ou2mame

I'm trying to find a list of parts that are compatible with my vortex that are from other manufacturers, such as bumpers, axles, etc.. Anyone know if there is a list of parts that are compatible? If not, can anyone chime in with what is compatible? I just want to know if there's anything I can replace the parts with as I break them from the store down the street, as opposed to ordering online, or driving an hour to get to the nearest redcat dealer to me.

I'm actually surprised at these cars, they're not terrible. My friend got the tornado, and my girlfriend got a shockwave. My friend bashed his tornado at full speed into a curb and only really broke the front bumper, upper a arm, and tweaked the dog bone. I bent out the dog bone and ziptied the a arm back and we were racing around for another few hours. I was more than surprised at such minimal damage considering the reviews I have read. I'm 30 and haven't really touched an rc in about ten years, and when I was into them I had a few HPI's that were very expensive. We decided to get these just because they're insanely cheap, and they're totally worth it so far.

The vortex handles like complete garbage though haha.. great on the grass and dirt, but totally useless on the road. I adjusted the shock mounts to lower the truck as much as possible, hopefully that'll give me some sort of turning ability at any speed other than idle.

hmm.. oh yeah, I've already bent a few dog bones myself and had to bend them back, and would like to get universal drive joints for the front, but they don't make them for the vortex? I emailed redcat and they said that they don't make them. Anyone know if any other brand will fit, or if one from another model works?

ou2mame

I did throw some LED's on mine because we usually play around with them at night since there's nobody in the parking lots, and we work days.

nitrosportsandrunner

dont bother with the universals anyway.

I run the redcat EPX pro models. Basically, brushless versions of your model.

I put small bits of fuel tubing inside the drive cups (or sometimes just the drive cup off the diff) to help center the dogbone and limit its play.

Some play is needed, as the suspension flexes. But often there is to much...especially on the front. When it moves to much...or to far toward the outside of the cup it likes to "bind" which causes it to get bent or even snap the end right off. But the fuel tubing in the drivecup trick reduces that alot.

one would think it would be easy to find dogbones from other companies to work (I tried once, tho not that hard) but its more than just the length to get right. companies have different size balls (ends) and different sized pins (that stick out of the balls) so you have 3 dimensions which all have to be right.

for you buddies with the tornado and shockwave....Tboneracing.com makes some really nice bumpers. High end, wicked tough and flexable (and wider) bumpers that will help alot with impacts. Sadly, they dont make one for the vortex. The one they have for the tornado should bolt right onto your vortex (same chassis and front end parts) but it might look funny on the SCT truck.

I have to get all my parts online, as my LHS doesnt carry redcat. so its best to buy parts to have on hand. Buying several parts at once keeps the price down some as well, combining shipping instead of paying $5 shipping every time I have to buy a single part.

ou2mame

Hey thanks, I totally forgot about the fuel line fix for the dogbones! I had my friend get a bumper off a rustler for his buggy, it fits well, just needs bigger screws and a brace at the top to keep the hinge pins from coming out of the bottom a-arms. It looks good, and protects a lot more than the differential cover that they ship it with.

ou2mame

also, i'm looking for a new air filter... do you know what different engine's filters are compatible with this one? i want to go with the 2 stage hpi from the savage x, but I'm not sure if it'll fit or not on the carb opening. I've spent the past hour trying to find the size of the .18's carb opening and I can't. the filter elbow on the hpi's inner diameter is 14mm, but I just can't find a number for the sh's.

nitrosportsandrunner

IDK on the carb opening size, but I doubt a filter made for a big block motor will fit.

On other mods...tires maybe? I think SCT tires for other trucks are larger diameter, but could possible still fit without hitting the body.

ou2mame

ended up going with the hpi 12-18 filter, fits perfectly. i broke the clutch spring about a quarter of a gallon of gas through, tried to use a traxxas one but it engages too high, so i just used the spring i broke since it broke at the hook. i ordered the aluminum clutch shoes, i dunno why they use plastic ones.. well i know why, its cheap. its funny, every hobby shop i go to, i ask about the redcat, and they all say the same thing.. they won't carry them, or did and stopped, because their part numbers are such a mess and its impossible to stock and order parts. it sucks that there's so many things that they could have designed better to be compatible with other cars so at least they could be selling cars, but a few shops by me had them and dropped them quick. anyways, i wish more parts are compatible, esp simple parts like clutch springs and whatnot. you really have to be into fixing these without parts haha

ou2mame

so i got the traxxas wheels on, had to cut the body a decent amount to make it fit, but i think it looks pretty good. i'm still waiting for my drive cups to come in the mail so i'm stuck in 2wd at the moment, but the truck definitely seems to handle better on the dirt and grass. concrete i won't know until its back to 4wd because stopping is just painful, with just the rear wheels it tends to just slide into a 180 as soon as i hit the brake.

i keep getting server errors trying to upload a pic of them to the forums, so here's a pic hosted elsewhere.

