burrito

what do you guys think about it? is it any good? my friend is thinking about buying one for 270$. its used but in very good condition. is it a good deal?

gelbschnee

used redcat and 270 bux sounds like an awful deal imho...you can get a real rc car for that much or less.

nitrosportsandrunner

i say stay away. there are concerns with redcats quality. if you really want one, go buy a NEW one off ebay for $315
http://cgi.ebay.com/1-8-ELECTRIC-RC-...item439df7fdf6

basketballfan60123

My Feedback: (2)

For $20.00 more you can get a bran new one from urchobby.com; I have one and I also have a Slash 4X4 and between the 2 the quality is about the same I mean you will have breakage issues and defective parts with both of them.
The only difference is that Slash 4X4 is waterproof (supposedly) and is like 100+ dollars more expensive depending on where you get it and it does not even come with lipos only a basic crappy nihm battery.
Redcatracing is getting just as good with customer support as the well known companies like Traxxas, HPI,etc.

groovechampion

I bought an Aftershock 8E and I am sorry I did. I run it at our local track which is a mixture of clay and loose dirt. The tires are just plain sh*t. The truck floats and slides and does not hook up at all. It slides around like a hog on ice. After installing some Caliber tires there was a noticeable improvement in handling. Keep in mind I have only ran the truck twice in normal conditions. The list of broken parts are:
1) Steering servo seized up.
2) Plastic side guards are broken - really cheap plastic
3) Breaking front axles. They are made of cheap pot metal and not steel.
4) Truck landed on its nose after a jump and cracked the front of the body horizontally at the hood line.

Don't be like me and not listen to your friends before buying this turd.

Lilredmachine

What you describe sounds like normal RC related racing damage.

The list of complaints sounds almost exactly like a similar list I saw over at RCshortcourse about the Ultima SC, which is supposedly a great truck. Shocks leaking, stock electronics going out, axles bending/snapping, weak parts...

Truth is, the majority of RC vehicles suffer issues such as these. If I was to list the parts I'd had to replace on my Slash we'd be here all night.

pr2niceandspiffy

My Feedback: (2)

forget the redcat, i just bought a used losi 8ight thats like new for $250, you can find them for close to that

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

ThunderbirdJunkie is not going to agree with that.

Stuff like that doesn't happen in 1/8 scale. Even on an XTM X-terminator.

groovechampion

I attached a picture of the broken axle. I'm also including RedCat's response to my enquirey about this issue. The second picture is of the first transmitter battery compartment that was originally sent to me. The connections are supposed to be neg, pos, neg, pos. They configued pos, pos, neg neg. Someone on the assembly line was either a new employee or really tired.

From: Redcat Racing
Sent: Thursday , August 12, 2010 04:47 pm MST (GMT-07:00)
Subject: Failed Servo

Hi Michael,
They are definitely made from steel, not pot metal. The steel may not be of the highest quality, but it is steel nonetheless. We have no plans of making stronger axles at this time as this does not happen very often.

Thanks,
Billy
-Original Message-
From: 29449 Michael McLean
Sent: Thursday , August 12, 2010 02:26 pm MST (GMT-07:00)
Subject: Failed Servo

Hi Billy,
I hope they address the issue of those drive axles because they are made from some kind of cheap pot metal and are quite brittle if I may be honest. They need to made from stainless steel. Will there be an upgraded axle made of steel anytime do you know?
Thank you,Michael

SyCo_VeNoM

looks like very cheap steel IMO.

I'm guessing the reason it don't happen very often is either the thing stops working and the person quits the hobby thinking all RC's are crap. Or they just eat the loss and get a real 1/8th from Ofna or one of the other big guys that sell good RC's

Hell even the redcat review here is funny of the 1/8th scale buggies the parts they break within minutes is astronomical. My 1/8ths for the most part I've beat harder than hell and yet to replace anything
Only dog bone I've snapped was on my Savage .21 and that was due to the Brushless system I put in it that rotated the end over 30 degrees before they snapped

groovechampion

I'm still not convinced it is steel cheap or not. I mean what steel looks like that when it breaks? I wish CSI could put it in an element spektrum analyzer machine to determine what the composition actually is. I guess first somebody would have to get stabbed with it. Hmmmm. I vote for the guy who's idea it was to use that crap in production.

overrev

That dog bone looks like it bent and broke because of a bad landing which caused it to bind. That can happen to any rc.

SyCo_VeNoM

well I'm lookin at how the break is not shiny it looks pitted but then again that could be due to what it was photographed on (the angle the pic was taken there should be no reflection)
When I break cheaper grade metals it has a pitted look, better steel is usually a shiny clean break from my experiences.

groovechampion

I purposely did not use flash on the camera to avoid reflection. The way it looks in the photo is the way it looks to the naked eye. It's kinf of gray chalky and crumbly looking.

hhvg

I agree it looks like that. But guess what? Im a good driver I only land on throttle accidentallyfrom a bad jump maybe onein 30 times the other 29 jumps are perfect. My associated 1/8 and losi 1/8 are driven the same way and they have NEVERbent cvd and they weigh around 8 lbs!

I have all three 8es, aftershock, backdraft, earthquake and love them all. I bent a cvd for avout every hour of use. I have a bag of bent ones. Consider though the power to weight ratio is way higher on these because they weigh about 2 lbs less than a reg. 1/8. There are things you can do to keep from bending the cvds:

try baking them in the oven, run on 3s (buy a new batt), use punch control, get a new RX with exp., turn the timing down to 0 degrees, change to lightweight tires (esp earthquake), run the smallest pinion/largest spur, use backdraft 17mm or earthquake 12mm instead of wobbly aftershock 12mm, install the latest version front c hub brace to stiffen the front end, get a lower kv motor, etc. etc.

SyCo_VeNoM

What would baking the dogbones in an oven do?
If you mean trying to harden them you would have to raise the dogbone to close to 500+ degrees and quench it in a oil mixture... If anything heating them up like that will make them weaker...

The Mad Modder

Hold a magnet up to the drive shaft.