no worries dogman... things sometimes get lost in translation, you know? hey, if you have time and you'd like, look back at my earlier or initial postings. i'm new to the hobby, so i have lot's to learn and i'm learning alot. however, i'm confident that my reports of this hobby and the cen truggy are consistent and fair. i spend most, if not all of my free time reading about this sport, working on my truggy and running my truggy. so hopefully my reports are fair, balanced, accurate and ultimately useful to cen and cen owners. again, no problems, no beef, just challenges, you know? hey, and isn't that what it's all about... challenge? [sm=wink_smile.gif] take care... i'll continue to look forward to hearing from you and everyone else [sm=49_49.gif]

Oh yeah wriff, I actually look forward to reading your posts, they are usually fun to read..

welcome to the hobby...CEN

huh? lol.. the thread title is "CEN racing cares"... but ya cant even answer 1 question for people asking? i watched you answer many other questions about break in, cbs, ect, in other threads after i asked mine. i was trying to get some input about my concerns with my matrix arena fre in an appropriate thread and your response is "welcome to the hobby"? ive been in this hobby since the 80s thanks... ive talked with many reps, and manufacturers and never got that kind of treatment?

your first post in this thread reads... kind of.

"We Are hobby people to and we want to hear your thoughts wants needs towards some new product cars upgrades whatever tell us stuff to change in your opinion or make better Lets hear it come on guys"

did i misread your statement?

im blown away... i like my cen less now, thanks!! i own the most expensive truck you sell that doesnt even come with wheels or a lid and thats the treatment i get when asking some questions?

unbelievable... you werent getting flamed, just asked serious questions about your product and rumors about parts support. in 25+ years in this hobby ive never seen such treatment? its your job to talk to people who buy your stuff, you represent a company that many people spend theyre hard earned money on. you started a thread asking?
but instead of answering questions or being tactful you just say "welcome to the hobby"?!!!!!
i know the arms are being worked on, i even have an attached pic!! but you cant even acknowledge theyre existence? its been many months since i saw this... using white un dyed arms on the gene the machine's ride.
i see great planes and horizon are the distributors of cen, so that means because of tower hobbies cutting AMAIN out of the loop about MAP pricing rules that they themselves break. i wont be able to get parts for this truck anyways... i wont shop at tower. if amain doesnt have it i wont run it!

thats enough strikes for me, im done with CEN racing. i tried.....[&o]

i see how it is and ill spread the word, thanks CEN.

booo CEN!!!


for anyone interested i have a fully hopped up matrix arena FRE roller for sale!!

Your machine looks good as always Chad. Those hubs are nice man! Too bad you didn't get the support you deserve. Alot of us have heard and seen you fully support Cen. Sounds like Papa gets a new ride for Christmas

preciate it bro... time to shop! we even gave away a brand new matrix fre at 3diffs!! we wouldnt have done that if i didnt like it.
total slap in the face...

nice ride rev

revopqrs that welcome to the hobby was directed at wriff wraff not you yes we are coming out with new shorter arms they are running stock though so basiclly they could change at any time they are not a new part number or anything like that im sorry you took that welcome thing the wrong way but it was not directed at you. we are reconsidering redoing the truggy kit to include tires and a body and stuff as well and as far as your air filter the one that comes in the pro kit comes off the carb and goes to the right so it sits right above the chassis brace and is on one side of the motor just like the rest of the truggy filters out there .

Wow, that is REALLY professional. You get on one of the largest RC based forums, and specifically ask where you guys need improvements to help your product. You get a long time member and loyal CEN customer to take the time and type out all of the common issues and concerns that he has seen himself, or seen mention before.......and your reply is "welcome to the hobby". No matter if your reply was intended to him or not, that is not how you approach customers. The fact that you touched on not even 1/4 of revopqrs's concerns is pathetic as well. And while we're all at it, it would help if CEN would get someone to do customer satisfaction work on the forums that wasn't dislexic.

