New Kraton owner vs friends with Erevos

[olds97_lss]

And I don't know about you folks, but the last few times I had to go to a hobby shop it was exceedingly painful. The minimum wage worker had no freaking idea what he was doing.

Over the past 20 years of RC, I've had a total of 3 guys at 3 working at 3 different shops that knew anything at all. Even then, they were heavily biased to one brand or another. It is kind of normal having people work at stores that know little about what the things are and how they relate to one another. Although, with such a niche hobby, every store I've gone to have had "arts and crafts" guy as well as "RC parts" guy. With the downtime they have between customers, you'd think they would look at manuals or something... I guess when I go to sams club to buy a TV, I don't expect the guy getting it from the back for me to know the specs of it and how it was rated at cnet. Then again, if I go to a automotive parts store, I do expect the guy behind the counter to know there's a difference between Ford and Chevy...

 

[sevin7]

I told him I needed a mod1 pinion and he kept asking "what's it for? If you give me the brand and model I can look it up".

Went round and round with this guy for 10 minutes, it was for a Team Magic E5, eventually I told him and he came back with "we don't carry that brand". To which I replied "I know, but pinion gears are universal, so I don't need one made by team magic"

Eventually I got him to show me where the pinion gears were and I walked him through finding what I needed.

30 minutes later and $27.99 poorer, I walked out with the 16T mod1 Robinson pinion I was after.

The only hobby store even remotely close to me is Hobby Town USA (in Kennesaw, GA). I bought my first car there in June after seeing something on TV that reminded me that I always wanted a fast RC car. I walked in the store knowing nothing and talked to a guy there for a while telling him I wanted something that was electric, waterproof, 4 wheel drive, and capable of easily driving over 4" tall grass. He told me that the Arrma Senton 4x4 (brushed) was the car for me. I looked at it and was not happy with how it looked (I hate the short course look) and told him I want something with more ground clearance to which he replied "they all have the same ground clearance". I thought that didn't make much sense but I knew nothing about the hobby so I decided to take his advice and buy it. I took it home and drove it and immediately was very dissatisfied with it. I saw that Traxxas was a more popular brand than Arrma and I did a small amount of research and then bought a Stampede 4x4 and I sold the Senton 4x4 because I hated it. I'm now fed up with Traxxas and realize that Arrma was not the problem, the problem was I would hate any short course truck. My new Notorious is arriving today .

I have now learned that the guys at hobby town are largely clueless (a few of them know some information, but not a lot). I check online to see if they have parts that I want in stock and then walk in and tell them part numbers that I want (I'm sure you cannot do this with many small hobby stores).

I have the same type of issue at many stores. I often go to lowes after looking up a part online and it says its in stock but the store doesn't have it in the location it should be in. I then ask an employee for help and they don't even know what the thing is that I'm looking for and have no clue where to find it, then they try to offer me very bad advice on what I could use in place of the thing I want or where else I might try to find it.

The worst is having to deal with any type of tech support to get something fixed or replaced such as a defective phone or comcast support when I have a cable internet issue. I'm a software architect and technology guru; having to deal with people who have no idea how the thing they are supposed to be helping me with works is exceptionally irritating. I bought a gensacearespammers battery from Amazon last month and after a couple weeks it started swelling. I buy batteries from Amazon because their return policy is the same as any other item: return it within 30 days for any reason. I didn't use the automated return because the battery was damaged and shipping it is dangerous and Amazon even explicitly states that you should never ship them a damaged battery. I called their support and explained the problem to a foreign lady and she said shipping it back was no problem even after I told her Amazon's policy explicitly forbids it and its a major fire hazard unless its in a specialized container. She still had no clue what I was talking about, she had never heard of a battery exploding (which is all over the news thanks to Samsung and hover boards). I ended up hanging up on her and calling back and got someone else who was not clueless.

 

[bicketybam]

The only hobby store even remotely close to me is Hobby Town USA (in Kennesaw, GA). I bought my first car there in June after seeing something on TV that reminded me that I always wanted a fast RC car. I walked in the store knowing nothing and talked to a guy there for a while telling him I wanted something that was electric, waterproof, 4 wheel drive, and capable of easily driving over 4" tall grass. He told me that the Arrma Senton 4x4 (brushed) was the car for me. I looked at it and was not happy with how it looked (I hate the short course look) and told him I want something with more ground clearance to which he replied "they all have the same ground clearance". I thought that didn't make much sense but I knew nothing about the hobby so I decided to take his advice and buy it. I took it home and drove it and immediately was very dissatisfied with it. I saw that Traxxas was a more popular brand than Arrma and I did a small amount of research and then bought a Stampede 4x4 and I sold the Senton 4x4 because I hated it. I'm now fed up with Traxxas and realize that Arrma was not the problem, the problem was I would hate any short course truck. My new Notorious is arriving today .

