McChiken

Tower was great back in the 80's . LHS's were so expensive as a kid I couldn't afford to support them . Now LHS's prices are no more expensive then tower or horizon . Unless you go direct to china . Tower took 9 days to ship me some Dubro screws 150 miles and charged me $9 shipping . What a rip . I would much rather support the little guy in these hard times . I don't often spend $199 for one of those $25 coupons to do any good and after shipping on something large your not saving anything . My LHS has a frequent buyer card .

As far as DLE's go I would get them from TBM . They double the warranty if you buy it there . Plus it got here from Florida in 5 days ground . Buy a DL in china and you will regret it . They are not the same quality at Hobbycity as those in the USA .

blw

My Feedback: (3)

I was too busy building a new kit last night to log on and check out the forums. Anybody vote to move this mess to the Off Topic or Clubhouse forums?

Pullleeze, no more posts about taxes, patriotism, car companies, or what country someone lives in.

Otherwise, there has been some good stuff posted here, imo.

YogoBlue

My Feedback: (17)

McChicken,
Do you have proof that there is 2 separate DL mfg facilities? One in US and one in China? I believe they all come from the same place.

frieshoo

My Feedback: (20)

My personal experience with DL/DLE engines is the one's sold by TBM, Valley View, and DLUSA seem to be better quality than the ones sold on ebay, and Hobbycity.

I have 3 or 4 from DLUSA and have had zero problems over a four year period. I have a 3 or 4 from ebay/Hobbycity and I have had to replace the bearings in 2 of them. One of them would not start because the pressed pin in ring grove was missing. To be fair, the guy on ebay sent me a new piston free of charge.

I'm more concerned about parts than warranty work. I can work on them if I have the parts.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

Service is not a selling point for me. After 25 years of extensive flying and at least 75 engines later, I have never needed service. Nothing I could not handle myself. Bring on the low price! It really is what matters to me.
Funny thing, Towers price is not that low anyway. Not until you throw in club savings and such.

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

Tower Hobbies will be carrying DLE Engines in the future. We will be stocking parts and will provide two-year warranty service for Tower Hobbies-purchased engines through Hobby Services as we do with many other lines that we sell. Inventory is expected by the end of October. Further updates will be available on Tower's web-site.

We wish to clarify that the Tower Catalog statement ".....each engine undergoes an extensive quality control inspection at DL-USA's Texas facility...." was in error. We have no affiliation with DL-USA and will be buying product direct from the manufacturer. DLE products will be inspected and supported at Tower Hobbies' Champaign location with service available at Hobby Services. We apologize to DL-USA and to Tower customers for the incorrect 2010 Catalog statement.

Tower Hobbies will continue to add quality giant scale products in the future. This is being done to improve our product offerings to our customers. For those who support us, we appreciate your business. To those who prefer to do business elsewhere, we hope to someday earn your business.

nmking09

My Feedback: (61)

Your going to have to lower the price to earn my business!

cold_reboot

My Feedback: (20)

Yay! Bax is here to save us!

Parts supply (YAY PARTS!!!!) is great news, looks like I'll buy my future DLE from Tower.

Edit: I forgot to ask Bax, is Tower planning on adding any more props available to the stable?...cuz Tower is a little lacking in that regard to these engines.

YogoBlue

My Feedback: (17)

Bax,
Do we know what the inspection process is?
Thanks

JNorton

My Feedback: (2)

I'll be buying mine from Valley View though it's going to have to wait until winter. Girls in college eats into the hobby funds. Jody has earned my support.
John

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

End of story everyone. It's a done deal.

Dick T.

My Feedback: (243)

I think some folks miss several points here through innaccurate guesswork and personal preferences.

Valley View, Troy and several other vendors supply and support the DLE series of engines and I wish their continued success and loyal customer support. It is tough to run a business in this hobby due to fickle buyers and notorious cheapskate demands.

Tower Hobbies entering the picture is not the bogey man some here are afraid of. It is doubtful the hobby product companies now owned by Hobbico were acquired by hostile take over so to bemoan their label now being under Tower Hobbies (Hobbico) is silly.

