bdude

Hi Folks,

I am new to this forum, crawling, and r/c in general.

Anyways, I purchased a 1/8 Super Crawler a few weeks ago and have used it four times now. The fourth time was in 54 degree weather when the side chassisof the crawler hit a rock. The rear wheels were on the ground with the front wheels climbingthe rock when it slipped off. I heard a loud pop and new right away it wasn't a good noise. Long story short, a screw that secures a shock absorber to the side chassis broke in half leaving me with half a screw still threaded in the side that I'm unable to get out.

It wasn't a hard hit at all and am pi$$ed that Ihad to pay $5 for a new side chassis because a < $.05 screw failed to take minor trauma. Did I purchase a lemon or what's the deal? After seeing several reviews by Squirrel and others I had some confidence in RedCat products that lead me to buy the S.C.

Anyone have similar experiences? Is there a set of screws you recommend to replace the cheapos with?

Thanks!

- B

(See attached pic - sorry, crap quality)

chevyderek72

It must have been a lemon, or it might have hit it just right. I dont see it being a recurring problem.

bdude

Thanks for the reply Chev...beginning to think the entire vehicle is a lemon now.

So now Ihave another problem with the S.C. The thing looks like it's going into seizures afterI plop in a freshly charged battery and apply a small amount of throttle. I use the Tenergy Hybrid Smart Charger and it seems to do its job well and alot quicker than the stock charger. Can anyone tell me what the h#@$ is happening to my vehicle?

I've about had it!

UPDATE: I checked whether or notdifferent voltage of the batteries affected the twitchy performance...and it appears anything over 7.5v causes the S.C. to go into shaking fits. Is this an ESC issue? Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

Regards,

B

jeztur2003

My Feedback: (1)

I had a customer with the same problem redcat told him to mail it in and they would send him a new one. They have now received it and told him today the tech could not find anything wrong with it so it might be the radio and when he gets the new esc back if it is still doing it he should send the radio in. here is the address to send it to send your contact information and explain what is going on. you should call first here is the contact info.

Contact Redcat
Phone : 602-454-6445
Fax : 602-626-3543
Office Hours : Monday - Friday 9am - 5:00pm Mountain Standard Time
Warehouse Hours : Monday - Friday 9am - 5:00pm Mountain Standard Time
Location : 23 West Watkins Street; Phoenix, AZ 85003
Redcat Racing Sales : [email protected]
Redcat Racing Support: [email protected]

bdude

Thanks for the info, Jeztur. I filed a warranty claim today stating my problem and mailed the ESC in. The Sales Manager, Nick said, only if they find something wrong with the ESC would they supply me a new one.

What Ican tell you (and hopefully the RedCat Team is monitoring this as well) is that I tested four different batteries on the S.C. and only the one putting out <7.5v would result in the light forward throttleperforming correctly. Full fwd throttle worked fine - and reverse worked fine in all tests.

In addition to the battery tests on the RedCat ESC, Itried the same four batteries on a Hitec ESC connected to a 370 motor, micro-servo, and aHS-422 servoIpulled from an old project (most from an Easy Star push glider).....and everything worked fine.

So based on the above tests, Iam fairly confident there is an ESC problem. I'd like to hear other folk's ideas as well as I'm just a newbie.

Thanks,

B

chevyderek72

Ya it would have to be the esc or the reciever or something.

Mickstix

Yea, too much or too little voltage will cause these things to twitch.. I've not experienced the high voltage twitch, but when my rx batts get low the steering will twitch and lock up, if I first give it full throttle and hold it there.. (This is a nitro vehicle, controlling 2 servos) I've been using regular duracell 1.5v AA's in mine.. Was gonna go with some rechargeables, but the lith ones I've seen are only 1.2v and I dont think I have room for 5 of those in my stock battery box..

bdude

Thanks for your two-cents, Mick and Chev. I still haven't heard any word from RedCat yet...I'm hoping andassuming they will be able to reproduce the same problem - I don't want to put anymore $$ into thisvehicle at this point.

~ B

chevyderek72

I know how you feel, when i first got into this i broke it every time i drove, but after a while things dont break anymore, i learned to drive haha.

bdude

okayyy.....heeeeree we go!

bdude

UPDATE:

Well, RedCat supplied me with a new ESC this week. I tried it and discovered..................wait for it...................

[*]ESC Fan does not work at all[*]Going to full reverse throttle from a fwd throttle (of varying speeds) stalls the vehicle - you need to do a double-tap to get the vehicle going in reverse when this happens.[/list]RedCat, if you are monitoring this forum, I am not going to resend this ESC to you - I've alreadyhad my crawler sitting on my worktable for over three weeks waiting for a replacement that does not function properly. Atleast this ESC doesn't make the thing convulse like the first one.

Based on the performance of the Super Crawler at this point, I would not recommend it to folks getting into R/C crawling.

~B

UrcHobby

My Feedback: (2)

Only time I have seen the fan not work is when the battery is not fully charged or the fan is not pluged in to the ESC or the connection is loose. The double tap on the remote to go to reverse is normal. Look at your instruction manual on page 5 it shows it. It makes it so you can apply brake to the truck with out going into reverse.