getahost

Hello Everyone,I am new to the forums but needed some opinions on what to do. I just bought a RedCat Racing Rampage MT Monster Truck. The truck looks nice, well built and this is my second Red Cat Racing purchase. When I got the truck, I got three different instructions and none of the instructions pertained to the truck. For some reason all the instructions are outdated. I proceeded to do the 2 stroke oil gas mixture. The instructions read 25% and 75% gas. Being a dirt bike rider my entire life, I immediately knew this combination was extremely wrong. If you put 25% oil in any vehicle, it is never going to run at all.I grabbed my dirt bike gas mixer and realized after 10 minutes doing in internet search, they mean 25:1 gas/oil mixture. I proceeded to put gas in the truck and it never started. I called Red Cat support and first spoke to Chris who sounded very irritated that Ieven called. He mentioned that Ineeded to speak to Derrick and Derrick was on the phone. He instructed for me to call back in 10 minutes. I called back in 15 and Derrick was still on the phone. I left my phone number again speaking to an irritated Chris. I called back an hour later after fumbling with this lemon truck and spoke to Derrick who instructed me to do a few tweeks. We checked for spark, we checked the idle and high/low screws, this truck was not going to fire. Derrick then instructed in his irritated voice that I take this vehicle toa hobby shop and he would not be able to figure this out over the phone. I asked Derrick if they had ever seen any issues like this in the past and he mentioned never. I find that hard to believe with motor manufacturered in China. My final question, if this truck ends up being a lemon, what canI do to get it replaced? He said that I should send them the motor and he will take a look a it.

I then proceeded to take this to a local hobby shop and they tinkered with it for 2 hours. They were very nice, did not carry RedCat Racing trucks but the guy Chuck mentioned that this is a very good engine and there might be a problem with the carburator or something might of been manufacturered incorrectly. I asked him that if I bought this from your store, would you make me take out the engine and send it in for repair. He laughed and said, of course we would of given you a brand new truck, are you crazy.

I went back to call the place where I bought the truck from and the guy there was very nice. He said, he would need to call RedCat Racing and see where there exchange policy is and that he would take a hit to at least make it right as this sounds like a defective truck for sure.

So my question to everyone out there. I just spend $850 on a truck that does not work at all. Is it for me to ask for a new truck or am I being ridiculous? Why should Ispend the two hours it takes to dissamble a brand new $850 truck and sendthe engineback and forth or is this just the way service is in the RCindustry? What I think is right is to order me a new truck and have RedCat Racing send in a call tag for the bad one so my dealer does not get screwed. And how about being a little bit nicer to customers who call the tech line. If your having a bad day or don't like your job, get a new or different one. No reason to be irritated with someone who calls you for tech support.

Let me know what you guys think. At my work place, More Power Racingand on a Motorcycle Forumand a bunch of other places Igo to sped my time, people are nice and courteous, not irritatied when you call them. Ithink that is just bad service if it is not service with a happy attitude but that is besides the point.

Thanks everyone for your valuable time in reading my post and I will send an update with how this all pans out. Enjoy your RCtime.

nitrosportsandrunner

did you mention the messed up instructions to chris or derick? I would think they would want to know that and get that fixed. had you run it with 25% mixture it would have killed the motor.

i would try a drop of gas poured into the spark plug hole, then see if it fires. if it does, than the carb is the most likely issue...as its not getting fuel.

if it doesnt, then it should be the coil or plug or something preventing it from firing.

I havent owned that truck, but had a baja clone for a bit. they should start easy....unless you flood them, then its a real pain.

but it sounds like yours isnt getting fuel, since no adjustments to the carb helped.

sorry you had a bad experience on the phone. i have spoken with both guys on the phone and they were helpful 9 times out of 10.

1320Fastback

My experience with RedCat is limited to the RS10XT rock crawler. Straight out of the box both steering servos failed. Soon after the ESC let the magic smoke out.

Knowing from other unhappy user accounts about the brand I had zero intentions of warranting the items and upgraded to better more reliable brands like Novak and Hitec.

