dezfan
I wanna be Dave
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]I was asked to do a review of the Redcat RS10. I recently received the Redcat Racing RS10 and this thread will be a review of the stock rig as well as an upgrade thread as I modify the RS10 to gain greater performance. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]This is Redcat's second entry into the crawling market w/ their earlier entry being the 1/8 Super sized Rockslide. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The RS10 is Redcat's first entry into the vastly popular 2.2 class. The RS10 is propelled by twin 380-sized motors, features four wheel steering, includes all necessary electronics. A 3 channel FM transmitter and receiver, a small esc w/ a cooling fan, duel servos, a 6 cell 7.2 battery and charger. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Stock wheelbase of the RS10 is a bit over the 12.5 inch minimum at at 12.83 inches, it's 10.5 inches wide and weighes in at just under 5 lbs w/ the stock 7.2 volt battery which is mounted on the chassis.[/FONT]
The chassis, links, and the chassis braces are all made of aluminum.
Shocks for the RS10 feature a plastic body w/ an aluminum cap and require spacers to ajust the ride height. Not sure what oil is used at this time, but it feels to be pretty light. The upper shocks mounts to the chassis and the lower mounts on the links. This is an area that I'm not fond of as the lower shock mounts can catch on the rocks.
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The body on the RS10 looks like a H2 hatchback and isn't my idea of attractive. It's 12.5 inches long and the center is 5.5 inches, making it comp legal. While it isn't something I find all that appealing, it's far from the ugliest thing I've ever seen. It's pre-finished, and comp legal. W/ a little trimming and lowering, it would look much better.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Moving to the axles, the RS10 features MOA style axles. They are powered by dual 70 turn 380 sized motors. After reading a lot of the research that has been done w/ the Cliff Climber (which used the same size motors), there are alternate motors available to upgrade the power. Whether or not they will clear the RS10's lower links, I'm not sure as I haven't had a chance to check. The axles feature full bearings, the cases, tubes, Cs, gears, and knuckles are all plastic and the axle tubes are angled downward and give the center portion of the axles more clearance. Durability may be an issue, we'll find out soon enough. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]One thing that I like is the upper link mount plate located on top of the axles. It looks like it will be a great place to mount my lipo. I'm pretty sure Redcat intended it to be used for this purpose, but you know how crawlers are, we look at everthing differently. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Redcat includes beadlock wheels which are 2.2 plastic, beadlock wheels w/ aluminum rings, and 2mm hex screw heads. Again, manufactures why do you insist on useing such tiny hareware on your wheels? This is a huge pet peeve of mine! [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The RS10 in set up for 4WS and it took some getting used to w/ its multiple steering settings. I'm not used to 4WS and it took a while to figure out when I use the rear-wheel steering instead of the standard steering set up w/ DIG that I am more familiar with, it took me a while to get the hang of it. After a while I had become a bit more comfortable w/ the set up, but I am still learning the nuances of the system. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]My son and I headed to a local competition local to do the initial test. The Rockslide is not aimed at competition use, so I figured it would be fun to see what it could do. I will let my son do the initial driving so that I can get a beginners perspective as that is the RS10s target market. After all the years of competition, I felt that my opinion would probably be jaded and I want to give the RS10 a fair shot.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]After arriving at our local, we took the RS10 out of the truck, connected the battery, and tested everything to be sure it was operational. With everything getting the green light, I handed the transmitter to my boy and told him to head over to the rocks and have at it. He layed into the throttle and made his way toward the rocks. As he hit the first ledge, I could see that the RS10's tires were already struggling to gain traction. My son reversed the throttle and hit it again. This time he was able to bump up over the ledge. I tried not to intervene and just let him go at it just as any newcomer would. He headed headlong into every crevasse, ledge, undercut, and drop off he could find. The RS10 did about as well as I expected and struggled with almost every ascent. What I noticed is that my son didn't seem to care. He wasn't worried about reverse penalties, or out of bounds, or progress points and was just having fun? Every time he encountered an obsticle the RS10 couldn't clear, he would just go about a different route to get to were he wanted to go.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]I have to admit, I was having a good time just watching him drive and watching him try and figure out how to get were it was he wanted to go. But, I was right. As a long time competition crawler, I was also looking at everything he did from a competition POV. I was making mental notes as to what I would be changing to help improve performance. At the same time, my son was just smiling and hammering away.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]After our first outing, the RS10 doesn't appear to have suffered any damage and performed about as well as I expected. With a few simple mods (tires and wheels weight), I think it would perform much better. This will be the first thing I do to the RS10 and then we''ll head back to the rocks to see what the difference just tires and weight make.[/FONT]
After that, I"m going to switch out the motors, purchase a BEC and throw a 3S lipo into the mix. That should really test the strenght of the gears!
