA are no longer matched so it would be nice to have a clean set to work with. Which ones did you get? The seem to have 3 that all seem about the same size and capacity.

This post has been edited by Devedander: May 20 2004, 07:36 AM

Excellent review Deve, I'm glad we have some more people that love other Micro Monsters instead of... the Mini T . Just to let you know, I'm gonna pin this sucker on the top of the forum for all to see. Have fun!

Wellthe mini G went for a walk with me in my favorite nearby park. The park is on a hill with lots of bike paths that are dusty dirt and rock all over. Perfect for testing this thing out.

Again, sorry still no pics but upon arriving I found my camera memory was full with vaction pics I forgot to move to the PC hopefully soon pics and maybe if I can find a way to host it a video.

Anyhow I was really impressed with the abilities of the truck and it simply left me thirsting for more everything... more everything but run time!

First off while the truck was still relativey clean I ran it around the parking lot and over some wood chip piles and rocks. The truck performed admirably and even when bottomed out still pulled itself wherever it was supposed to go. The servo was plenty strong and while the truck was sideways on a 45 degree angle of wood chips I could easily steer the wheels towards to top.... getting there was another thing. Despite the great level of power I could lay down the truck usually managed to only go sideways in this situation. Not a fault of the truck I would say as sidways at 45 degrees on woodchips is a lot to ask, maybe with better tires or on a better surface it would have pulled itself up, as is I was impressed it didn't slip or roll off.

Next up some fairly smooth but very dusty dirt paths. Here I got my first glimpes of the medium sized roosters the truck can throw up. Due to the fact I am using the stock gearing (which isn't terribly fast) and the trucks stock 280 motor the effect was notcieable but not particularly note worthy. I figured exposing the truck to this much dirt early on was a good way to see how dirt proof it was. I stil lhave not done a tear down, but the entirety of the truck is covered in dirt still and that is after being bounced and shaken a lot. So when I do tear it down, if it's not dirty inside I will give it a full 10/10 on dirt protection. As was it did not show any signs of slowing or sound like it was being hurt by the dirt at all.

Next up came some fairly good sized rocks. This tested the crawling ability of the truck and I have to say again I was impressed! The rocks varied a lot in size with the biggeset being about twice as tall a the truck (hopefully on my next trip to the park I will have pictures to give you an idea). I did bottom out quite a few times and high centered on some taller rocks. Even with a fully open diff at both ends and without the lockout gear the truck managed to grip with a wheel or two and yank itself off the taller rocks. This did lead to a lot of scratches and scuffs on the bottom of the truck but it was gonna happen. It appears all the damage was cosmetic and the truck kept plowing on.

During some particularly rough patches the truck really showed off it's climbing ability litterally climbing over rocks as tall as it's tires or more, then climbing a hill that was at least a 45 degree grade with loose rocks and poor grip. I had a REALLY fun time working around and over all the rocks and became thoroughly conviced that the truck would be able to climb anything that it wouldn't just fall off of.

Lastly on the way down the path had what appeared to be turnouts or passing lanes for bikes... but they went up on steep portions of the hills. Not sure what they are really for but they were excellent for the truck. On the way up the turouts (which again were near 45 degrees) the truck slowed to a crawl but never gave up entirely. I usually took a good approach angle with some speed to help, but on occasion I had to bring the truck to a full stop on the way up, and at a precarious angle, and even then it picked right back up and clawed it's way to the top. I believe holes in the wheels to allow air to escape from the tires would be very valuable here.

On the way down was often a root or rock outcropping that let me jump the truck... or tumble it... to the path again. The jumps were fun to watch as the springy suspension actually proved a plus and launched the front of the truck so that even though it was originally headed down, the bounce from the root or rock leveled it off and it tended to land on 3 or 4 wheels at the same time. I learned the hard way slow and cautious was not the way to go with this truck as every time I tried it did 4 or 5 rolls head first and never landed on it's wheels. The truck still looks great despite the bashing, the lexan body shows almost no wear and as far as I can tell the dogbones and axles have not taken any damage, even when the whole weight of the truck bore down on one wheel at a very bad angle. Kudos for making a solid drivetrain to Venom.

A few downsides I have to note: Despite the strong servo in many conditions I was not able to control the wheels due to the weight and momentum of the truck. I do not believe this could be corrected considering the leverage applied to the servo during impact. It is not a fault, but not nice sometimes.

The engine, despite having bearings installed all around, got VERY hot VERY fast. In the first 4-5 miinutes it was already too hot to hold your finger on for long. I can only imagine wht would happen with bushings and a battery pack, and what it's doing to the motor inside. My advice, GET BEARINGS FIRST!! I never drove with bushings and I am glad I didn't.

