arless

I only want to say that durability is a fine line between weight and inexpensive plastic parts. Verses Aluminum hard parts, you can take a cheap Exceed Forza and build it anyway you heart desires. All from the Exceed factory, And any engine with the right motor mounts can be added and the list goes on. The Exceed foundation is a pretty good starting place for a Race car, I'm referring to the aluminum 2.5 chassis, it's lite and durable, upgradable servos to tires and rims, this stuff is all generic simply put Red Cat racing Himoto, and a whole lot more RC company's, parts interchange with each other. Do I want a Honda or a Kawasaki? or Suzuki and or a Yamaha? Or do I want to spend a heck of a lotof money for a name and buy a Harley Davidson. People with high dollar RC's will protest against what I am posting.In the last two years all RC manufactures have up graded their RC's better engines and the whole bit. Even the high dollar products are being upgraded, with better parts. Why? competition for your sales money, and not allow one or two RC manufacturers to corner the market... That said only the best will stay in business. They are NO bad RC cars buggy's, truggies, monster trucks and what have you else, They are all very generic as far as parts interchangeability goes. A man or women who loves this hobby will not bash any products out their, I love all the different brand products to choose from. OK I have said my thoughts and I know some of you will bash my way of thinking but that's OK too wish us all the best Arless

derailed75

As an owner of bot ha Red Cat Aftershock 3.5 and a Team Associated SC8, I want to add that the SC8 is a far superior truck. Having said that these guys that come one here and proclaim that Red Cats are junk have never had one. My SC8 is much more adjustable and easier to drive, but it cost twice as much. The Red Cat is a great truck for the price and really good for begginers to the hobby.

nitrosteve22

Well said guys! Right off the bat I noticed a difference between my old tornado and my new caldera 3.0 when it came to durability. I've had a few of the expensive brands and never recall having problems(I miss my old team associated T4st so much) and still have a nitrohawk and tmaxx that need parts but continue to stay on the shelf cause my caldera seems to be getting all the attention . I picked up a redcat P40 warhawk plane and it seems to be pretty well built and everything works great but I'm not even gunna try till I learn to fly. Gives me an excuse to buy another rc plane though right? Kinda really want an 1/8 scale buggy though... (or a new 30-30).

nitrosportsandrunner

ive owned:
tamiya's
traxxas
redcat
exceed
losi
duratrax
ofna
and others....

They all will break...lol. Some are tougher than others, some are more expensive than others. For me, its always been about "bang for my buck"
And with redcat's brushless 1/10s and 1/8s I have always got alot for my money. The rs10 crawler is also alot of fun for what you pay.
I honestly love the traxxas rustler VXL. Its a crazy solid truck(especially once you deck it out in RPM parts) and its crazy fast on a 3s lipo. But, its a $300 truck, $50 lipo, $75 worth of upgrades to get to that point. Money well spent, but still alot of money.
The tornado epx pro is tons of fun. $180 buggy, $30 lipo and $50 for upgraded alloy shock towers and its nearly as tough as my rustler. Not as fast(i run it on a 2s lipo...the rustler on a 3s) but it will smoke the rustler off the line due to the 4wd and its much more controllable.

Again, its all about the fun for the money. I also own a ecx ruckus (the sct truck) and its by far the best of the sct truck offerings IMO. Its not the fastest out of the box, but it does handle better than most and is rock solid. While many would buy the traxxas slash xl-5....I can smoke that truck on a race track with my truck that cost me $50 less than the slash.

I am soo looking forward to see what redcat comes out with this fall. 8 models being added! Start saving $$$ now, I know I am

arless

I agree with bang for buck, That's why I purchased a new Tornado S30 buggy with aluminum adjustable shocks, I want to compete in the "Out Law class" next season. i installed a Losi mach .26 BB engine in the buggy. It's all sorted and ready to fire up, Everything is brand new and never been run. Why? my small block roto wand is a 5.5mm and the big block needs a 6mm wand, waiting in the mail for. I probably could have used a shaft from a long Allen hex 6mm instead of having to order one. We all have to order everything cause our hobby shop closed down unfortunately

All the best Arless

ou2mame

i've had an experience owning a redcat, and being the only experienced ex racer from 15 years ago, i worked on 3 other redcats. the quality in parts are really just inferior compared to hpi and traxxas. more importantly hpi, because it seems as though redcats are really just a chinese copy of hpi's. their 1/10th scale is some weird cheap version of the rs4/mt line.

