fullbore55

Hi All, I'm new to the forum after purchasing a Ground Pounder for my six year old son for X-mas. It's been many years since my last RC purchase, TM Big Bear, but I may give up after this horrible Redcat experience. The truck hasn't steered properly nor made any trips outside. Numerous test runs end with fatigued steering response. Redcat sent new steering servos with no effect. Remote is set at 100% D/R and 120% then 100% for EPA's with no effect. Steering barely moves in front and a glitch out of the rear. The Ebay dealer recommended removingthe radio batteries for a few days with no success either. Redcat had me changeslots(ESC) on the plugs with no help. I purchased a new nimh batteryas well and the radio shows 11.5v. I'm open to suggestions, including buying a Traxxas or just forget about the RC hobby altogether.

Devils-Reject

My Feedback: (8)

your first mistake was buying a redcat
dont give up on the hobby because of this...
redcat are GARBAGE
sell it, and buy a traxxas

nitrosportsandrunner

dont forget about the hobby friend! its too much fun. sure, stuff break and doesnt always work, but its worth the work.

im pretty famillar with the groundpounders steering and radio system, as it is the same used in the rs10 rock crawler that i own.
are you able to make a youtube vid of the truck trying to drive? if i could see the problem i might be able to help.

does it have any issue driving forward and reverse? or is it just the steering that has an issue?

nothing wrong with buying a traxxas, they make good trucks. but the ground pounder is 1of a kind.

fullbore55

It is just the steering that is a problem. I switched the steering to channel 2 in the receiver and it still is very slow to turn when it turns at all. I only get about 5 degrees(almost nothing) of turning radius. I thought maybe the trims were set at the max but they are at zero. The rear steering is not working at all. When i lift the truck off the ground the rear will almost budge 1-2mm. The front will turn the same, but will go fullrange if i guide it through with my help. It seems it's not getting power. It only worked full range on the first test run for about five minutes, first day. I thought my little guy didn't know how to steer but it's not him.

nitrosportsandrunner

very odd. either the radio is faulty, or the speed control is not giving enough power to the servos.
if i had to guess i would say the radio is at fault.
i sold a rs10 xt to a guy(same radio system) and it didnt work right out of the box. his range was like 3 feet. redcat sent him a new radio and receiver and that fixed the problem.

it sounds like you have tried adjusting the radio settings a bit. just in case you havent seen it yet, there is a youtube vid showing how to do all the adjustments on the radio. view it, maybe there is something you missed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLK9F...eature=channel

if not, contact redcat again. let them know that the replacement servos didnt help.

fullbore55

I'll try to post a video, but i just tried the truck. No steering left or right front or rear. Lifting the truck up, a nudge left and a nudge to the right. Nothing from the rear. Perfect for drag racing.

nitrosportsandrunner

you dont have any other RC's do you? if you did, you could test that rc's radio on the ground pounder and you would know if the problem is the stock radio.

fullbore55

Yep, I saw the vid. I have absolutely nowhere near the steering response Alishanmo has with that truck.

fullbore55

Actually, I could dig out my old Big Bear. I think the nimh battery will work in it...

fullbore55

Damn it's a Futaba 75 mhz radio. On the bright side...The old Big bear still works after 20+ years stored in the attic!!!!

fullbore55

Thanks for the help Nitro...I'm giving up on the groundpounder for tonight. I'm totally shocked at either the extremely low quality electronics used by Redcat or the absolute lack of quality control in the industry. I'll be asking for a new receiver and radio although I left a message for a call tag to return the entire unit. A 25yr old RC truck is entertaining my son for now which is leaps and bounds above the brand new Redcat!

richardtf

My first rc was a redcat volcano sv,its a piece of crap!!! now i have a traxxas revo and hpi savage xl, they are both tanks

fullbore55

I'm seeing everywhere on different forums about the low quality of Redcat. Initially, I thought my local hobby shop was being rude about not carrying Redcat trucks. The looks and price "sucked me in" but I should have researched better.

nitrosportsandrunner

there are 2 sides to everything tho. its true that redcats quality isnt the highest. but neither is their price. it does suck that the truck you got is a POS.
the redcats i own have been great. but it does seem that peoples experiences with redcat are either really good, or really bad.
you are not the 1st person to have a radio fail out of the box. but mine and my friends rs10 that use the same radio have worked great.

