Ive said this befgore, but you guys must of gotten a bad batch or are referring to older stuff.. Redacat parts and cars are pretty darntough from my experience, and what I've been reading and watching (ie:
Lets Break Redcats Once your on that youtube channel, search "lets break redcats" and you'll find over 20 other vids of this guy running em off cliffs and into rock walls and off huge jumps with big time crashes, etc.. They do break sometimes, but I dare someone to try some of this stuff with their HPI, Traxxas, Losi, etc, etc.. They are no more/less breakable than any other model.. As for the spur's, make sure your mesh is tight! You want it as tight as possible w/o touching.. I put the paper between the gears and hold them tightly together while I tighten up the motor.. On my Tornado that makes is so tight it looks like it's touching, but I can hold the pinion and barely wiggle the spur w/o it moving, which is imo perfect.. Spur gear still looks good to this day.. Here's what a pic of my gear mesh looks like..(This is when I had the 2 spd, but the mesh looks thesame)Good Luck!
Also, come by the
Redcat Support forum if ya have any questions.. The lack of "This and that broke" theads should tell ya something... There's a few there, like withany model, but not verymany..