Dads like rc too

Ou2mame, our stories are almost identical except I would have to replace your explanation of your Redcat experience with my experience with HPI. My HPI nitro MT2 was the biggest load of crap I've ever owned. This truck retailed at the time for $360. Everything broke on it. Like you said, many of the parts have been cloned by Redcat. I broke everything on that truck twice at least, I mean everything. By far the weakest truck on the market. My friend had a Redcat Volcano S30 at the time, this thing was an animal. It held up so much better than my MT2 that I decided to give the Tornado S30 a try. Your right about the shock towers, very weak, but the rest of the buggy was indestructible. The wheels were very cheap and brittle, but once I replaced them I had no other issues. I even ran it flat out into a privacy fence during a run away and broke $5 worth of parts.

I'm one of those guys that believes buying the right Redcat model for what you want it for, and doing your research and knowing what to tweak can go along way. Redcat has never marketed as a high end rc. They are great for people on a budget. I've been running Redcats for 3 years and currently have 2 sumo's "one of them was actually run over by a full size pick up and only needed a new diff and wheel", Volcano EPX, a Caldera 10e, and a Monsson XTR. The Volcano EPX is by far the worst one I've owned from Redcat mainly because the brushed motor overheats and self destructs very easily. I haven't complained too much about it simply because the rest of the truck is pretty solid for what I paid. I love the Monsoon, nothing less than $500 from the competitors can compete with it. For the over $200 I saved, I can deal with some issues now and then. My sons Caldera 10e is just awesome. I did have to upgrade the steering knuckles to aluminum because they kept stripping "something I also had to do with the MT2", but since then we've had no issues with it.

I value everyone's opinion on these threads, especially since your a former race, I'm sure you've scene a lot of things we haven't. However when reading your post it almosts reads as if your saying just rolling your Redcat down the street causes parts to fly off it. I did agree about the shock towers bending easily and even the diff cups will notch over time, but I've never had dogbones just bend for no reason and I can't even count how many times I've bent my Tornado's shock tower back into place without having the shock leak like your talking about. Same goes for the majority of the plastic parts, mine have held up pretty well. Sounds like you may have an axe to grind.

ou2mame

i don't really have anything against redcat. i mean, i bought their product because i hadn't heard of the.. i didn't some research, heard some good and some bad, so i figured why not, i should be able to do something with it. my friend's decided they wanted to get into this hobby, and it honestly felt like the right move, and was, for them to buy something cheap and learn how to drive them, break them, and fix them.. esp since the parts are impossible to find locally, it made them think about how the car works, and how to rig something to replace a broken part. whether its coat hangers, zip ties, rs4 parts, whatever we have laying around. that's really one of the major parts of the hobby that i enjoy.

Hulk1211

I currently own a Sumo RC, Shredder XT, Avalanche XTE, Tornado S30, Ramapage XBE and a Mini C50 plane from Redcat. Out of all those the Tornado is the only one I had any issue with as far as parts failure. The front steering hubs are just a very cheap injection molded piece with regrind plastic. I upgraded those with some aluminum ones and have had no issue since.

A lot of it with Redcat getting bad reviews is because you are getting people who are buying $150.00 entry level nitro models because they wanted to have a gas powered RC and have no idea what they are doing with it. These models should be completely checked over, thread lock used, diff checked and shimmed and properly broken in and in my eperience just a few other upgrades like steering servos, hubs and maybe shocks you should have a decent model on your hands.

My Shredder XT out of the box has been a damn monster. I have had it for 3 months now and ran with with dual 5000 2S lipo's at least 30 times and nothing on it has broken or needed replaced other than the body. Even on the bodies that are legitimate low quality. I have figured out a good way to keep those intact. I just lined the inside of mine with duct tape and it has curbed a ton of the breaking.