This past weekend was a sad sight for sure. I remember him saying something about selling out and getting out of RC all together over some CEN issues. I have never seen revoPQRS ever say anything to the effect of getting out of the hobby. He was one frustrated guy. []

Parts and customer support can make or break an RC, for sure. Hope all gets resolved and both parties are happy.

well thanks for clearing that up, i was hurt man! lol.. ive been pushing cen for awhile now, thats the last response i expected! id like to think cen wants to hear from the people who run their products in the real world, the matrix is close to great! just needs a few things tweaked and i think the truck is a contender... BCE is even making a chassis for it, that says something!
but im really tired of the complaints about the shafts popping out!! everywhere i go i hear that and it turns people away from buying it... fix that asap!! i personally dont have any problem with it because i see what i need to do to prevent it. but 80% of the people out there have it happen right away.
doesnt the stock filter rub on the diff mount? i didnt like it immediately and had to do something different. if nothing else it looks hack in my opinion. but i like square parallel lines! lol.. ive made a perfect filter neck out of 2 i had laying around, it looks proper. i think if little things like that were addressed people who are used to mugen and xray quality would look at the cen with higher regard.
everything else about the truck is fantastic! its a brute of a truggy, that i rarely have let me down. well... running a kyosho tank and mugen wing mount! lol..


please for the love of god or whoever get those arms out!
ohh, and machine the chassis under the engine so i can run my 528xr without washers under the mounting tabs... that bums me out....


thanks for clearing that up, im sure wriff wraff will be along soon to make his case! lol..

ya... it turns like a dump truck on our track compared to a mugen or hyper st. i gotta do something, i was really pissed at my cen this weekend! if i continue to run it ill need to get some on power steering, running rear biased brakes just to whip it around the corners isnt cutting it. i fear im slow compared to what im running against these days!
i suppose the BCE chassis will help alot, but damn!! thats big bucks!

Here's a stupid Q for you revo.

What is your diff fluid setup, that will affect your turning too!! And if its colder out than your used to the diff fluid will stiffen up also and cause a pushing condition..

5-7-1 with cross pins on a dry slick track. the front end pushes too much on power....3t-2s rear plate. i pretty much copied a set up sheet for those conditions. its the truck... i built a hyper st pro and right out of the box with no tweaking and its a mad man on our track!! drove a mugen a bit yeasterday and it had way more on power steering too. so im pretty much at a disadvantage every weekend, because im running against those trucks... our new track layout is all wrong for the matrix. i used to be fast around the old track with lots of berms, but flat, slick turns get the better of my cen.
ill mess with the set up as bit more, but i need to stop driving trucks that handle better than mine! im sure my laps were faster running someone elses truggy and that just aint right...

i wonder... ya know cen is working on a new arena, they have to be, we know about the new buggy. hopefully cen doesnt leave the present owners out of the loop? ill keep my fingers crossed that the current model will be update-able?

i will have a truggy soon that doesnt push in the turns... one way or another!

ohh... it was 80° here yesterday at the track! not cold...

Yeah keep tuning it!! I have NEVER heard anyone say "our new track layout is all wrong for the insert manufacturer here" Dont most racers tune for the track!! Whatever/whereever it is?? Dont mean that as flame. Just caught me b suprise!!

ya... ive been tuning, still pushes on power.

hello everyone... oddly enough, i can appreciate cen's " welcome to the hobby " comment. i mean, this is a " finicky " sport to say the least as stated before, i'm new to the sport, so i've discovered that these little wonders require much, if not all of your time, effort and money [sm=wink_smile.gif] so i believe it was along those lines that CEN responded with " welcome to the hobby " [sm=regular_smile.gif] mods and aftermarket applications are an absolute... you have to try this and that, you know? hey, but that's half the fun. speaking of which, does anyone know when the BCE chassis will be available? i'm definitely going to get one, if it's compatible with the stock rtr or fre, you know? i think that's going to be huge, if you consider the weight of the stock chassis. a lighter chassis will dramatically increase the performance of the truggy.

again, i only offer suggestions, based upon my experience. hey, and any response is cool... it's good to know that a year into release, there is much passion and discussion regarding the CEN Matrix TR Arena [sm=thumbs_up.gif]


PS: i ran mine for the first time with other trucks, truggies and buggies at the local track this weekend. usually i run solo, however, this time i ran during " group practice ". it was an awesome experience. i'll provide video as soon as i get a chance. my cen matrix tr arena was looking and running good amongst the crowd. i wasn't on the lid much... respected the jumps; and i stayed off power and close to the pipe in the turns... proved very effective [sm=wink_smile.gif]

