Oh god should I do this?

[F-150 174]

I have to quit searching for Tamiyas on Facebook marketplace. 

Someone posted a Tamiya Juggernaught-1 for sale in built, but unused condition. He wants 650 USA dollars and it comes with the upgrades on it plus the original parts. It looks massive and cool in the pictures. 

I put up one of the pictures and this is extremely local to me, like 45 minutes away. Is 650 a good price? It has a receiver and old school speed control.  I spent way too much on rc this year but ****...how often do you find these in unused condition close to home?. 

What ya think??

[Frog Jumper 3464]

Buy it

[F-150 174]

[F-150 174]

32 minutes ago, Frog Jumper said:

Buy it

If I do then I'll be really really pushing the money limits. Yes I can afford it, but buying rc cars this year has been ridiculous(over 9 of them this year)  I don't think an opportunity like this will be seen again for me and it's not far away.

I checked ebay prices and it looks like these can go for around 1,500, 1,200 range in new built shape. So I wouldn't be losing money, it's an investment that is growing. 

Jugg was one of those that made me dream ad a kid, certainly couldn't afford it back then 

[Gebbly 546]

1 hour ago, F-150 said:

I'll be really really pushing the money limits

Sounds like a bad idea then. There will always be other cars. A toy car is not worth putting yourself in any financial difficulties.

[F-150 174]

10 minutes ago, Gebbly said:

Sounds like a bad idea then. There will always be other cars. A toy car is not worth putting yourself in any financial difficulties.

More on the lines of how much I spent on cars this year. I would still have money to eat and things, I'm not that irresponsible. It's just I've been ridiculous in what I spent for rc this year. 

Then this comes along...Tamiyas disaster truck that was pulled off the shelf immediately for very bad design lol. Makes it more rare I guess 

[Gebbly 546]

7 minutes ago, F-150 said:

I would still have money to eat and things, I'm not that irresponsible. It's just I've been ridiculous in what I spent for rc this year.

Ah thats different then. As long as the money is still coming out of the entertainment budget and its something youve always wanted then I say go for it. We wouldnt want you sitting on a street corner in a cardboard box with nothing but a tin cup and a Juggernaut

9 minutes ago, F-150 said:

Tamiyas disaster truck that was pulled off the shelf immediately for very bad design

ummm, whatever floats your boat I guess?

[F-150 174]

23 minutes ago, Gebbly said:

 

ummm, whatever floats your boat I guess?

I read that the J-1 had a big problem with stripping gears within minutes of running a new truck. Tamiya tried to fix this problem by pulling the J-1 and coming out with the J-2 with a lot better gears and gear boxes. Ultimately neither truck were great sellers and Tamiya scrapped them within two years and continued making the clod, their best seller 

That's what I have read about the J-1  

[Gebbly 546]

I suppose it could be a fun challenge trying to rebuild it so it didnt eat itself?

[F-150 174]

7 hours ago, Gebbly said:

I suppose it could be a fun challenge trying to rebuild it so it didnt eat itself?

Im passing on it. Seems not to be that desirable and it eats gears, so... I think I'll calm down on this then 

[GToddC5 657]

I didn't want to rain on your parade, but glad you decided against it. I'm on a mission since getting back into the hobby this year, and at 60 models with maybe 10 to go, there was never a spot allocated for a Juggernaut after reading up on them! If you can walk away from it, great, because if you get one you'll need three 

[87lc2 2560]

I wouldn't pay that for a Jugg 1, smart to pass on it.  The only Jugg 1s that are worth money are new in the box that will never get built.  I have a Jugg 2 that I race and its been a great truck and fairly reliable.  Still not worth $600 though, they're not very capable and really only make sense sitting on a shelf or racing in the Retro class.  You can build a much nicer leaf spring monster for a lot less money if you're interested. 

[F-150 174]

I guess a collector may want one because it was one of Tamiyas biggest failures and they pretty much scrapped them after a short run. I know some collectors like to get things like that. It also makes them hard to find I guess from what I read.

I myself like how it looks and it is pretty neat, but I'm not interested in having another shelf queen that I have no room for anyways and trying to fix it's issues(stripping gears)

So I passed on it t.

[87lc2 2560]

3 hours ago, F-150 said:

I guess a collector may want one because it was one of Tamiyas biggest failures and they pretty much scrapped them after a short run. I know some collectors like to get things like that. It also makes them hard to find I guess from what I read.