Sorry I don't have any pics right now. My computer is down and I using my wifes. Unfortunatly her new lap top and my old camera are having issues. I'll try and get the pics up ASAP.
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]This is Redcat's second entry into the crawling market w/ their earlier entry being the 1/8 Super sized Rockslide. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The RS10 is Redcat's first entry into the vastly popular 2.2 class. The RS10 is propelled by twin 380-sized motors, features four wheel steering, includes all necessary electronics. A 3 channel FM transmitter and receiver, a small esc w/ a cooling fan, duel servos, a 6 cell 7.2 battery and charger. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Stock wheelbase of the RS10 is a bit over the 12.5 inch minimum at at 12.83 inches, it's 10.5 inches wide and weighes in at just under 5 lbs w/ the stock 7.2 volt battery which is mounted on the chassis.[/FONT]
The chassis, links, and the chassis braces are all made of aluminum.
Shocks for the RS10 feature a plastic body w/ an aluminum cap and require spacers to ajust the ride height. Not sure what oil is used at this time, but it feels to be pretty light. The upper shocks mounts to the chassis and the lower mounts on the links. This is an area that I'm not fond of as the lower shock mounts can catch on the rocks.
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The body on the RS10 looks like a H2 hatchback and isn't my idea of attractive. It's 12.5 inches long and the center is 5.5 inches, making it comp legal. While it isn't something I find all that appealing, it's far from the ugliest thing I've ever seen. It's pre-finished, and comp legal. W/ a little trimming and lowering, it would look much better.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Moving to the axles, the RS10 features MOA style axles. They are powered by dual 70 turn 380 sized motors. After reading a lot of the research that has been done w/ the Cliff Climber (which used the same size motors), there are alternate motors available to upgrade the power. Whether or not they will clear the RS10's lower links, I'm not sure as I haven't had a chance to check. The axles feature full bearings, the cases, tubes, Cs, gears, and knuckles are all plastic and the axle tubes are angled downward and give the center portion of the axles more clearance. Durability may be an issue, we'll find out soon enough. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]One thing that I like is the upper link mount plate located on top of the axles. It looks like it will be a great place to mount my lipo. I'm pretty sure Redcat intended it to be used for this purpose, but you know how crawlers are, we look at everthing differently. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Redcat includes beadlock wheels which are 2.2 plastic, beadlock wheels w/ aluminum rings, and 2mm hex screw heads. Again, manufactures why do you insist on useing such tiny hareware on your wheels? This is a huge pet peeve of mine! [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The RS10 in set up for 4WS and it took some getting used to w/ its multiple steering settings. I'm not used to 4WS and it took a while to figure out when I use the rear-wheel steering instead of the standard steering set up w/ DIG that I am more familiar with, it took me a while to get the hang of it. After a while I had become a bit more comfortable w/ the set up, but I am still learning the nuances of the system. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]My son and I headed to a local competition local to do the initial test. The Rockslide is not aimed at competition use, so I figured it would be fun to see what it could do. I will let my son do the initial driving so that I can get a beginners perspective as that is the RS10s target market. After all the years of competition, I felt that my opinion would probably be jaded and I want to give the RS10 a fair shot.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]After arriving at our local, we took the RS10 out of the truck, connected the battery, and tested everything to be sure it was operational. With everything getting the green light, I handed the transmitter to my boy and told him to head over to the rocks and have at it. He layed into the throttle and made his way toward the rocks. As he hit the first ledge, I could see that the RS10's tires were already struggling to gain traction. My son reversed the throttle and hit it again. This time he was able to bump up over the ledge. I tried not to intervene and just let him go at it just as any newcomer would. He headed headlong into every crevasse, ledge, undercut, and drop off he could find. The RS10 did about as well as I expected and struggled with almost every ascent. What I noticed is that my son didn't seem to care. He wasn't worried about reverse penalties, or out of bounds, or progress points and was just having fun? Every time he encountered an obsticle the RS10 couldn't clear, he would just go about a different route to get to were he wanted to go.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]I have to admit, I was having a good time just watching him drive and watching him try and figure out how to get were it was he wanted to go. But, I was right. As a long time competition crawler, I was also looking at everything he did from a competition POV. I was making mental notes as to what I would be changing to help improve performance. At the same time, my son was just smiling and hammering away.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]After our first outing, the RS10 doesn't appear to have suffered any damage and performed about as well as I expected. With a few simple mods (tires and wheels weight), I think it would perform much better. This will be the first thing I do to the RS10 and then we''ll head back to the rocks to see what the difference just tires and weight make.[/FONT]
After that, I"m going to switch out the motors, purchase a BEC and throw a 3S lipo into the mix. That should really test the strenght of the gears!
Sorry I don't have any pics right now. My computer is down and I using my wifes. Unfortunatly her new lap top and my old camera are having issues. I'll try and get the pics up ASAP.
:mrgreen:
