Thanks everyone for all your help. I'm looking forward to parts starting to come in the mail.

I went out yesterday for the first major fun session. Both 6 and 7 year olds loved it and are good at controlling the truck.

I got good run time from the stock battery. When it died, I figured it just ran down but I thought it was odd that it stopped all of a sudden. I was somewhat concerned that something broke, as it was after an impressive crash. When I got home to hook up the charger, imagine my surprise when I saw there was no battery! I had neglected to attach the battery hold-down. Fortunately I found the battery in a pile of leaves.

Live and learn, and start with the basics. Some day I'll be looking at mAh, watts, voltage. Yesterday I learned to see if there is a battery in it.....