One other thing I noticed was that as I drove it down the path at full bore when it would hit a small dip or bump it would often get the truck fully airborn and often at a bad angle. I almost lost it down some big hills a few times (which I am sure would not have hurt the truck in the end, just didn't want to chase throug poison oak to get it) due to this, again I attribute this to lack of oil shocks and tires that are too hard. Both fixable, although I would have rather had them stock.

The truck seems to have a bad time with getting back on it's feet, had I a wheelie bar I am sure I could have avoided a good deal of this, but it would have really gotten in the way of a lot of my rock climbing. I think care in driving can help a lot, and definitely better shocks and softer tires. I have had a lot of trucks that seemed to always get on tehir wheels after a roll, sadly this one does not. Be prepared to chase it down and rol it over a lot. It is however well worth all the chasing and fixing to see it properly climb over some rediculous (scale) sized hill!

The upsides however far outweight these minor unpleasantries, and the best part... my 6 1800Mah AA lasted the whole trip up and down the hill, about 30 minutes or more of solid run time, a lot of abusing and the truck still had plenty of speed at the end! My Piranha read 6.5 volts when I got back home and started a recharge, interestingly enough my batteries always read over 9 volts after it finishes charging. I am not sure how that can be, but it has happened twice now so it is either an error in the charger, or they really are putting out some extreme juice, considering 6.5 volts after half an hour of hard use is a lot of poewr for a pack like this to still have.

This little trip has convinced me that this truck is worth every penny and will make anyone who is looking for a powerful truck happy. If you are looking for a race truck... short of big upgrades and removing the front drive shaft I don't think you will be happy.... but for everyone else.. definitely must have.

I do not own a minit or a tlt 1 or mad force which I consider to be the main competition for this truck, but from what I have read and can observe this is the best value of all, again unless you are looking for a speed demon.

The Mini T is much faster, and is an excellent race car, but suffers from low ground clearance and of course 2wd. AThe biggest problem for me however was the mini-t has so many flimsy parts. Almost everyone has to replace servoes, shock towers and wheels in the first few days, to the point of people sugesting you just buy those parts with the car. At $150 for a minit I think it's just worth it, but if I have to drop another $60-100 to fix problems from the factory that can render it undreiveable? No.

TLT Looks like a more solid version of the Mini G and I have to say based on looks I would take it over the Mini G. However it seems to have lower ground clearance despite being a bigger truck and the cost is almost 50% more than the Mini G. There would have to be some serious persuading to get me to buy one of those.

The Kyosho Mad Force is again 2wd and is such a small scale that I just can't imagine it being fun for much besides indoor living room driving. Truth be told I would love a Tmaxx or something big, so I coudl do reall hefty off roading, so maybe that is why I can't see getting a mad force. It seems like a novelty.

Despite the suspension that is mediocre for the mini g, the need for a bigger motor for good speed and power and the fact that it could have been built a little sturdier (I am talking screw holes and the such) I have to say the Mini G is a great value. It provides options that can get it's speed up to or past a stock mini t if you like, has 4wd, is a solid performer out of the box with room to become really great and offers a lot of run time with very little down time (a full tear down now that I have done it I imagine will take me 1 hour from start to finish if that).

I can't stress how much this truck seems like an all around winner, and the only thing that keeps me from runnin that 9/10 up to 10/10 is the few minor concerns that can mostly be fixed with hop ups (I hate having to hop it up to fix problems, but none of the problems are serious enough to render the truck indriveable like the mini t servo problems so I can't hold them that much against venom).

Wonderful review Devedander! I wish I had a park nearby like yours.
I also see the MG as the almost perfect 1/18 off-roader. Though I really don't like comparing MT to ST, mini t drivers have no right to bash the quality of the MG.

If you want more speed, I've read good stuff about the Venom Fireball 370. I don't own one but they say there's plenty of speed(outruns a stock motor w/ a 15 tooth pinion) and tons of torque. Could I suggest to future VMG buyers to buy RS4 steel/titanium pinions. Because if you run an upgrade motor, your stock pinions may begin to melt

Yes I will be getting an ungrade motor and new steel pinion gears as upgrades as soon as I can get my hands on some cash. The thing that worries me is that the 280 is running HOT already, I am worried what a 370 will do, I would really like to see some motor heatsinks released for this truck, but it would put even more weight on the motor side. Overall I guess if people are using the Fireball and doing alright I guess I shouldn't worry (after all Venom should have tested it out) but I would really like a solution that pushes the limits of the truck a little less.

I don't like the idea of paying $20+ for the hex pack, so I am looking into getting 14 Kan 1050s and making my own packs, however with the nimh I have in now I am still getting some serious runtime. That also worries me about the 370, I don't like the idea of cutting down the run time, and from reviews the 370 chops into runtime something serious. I like the fact that this little sucker can handle the 30+ minute walk around my park on one batt pack.

I am thinking of possibly getting a MG for the GF, hoping she will have fun driving it with me in the park... but that means waiting for the $$ to roll in.

