I want a nice RC Car for my son and I to mess around with and was thinking of picking up the AE RC10T4 Ready to run kit listed below

RC10T4 Specs

RC Guru's , is this a good car for the money or are there better options out there...tougher, faster, easier to upgrade/work on?

Any and all input is very appreciated as usual.

TIA Gent's.

Yes that's a quality truck.  There is also the RC10t4.5 or something out that is rtr brushless.  These are more like a race truck than a basher, so may need frequent repairs if you stink at driving.   2wd truck is challenging to drive, especially with todays horsepower.   When that class was invented they had 4 times less power.  No with Lipo and brushless they are insane fast.   So fast that 1/10th nitro trucks have become extinct.

The 2wd Slash and Slash 4x4 are excellent beginner trucks, plenty fast and most decent offroad race tracks are raceing Slash/Corr/SCT classes now.  Parts are insane cheap and they are easy to work on.

Avoid grass with either of these high power trucks.  Grass has too much resistance and will cook the electronics.  Dirt and pavement only.


RCtech.net is the best forum to go to for more info.    Amainhobbies.com is the place to buy from.  Noone uses hobbystores anymore.

It is an awesome truck, but what are you planning to do with it?



If you are racing... get it.



If you are messing around, avoid it.



-V

GTG.

yeah Id get a traxxas 4x4 of some sort



 

have you considered looking at HPI? There's trucks are wicked and CS is terrific with no questions asked for replacement - like when my Vorza caught on fire
I'm running brushless with Li-po at 22.2 v, it can max out at 73 mph







and the little fire from a defective ESC



 

I bought my son an HPI wheely king. He's 6 so I wanted something tough as well as having 4wd. He's bashed the hell out of that thing and the only broken part so far is a broken servo saver. The fix was an $8 dubro replacement servo saver...

He wanted monster truck styling and the ability to drive through grass as well as minor rock crawling and such. This thing excels at everything! I think the best thing about it is that it's fast enough for him to enjoy it, but not so fast that he can't control it. I would guess top speed is about 10-15 MPH.

If you do buy it, trash the stock 6 cell NiCad battery and replace it with a 2s LiPo, The stock battery had about 15 minutes of runtime. The 5300 MaH replacement LiPo can easily push it for well over an hour. We bashed it for 1.5 hrs and only used about 2/3rds of its capacity.

I can't recommend it highly enough for a kid who doesn't need a racing truck!

Dude, that thing is insane.....I could see my 7 year old "grenading" a car like that against something in a hurry...lol

I raced Associated when I started - something like 1980.  The were the most durable cars on the track then.  I beat more than a few drivers with an accidental hit to their front end (breaking a spindle or stripping a servo)  Time went on, drivers got better, cars got lighter/faster - bumper derbies were frowned upon..  Associated fell away from the pack a bit.  Associated intro'd a new 1/8 scale car in 85 or so, and that was pretty much the end of my racing.  Good to see they are still arround.  

Other cars I ran were Parma, Bolink, Jo-Mac, Cox, and MRC (each was top of the line at least at one moment or another - for most that moment was measured in a couple months.  I don't think any are major players in RC anymore.
––-
Not surprised that grass still kills the race cars.  I remembered glowing a resistors or 2 finding out that (during the first 6 months or so that electric off road clubs were starting) - and we are talking a couple seconds of load tops

Traxxas.



and if you want FAST.  http://www.traxxas.com/products/models/electric/5608erevobrushless
 

Good info so far...let's keep it going.

Team Associated stuff is really, really good.  

Stop posting these pictures lol. I miss my buggies every time you show these.

Like others said for just cruising the yard or jumps get something less racey lol. I love my slash and monster trucks have come along way too.  

It's a good truck, but more oriented towards racing.





R/C racing was some of the best times I had as a kid.  Even though my parents would drop me off at the track as a form of babysitting , the competition, camaraderie, and mechanical skills learned was invaluable, and some of the best memories of my youth.  I went on to race in 1/10 and 1/12 nationals for a few years - although never really being a top runner, I was always competitive.





I recommend seeing if there is any organized racing in your area, and swinging by to check it out.  You just might get hooked.



ETA:



Seeing pics of peoples cars on this forum often makes me want to order another car and go racing again.  I wish there was more of a scene here, but I guess that is the price you pay for living in small towns.



It also seems, and maybe I'm wrong, that the hobby/racing has lost some of it's appeal.  It seems like there is 1/10 the amount of tracks there were when I was racing in the 90's.

been in R/C for a while,  get something that is ready to run.  This year I got my boys a Traxxas 1/16 rev,  it's ready to go out the box and parts are easily available.  When they are older and they want to continue they can build their own cars.