I myself like how it looks and it is pretty neat, but I'm not interested in having another shelf queen that I have no room for anyways and trying to fix it's issues(stripping gears)

So I passed on it t.

Of course the collectors would be interested, but I'd think it would either be in the box or built box art.  Either way they will always have value, but if you can find a Jugg 2 you'll be better off in the long run and can actually use it.  Hope you find one down the road at a decent price, they are neat trucks for sure.  Even better would be if Tamiya re-released the Jugg 2, now that would be something!

[F-150 174]

6 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

Of course the collectors would be interested, but I'd think it would either be in the box or built box art.  Either way they will always have value, but if you can find a Jugg 2 you'll be better off in the long run and can actually use it.  Hope you find one down the road at a decent price, they are neat trucks for sure.  Even better would be if Tamiya re-released the Jugg 2, now that would be something!

I understand the jugg 2 was merely a gearbox change to a better one. 

It seems easy enough to do a swap, because if I got this truck, I have to run it lol, looks like it needs to run and would be a cool Convo piece wherever I take it.  Would you pay 500 USA dollars for it? I'm thinking of tossing an offer of 450.00, because he sounds like he is motivated to sell. Says he'd like to try and get 650.00, so that shows me there is some wiggle room. TRY is the key word lol.  

I'd put it back to box art or a better paint job for sure and do a gearbox swap if I can find a jugg 2 gearbox.

 Looks like this truck could be a nice project and possibly make a real nice runner out of it just for light duty fun driving. 

I'll proba ly make an offer today, bit def not going to 650.... 500 tops.

[87lc2 2560]

The axles and transmission are different from Jugg 1 to Jugg 2.  Transmission is not a big deal (TXT gearboxes are the same and pretty easy to find), but the axles are.  TXT axles are the same internally, but don't have the leaf spring mounts so you'd need some Jugg 2 axles.  Unfortunately the Jugg 2 axles are a bit hard to find these days but they come up on Ebay from time to time and run about $150-200.  They did make a Jugg 2 "update" package that all Jugg 1 owners received from Tamiya, but they are pretty rare and usually go for even more than a set of used Jugg 2 axles. 

Are you sure its a Juggernaut 1?  Just asking because a lot of sellers don't even know what they have.  If the axles/trans have "2000" stamped on them its a Jugg 2.  Maybe when he says updates he means it has the Jugg 2 update package installed already? 

As for price, I'd say 500 at the absolute most.  I know these trade for more on Ebay, but to me they're not worth that much.  Another thing to be wary of is the rest of the plastics.  I had to replace all of my leaf spring mounts with expensive aluminum pieces since the originals cracked and went away. 

Like I said earlier, there are a lot of chassis builders making leaf spring monster truck chassis these days that use Axial AR60 parts.  Yes, the Jugg axles look like real top loaders, but a "modern" leaf spring chassis with Axial running gear is a much, much better truck and you'd probably come out cheaper on the other end with a better truck.  Although being a Tamiya fan I can understand wanting a Jugg.  I have one and would never sell it, but I'd probably never bother with another unless it was dirt cheap. 

Best of luck with whatever you decide.  If you just have to have it get it!  Anything can be fixed or updated, just costs a bit of $. 

[F-150 174]

I told the guy the history of the jugg 1 and made him a low ball offer of 400. I really don't like to low ball, but to locate and buy better axles and transmission, this would become an expensive truck. I want to run this one, not sit on the shelf. I don't mean bash it, just do some scale stuff and run it around at camp for fun.

He got back to me and said someone is coming to see it this weekend and if they don't buy it, he will ponder my offer of 400. 

I'll leave it at that and might get a call to come get it.

I guess it would be sort of fun to have this truck and leave it alone as I search out everything to make it a reliable rig. Could be fun...do a custom paint job, add lights. 

I dunno, but man it's a great looking rc truck for sure 

[F-150 174]

On 8/18/2023 at 8:12 AM, 87lc2 said:

 

Best of luck with whatever you decide.  If you just have to have it get it!  Anything can be fixed or updated, just costs a bit of $. 