That guy did you a huge disservice. The brushed Senton (and Granite) are not made to be used on 4” tall grass. Did the motor go up in smoke? I would have a hard time spending another dime at that Hobbytown. I would have definitely spoken with the owner. I’m glad you are getting the Notorious. It’s lightyears better than a brushed Senton. And I’m with you. SCT’s are not my thing. Great for a track or packed dirt, but that’s about it.

 

[sevin7]

I only drove the Senton on grass once and on the street about 3 times before selling it. I only go to hobby town now for parts because its close and the cheap plastic parts cost less or the same as online because I don't have to pay for shipping.

 

[bicketybam]

I only drove the Senton on grass once and on the street about 3 times before selling it. I only go to hobby town now for parts because its close and the cheap plastic parts cost less or the same as online because I don't have to pay for shipping.

This I what I do with my Senton Mega 4x4

 

[Kraton_Kev]

My local hobby store just went out of business too. Amazed me because people were always there. They had a track in the back everyone would use. They said their sale have been declining an they decided to close their business. What I'm curious about is if I could still go on the track...even though there's a lock on the gate. No business no foul? jk.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

I believe in a competitive market. LHS are going the way of the dodo bird because they refuse to adapt to the ecommerce era. There is no reason in 2018 to pay a 15% markup at a brick and mortar store.

And I don't know about you folks, but the last few times I had to go to a hobby shop it was exceedingly painful. The minimum wage worker had no freaking idea what he was doing.

I told him I needed a mod1 pinion and he kept asking "what's it for? If you give me the brand and model I can look it up".

Went round and round with this guy for 10 minutes, it was for a Team Magic E5, eventually I told him and he came back with "we don't carry that brand". To which I replied "I know, but pinion gears are universal, so I don't need one made by team magic"

Eventually I got him to show me where the pinion gears were and I walked him through finding what I needed.

30 minutes later and $27.99 poorer, I walked out with the 16T mod1 Robinson pinion I was after.

Reminds me of trying to get a ball cup for my old losi XXCR. Just a basic 1/8" ball, 4/40 thread ball cup for a turnbuckle. You would think I was asking for a flux capacitor with an unobtanium core... The guy couldn't find my 20 year old car in his catalog, so it didn't exist, and no part in the store would fit, as far as he cared. After way too much arguing, I pointed to a ball end kit for a mini-8 told him to sell me those. (They are not for your car, they won't fit, and I won't let you return them because I warned you). 10 minutes after getting home, my old buggy was running... LOL

To be fair to that shop, a month later, I met the owner at our local track. Great guy, he laughed at my story (hard to find good help was his only defense), and his shop became my go-to RC shop - but I only would deal with the owner or his wife. Sux, but he lost his store in Hurricane Harvey last year.

 

[Mike_D]

My first RC was the ERevo 2 and I was tickled pink to have it! I kept grinning through 4 pairs of stock servos, a pair of Tactics, and finally a pair of Savox waterproof servos, I want to say 1230’s but I’d have to look. Of course I snapped a shock shaft the first time out, but that was ok because I got to rebuild shocks with titanium shafts! I was a badass! Stock tires flew off the rims, but that was ok because I got to upgrade to some Trenchers. I replaced the front bumper 3 times. The drive shaft got so hot it bubbled the chassis from front to rear all along the driveline(Nobody told me to grease the exterior of the differentials and shaft), but hey I learned the virtue of marine grease in the Pacific Northwest!
Meanwhile, every time I bash with my brother he’s sending his truck 20 feet into the air at full blast flying it half a football field confidently again and again. I thought he was nuts! He told me I drive like a grandma! I said, “Yeah a grandma that kicks ass!” Sheepishly as I’m trying to figure out why my transmitter will only drive in reverse when I hit the gas.
See he had already studied the strength of Arrma. His Kraton was gnarly! It just didn’t look like much to me, even when he took the hood off, it seemed so simplistic compared to all the stuff my Revo had going on! Pfft, one servo, how does it even turn?
So the final Revo disaster for me was when the transmitter spun those servos full blast until the teeth broke off for no reason. The most god awful sound you could imagine coming from a RC car and SMOKE! I still haven’t figured out what happened with that situation. I picked up a Kraton the first chance I got and put the trenchers on it. Ya know what? It’s still running as nicely as the day I bought it. Lovin the new Talion as well. So in closing, I’d like to thank Traxxas for making me a semi professional RC technician, I haven’t had to use so any of the skills I learned since the switch to Arrma!

