new to rock crawling and I have a question
 

I bought two rock crawlers today for me and my son and I have a question. They are both redcat Everest 10 crawlers and I notice when I use reverse it seems to have more punch then when i use forward. Is this a normal feature for rock crawling or is there an issue with calibrating the esc. This particular esc the instructions say you calibrate it by turning it on and wait till the thing beeps and turns red. problem with that is that's also how you turn it on to drive it soo I'm pretty sure that's not correct. So how do you program the speed controller. My gut tells me this is how this rock crawler is suppose to be as both crawlers work the same way faster in reverse than forward.

Sounds like the radio and ECS need recalibrated or you can try to switch the wires on the motor then reverse the throttle on your radio.
When calibrating i think there is a button you need to press while the ESC is off and release after you turn it on. i'll look up the the info a little later on.

yeah most have a calibration mode either by pulling the throttle as you turn it on or there is a button this one does not have a button. pulling the trigger as you turn it on I did switch the motor wires around then reverse the throttle and still backwards is a lot faster than forward.

Ok that last reply made no sense so I will repost. Basically I usually have a pretty good understanding of how an rc works. How to bind the radio and calibrate the esc and such. However this one seems to have a pretty lame set of instructions for calibrating the speed controller and reads as follows. Throttle range calibration. In order to make the ESC match the throttle range of different transmitters, the calibration of the ESC is necessary. to calibrate the ESC, pleas turn on the transmitter, keep throttle stick at its neutral position, wait for 3 seconds to let the ESC execute self-test and automatic throttle calibration. when the ESC is ready to run a long beep sound is emitted from the motor. NOTE please calibrate the throttle range again when using a new transmitter or changing the setting of the neutral position of throttle channel. Now to me that sounds a lot like you turn it on and it does everything for you. In which case if that were true it would not need calibrating and no need to even place instructions in the book to set throttle calibration. Sooo in my opinion I feel the instructions are incorrect and it can be calibrated just no literature that I can find to show what to do.

Ok yeah that does sound like crappy instructions. did you try to switch the motor wires and reverse the throttle switch?
It sounds like the motor timing is not right. do you have another motor to try?

Well after some digging around it seems that the 45A brushed used in the everest does auto calibrate. odd that it's a issue with both of them.
you could pick up some new ESC's and see if it fixes the problem. you can get some cheap ones from hobbyking for like 10 bucks and if you think it could be the motors you can get 35 T motors from rc4wd for like 10 bucks also.
you should look at the transmitter to see if you can adjust the throttle settings. maybe they need set back to zero.

the transmitter just has a throttle trim selection. I do have a couple of brushed motors laying around that I could use to test the motor. and I have a couple of old esc's laying around that I can also use. I think I have eliminated the transmitter from being the culprit as the transmitter used is identical to one I use for a drift car also by redcat and after binding that transmitter to the truck it did the same thing. Also on a side note. The reverse speed does not seem to be a whole lot faster than going forward as far as top speed in that direction however initial take of speed or punch seems to be a lot more in reverse. I have a traxxas titan 12t but its to long to fit in the spot on the truck however. after hooking it up and running it that motor does not seem to have the extra punch in reverse it just has a lot of punch in both forward and backward lol. anyway now I'm curious is a 35 turn motor gonna be more suited for crawling over a 12 turn because it will require less of a draw on the battery?

still sounds like the factory set the end bell on those motors a little off before they sealed them.
the 35T motor is the standard for crawlers. a 12T is used for racing/go fast rc's. with the 35T you will have a little more than walking speed but also have the torque to climb and crawl over ruff stuff and rocks. the draw on the battery will be a little different but how you drive it is the biggest factor of the time you get from the battery. if you upgrade to lipo batteries you will get a ton more run time but the lipos need to be taken care of more so than the nimh so you don't mess them up. one of the best parts of this hobby is that you can take what you have and make it better. with every upgrade you can see the difference it makes on your RC. go get some motors and have a good time.

cool yeah I see a ton of crawler motors for cheap I will probably just replace them. I'm not new to the hobby of rc just rock crawlers lol. I will probably stick with the nimh batteries though just because they can tolerate getting wet lipos have to be waterproof.

lipos are waterproof or they would burst in flames soon as you taken it from the package. water is not really the enemy of a lipo it's air actually oxygen. i run all of my trucks in the water for over a year. one on the same 2 lipos i have and not had any problems. it's the electronics that is the most concern but i think your's are.
enjoy the slower side of the rc world and crawl around somewhere.

Hey just to update ya me and my son both got rc4wd brushed 35t motors and they now both have a little more speed but most importantly forward is not slower than reverse now lol. and they still can crawl. these redcat guys although cheap on the electronics there stuff works pretty well so far

They are a great way to step in to the crawler hobby and it's nice that you can get parts when something breaks(unlike toy grade rc's). some parts from other manufactures are cross compatible like metal knuckles for a scx10 work.
Glad to hear you and your boy can get back out on the rocks. have fun with them and if you have any more questions just ask someone around here will help out if they can.