This post has been edited by Devedander: May 22 2004, 10:52 AM

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Sadly my camera didn't focus quite right, but you get the idea of how dirty this run was... remember this was after a lot of dirt was bumped off and the truck was shaken a little to get excess dirt off before putting it in the car to come hom.

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And another shot with the body down

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Just got back from another go at the park, sadly the GF could not tag along so I had to operate the camera myself, means not as many good shots as I would have liked, hopefully in the near future more will be added with better action shots and panoramas.

Anyone willing to host a small video or advice on where to? If I can get angelfire to do it or someone will host I will try and get a video of a sweet raisd path I found just the right size for the truck soon.

Click here to see my yahoo folder with all the pics from today, sorry they got really shrunk by yahoo so a lot of detail was lost, but it's fun to see that this truck can hold it's own, even axle deep in dead leaves and no pictures show it but it worked it's way free of 3 foot tall grass with no problems.

VMG Pictures

And here are some of the choice pictures just to give you an idea

This is the raised path I am talking about, of little droppoffs along the way make for fun driving because of a very big chance of falling off the side, good 5 feet to the bottom here (yes I fell a few times)

This post has been edited by Devedander: May 22 2004, 02:26 PM

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Here a dead brach proves log sized for this little guy, and he crawled right over with no problems!!

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if u want to get rid of the bouncy tires poke some holes in them with a pin the air will be able to come out then

I may do the hole poking method... kinda afraid it will fill my tires with dust...

Anyhow I finally got down to swapping pinion gears. Swapping pinions on the MG isn't particularly hard, just frustrating as from the looks of it you could just snap the motor cover off and get at the screws. But alas you can't, you have to remove the plate under the battery carriage, then the motor cap comes off and the motor comes out. Sadly in an effort to keep everything tidy, Venom zip tied all the wires in neat bundles, this means when the motor is free hanging it is on a short lead and can't rest on say a table for leverage. I know I could just cliip and retie it but for some reason I didn't want to do it that way.

So I prised off the stock pinion (is that what the flat end on the wheel wrench is for? That's what I used...) and found the others to be too tight to get one. Turns out it took a small hammer and some balancing on the handle of a screwdriver to get the pinion on the motor. After that I wasn't hard to get it all back together. BTW spacing the pinion from the motor is an important part of making sure the truck runs smoothly, too loose and you wear down teeth, too tight and it all binds.

What I do is get it reasonably tight but so I can still move it, get a small scrap of paper, and roll the paper between the pinion and the drive gear. This forces a small amount of space between them. Fasten it down with the motor tight against the paper and when I pull the paper out, voila, smooth rolling pinion gear. May be a better way but it works for me!

So the stock gear I believe is 9 tooth and there is a 11 13 and 15 tooth gear that come with the set. So of course I went straight for 15. Big let down. The torque in the truck was almost entirely gone, in fact it was barely faster than the 9 t. Felt sluggish and weak and had not kick, even the back to foward yielded a wheelie but no back flip... weak. Would not climb hills and got real slow on some tougher terrain that the 9t clawed it's way over.

So swapped out for the 13 t. This one is great!! Speed went up from the 15 t (I believe because of the added torque) and climbing ability is still pretty good. Not like the vicious claw up anything 9t but the extra speed meant I could usually get a good start at any obstacle and force my way over. Got a good deal more air with this one.

Haven't got to the 11 t yet, think this 13 is wher eI will be staying for a while.

One bad note, the pinion seems to heat and loosen it's grip on the shaft after some driving, this causes slippage and a car that drives like the batts are dying. Time for steel RS4 gears...

And this setup is with 6 nimh1800 and bearing set., stock 280 motor. Can't wait for the 370 and steel gears and oil shocks!

the VMG has enough room in the battery compartment to fit a full size AA seven cell pack. if you can make a cell pack yourself, it is definately worth it to use full size AA's. they have to fit in the compartment in a particular pattern (see picture below). the MG now has almost enough power to crawl up my concrete porch, from a standstill, and pulls wheelies in deep grass.

also, i found a couple of days ago that the mini-t rear dogbones are the same size as the mini-giant dogbones. why does this matter? because this way, you can swap them out for the mini-t dogbones, put on a hex, and use any rim/tire size you desire. this means better treads, higher or lower center of gravity (rock crawl or stadium run?), more stability. the T's rear oil shocks will fit as well. the feature where you can tilt the body forward on the Mini-Giant that requires two screws can be easily eliminated, and allow you to fit other bodies as well. by using team associated body mounting posts ($4.00), you can replace the srews with mounts, allowing you to attach a more attractive body. you can also put a mini-t body on it in this fashion of attachment. just thought i'd let you guys know what i've found out. it's not a lack of upgrades, it's a lack of resourcefulness ...lol

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I am debating between Mini-Z Enzo, Mini-Z Monster, and Venom Mini Giant. Do you know how the Mini Giant compares to the Mini-Z Monster?