 

[sevin7]

Watch this video from Kevin Talbot (this guy has a ton of RC cars). He replaced almost every part of the electronics and the thing still won't turn properly. I think its his remote control. I had issues with mine (on a Slash 4x4) where the TSB knob will stop steering from working if its in a specific spot. Traxxas has some fancy features on the remote and receiver (TSM, self-righting, bluetooth, etc...) but they come at the cost of things often having issues (also TSM is completely useless 99% of the time).

 

[Paultro84]

Watch this video from Kevin Talbot (this guy has a ton of RC cars). He replaced almost every part of the electronics and the thing still won't turn properly. I think its his remote control. I had issues with mine (on a Slash 4x4) where the TSB knob will stop steering from working if its in a specific spot. Traxxas has some fancy features on the remote and receiver (TSM, self-righting, bluetooth, etc...) but they come at the cost of things often having issues (also TSM is completely useless 99% of the time).

In a follow up vid, it turned out to be the transmitter.

 

[sevin7]

In a follow up vid, it turned out to be the transmitter.

Lol looks like I was right. I found the video, he says 20 seconds in the problem was the remote control even though it works fine with all of his other cars (but refuses to work with the revo).

 

[WTF MIKE]

Lol looks like I was right. I found the video, he says 20 seconds in the problem was the remote control even though it works fine with all of his other cars (but refuses to work with the revo).

Well now he has a kraton and will soon dump the revo. I hope Traxxas altogether but he loves his xmaxx’s

 

[bicketybam]

My first RC was the ERevo 2 and I was tickled pink to have it! I kept grinning through 4 pairs of stock servos, a pair of Tactics, and finally a pair of Savox waterproof servos, I want to say 1230’s but I’d have to look. Of course I snapped a shock shaft the first time out, but that was ok because I got to rebuild shocks with titanium shafts! I was a badass! Stock tires flew off the rims, but that was ok because I got to upgrade to some Trenchers. I replaced the front bumper 3 times. The drive shaft got so hot it bubbled the chassis from front to rear all along the driveline(Nobody told me to grease the exterior of the differentials and shaft), but hey I learned the virtue of marine grease in the Pacific Northwest!
Meanwhile, every time I bash with my brother he’s sending his truck 20 feet into the air at full blast flying it half a football field confidently again and again. I thought he was nuts! He told me I drive like a grandma! I said, “Yeah a grandma that kicks ass!” Sheepishly as I’m trying to figure out why my transmitter will only drive in reverse when I hit the gas.
See he had already studied the strength of Arrma. His Kraton was gnarly! It just didn’t look like much to me, even when he took the hood off, it seemed so simplistic compared to all the stuff my Revo had going on! Pfft, one servo, how does it even turn?
So the final Revo disaster for me was when the transmitter spun those servos full blast until the teeth broke off for no reason. The most god awful sound you could imagine coming from a RC car and SMOKE! I still haven’t figured out what happened with that situation. I picked up a Kraton the first chance I got and put the trenchers on it. Ya know what? It’s still running as nicely as the day I bought it. Lovin the new Talion as well. So in closing, I’d like to thank Traxxas for making me a semi professional RC technician, I haven’t had to use so any of the skills I learned since the switch to Arrma!

That's a great story! Well written too!

 

[RC Detail]

Well now he has a kraton and will soon dump the revo. I hope Traxxas altogether but he loves his xmaxx’s

If you’re talking about Kevin? He said the reason he runs Traxxas is the parts availability.

But that was before with Hobbico.....

 

[slick2500]

I do understand the frustration when things don't work, and Traxxas has been around a long time and its unfortunate he is having those issues. Like I said, I have a revo 2.0 and I haven't had a problem yet.

Part of me hates Traxxas because they took the hobby I loved and turned it into expensive toys for spoiled kids. But they also pushed the envelope of what is possible in the RC world which in turn created companies like Arrma, which is better for all of us.

I cant imagine sending a RC vehicle back to a hobby shop or company to fix. Fixing it is part of the hobby. I miss the days where everything came in a kit and you had to have some inclination of mechanical ability to own a Hobby grade RC.

But, I'm just an old grumpy man, so what do I know.

Point is, if your buddy is too frustrated to fix his Revo, maybe he needs to pick a different hobby.

They need to bring back kits.
The build to drive kits that Ecx did with the Amp and Barrage are a step in the right direction though.
I like building kits so much that the last rtr vehicle that I bought I completely tore it apart and put it back together.

 

[slick2500]

I believe in a competitive market. LHS are going the way of the dodo bird because they refuse to adapt to the ecommerce era. There is no reason in 2018 to pay a 15% markup at a brick and mortar store.