The acquisition of these products, including DLE engines, actually makes it easier for the LHS to stock these products. Many smaller companies only sell direct to consumers and hobby dealers. This is easy for the consumer but the dealer usually has to meet minimum dollar requirements per order. Many are unwilling or unable to bear the added expense just to get one or two items for a customer or deal with extremely small (or non-existant) available markup (so cheapskates understand, that is profit margin).

It doesn't matter what price is being listed for a product by any vendor. Buy from the one you are comfortable with and shut the pie hole complaining about the others.

captinjohn

Tower Hobbies will continue to add quality giant scale products in the future. This is being done to improve our product offerings to our customers, so does this mean you will import more low cost RC stuff to you and them re-sell at much higer prices? Looks like it, and use forums for free advertizing.

craigteffe

My Feedback: (24)

This thread is gone way overboard, if you don't want to buy from tower then don't. Why bash a company for doing what they were ment to do MAKE MONEY!!

Unsubscribed

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

Nothing wrong with making money, but those that buy a DL from Tower might consider going to the same source if and when they run into difficulties. Seems wrong to me to have a couple of companies work hard to build the brand and support the customer and then have an industry giant come in a take over the market. That they will do all they can to do so is not in question. Where will the DL owners go when they have questions that have to date been best answered by those that have directly serviced the engine? What thanks will places like Valley View, Wild Hare, and Troy Built get for their exhaustive efforts to please the customers, even when the customer was the one at fault? There have been a lot of those btw.

captinjohn

I am sorry gragteffe, I should have asked you what the difference between bashing & pretty much all of us telling pretty much the way it seems! Bashing is far more harsh. Capt,n

YogoBlue

My Feedback: (17)

I agree here again with the old man on this one. Products are the same in many venues but its the service that sets the value apart! Its really that simple but the walmart shoppers dont understand that until their cheap junk breaks. (not bashing walmart) Its just todays mentality, get stuff as cheap as possible and expect it to live up to quality prices.

You get what you pay for right? Well not only that but its the service and after the sale support that I appreciate.

Only time and experience tell the story. Some know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

TURBINATOR

I guess this means applications are in progress for editor at Tower Hobbies!

flyboy1190

Wow capt, get a grip! Have you been living under a rock for the last 20 years? Do you have any clue what percentage of the products we all use are being manufactured by factories in China? I'll bet about 80-90%. Do you realize, all of the larger and most of the smaller manufacturers/distributors have factories that they work with to produce products to their specifications in China (and some other countries). The sad fact is, they cannot afford to produce the same product in the US; if they did, you'd not buy it as it would be too expensive. The good news is that companies like Hobbico (Tower) employ a lot of American workers. Something like almost 1000 is what I've heard in the past.

If you are so negative about Tower and buying from China, why do you own a DLE engine? How do you make a statement like Tower importing low cost stuff and selling it at a high price? Seems to me they have very resonable prices and that they set the price of the DLE engines at about the same as the smaller players in the game. Seems to me, they are playing quite fair.

Grow up, and get your facts straight; you and several others just seem to have it out for Tower for no reason at all, it makes you looks pretty silly IMHO.

Sorry to rant, but Wow!

FB

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

As long as there are more than one players selling/servicing DL/DLE engines, the consumers are the winner.

I wish each player can make service detail visible: such as labor charge and part cost.

captinjohn

flyboy1190, I just read about 4 of your total of 6 postings! Seems like all you do is ...well kinda like complaining a lot. So I will take your post to me, with a grain of salt! Capt,n P.S. I would tell you what I would like to say to you...but that is to rude.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

There's been some more personal attack type posts removed. So If you thought you made a post and it's not there anymore, you may have been removed

I'm talking about after the last Tired Old Man post

Tisoy909

My Feedback: (21)

Wow look at the price, I can get that for anyone here a couple hundred bucks cheaper for the DLE-111 and still provide a warranty!

Robotech

My Feedback: (9)

I don't now about thanks but they get somewhere in the neighborhood of $160 a copy in profit on the DLE111.

and......

If you give away your services to folks who didn't buy their equipment from you then you may be a great guy but you're a lousy businessman.

IMHO. A person buys a DLE rather than a DA based on lower price. They voluntarily gave up high quality for a lower price. If that reasoning holds true then why not carry it through and go for the absolute lowest price? DLE111s can be had all day for $570 with free shipping.

dude7422

and this is the reason people will always return to tower hobbies best customer service in the world bar none