Retros are such a blast! We've found by limiting the speed and having a minimum weight, it makes all the trucks whether clod-based or shafty, fairly even which makes for close and unpredictable racing with trucks that are pretty rugged and require very little maintenance after races. We based our rules off what you guys do basically replicating the late 80's stage II trucks running bodies of 1993 and older with the base being either clodbuster or replicating the suspension setups of the time period.

I think you guys nailed the definition of what a retro is. It might not be perfect down to the detail, but if it has the feel and drives like the TNT era, that’s a retro.

Good to see the proper use of a rc monster truck..

The timing of this video is PERFECT, thank you for doing this and please do this more!

As for me an Rc retro monster truck is a Clod based one. Not perfect, not 100% scale but has its charme. Bought my Clod in 87 an had blast with it. Later in the mid 90's the Juggernaut followed. A fine rig but total different animal with its torque twist. I'm 58 now and after 37 years the Clod still has my attention while the Jug has not. I hope that explains Retro. 😊

I thoroughly enjoy your channel no matter the style I enjoy all Bravo Zulu

I have a clodbuster from the 80s and it's now all billit aluminum I also had a juggernaut when it 1st came out

Marui Big Bear, Clodbuster, and kyosho's USA 1 are my picks for classic MT'S in their stock form including the manual esc.

Thanks for breaking it down an explaining an showing your truck.i think ther all awesome

I look at a true retro being a clod based axle motor mount truck. It is one of the true original monster trucks that you could get different kits and build up back in the days. I am working on one now with a full aluminum chassis. I gotten 2 for $45 last week.

Great to see you again 👍 I used to think that retro monster trucks is just out of the box trucks with minimal to no improvements and 27t brushed 540 can motor with 2S lipo 🙂 But there is one thing.... don't know how to call it (English not my native🤠). Older monster trucks are not so "super-stable low-center-of-gravity wide-axles low-clearance etc racing thing"... It just a monster trucks like from maybe 80s? Thats the point👍🙌🌞 long live to retro)))

I absolutely love my stock clod! And I absolutely love my lmt! Anything monster truck I'm in

The Tamiya TXT2 would be almost perfect for a scale look chassis of the Era, but Tamiya would have to re release these. I have one built to what my local group calls "pro mod"

A retro truck clodbuster based, is just that. The early days of the full sized trucks were bouncy and sloppy and had real crushing power and the suspension was what it was. So motors on axle sucks but that’s what we have. No matter how much money you sink into it, it still is old technology. Tamiya really needs to up their game. I built an axial smt10 but it was the wrong size and still didn’t feel like the real thing.

I have always wanted a built clod. I remember when I was younger and would see guys with glodzillas up at the checkered flag hobby shop. I'll get around to building one some day.

Clodbuster will always be retro in my soul😂

As I'm watching this, I'm building a Super Clodbuster, which in my mind is a retro monster truck.

I just got into monster truck racing. I run a stock Traxxas stampede and a SMT. The resto guys at our track run clodbusters and USA1, box stock

i have a clod and i love it, but alas im on a budget, so i am planning on doing some cheap basic upgrades

I think the CEN racing stuff might be a good place to start from if someone would come out with a leaf sprung solution. Despite not being an old school RC it would be a good starting point for a more realistic old school MT class, particularly the F250, but the cost is a bit prohibitive.

Thank you for the video. I have owned a Tamiya Clod Buster ever since the kit was first released in 1987. It has been highly modified over the years and just recently I took it out of storage to bring it back to life again. This is interesting because I never knew that there was this trend to create a retro monster truck racing class until I saw your video. Back when I first got into R/C monster trucks, there were no modifications available for the Clod Buster so they were all stock, aside from the parts from Tamiya like shocks and bearings. Once I saw an ESP Hobby ad in R/C Car Action magazine though, then that got the ball rolling. Thanks again for the video. I'm having fun doing research into what it will take to get my old Clod Buster rolling again.

Seems like these have a lot of unsprung weight in the axle setups? Most of the time it looks like they're bouncing off their tires not the shocks.

I feel like a retro MT should have slower motors (27 turn), minimal suspension travel and have an older body style. After that, have fun. Shafty or MoA, go out and run them.

So I've been working on getting a group started here in East Texas, and we've settled on rules similar to trigger king's except we wanted to simulate the later days of leaf spring trucks, so we upped the motor to 17t. So far it's been Fun and really replicates that Fast Leafer era of the early 90s.... Clods with stock style suspension and shaft trucks as long as they have leaf springs and no triangulated 4 link.

I think Retro Monster Trucks are kit trucks that Tamiya or Kyosho Produced in the 80-90s. Lunchbox Midnight Pumpkin DoubleDare. I wish there was Lunchbox and Pumpkin Racing.

Very good video!

The best way to regulate the Retro class (or any power-limited class) is with the track. Making it so the trucks can't wind out speed-wise, a mix of different kinds of turns, etc makes you have to set your truck up to compromise somewhere.

Mauri Big Bear, Lunch Box, Midnight Pumpkin. ? But these retro Clods are awfully cool!

I'm building what would probably be considered a scale monster truck(just using what I've got) scx chassis,with some welding mods, g made axles with leaf springs, firestorm tires. It's going to be monster patrol body. I have the police lights and a giant wing. Just gotta find the motivation. You guys are awesome. Love all the content.