And I don't know about you folks, but the last few times I had to go to a hobby shop it was exceedingly painful. The minimum wage worker had no freaking idea what he was doing.

I told him I needed a mod1 pinion and he kept asking "what's it for? If you give me the brand and model I can look it up".

Went round and round with this guy for 10 minutes, it was for a Team Magic E5, eventually I told him and he came back with "we don't carry that brand". To which I replied "I know, but pinion gears are universal, so I don't need one made by team magic"

Eventually I got him to show me where the pinion gears were and I walked him through finding what I needed.

30 minutes later and $27.99 poorer, I walked out with the 16T mod1 Robinson pinion I was after.

Sounds like my lhs, I went in there Saturday and told the guy I needed such and such bearing, he asked what it was for, he looked and said we are out of the Traxxas ones, I'm like okay I just need a bear g this size it doesn't have to be a Traxxas. He's like I'm maybe we have a boca in that size. He looks brings back a little drawer and was like we got these in that size. Okay I'll take one. Pay for my stuff and get home set the stuff off to the side and work on some other projects. Finally get to needing the bearing and it's not even the right size...... And of course they are long closed at this point. Every time I go in there and that goober helps me he always acts like a stoner trying to solve a rubix cube.

The only hobby store even remotely close to me is Hobby Town USA (in Kennesaw, GA). I bought my first car there in June after seeing something on TV that reminded me that I always wanted a fast RC car. I walked in the store knowing nothing and talked to a guy there for a while telling him I wanted something that was electric, waterproof, 4 wheel drive, and capable of easily driving over 4" tall grass. He told me that the Arrma Senton 4x4 (brushed) was the car for me. I looked at it and was not happy with how it looked (I hate the short course look) and told him I want something with more ground clearance to which he replied "they all have the same ground clearance". I thought that didn't make much sense but I knew nothing about the hobby so I decided to take his advice and buy it. I took it home and drove it and immediately was very dissatisfied with it. I saw that Traxxas was a more popular brand than Arrma and I did a small amount of research and then bought a Stampede 4x4 and I sold the Senton 4x4 because I hated it. I'm now fed up with Traxxas and realize that Arrma was not the problem, the problem was I would hate any short course truck. My new Notorious is arriving today .

I have now learned that the guys at hobby town are largely clueless (a few of them know some information, but not a lot). I check online to see if they have parts that I want in stock and then walk in and tell them part numbers that I want (I'm sure you cannot do this with many small hobby stores).

I have the same type of issue at many stores. I often go to lowes after looking up a part online and it says its in stock but the store doesn't have it in the location it should be in. I then ask an employee for help and they don't even know what the thing is that I'm looking for and have no clue where to find it, then they try to offer me very bad advice on what I could use in place of the thing I want or where else I might try to find it.

The worst is having to deal with any type of tech support to get something fixed or replaced such as a defective phone or comcast support when I have a cable internet issue. I'm a software architect and technology guru; having to deal with people who have no idea how the thing they are supposed to be helping me with works is exceptionally irritating. I bought a gensacearespammers battery from Amazon last month and after a couple weeks it started swelling. I buy batteries from Amazon because their return policy is the same as any other item: return it within 30 days for any reason. I didn't use the automated return because the battery was damaged and shipping it is dangerous and Amazon even explicitly states that you should never ship them a damaged battery. I called their support and explained the problem to a foreign lady and she said shipping it back was no problem even after I told her Amazon's policy explicitly forbids it and its a major fire hazard unless its in a specialized container. She still had no clue what I was talking about, she had never heard of a battery exploding (which is all over the news thanks to Samsung and hover boards). I ended up hanging up on her and calling back and got someone else who was not clueless.

When I go to my lhs I just bring in a list of parts numbers with a description, it's so hard going in there and being like I need a 16t mod 1 pinion gear.
And I've had the exact same issue at my Lowe's store when I finally found someone to help me.

 

[slick2500]

If you’re talking about Kevin? He said the reason he runs Traxxas is the parts availability.

But that was before with Hobbico.....

Yeah he said parts support was the main reason he refused to buy Losi. Apparently until recently Horizon had terrible parts support in Europe.

 

[Paultro84]

Well now he has a kraton and will soon dump the revo. I hope Traxxas altogether but he loves his xmaxx’s

He bent the hell out of the chassis on the Kraton.

 

[Mike_D]

Thank you!!! The wife says I never stop blabbing about Arrma, so she enjoyed me writing instead. (Probably because I can’t speak while writing.) ?
Cheers!

 

[Mike_D]

i kind of taco-shelled the chassis of the Talion. Oops! ?