I have also owned in the past T-max, Revo, RS4, RS10, Savage XL and they all need work. If they didn't you would not have the aftermarket parts support for these models you have now. Redcat is becoming more mainstream and more aftermarket support is coming out for them all the time, RC Screwz, 7075 RC, T-Bone Racing and others are all currently making nice upgrades for various Redcat models. I would guess in the next 3 - 5 years you will see a ton of aftermarket companies making items for Redcat models. The line is simply growing to fast to be ignored.

ou2mame

around here, they are becoming less and less mainstream. there are a ton of hobby shops in long island, more than most places in america probably. there's at least 6 in my immediate area, that's one of the reasons why i got into the hobby in the first place, because there was so much support for it. now, out of the 6 out here, there are 2 that at some point were redcat dealers. i talked to them both about it, and they both had different reasons for not continuing the relationship. the first one said that they just couldn't, because they would have to hire a separate employee, just for redcat. the reason for that was that their schematics were wrong, their part numbers were wrong, and they had no idea what parts had what part numbers, so they would have to have someone come in and literally just sit there for hours trying to figure out what was going on with their parts.

weisitke

yeah,think so,.I can smoke that truck on a race track with my truck that cost me $50 less than the slash.thanks

Dads like rc too

I don't think that was the point of ou2mame's response. Faster does not always mean better. There is no denying the Slash is a very well built truck. Anyone who would attempt to compare a Caldera SC truck against the Slash in overall quality would be foolish. I think the point some of us were trying to make is that we feel a $230 brushless Caldera is a better value than a $420 Slash. Yes if you want to argue the used big name at a used price might be better than a new Redcat, that just depends on the deal. I myself am a nitro guy. Personally if I'm buying a used nitro, I either want it cheap enough where the replacement cost of the engine still makes it good deal, or I need to know the person I'm buying it from so I feel confident I won't have to replace the engine. His example of a Revo for $175 is not very common. More commonly, that truck sells for $275 to $325 used all day long. I would not want to pay that and still wind up replacing the engine for another $100.

ou2mame

I've always been into nitro, never did understand electric, but I guess with brushless, at least the power is getting there. and if you want to race, come to long island, ny

Dads like rc too

Yeah, I don't disagree with your perspective. Definitely if you know what to look for used is the way to go, besides for most of us working on them la half the fun. I just interpreted you original post as the same old "Redcat sucks" bashing speech. I don't think its true and I don't thinks it fair to Redcat. These models don't just fall apart and fail for no reason. Yes I know they're servos are.known to be iffy and certainly there has been enough posts on here to officially say there is a problem with them, but most of the problems you read about are people new to the hobby that just don't know what they're doing yet. I don't think there's anything wrong with these people digging in and asking sometimes what you or I might consider simple questions with simple answers, but I don't think its fair for people to continually point the finger at Redcat because someone who just bought their first nitro truck can't figure out how to keep it running.

My son is 10 years old. I bought him a used Caldera 10e monster truck when he was just turning 9. You can imagine a 9 year old operating his first real rc truck. He drives it too hard and too fast into immovable objects. This Caldera has held up great, the only real design issue that had to be upgraded was the plastic steering knuckles. You said it yourself, it takes money to be in this hobby. For me, I could not have walked into a hobby shop and purchased a $400 Traxxas truck for him at his age, then more money for something for me. A dad like me can pick up a Tornado EPX pro and a Volcano EPX pro for the price of one Traxxas brushless truck. Now there's no denying how tough that Slayer or Slash or whatever that 4wd SC truck is. My friend has the nitro version and I'm telling you that thing can withstand just about anything. Just for a lot of us, we have to consider our budget. My Monsoon XTR is a great truggy. HPI has a freight very similar to it, almost identical. The only difference is my Monsoon retails for $290 and the HPI version cost around $460. I think another problem Redcat has is because of its pricepoint , it attracts new people with no experience to the hobby. Many times these people go out and spend $200 "which they perceive to be a lot of money" on a rc truck, then bring it home and have nothing but problems with it because they just don't have the experience yet to figure it out. So then comes the "Redcat sucks" post because the guy had to replace the pull start, then he got it running and never rubber banded his servo batteries and watched as it ran away into a pond.

