RCCrawler Forums

dezfan · 07-04-2009, 03:27 PM

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.

This is Redcat's second entry into the crawling market w/ their earlier entry being the 1/8 Super sized Rockslide.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

SACCO · 07-04-2009, 03:39 PM

I got a PM the other day from a newbie asking me about this truck. Now I know who to direct their questions too.

Thanks fer the writeup

dezfan · 07-04-2009, 03:45 PM

Noooooooooooo, not more nOObs!:-P

Harley · 07-04-2009, 04:49 PM

What spot did you take it out too?

Interested to see one of these things.

cartronicshn · 07-04-2009, 05:03 PM

Great write up Dez

, i was hoping this redcat would do okey, i will definetly get one as soon as thing quiet down a bit down here:-(.

dezfan · 07-04-2009, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harley0706

What spot did you take it out too?

Interested to see one of these things.

Just a little rock pile here in the OG, it's close and good enough for a little testing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cartronicshn

Great write up Dez

, i was hoping this redcat would do okey, i will definetly get one as soon as thing quiet down a bit down here:-(.

Yeah, it's not to bad Carlos, just switch out the tires ASAP! They are the weaked link. Hope things get better soon down there.

ky_ridgerunner · 07-04-2009, 09:57 PM

Wow im really glad to see this I am considering getting one of these looks like my mind might be made up Thanks

jrkilburn · 07-05-2009, 07:00 AM

Good to see other giving the truck a shot. I was going to do the same type article but I see everyone else doing the same. I will get some pctures up of my progress as I am into the modified stage. I am looking at it from the point of view to use what redcat gave us in a different way by using reuse of "misplaced" parts instead of throwing money at it right off.

eron · 07-05-2009, 08:18 AM

Awesome write up Dez. Your getting me convinced for the GF

dezfan · 07-05-2009, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ky_ridgerunner

Wow im really glad to see this I am considering getting one of these looks like my mind might be made up Thanks

It looks to be a good entry level rig, not sure it's going to be comp worthy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrkilburn

Good to see other giving the truck a shot. I was going to do the same type article but I see everyone else doing the same. I will get some pctures up of my progress as I am into the modified stage. I am looking at it from the point of view to use what redcat gave us in a different way by using reuse of "misplaced" parts instead of throwing money at it right off.

Well I'm looking forward to see what comes from your mods.

Quote:

Originally Posted by eron

Awesome write up Dez. Your getting me convinced for the GF

Glad to help.

rmb2485 · 07-06-2009, 04:16 PM

Subscribed.

I've been thinking about getting into RC crawlers and this thing is priced pretty attractively.

dezfan · 07-07-2009, 07:25 PM

For an entry level rig, it's ok and w/ a little work, it could be made to be much better.

I don't have any false hopes that it will be able to be successful in the competitive arena, but that's ok because that isn't the RS10's target audience.

Robb · 07-07-2009, 07:32 PM

Glad you are continuing on with the OOTB review dez. I took mine out to the shop, and fell into the "well if I do that, I might as well do that" kinda attitude, and within a few hours, not much stock was left of the rig.:?

A quick add on the body, which at first I thought would work quite well. The stock body is dead on 12.5" stock...............but that is with both front and rear "bumper" portions of the body attached. This presents a problem for use on a MOA rig, because if you try to lower the body enough to be comp worthy, you will need to trim the front and back of the body, in turn making it illegal. This may not be that big of a problem on a shafty.

dezfan · 07-07-2009, 08:05 PM

HAHA, I already switched the tires over to Panthers, added weight, changed the shock oil, springs, and location of the shocks, and I have those Speed 400s sitting on the work bench.

We'll see how it goes.

nwcrawler · 07-07-2009, 09:37 PM

hey there can you post a pic of yours. what other mods have you done

toyofast · 07-07-2009, 09:49 PM

Have any pictures of an axle break down? I'd like to see what's on the inside that makes them "tick".

dezfan · 07-07-2009, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nwcrawler

hey there can you post a pic of yours. what other mods have you done

Waiting on my PC to get out of the shop. Using my wife's new lap top, it and my 6 year old camera are not on speaking terms.

nwcrawler · 07-07-2009, 10:27 PM

what mods have you done any thing i can do thats cheap and easy

crawlerswede · 07-08-2009, 01:58 AM

Hi !

How is the "diffgear" mounted to the outputshaft in the axels ? on my 1/8 redcat crawler i had to fill that gear up with JB-weld to keep it from slipping on the shaft

Duuuuuuuude · 07-08-2009, 04:31 PM

Holy crap! I've never seen Dez speak that long without including the word "liberals". Glad to see the therapy is working...