hey revopqrs... in response to your on power challenges, check this issue out, if you care to do so: http://www.rc411.com/pages/howto.php?howto=24&page=1. here's some " on power turning " differential tuning advice from that article: Truck: Most of the time on blue groove the cars and trucks on throttle turn-in good because of the weight transfer to front tires, but you lose some steering coming out of the turn. So to sacrifice some turn in for out of the corner steering and acceleration, a heavier front and center is better suited majority of the time -20,000wt front, 30,000-50,000wt center. it goes on to say if you want more steering entering the turn, go light in the front, 5K - 7K. if you want more steering coming out of the turn, go heavier, 10K - 20K. hey, don't know if this is going to help. i'm really just posting in my own personal excitement of going to 5K with the crosspins in the front. i'm currently running LSD [front only] with 80 wt gear oil. i'm running cross pins elsewhere... 10K center and 3K rear. anyways, i just ordered the oil for the front and i have a set of gene's pins for the front that i have yet to use. i can't wait to try it this weekend other tune ups include the kyosho tank and 70 wt oil in the front shocks [:-] oh, and of course, lot's and lot's of practice [sm=wink_smile.gif]

hey, how did you get the mugen wing mount and braces to work? pics please?

Hey guys! Here at CEN Racing we have a few different employees monitor and answer questions online throughout the day. So you may notice different personalities when being responded to by "CEN Racing".

The comment "Welcome to the hobby" was taken out of context and meant nothing more that actually wecloming Wriff Wraff to the hobby. If you read two posts earlier Wriff Wraff stated, and I QUOTE: "I'm new to the hobby, so i have lot's to learn and i'm learning alot."

Aside from that: We are listening to you, the consumer and we appreciate your concerns. We are always improving our products to better suit our consumers. We do have new arms for the truggy that will be available soon. I will try to get "actual" dates for you guys. This will be a running change, which means the part # will be the same. Sometimes with running changes we get the new parts un-announced here at our US office. This explains why providing dates can be difficult. However I will see what I can do, with my contacts over seas.

We take pride in offering some of the best online support and customer service in the industry. Not many companies have actual representatives / employees from their office answering forum questions daily.


Revopqrs: There are many ways to achieve on power steering. Through caster changes, differential changes, ride height, tires and more. Wriff Wraff's last post was very informative and I would recommend trying some of his recommendations.

Your differential set up is on the thin side for a Truggy. (When you differentials are too thin, they "diff" much easier. The more your differentials - differentiate the less traction you will experience.) It makes complete sense that you would have no on power steering with that diff set up.

I use the following set up on my truggy and you may want to try it out.

Differentials:
Front: 10k
Center: 30k
Rear: 5k

Shocks:
Front: #1 pistons w/ 600wt oil
Rear: #1 pistons w/ 400wt oil

Ride Height:
Front: Dog bones level
Rear: Dog bones just above level

Toe in: 2t 2s But if you are too loose then put the 3t 2s block on.

ZERO OFFSET WHEELS

Caster: 19 degree - more high speed steering


Give it a try before you sell your truggy Revo. You may be surprised.


Thanks for your time guys, and I apologize for any miscommunication that you may have had in prior posts.

Kind Regards,
Andrew Smolnik
CEN Racing

well thanks dude.. i appreciate your response greatly! ill try running thicker diffs and see how i like it... i do like the cen alot, i dont plan to give up yet.

thanks for the advise, and time bro.[8D]

No problem Revopqrs,

If you have any set up questions dont hesitate to ask us, call us, or you can email me directly. Im not always in the office, but I do check my emails frequently.

[email protected]

; )

A customer of mine and myself run that same setup in our cen truggies and it seems to be good.

i just read chad bradley's link [again], as well as andy's suggestions. so, note to self: if you need more steering entering turns, run lighter oil. if you need more steering exiting turns, run heavier oil. so, for the track, run light on low speed tracks and run heavy on high speed tracks. light or thin oil [front or rear] = more steering entering turns, but more push and less steering while exiting. heavy or thick oil [front or rear] = more steering and less push exiting turns, but less steering entering. light center = less acceleration exiting turns, but more bump handling. heavy center = more acceleration exiting turns, but less bump handling.

the local track is small or medium in size. more traction when it's damp, however, a fair portion of it remains slick, dry and flat. the other variable is that i'm running a .21 axe rossi mamba engine. when i review last weekends tape, i had great low speed steering. however, my high speed steering and acceleration was a bit too tame. so, perhaps i should curb my enthusiasm for the 5K oil that's in the mail. yeah, maybe go from 80wt[or 5K]/10K/3K to 10K/20K/5K to increase traction and acceleration. yeah, focus on more acceleration and more steering out of turns. i mean, it's as if there are more incentives with the thicker oil... less high speed push, better exit acceleration and more " muscle " for those jumps placed right after the turns. guess i just gotta' figure out how to drive a high speed set up on a small to medium sized track. [sm=72_72.gif]

Wriff,

That is a great assessment of the information given!! Great Job!!!