I feel like a Retro RC Monster truck racing should be either a Clod based model or a Juggernaut with 27T motors and 2s battery. I would include the Kyosho USA-1 but it is even less scale than the Clod with its odd independent suspension chassis. So I would say "OUTLAW Retro CLODERNAUT Monster Truck Challenge"

any chance you coulg go over parts used by the owners of the different catragories? looking to upgrade my clod, but not sure about brushed motors, esc, chassis, shocks. thanks for any help

All of my monster trucks get built as 80’s monster trucks. I’ve got Bigfoot, usa-1, Rollin Thunder, awesome kong 2, I’m building a nitro savage bear foot, and currently building an Excaliber clodbuster..

Nice video. I just built a Freestyle RC Axis retro chassis. There's no clubs around so this was just for fun. It's a cool blend of leaf springs and a modern SMT10 drivetrain so it's somewhere in the grey area of what a retro truck is. But yeah, good luck defining it 😂 Also, I COMPLETELY AGREE about the Juggernaut re-release!!! Don't you have enough influence in the industry to help make that happen? haha

You bring up a great point. The big thing that drove me towards an SMT versus a clod was the drivetrain and chassis appearance was very clearly that of a toy rather than a real truck, that and the frankly archaic stock form that requires it to be more or less rebuilt from the ground up to compete or bash reasonably well. I would like to get into a league someday and retro class certainly has it's appeal, but I really have no desire to get tangled up the weird twin motor on axle setup of clods. I think given the roots of the real steel sport, it would be very cool to see retro trucks built off of crawlers, with ladder bars and two or even 3-links and leafsprings, maybe broadening the class inspiration from TNT all the way to early PENDA series and. I don't know how they would match up to modclods, but I recall someone building an excalibur with with a leaf and coil hybrid suspension that competes in the retro outlaw series. As it is now, the fact that clods are really the only platform for retro seems like it would discourage a lot of potential competitors and leagues from form, as the clod is rather unlike any other scale RC vehicle.

So I watched this to find out what a retro monster truck is and I don't believe I found out. It would have been nice if you described the rules and pointed out the various aspects on your truck.

I enjoyed this vid.i understood every word cause my 1st rc was a clod.retro for me is jus an old school body &stock ol clod .I'm surprised u didn't mention the axial grave digger.

Personally I agree with most everyone else. The mod Clod is still the first thing that comes to mind. For two reasons really. Out of all the RC stuff in the world, how many platforms are still going with their original design from 30 years ago? AE, TLR… whoever, they release a new platform yearly almost and the B6.4 shares no similarities whatsoever with a gold pan RC10. But an original release Clod and the Blue Supers just released are the same still. And as far as mod Clod goes, the mentality and tweaking and improving and evolving fit the pre-TNT and TNT days.

Retro truck challenge!!

I always wanted a RC truck like this in the early 90s, the new ones with the peeled out suspension and widened wheel bases are too modern. Would of been reasonable with it just wanting to blast through mud and maybe a jump here and there but i wasnt a big maintenance kid, too many parts, unless there was a more robust no frills build?

I've been wanting to get into building one of these for a long time personally as I've been a fan of monster trucks since I was a kid way back in the 80's. However, I've found myself always worried about "doing it wrong" for the longest time. To spend a nice chunk of change on a truck only to find that I've built something that wouldn't pass tech for something like a Trigger King or another organization. That I would be excluded from participating because what I think would work and what is allowed are two different things. I'd simply wind up just wasting the time of not only myself but of others trying to ask questions and attempt to get literal unobtanium parts. I do hope one day that Tamiya will get off their butts as re-release the Juggernaut cause that one has checked all the boxes I've wanted but again it's become so difficult to find one so as to be next to impossible. I have wondered if it was possible to build as close to a Juggernaut using more modern parts but I have no clue where to start.

Sure, a more correct shafty truck with replica Rockwells would be great, for looks. But leaf spring monsters were basically rigid. Imho, a retro truck should be stock or near stock wheelbase, ladder bars, and slow. Y'all's trucks are a perfect speed. I wouldn't have a problem with a low speed brushless setup, seeing how quality brushed motors barely exist I think maybe the course should be tight enough to require 4ws to get around in a hurry.

Can you tell me what shocks you went with for your clod build?

Why Tamiya doesn't re-release the TXT-1 is beyond me.

Thanks for the video! When I think retro RC class I think of not only older style monster trucks but also older models RC. I’ve been wanting to get racing going here. We have a nice dirt track for 1/8 and 1/10 scale racing. There is what use to be a dirt oval track in the back. I’m going to be able to use it for monster truck course 🤗 Thinking about how regulate - and for us it will be easy - LMT class and all others lol. Kidding. With retro - brushed motor stated spec limits - list of allowed chassis - list (can be long!) of proline etc bodies that meet the criteria of the retro look. I like to keep rules etc VERY simple. Give me a list of ten things I need to make sure are in spec etc and I may or may not even mess with it. Give me 2 or 3 and I’m good. Like bowling alley - only rule (well, you get it) is don’t cross that line! Man I’ll be jumping like I’m getting burnt when I accidentally slide across it or something 😂😂.

Retro could be split into a class that mimicks stage 1 and one that mimicks stage 2 trucks. Box stock clods mimick the clumsy nature of the original monster trucks.

axles leaf springsdrive shaft differential

I race with Showtime rc Motorsports out here in Virginia and ho retro to me is 27t motors which was the stock turn of the motors that came in everything from tamiya, clods stock ladder bars, shafty's leaf sprung, the appropriate tires and bodies that represent the older styles (pre 94 ish) I personally built and race shafty retros and the club is close to a 50/50 mix of clods and shafty now. There really isn't a clear advantage one way or the other it just depends on the track layout and how well a driver adapts to it, shafty's are the real deal though

lol i thought your name was "Tiger King RC"

I may be retro but I don't know why people want to build a monster truck..........and then want it LOWERED ???? is it me , or wot ?