Oh yeah, pretty good write-up as well. Btw: my boy "crawls" the same way.

07-04-2009, 03:27 PM	#1
dezfan I wanna be Dave Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Happiness is a warm AK. Posts: 12,563	Dez's RedCat RS10 reveiw. 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. This is Redcat's second entry into the crawling market w/ their earlier entry being the 1/8 Super sized Rockslide. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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! 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

07-04-2009, 03:39 PM	#2
SACCO I wanna be Dave Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Moscow Mills MO Posts: 2,204	I got a PM the other day from a newbie asking me about this truck. Now I know who to direct their questions too. Thanks fer the writeup

07-04-2009, 03:45 PM	#3
dezfan I wanna be Dave Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Happiness is a warm AK. Posts: 12,563	Noooooooooooo, not more nOObs!:-P

07-04-2009, 04:49 PM	#4
Harley 20K Club Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Sending illegals home one Hayabusa at a time. Posts: 22,981	What spot did you take it out too? Interested to see one of these things.

07-04-2009, 05:03 PM	#5
cartronicshn I wanna be Dave Join Date: May 2006 Location: HONDURAS...ROCK HEAVEN Posts: 5,076	Great write up Dez , i was hoping this redcat would do okey, i will definetly get one as soon as thing quiet down a bit down here:-(.

07-04-2009, 09:57 PM	#7
ky_ridgerunner Newbie Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Frances Ky Posts: 5	Wow im really glad to see this I am considering getting one of these looks like my mind might be made up Thanks

07-05-2009, 07:00 AM	#8
jrkilburn Rock Crawler Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: MD Posts: 810	Good to see other giving the truck a shot. I was going to do the same type article but I see everyone else doing the same. I will get some pctures up of my progress as I am into the modified stage. I am looking at it from the point of view to use what redcat gave us in a different way by using reuse of "misplaced" parts instead of throwing money at it right off.

07-05-2009, 08:18 AM	#9
eron Rock Crawler Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Atlanta Posts: 615	Awesome write up Dez. Your getting me convinced for the GF

07-06-2009, 04:16 PM	#11
rmb2485 Pebble Pounder Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Lehigh Valley, PA Posts: 100	Subscribed. I've been thinking about getting into RC crawlers and this thing is priced pretty attractively.

07-07-2009, 07:25 PM	#12
dezfan I wanna be Dave Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Happiness is a warm AK. Posts: 12,563	For an entry level rig, it's ok and w/ a little work, it could be made to be much better. I don't have any false hopes that it will be able to be successful in the competitive arena, but that's ok because that isn't the RS10's target audience.

07-07-2009, 07:32 PM	#13
Robb RCC Addict Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: VARCOR Posts: 1,826	Glad you are continuing on with the OOTB review dez. I took mine out to the shop, and fell into the "well if I do that, I might as well do that" kinda attitude, and within a few hours, not much stock was left of the rig.:? A quick add on the body, which at first I thought would work quite well. The stock body is dead on 12.5" stock...............but that is with both front and rear "bumper" portions of the body attached. This presents a problem for use on a MOA rig, because if you try to lower the body enough to be comp worthy, you will need to trim the front and back of the body, in turn making it illegal. This may not be that big of a problem on a shafty.

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07-07-2009, 08:05 PM	#14
dezfan I wanna be Dave Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Happiness is a warm AK. Posts: 12,563	HAHA, I already switched the tires over to Panthers, added weight, changed the shock oil, springs, and location of the shocks, and I have those Speed 400s sitting on the work bench. We'll see how it goes.

07-07-2009, 09:37 PM	#15
nwcrawler Pebble Pounder Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Selah Posts: 175	hey there can you post a pic of yours. what other mods have you done

07-07-2009, 09:49 PM	#16
toyofast I wanna be Dave Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Columbia Gorge Posts: 5,512	Have any pictures of an axle break down? I'd like to see what's on the inside that makes them "tick".

07-07-2009, 10:27 PM	#18
nwcrawler Pebble Pounder Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Selah Posts: 175	what mods have you done any thing i can do thats cheap and easy

07-08-2009, 01:58 AM	#19
crawlerswede Rock Stacker Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: sweden Posts: 71	Hi ! How is the "diffgear" mounted to the outputshaft in the axels ? on my 1/8 redcat crawler i had to fill that gear up with JB-weld to keep it from slipping on the shaft

07-08-2009, 04:31 PM	#20
Duuuuuuuude Suck it up! Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Arkansas Posts: 11,652	Holy crap! I've never seen Dez speak that long without including the word "liberals". Glad to see the therapy is working... Oh yeah, pretty good write-up as well. Btw: my boy "crawls" the same way.

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Thread: Dez's RedCat RS10 reveiw.