EDIT: My bad that is a rtr I say go for it

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I've got the same kit, or at least it started as the same kit.  I've broken a lot of parts (I'm pretty hard on it) and have upgraded a lot.  The only factory parts on it are the body, shocks, body mount towers and the transmission case.  When you break something, RPM parts are great upgrades.  Stay away from anything metal as it will just bend and transfer the shock.  I've got lots of rims with sand paddles, slicks, road tires, off road tires... there is so much you can do with these things.  

I've stuck my Gamin Nuvi under the body for speed runs.  Right out of the box with a NiMH batt it went 27mph.  With a Mamba Max brushless motor combo and LiPo batt it goes 48mph.  That is with the factory size gears.  I don't have the space to go any faster so I havent messed with the gears, but there is a lot more in it.  When you add power, you will need to upgrade the transmission parts.  There are TONS of aftermarket parts out there for these things.

ETA:  It also has the factory steering servo which will be the next/last upgrade.  Once you get it over ~40mph it shows it's weakness.  In stock form, it should be fine.  Common parts I've broken are A arms (get the RPM ones), turunbuckle end caps (get the RPM ones) and stervo savers.  Don't get me wrong, this thing is very durable.  Mine has only broken when I slam into things going fast or by adding power without upgrading the transmission.  I'm VERY hard on it, I've broken the chassis twice.

A Jarhead break something...no way

When you break stuff on the truck is AE good about replacing broken parts?

I have my eye on the RTR kit w/ the brush-less motor and have a question about about battery's.

I keep hearing liPo...how exactly does that differ from the standard Nicad battery packs I came up on?

Are the LiPo battery's plug and play or do you need a different setup in the truck, different charger etc?

Since this is for a 7 yr old, I would recommend just getting one of the cheaper Traxxas basher models to start with.   No need to go brushless and lipo for a little kid.  He is just going to end up crashing into something extra fast.     You are probably going to get jealous of his toy anyway, so save the super truck for yourself.


I bought a Traxxas EMaxx a few years ago and all I use it for is pissing off the dog and romping around the neighborhood and it has held up really well, even after running into all kinds of stuff.  

I would recommend these:

In order of MY preferences
1) Team Losi
2) Team Associated
3)Ofna
4) HPI Racing
5) Traxxas

They don't replace anything.  You either need to learn to fix it yourself ( more fun ), or pay the hobby store to fix it.



I used to love building cars, but the hobby has shifted to a RTR/RTF aspect.





 

Looks like I will prob end up with two....one for junior and one for me.

Can somebody fill me in on the whole LiPo v.s. NiCad setup in these cars.

I was just curious weather or not they warranty any of the parts. I suppose it would be a nightmare trying to determine what parts failed V.S. somebody just romping on the stuff and abusing it.

Just my view point, but I think the reason it is moving toward a RTR hobby is probably due to the sheer difficulty in properly putting these kit's together and setting them up properly. Looking through the photo's of the truck in question and many others, there is ALOT going on...definitely not the MRC Tamiya type kit's I put together as a kid.

What ever you get make sure your hobby shop carries the parts for it

Traxxas has a really good warranty on their electronics.



Other manufacturers don't interest me much.





 

I would just buy the truck, and as you break stuff, order 2 of what ever you break so that you always have a spare.  Eventually, you'll learn what parts are more prone to breakage.



The easier, and the way I always did it ( I worked, and later was sponsored by a hobby store ), is to have 2 complete cars.  At $250 for the kit, we're not talking a ton of money, and will make your life easier.



 

There is no NiCad. It's NiMH.



NiMH is good, and safe.



LiPo is dangerous, but allows for crazy brushless action.

Costs more, but longer runtimes, and capable of powering the fastest motors out there.



NiMH is still good but LiPo is cutting edge and still developing.





 

I'm racing 1/8th scale E buggy and E truggy in spring.   I'm bringing two buggies because I want to hit that class a little more seriously.   2 cars, race the faster one, one as a backup.

I also race 2wd Mod Corr.  I think the Corr classes are going to kill off the 1/10th scale e classes like the RC10 and 10T

Don't underestimate the Slash.  You can make them plenty fast, they look cool with the new JC Manta body, and a great to start out with.  Alot of the better drivers still run in this class for fun.  




(it used to be nitro, now it's been converted to electric)

Xray 809 next to a 2wd Traxxas Slash Corr truck :




typical track pics:

What class is CORR?



I was always more of an on road guy, and it seems as if that segment of the racing hobby has really fallen off compared to off road.



 

CORR is also SCT.  

CORR is AE SC10T, HPI Blitz, Traxxas Slash, etc.

To me there is only two ways to go, CORR/SCT or Buggies...



Truggies look fricken retarded, I want at least a "scaleish" appearance to my vehicles.  I also build scale crawlers.



Truggies are what happens when gamers max out racing, you get a super wide vehicle that is a pure race runner.  They are fun, but meh for me.



If you are bashing get the traxxas slash, for racing SCT trucks I go with the Blitz.



YMMV



-V