ou2mame

yeah that's what I'm saying though, the monetary perspective. my friends, it was great for them to get a cheap redcat to bash and crash and break and fix, but i think that redcat's fundamental flaw is in developing business relationships, and design quality. and those 2 things put together, make it a company that won't last. i've heard from countless hobby shops that they are just a pain to work with, at best. they don't warranty ANYTHING, ever. no matter what, even if the hobby shop itself is saying, this came this way out of the box. so the hobby shops were eating the cost of repairs on manufacturing defects, and on top of it, their schematics are all wrong, their part numbers are wrong too. so they can't stock the parts themselves that need to be replaced out of their own pockets when redcat won't warranty something. this is the story i heard from quite a few places.

rchobbyunlimited

They wont last that I am not to sure about 5+ years so far and they have really grown I have been selling them for 3+ years and I have seem them come along way. They just only want to deal with online only sales thats so far from the truth its not even close I as well as 2 other hobby store owners that I am good friends with 1 is on this forum alot and is 1 of the orginal redcat dealers and has 2 huge brick and mortor stores sells tons of redcat. You have to have a business license and a tax id number to be a redcat dealer alot of internet business its not required and many dont have them. To be listed on redcat dealr website they want a brick and motor stores not just online so customers can come and see the cars so I know for a fact the statments said about they just want online sellers is very far from the truth. I also sell HPI Traxxas Team Associated and many others as well but Redcat has been a great line to carry. I have used andown 20+ so farmany of the redcat line myself and have had to fix many customers cars also I will agree that the higher up the food chain you go with redcat the better 1/10 line does bring more trouble in some ares you named the 2 speed yes number 1 dogbone breaking for no reason that one never heard of or have seen but the pro line with the Moonsoon, Huricane, Avalance nitro and eletric are super great cars takes great beatting and just great R/C. There 1/5 scale is just super great the most easiest to work on 1/5 scales out ther and very durable. They all break they all will need repairs I am a gas and nitro person and as rc dad stated i wont buy used I just have the saying of buying somebody esle headache so I will only buy new jsut for that. So you say that they buy a redcat and upgraded then they dont have a redcat they have a $800.00 upgrade that they could have gotten an HPI thats also is so far from the truth I know and have seen way to many people as well as myself have spent $1200.00 for a baja now ther is nothing left on it HPI because there is over $3,000.00 in upgrades but its still a HPI baja now if I bought it used I still would have the same upgrades on it I just would have had a lower starting point so therfore the car would have been cheaper. Upgrading is part of the hobby as well as racing bashing fixxing and having fun it all goes with the hobby. When I read your post also I said here we go another Redcat basher but its all in the persons opinion. Get what you like and what makes you happy have fun with it upgrade what you like if you just want more bling or more speed lets just all get along and have great fun.

With just 3 cars you have not had no were near the full redcat experince!!!!!!!!!!

Dads like rc too

rchobby, I'm glad someone else was able to see it. There is nothing worse than people coming on here and just posting out and out lies. Its fine to give your opinion and say you had a bad experience with Redcat and that you don't like there brand. But to say some of these things that ou2mame said shows only 1 of 3 things. 1. He just doesn't know as much as he says he does. 2. He's actually been told this from hobby shops "which I believe" and has taken it as truth. 3. He's just a troll. I think number 1 is probably not the case. He probably does have hobby grade experience and just doesn't see the difference between a $200 rtr and a $400 rtr. Personally I think its a combination of 2 and 3. I know two different dealers and both have told me that Traxxas has "leaned" on them to remove Redcat from their stores. Traxxas hasn't come out and said you cannot sell our product with Redcat in the shop , bit they've been told selling Redcat diminishes their reputation as a dealer. That if they want to continue their relationship with Traxxas they need to just let their Redcat inventory sell out. The two dealers I know have decided to stick with Redcat, and Traxxas has not closed their account, instead they reduced their dealer discount. This is what big companies due when they can't compete. Yes we've discussed the quality difference of a Volcano compared to a Revo, but to a new customer on a budget that wants a monster truck, the only offering is a Stampede which is over $100 more, and not $100 more value. Traxxas least expensive 1/10 scale is the brushed bandit, right at $190. For that money you can get a brushless Tornado pro which is a far better buggy. Traxxas does not want Redcat stealing away its entry level customers.

