sheograth

Anyone have any experiences with this thing? I love solid axle MTs, just curious. Chassis looks nice.

Chris_RC

Looks like a cheapo Wheely King personally.

SyCo_VeNoM

Don't see any similarities
the red cat ones umm umm blue and the HPI ones silver no similarities at all

dudecat

It looks really kewl kinda like a real monster truck. Problem is it's price is higher then other branded monster trucks.

john01374

I've seen one of these in person and it's actually a very nice truck. Personally I'd take it over the wheelie king anyday. This is not one of the old breed of redcats. This is a nice truck.

Only thing I would change is how high the body sits on the chassis.

Jeremy Z

Did you notice the RCU review on it?
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...rticle_id=1195

You might drop the reviewer a line and ask for his "off the record" opinions via PM. I wrote a few plane reviews for RCGroups, and the policy is that we can write whatever we want, but our editor has to approve it and the manufacturer has the final say as to whether it gets published or not. Reading between the lines, what that means is that if a reviewer wants to continue getting reviews and free vehicles, he will be careful about negative press he gives.

I don't know what the policy is here. I was about to start writing reviews for RCU, but at the time, reviewers were expected to write their own HTML review files, and that smelled like an awful lot of work for a couple hundo worth of "free stuff."

The 4 wheel steering looks very effective. It turns much more tightly than it looks like it could.

rclugnut10

My Feedback: (1)

looking at the vid provided by redcat and RCU (you guys can only do so much with a low end truck) i almost died laughing sooo much fail

the lug

scoobs92

im not sure about spending 300 on a redcat and it just came out i would have to see a avrage run on it not a redcat promo vid and then im not sure it looks kind of flimsey not too sturdy

john01374

I've been looking at this truck for a few weeks and you can get them for around $260 or so plus shipping. Looking at it's construction and talking to a couple of people that own them it actually a pretty stout truck. I've not heard anyone say they have broke anything yet. There are a couple of complaints about it being top heavy and the tires could be better but those are all things we change anyway.

I don't want to bash any one company but i'll say that I have owned my fair share of monster trucks and there are a lot of them that are far less impressive that this one.

The Mad Modder

For about $200 I could get either a RTR wheely king or a Clod kit, both of which would be less risky in the durability department. Until someone buys one and gives it a real test, we won't know about its durability. A lot of Integy parts look great, but when push comes to shove, it just doesn't hold up.

On another note, has anyone else spotted the yellow "hulk"?

dudecat

Yeah they will come out with the hulk next to compete with this truck lol. Yeah i don't know anything about this truck either.

rclugnut10

My Feedback: (1)

the promo vid is enuf for me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhSiyGwP26M

to say no way ever
here's another with less fail but still pretty bad...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km_aKlWaArU

the lug

cpe mt

We designed the truck based around our experience with full-size monsters and our existing line of modified Clodbuster chassis. This truck is bigger, faster, and has far more options included than its solid-axle competitors. It's also the most scale monster truck kit you'll find available out of the box. Overall weight including all electronics is just over 7 lbs. If you want to add 4WS, aluminum chassis, aluminum links, and threaded aluminum shocks to other trucks, you'll be well past the $250 price tag for the Ground Pounder.

I was given a copy of the pre-release version of the RCU review, and I know I didn't request any changes to it. If I had, leaving the foam out of the tires was purposely done to use their compression as part of the suspension (like a full-size MT does), rather than a disadvantage of the truck.

If you own one and aren't happy with it that's one thing, and I'd like to know why so we can help. Bashing it "just because" doesn't really help anyone since the person hasn't actually seen or run one. I can say with 100% certainty that this truck will run circles around its stock MT competitors.

Here are two size comparison shots of the Ground Pounder prototype against a stock Wheely King 4x4:

mazdaprotege4

My Feedback: (32)

I really like the truck, do you think that you will ever offer it as a roller so we can put our own electronics in it?

rclugnut10

My Feedback: (1)

it just looks like a joke to me...
the concept is good but application is rather poor imo...

the lug

cpe mt

That's fine, not everyone understands what a scale monster truck is supposed to do.

As far as selling one as a roller w/o electronics, it would actually be more cost-effective to simply sell the stock radio/receiver and ESC than it would be for these to be left out at the factory. The price wouldn't really go down all that much, and this way you can make $40-50 back on selling the stock electronics.

john01374

The Clod is an impressive fun kit for those of us that enjoy old Tamiya's but it can in no way be compared to modern Monster trucks. I love the Clod but it's got the worst suspension setup I've ever seen...