i hope you will give redcat a chance to replace the radio, as i think they will and i feel that is the issue. if not, i hope you can return the truck to where ever you bought it from and get your money back. either way i hope you get it solved. your problems remind me of a traxxas t-maxx i onced had. nothing worked right on that truck from day 1!

mudsiferiz

ok i have the calera 3.0 by redcat, can i take out the 3.0 engine a but in a 4.6 with out any changes to anything else

fullbore55

Hopefully tommorrow they get back to me. I've been patient this long, so i guess a few more days shouldn't be too bad. I'm just wondering if the ESC isn't the culprit. When i changed the plugs on the receiver the steering still fails to operate but the throttle/brake works with the direction control instead of trigger control. I guess it's hard to diagnose without the proper equipment.

fullbore55

I do have to disagree about the price issue. A lower msrp is no excuse for poor quality, inferior manufacturing, or a general lack of quality control from the factory. No one who makes a purchase of any brand new productexpects acompromise ofthe aforementioned.

fullbore55

Apparently, customer service at Redcat ranks just as bad as the product. An email, two phone calls(this morning and friday) and still no response. Called tech line and got a recording. Customer service line...recording. Maybe they are busy...LOL!

richardtf

Fix it and sell it IMO you will encounter more problem with redcat rc. when i first got my redcat,out of the box the shocks are leaking,after 1 week the throttle servo went out....and so on on on... get hpi or a traxxas

john01374

OK... like other have said Redcat is not the best truck out there and probably not a good choice for a beginner. I have a couple of their cars and for me they're fine but i've been doing this for 25 yrs. Out of the box my Ground Pounder worked perfect but after 6 months or so I ran into the same problem you're describing. I lost all range and the truck wouldn't respond to any of my input. I also managed to chip a couple of teeth off the Spur gear. Why the motor is attached to the chassis and not the gearbox I'll never understand but whatever.

One thing I noticed when the truck did run properly is I never used the goofy 4 wheel steering so I made some links and locked the rear wheels and simply swapped in an old traxxas receiver and radio and it's worked great ever since. I also found out that the traxxas 32P spur gear will fit the gearbox with a little work so that fixed the gear mesh problem on my truck as well. If you really don't want the GP i'm sure someone will take it off you hands. For someone new to the hobby a Traxxas Slash, Pede or Rustler is a better choice.

fullbore55

Actually, the Ground Pounder is my son's, I was considering a Rampage MT, but no longer...

Capn kanuckles

I think one thing you should  think about is,the GP is only $195,atleast thats what i paid 2weeks ago.So go out buy a 35a ezrun esc and a  2950kv motor for $60,then go to hobbypartz.com and get the flysky 3ch radio for $20,put them in the truck along with the metal drive shafts from CPE for $25.So for a total of $95 you will have a 35+mph truck that will wheelie,with no more glitching.In closing,for $295 you will have a truck that will run with the big dogs,good looks,and tough as nails or you can go buy a emaxx or equal for $595,then on top of that who leaves a truck stock? So add another $100.All for a 6year old.My little ones nine and i wouldnt give her a $600 truck to run into the side of the house and destroy.That's what i think.Be smart and dont whine.

kaiser01

the ground pounder is the best product redcat makes. it was designed by crawford performace engineeringaka c.p.e.(the rc monster truck authority IMHO)

you may want to contact c.p.e. for some support. i know they were making an effort to have better parts support then the rest of the redcat line.

i woudn't give up on the gp, it's a pretty good truck.

fullbore55

I don't plan giving up on the GP yet, just a little pissed off. The price, which was around $250.00 was never an issue. The truck as a whole offers a great value...if it works. If you factor in immediate electronic failures, you might lose some value. If you buy as a gift, It may be considered almost worthless unless customer service is able to make things right. Two months ago, I purchased a new Harley V-rod Muscle. On the trip home, the entire throttle/master cylinder assembly failed. The dealer immediately rectified the situation. They went the extra mile to satisfy a customer that almost suffered b/c a brand new product failed due to a total lack of quality control. The GP only irritated me, my life wasn't jeopardised. In both cases, quality control took a back seat.

Capn kanuckles

Let me get this right your comparing HD quality control(a icon of motorcycles from around 1940)to a rc truck.hummmm.....Maybe you shouldnt have had your 6yr old set the truck up or maybe your not telling us that he ran into something a caused the issue in the first place and your trying to put blame on poor quality.You said"The truck as a whole offers a great value"that why u started a thread bashing it.Just one mans thoughts.