Now Im not sure I would ever spend $850.00 on a RedCat.....Losi or Associated yes but RedCat no.

nitrosportsandrunner

redcat's 1/5 gassers are of much higher quality IMO then any of the electrics. this is the 1st i have ever heard of anyone getting a lemon 1/5 from redcat.

im not surprised you lost the servos, but i like that stock ESC. not bad for a cheap crawler. surprised yours gave out so soon. i put mine threw alot of torture and it never gave out on me.

why would you not warrenty the items? even if you inteded to upgrade, whats the harm in having the stock parts for backup or other projects?



and they have said they will look at the motor if its sent in. their warrenty only really covers the electronic parts.

most any RC company wont replace a model once the motor has had fuel in it.

jeffie8696

Iam surprised the local hobby store could not figure out the problem, did they mention if it had spark?

rchobbyunlimited

Yes that is a norm R/C industry to send the engine back to them which it really does sound like a carb problem to me. Its not 2 hrs to remove a 1/5 scale engine 2 screws at the bottom and 3 screws from the clutch bell 1 screw from the carb and the engine will come out 10 mins. Redcat 1/5 scales is a way better class of R/C then any of there other cars I have 4 redcat 5th scales myself and from the form it is rare to get a DOA 5th scale I have sold at leats 100 of them and have broken many in for my customers so when he said that this has never happen then he could have been speaking the truth form his knowledge but there is a first for everything thats why its called first. I can understand that you are frustrated because you just want to run and have fun and thats what its supposed to be about. I hope where you bought the car from can work it out for you but as a prseon with many expreince in 5th scales redcat is great quailty and the MT is a beast so once you do get it right you will have a blast.

rchobbyunlimited

Losi just made a 1/5 sacle and yes you wont spend $850.00 on it because its $1600.00 and Associated does not even have 5th scales even so they all break. Redcat has been selling 5th scales for years with great quality trucks and many happy customers.

nitrosportsandrunner

there are plenty of redcat 1/5 owners who post in the gaint scale forum.

one of the few forums on RCU where redcat doesnt get bashed. those guys know they are worth the money they cost.

i had bought myself a $600 baja clone awhile back. i thought it was pretty BA, that is until i drove it along with a 1/5 redcat MT. the redcat out accelerated, braked, handled and took more punishment than my baja.
if i could spent that money over again, i would have bought the redcat.

rchobbyunlimited

+1 yes they are great I beat the hell out of my MT and XT I race my dunerunner and I beat the HPI and King Motors all the time. There 5th scales are a blast and the 4X4 makes the driving a dream.

nitrosportsandrunner

the 4wd is what really made the difference. for nearly the same cost as my baja clone, i could have gotten the redcat. and the one i raced with was lapping my poor baja. it had more power, and put that power to the ground 100% better!

there were many times i wished my baja clone had more traction. and it only had the 23cc motor!

there is a nice modded redcat MT at my LHS for sale(used) but the price is asking to much for a used one. has a sweet truck body and nice aftermarket(wider) tires on it tho.

getahost

Tomorrow, Red Cat gets my truck and determines if I am ignorant or if there is a problem with the truck. Lets see what happens. In the meantime, here is a bit of advice I passed to a fellow red cat racer.


Yes my experience was horrible and tomorrow is when Red Cat receives my truck back and determines if they are going to give me a new one or not. I will keep you posted. Congratulations on your purchase. Before you put any gas in your truck, grab a 1 gallon container of gas and put 5.1 ounces of 2 stroke oil in it, NONE more. There is 128 ounces in a gallon and you need a 25:1 ratio, so go with 128/25= 5.12 ounces to be exact. If I were you, before even putting the wheels on the truck or doing anything else, I would pour a little bit of gas in the truck, maybe half full, press the primer on the carburator 10 times until you see gas in it, and pull the starter. By the 2nd start, it should turn over or try to start, then turn the choke off and your truck should start. If it does not, the nightmare starts. I tried for 12 hours to get my started but nothing. The engine is tuned from the factory so don't touch any settings. I am not sure about the aftermarket pipe as it voids your warranty, so make sure you truck runs 100% before doing any mods. If you have any questions, feel free to call me. I would love to hear that your truck runs perfect. BTW, the truck is HUGE! I mean really big so be careful.

Have fun,

Neil
Get A Host

bbuzzard

My Feedback: (5)

I will give a FAQ that everyone should follow when purchasing something new (and they don't have the knowledge regarding the platform)...research all the forums that have threads specifically associated with their proposed new purchase. Don't get me wrong and I am not singling you out but I did my research on every single car/truck that I bought before I purchased them. Even when purchased, I still did my due diligence making sure I didn't eff things up when I performed my break-ins on the cars. That being said, there are numerous resources for the largescale community, albeit, not as big as nitro/electric. Go over to the largescale section on this forum and you will see a bunch of typical posters but they are helpful.