I received a text that he accepted my offer of 400.00 so I pondered a little bit and pulled the trigger lol. Actually a bit smaller than what I expected, but it is so cool looking. I searched for rounded out screw heads and such and none looked like they were over tightened. It's just dusty from sitting in his den he said. He is not the original owner, he bought it assembled, and all he did is upgrade the links, drive shafts and some structural components. He gave me all the original parts he replaced. He also said he checked the gears and he can promise it has never been run.  I have the original tires too but he put on clod buster tires(new ones) cause he said they look better. 

It may be a flawed truck, but I like it's looks and build. I decided this will be run, after I collect the stuff needed to make it reliable and fun. It's a bit stiff in the suspension, gotta fix that too and the paint job needs to be changed. I love the weight of it.

Cant wait to start finding and collecting parts for this....my goal is to make it better than the jugg 2.

All in all I'm happy I payed 400 and I have a cool project to plan and create in the future. 

Thanks for the help guys, I couldn't let this one slip away.

[87lc2 2560]

I'd say you got a great deal, looks very clean!  They do look better with Clod tires, always thought the Jugg tires were pretty ugly.  Good news is the Jugg tires are worth decent money so you can sell them if they're in good shape.

As far as the suspension being stiff that' just how it is, its a leaf spring solid axle monster.  You can mess with the leaf packs but I'd recommend leaving them and putting some oil dampers on (without coil springs of course), and the truck will handle about as well as a leaf spring chassis will.  I have my Jugg 2 set up for Retro racing and it does very well. 

Best of luck with it.  Any questions be sure to ask, quite a few Jugg owners on here that can help.

 

[F-150 174]

12 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

I'd say you got a great deal, looks very clean!  They do look better with Clod tires, always thought the Jugg tires were pretty ugly.  Good news is the Jugg tires are worth decent money so you can sell them if they're in good shape.

As far as the suspension being stiff that' just how it is, its a leaf spring solid axle monster.  You can mess with the leaf packs but I'd recommend leaving them and putting some oil dampers on (without coil springs of course), and the truck will handle about as well as a leaf spring chassis will.  I have my Jugg 2 set up for Retro racing and it does very well. 

Best of luck with it.  Any questions be sure to ask, quite a few Jugg owners on here that can help.

 

I had time to look at it well now and it appears to be never ran judging from now scratches anyplace. Only missing pieces I can find are the rollbar light buckets. That's ok, I'm going to put a police lightbar on it.  I think I'm going to go with a police theme on this. Navy Blue and yellow insignia.

I'm obsessed...really cool truck glad I got it. I'm just going to collect the parts I need to make it a jugg 2 and reliable. This will be run in a scale manner, not bashed...it's not meant to be bashed, pretty much a runnable scale model. I love it. 

Here it is next to my Baja Rey and a pic of my clod busters still wrapped up. I was going to build one this month, but I'm going to wait until the jugg is done. 

 

[F-150 174]

I have some 0005760 RC B Parts, which is the axle casings, coming for my truck. It says for Juggernaught 2, so I guess that is what I need. If it if wrong I'll just sell em to someone here.

I also found some gmp hub knuckles that I got. Will take a minute to get everything, but I'm on no hurry. 

[87lc2 2560]

Axles should say 2000 on the top of the housing, those are the Jugg 2 housings.  I wouldn't bother with aftermarket knuckles to be honest, they won't help the truck and will make the axle housing the weak point.  If you do make sure you put epoxy towards the outer ears on the housing to prevent them from breaking off. 

[WillyChang 1808]

Those tyres aren’t stock kit jobbies?

They look a bit flat/square, I thought Jugg had some more balloony shaped treads. 

 

My Jugg still lives in its kit box  

[87lc2 2560]

They're Clod tires, much better looking than the stock Jugg tires.  A common upgrade.

[F-150 174]

3 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

Axles should say 2000 on the top of the housing, those are the Jugg 2 housings.  I wouldn't bother with aftermarket knuckles to be honest, they won't help the truck and will make the axle housing the weak point.  If you do make sure you put epoxy towards the outer ears on the housing to prevent them from breaking off. 

With that s truck tho, it will never be ran hard as to crash into things. I just got the knuckles in case the stock plastic ones I have won't fit the jugg 2 axles. I'm just going to run this truck lightly in scale style, and I race mud boss with a custom works sprint car, so it would be neat to show off at the track with the jugg and sprint car in tow by the jugg lol. 

Big kid small toys, badword yes.