As for the Wheelie King. I bought the old 2WD version when it first came out and was hugely disappointed. I jumped on the 4x4 conversion when it was released and again it was a huge disappointment. I ran that truck in 4X4 for a couple of months and gave up on it and sold it...

I've stayed away from solid axle trucks since then but I've been looking strongly at this one. In my opinion the only thing it really needs is a more aggressive set of tires. That could most likely be fixed with some creative Dremel work on the stock pieces. I'm pretty sure one of these will be added to my collection in the spring unless someone come up with a better option. What is this yellow hulk ?

And what exactly is wrong with the Promo vids? I don't see anything in them that would stop my from buying this truck...

Jeremy Z

How's parts availability on them? If I were to buy one, how long would I have to wait to get a lower arm? A shock tower?

If it is durable, and parts are easy to get, it might be worth investing in.

But a product from a Chinese upstart company against established competition like HPI... It's going to be a tough sale without kick-butt parts support.

john01374

From talking to owners and redcat themselves parts are pretty easy to get. Worst case senero you have to go direct to redcat in Arizona. The cars and built in China but the distribution warehouse for these guys in here in the states. Break and arm today you'll have parts in 5 to 7 days.

There is also a couple of hobby shops around here that are starting to carry these trucks as well as parts.

I've said it before and i'll say it again.... I had a very similar conversation to this one about 15 years ago. Only difference was the company we where talking about had a different name. I was into RC when Traxxas was the new guy on the block and everyone was saying the same thing. Don't buy it. Trucks are made in taiwan and there's no parts support.... Look at them today...

offroadrcs

I would go for the redcat insted of the wheely king,
the chasis on the redcat looks much better and
stronger than the wheely king and so do the
shocks.

[img]file:///C:/Users/damo/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/img]

cpe mt

Redcat is based on Phoenix, AZ and the kits are manufactured in China. We have a large selection of parts that could ship today if you wanted them. Things like diffs, clutches, spur gears, shock mounts, etc. Redcat also carries a full selection of parts on their site for each of their vehicles.

Best thing about the parts is they're sold individually rather than in trees and things like shock mounts or spur gears are only $2 for replacements.

Jeremy Z

Brett - Looks like we've got the right guy for a few questions:

1) On a full size car, I can see the advantage of your 'Mode 2' steering at high speeds. When is this advantageous on a model? What about rear wheels steering?

2) About solid axles. How is this an advantage on a truck. Does it somehow make them climb obstacles easier? Or is it just to be scale?

3) John, the tread looks plenty aggressive to me. Like a souped-up chevron pattern. The pix on this page are pretty clear.

4) Whoops, there aren't A-arms per se. (solid axles) I see there are spares available. Are these the parts that are most frequently broken? Are they in stock?
http://www.crawfordperformanceengine...-44_46_51.html

cpe mt

No problem with the questions as that's what I'm here for.

#1: Mode #2 is know as "crab steer" on a full-size monster. This radio is the same one that's used on Redcat's crawlers, where this type of steering will allow the crawler to move more sideways rather than forward. It's a neat feature to show off with, but not one I use much on a monster truck. Rear wheel steering will give you a tighter turning radius that front wheel steering. Think of it as how a forklift steers. Front-wheel steering is what I'm used to, so that's the mode I typically use. The truck turns very well in 2WS and has about a 24" turning radius using 4WS.

#2. Solid axles offer no performance advantage, but are scale in appearance. A solid axle will have advantages over a-arms when used as a crawler though as the solid axle won't conform to holes in the terrain as easy as an independent suspension would.

#3 Tires are basically the standard monster truck chevron pattern with some slight differences. People have actually cut the nubs off the outer edges for less traction and to let the truck slide better while cornering. Note that any aftermarket tires made for the T/EMaxx wheels are a direct fit on the Ground Pounder wheels.

#4 Rather than carrying a complete line of parts, these are the parts I thought would have a higher percentage of being broken. Any parts shown on our website are in stock and ready for immediate delivery. The website automatically removes them from view if we're out of stock on something.

Hope I covered them all for you. Thanks!

Jeremy Z

So if another part is broken, the customer would just email or call you and you'd order them from China?

Well, it is good that you have a presence here anyway. I've had a nightmare of a time trying to get some re-released Tamiya parts, and Tamiya is a HUGE company.

I might have a look at the Redcat 1/8 scale 4WD buggy next year....

Keep up the good web presence and local parts support.

john01374

The parts would come from the Arizona warehouse unless they are out of stock which is unlikely.