PS I ain't no fanboy of any particular brand...only mindful of my wallet

2011GT1979

Any update here? I am curious what came of this situation. 

getahost

Hello Everyone,

Neil Ghuman here again. I wanted to update this post with what happened with Redcat Racing. After all the troubleshoot, my dealer talked to Redcat and they emailed us an RA#. Ihad to then pay $55.00 to ship the entire truck back to Redcat Racing in Arizona UPSground. I waited 3 days for it to arrive and I called Redcat the day it arrived and they mentioned they were too busy to check on my truck. The following day, they determined that the truck was sent to me with a bad engine. The engine did not have any compression what so ever so they took the entire truck apart and replace it with a brand new engine. I was hoping for a new truck, but at this point I really did not care anymore. I would rather have a truck that runs with a brand new engine than another box which arrives from China with a blown engine. There was no reimbursement for the shipping charges on the way there but they did put the entire truck back together and when I got it, I opened the box, put gas in the truck and it fired right up. I finally did get an apology via email that they were sorry but no reimbursement for shipping, nor the time.

Cons about the truck. The exhaust pipe keeps on falling off so when you buy the truck, but the aftermarket tuned pipe. If you buy it at the same time as the truck, hopefull you will get free shipping. I have only ran the truck for about an hour because the exhaust pipe keeps on falling off. The design is horrible so now ihave to do some kind of zip tie magic to make it all work out. The other issue is the steering servos are not powerful enough for this big a truck., They work but the turning radius on this big a monster sucks and they are not strong enough to turn the wheels easily. Not a big deal if you have a lot of room but if you don't, get ready to crash into things. I tried to use this truck in my neighborhood, bad idea. You need a large mud field to play with this monter.

I know that most of you who have read this post are think, stupid customer did not know what he was doing and I probably would of thought of the same, but Redcat determined it was a bad engine on their part which was good. Overall, I would still give the truck a 10 out of 10. It is the absolute best truck on the market for the money and for the options you receive. Iwould give their service a 4 out of 10 because of rudeness and slacking but now I don't care anymore. My truck runs, it hauls, it jumps and it is a monster. I would recommend this truck to anyone who wants a monster truck. And spend the money and buy the MTmodel. The upgrades are very well worth it.

If anyone has any questions or further concerns or just wants to talk about this truck some more, feel free to update this post or have a look at my motorcycle forum where I am going to be posting videos and other updates. Thank you everyone for your valuable time.

getahost

Buzzard,

I was not sure how to take your post. Offensive or not so let me reply both ways. I know you were probably thinking stupid customer and Idid not do my due diligence but the fact is that I received a defective truck and the guys are Redcat Racing are rude. What else am I supposed to comment here?

marcuskeeler

It sucks that the instructions were wrong/incorrect, but you are right in that no motor is going to run with 25% oil, everybody knows that (especially dirt bike riders LOL ) but at least you're getting it fixed, even if it's taking some time.

I don't feel you should be too upset about getting 'just' a new motor, your truck, as I understand it, never turned a wheel, so it still is 'new' right?

I'm not excusing it but don't feel this oil-miscommunication problem is limited to Redcat vehicles, I recently was lucky enough to score a CEN Matrix 5th scaler for a ridiculous amount of cash (I can't even say it, it's actually embarrassing) because it ran badly for 1 minute and then the guy couldn't get it restarted. Instead of sending it back and/or making a stink he just sat it in his hobby room and looked at it for 6 months until I got it.
Anyway, there's a sticker on the CEN motor on the pull start housing which very clearly states 25% oil. Well actually it says 25% Oel but I'm splitting hairs hahaha

I emptied the gas out the tank, which was soooo dark with oil it looked like gloopy ink, replaced with 33:1, cleaned the plug, pulled 5 times and she's run like a top ever since...

The problem here is simple and one we've all come across, if not suffered from, many times. One word - Chinglish. One day, somebody in China will wake up and employ an Englishman with product knowledge to write or at least proof their instructions instead of relying on Babelfish online translation. It will be a happy day when that happens, oh yea !

xerxes

hay i rite & proofreed da redcat instructiouns ders nuthn rong wit em

bbuzzard

My Feedback: (5)

I was making a blanket statement to all...as I said, it wasn't directed at you specifically. I have seen many rants about this and that...most of the times folks get into something they have no experience and blame everything on the vendor or manufacturer. I agree that the instructions that come with the less established makes are lacking. The fact that you had a defective model and Redcat are following up with their warranty is good. BTW, I had some issues with my XB and the defective parts were replaced by Redcat. I hope it all works out for you!

No blood, no foul!
peace
b