nitrosportsandrunner

looks good. doesnt seem over sized like I would think they would. But since they are taller, I can see how they would help in grass and rough offroading as they add ground clearance.

ou2mame

totally shattered the body, going to look into getting a new one.. put it back together with shoe goo and fiberglass today. hopefully it holds until i get to the hobby shop and see what fits. does anyone have any idea what other bodies fit on this car?

here's a pic of the old wheel with my epoxy fix next to the new wheel.. they are bigger, but not extremely big.

ou2mame

alright well my friend with his tornado rear ended me and broke his axle.. went to the hobby store and found that the rs4 axles fit, but there is a slight wobble due to the outside bearing not fitting anymore. i'm now looking for a way to fit something in there that will limit its travel, or find a bearing that fits.

ou2mame

got about a gallon through them now... the tornado ate its transmission, even though the motor spacing was perfect.. first it ate the first gear, so i took the clutch spring out to lock it in second, and then it ate that gear as well. the vortex, i snapped a few axles, used the tornado axles with wheel nuts until i got the replacements from redcat in since the hpi ones will be too short to use for mine. i had a weird wobble in my front differential, where the drive shaft connects, so i put some plastic washers inside to reduce it. small nylon washers from ace hardware, slightly drilled out, fit perfectly.

ou2mame

alright well, with another gallon through the 3 cars, i can say that these cars are pretty much worthless after about a gallon is through them. my friend's 30 is just eating itself. the differential in the rear is missing a tooth and has some weird grinding proplem internally... the wheels, the way that redcat designs the steering linkage at the hub, no wheel will fit without extreme dremeling. my girlfriend bought me a dremel for christmas so i would stop cutting my fingers off with my drill trying to do really small detailed work.

mine seems to be the one that's holding up the best, but that's just because i've been slightly more careful... its time is coming. the s30 seems to break something else everytime we start it... but i guess thats what these are designed for. the shockwave also ate its transmission, as did another one of our friend's shockwaves. his is just a nightmare. the differential comletely cracked in half in the front, the drive cups on all of ours keep falling out and randomly loosening, the wheels on all of them are cracked, the shells are completely trashed from very minimal bashing. i've never seen shells break so easilyi. its like every single part on these cars are subpar. my bedroom is like a redcat salvage yard. they're just stacked on each other in the corner waiting for parts to come in the mail....if they come in the mail. redcat seemed to have ordered the wrong gas tanks for themselves to stock, how does that happen? aren't they supposed to be stocking the other dealers? if a dealer can't get stock because the company itself can't get stock..... yeah.

so now we're looking into finding rolling chasises for the only good part about these cars, the engines. the radio's are pretty much the only thing that hasn't give us much trouble, through they do randomly unbind, and just stop working randomly. its pretty difficult to keep these running. now we have the opportunity to run 4 cars at once, and we tried last night... we were down to one car running by the middle of the first tank. we had one car that would only make left turns, with no exhaust, just riding in circles until it died, my girlfriend's shockwave ate its tranny for no apparent reason, and the s30 was just falling apart at the wheels.

its comical though... its like, what's going to break next?! we order parts that we break, but since they take so long to get here, i epoxy them and they hold better than the original... so we just have a bunch of parts in a box, waiting to replace expoy'd parts. and after saying all of this, now i'm contemplating converting my ss to a lightning! i must be retarded. like literally, i'm retarded. my friend's going to get a traxxas most likely, my girlfriend will most likely drive hers into a wall and maybe it'll blow up... it would be so much different if they had a dealer here, but nobody can deal with redcat. they've even made being a dealer into the same experience as a redcat owner! you guys know what i'm talking about, i'm sure... oh well. at least i have a dremel now! i should just start making my own parts out of household objects... break an a-arm, cut one out of the side of a plastic drawer and wait for the part to not come in the mail.

we're all in the market for rolling chassises, so that we can throw the only decent part of the car into something that isn't going to crumble around it. i think our redcat days are numbered.

ou2mame

alright, so... we had to move away from the redcats because these cars just don't hold up. i've never crashed my vortex, and its just a so so product at best. i ended up finding a really good deal on an hpi rs4 evo, so that will be the car i dump money into on upgrades that will actually make a difference. the only way the truck handles any kind of a decent on concrete is lowered all the way possible, and traxxas anaconda tires. but, the handling is so erratic that it's hard to tell what its going to do. the tornado turned into a shornado after we mixed it with a completely destroyed shockwave. now its basically the chassis and rear end of the shockwave, with tornado parts for the rest. my friend with the tornado is going with a traxxas slayer pro since i got the hpi and he wanted something that would keep running.. we've been trying to take these to a place where we can really offroad, but we could never get all 3 cars running at the same time. the tornado just kept eating itself, so it had to go. now it can eat itself on the shockwave chassis.

raminator69

was going to trade my losi lst for a vortex ss ans a shockwave... guess not ;(