Then there is the lies about the dealer rules. I know personally Redcat does not discourage brick and mortar stores. When I contacted Redcat about becoming a dealer they denied my request because I didn't have a shop. They cont have a problem with internet sales, but they want they're product out on the shelves where customers can see and touch it. Also a real dealer is often the first step of warranty claims and customer support which Redcat is all about. Now ou2mam's beloved HPI is completely the opposite. When I contacted them about stocking their products, they had no interest about how they're carried. They directed me to their central distributor who's only requirement was a $4000 first purchase order and proof of a website you'll be selling from. Sorry to say it, but when you come on here and just post lies like this, it just discredits anything else you have to say.

ou2mame

i'm not saying that i'm a hobby store owner, i am just repeating what several hobby store owners have told me personally. willishobbies.com used to be a redcat dealer, and they pulled the plug because their schematics were wrong, their part numbers were wrong, and redcat wouldn't warranty any defects no mater the circumstance. they were the closest to me that was a redcat dealer, but now their redcat parts selection is a bucket of random parts that they have left over on clearance. they said that they wanted to carry them, but it was just too much effort dealing with their customer service, part number discrepencies, and warranty claims. the hobby store near me wanted to deal with redcat, but redcat turned them down and just wouldn't let them, because they didn't have an online store. another one a little north of me, they also tried to sell them, but said that it didn't work out, no specific reason except they wanted to, and redcat didn't want to deal with them.

rchobbyunlimited

Very well said rc dad very well said and as you stated eariler I can blog about the same BAD experinces I have had with HPI I have my own personal HPI savage XL the motor was garbarge from the moment I broke the seal on the box HPI sent 2 more bad motors and I just ended up putting in a LRP .30 motor and boy does it flies now it would have been very wrong of me to get on HPI blog and just say HPI really sucks all of there motors are bad just buy traxxas NO I know thats just part of the hobby I fix it and move all there is no perfect R/C they all will have a good point and they will have a bad point.

I just was really sleepy last night but then you stated rc dad you like nitros and you will not buy used or unless you really know the person ok makes really great sense to me. He come back and says he buys used all the time you just need to know what to look for WHAT!!!! there is no know what to look for I can sell him a used nitro he says he looks at the carb or whatever he looks at. I will have the car cleaned running great purring along nicely even let him test drive get his money but guess what he has no clue that number 1 I didnt even break the car in right 2 I let the car sit for 4 months on the shelf with gas in the tank so now he has plent of moisture and rust in the engine within a few tanks especially when he drives the tanks out and the car runs lean from when the tanks is empty the moisture or the rust come loose from the heat scratch the piston or the sleeve and he will need a new engine very very soon so what did he save from buying used not anything he will be paying more because he needs a new engine.

Dads like rc too

Yeah, I know HPI makes some good stuff, you just have to be buying that particular model. Nobody can deny the Savage's reputation as being bullet proof, they've earned it. But personally I think HPI's engines are junk. It's funny how people will even bash SH engines just because they come with a Redcat , but in my opinion for people just out having fun, the SH engines are awesome. They're very powerful and easy to tune especially for the beginners. I don't think HPI is junk by any means, I have friends with their higher end stuff. I was just trying to explain when you talk about having issues with a rc, that you can have them with every manufacturer. I realize my MT2 was at the bottom of the HPI food chain and just took it for what it was worth. All in all, every time I fixed it, it ran really well and handled great. I wanted to like it, it just kept breaking very easily and to me, a $180 Volcano breaking easily is better than a $360 MT2 breaking easily. Luckily I didn't pay that, I bought it as a roller for $100 and had it back running with a new engine and tank for $200. I just got tired of it breaking.

But yeah the used issue with nitro's to me is just too much of a gamble. There are so many variables when buying a used nitro. Yes you can look in the head and see the color of the piston, and also feel what the compression is, but you still never really know what's its going to run like down the road. As I said, with my MT2, the guy told me it needed a connecting rod, so I was already assuming I needed an engine when I made an offer. I knew I could do the HPI engine program swap so that's what I wound up doing. After getting it running I eventually bought new wheels and tires for it and a new body. The body was needed so I figured that was another $22. The wheels and tires I kind of figure are the nature of the game. I used the originals on another truck I had. So with the body I had $225 in it. Now not including the replacement parts along the way, I drove it for a year and wound up selling it for $220. To me, that's how I like to buy used.