Volcano EPX 1/10 Scale Electric RC Monster Truck – 4WD RC Truck with 2.4GHz Radio, Waterproof Electronics, 19T Brushed 550 Motor, Battery & Charger, Red

We've had this for about 5 months now. Positives - - Quick - Sturdy frame and chassis. This thing has been beat up, flipped, jumped... Still going. Just had to perform emergency repairs after my 3 year old rammed it into a wall at full speed. Got it back together and still runs great. - Good 4-wheel traction. Can take it into a lot of interesting places. - Transmitter range is long. We've had it running about ~75' from us. Cons - - Cheap charger broke after a few uses. The clips came apart and I had to solder them back. Charger is a trickle charger, so it can take a very long time to charge. Finally replaced it with a Tenergy charger that can charge a 3800mAH battery in under 2 hours. Had to spend another $30 on that. - ESC failed very soon. The stock ESC seems to be a low end model. I don't know if it burned out, or if moisture got in the switch (not sealed). I picked up a new ESC and installed it with little issue, but there was an extra $20 spent. - Included 2000mAH battery is only good for 10-20 minutes of use, the 3800mAH battery is double that. I ended up buying two more. - Parts are hard to source locally. At least in my area. Though not had an issue with replacements online. I'd buy one of these again. For the price compared to Traxxas, it's a solid bargain. Beware that snobby RC hobbyists will treat you like a second class citizen if you go looking for parts in stores though. Fun toy. Got it for my sons 7th birthday and I play with it more. Be sure to get a bigger battery. The one it comes with is good for maybe 10 minutes of use and requires a long cycle to charge.

This is the third Redcat Racing truck i have bought in the last few months, two Volcano EPX entry level brushed trucks, and one a little bit faster Caldera brushless with the LiPo battery. The two Volcano's were gifts for my 6 and 8 year old nephews and the Caldera was so I could play along. First off, six may be a bit young, I will admit that now. On our second outing my 6 year old nephew panicked a little gripped the throttle wide open and sent a 20-25 mph plastic truck straight into the side of the garage, not great but held up pretty well considering. Had to replace the steering servo mount, the lower bumper bracket, one wheel hub, and one drive shaft, sounds like a lot but parts are really reasonable and shipping was cheap from Redcat, pretty sure it was all right around twenty bucks. We learned right away if you are going to have these things buy a nice toolkit to fix and maintain them. We actually had his older brother help fix it so all around it was actually a great teaching/learning moment about mechanics and how things work. The 8 year old nephew is a master at these things already though and does really well racing, driving, jumping his truck so that would probably be about the youngest I would go unless you want to fix them after each use. The Caldera is an awesome truck, super fast and durable. First thing I would do on all of these is put some lock tight on the screws that go into the front wheel hubs, if you are going to be jumping them you def need to do this, or else you will lose them and be waiting for replacement screws until you can drive again. And I agree with some of the other reviews on here you should either Gorilla Tape or Electrical Tape the entire inside of the body shells, they look great but aren't that durable when you send your truck sliding on its roof at 20-30 MPH. Anyway this trucks are a great deal for the money and the 4x4 is must, if you are just starting out you cannot do wrong with these things.

Although i do like this vehicle, if you are looking for something fast, the brushless version would be a better purchase. Upgrading this is a bit of work, but, the prices for the upgrades, and even for eventually needed repairs, are well worth it compared to some others i have had. Redcat seems to be onto something with their line of less expensive vehicles. I have 3, and, of the three, this one is better suited for younger children, and for those just starting out. It isnt a speed demon by any means, but, out of the box, it will climb small hills, power through snow, can get wet, although i wouldnt recommend running it through more than an inch of water, and even then, only briefly. It is a decent starter vehicle, as the speed is decent, low end power is way more than adequate, parts and repairs arent too difficult compared to most other vehicles by other manufacturers, parts are readily available, whether looking for stock plastic parts, or upgrading to aluminum parts, which come in at least a couple different colors, although, this one they only seem to make a plastic or carbon fiber, but not aluminum, chassis, almost every other part for it can be had in at least blue or purple aluminum. I actually ran this with a Traxxas Titan 12T motor, and a 2S LiPO 5000MAH battery (i wouldnt recommend that combo as a full term upgrade though, due to issues it caused with overheating the motor), which caused it to do some spectacular crashes, and about the only damage i did was to the body posts (the body was off while i was testing and changing things), and, everytime it flipped over, it would slide on the body posts. Other than that, even after jumping it at least 6 feet several times, ramming into a tractor tire, and several other mishaps, it has held up very well. Im sure though that eventually parts will break, since, as many people say, if it didnt break, you didnt run it hard enough. The only complaint i had with it really was that it only comes with a 7.2V 2000MAH NIMH battery, which only lasts about 20 minutes, and takes at least 5 hours to charge using the supplied charger, so, if you are looking to run this for lengthy periods, i would recommend a couple of their 3800MAH batteries and a decent charger.

I bought this for Christmas for my son who is 5 years old. I liked it so much I bought myself brushless epx Pro which I have also reviewed and is a fantastic truck as well. He has been running this truck pretty hard (and crashing a lot) for 3 months now and I haven't had to replace anything except the front bumper. I have driving this truck as well and I have definitely bashed it and I have to say it's extremely durable and I don't think you can beat it for the price. Since it's hobby grade you can always upgrade if you want to give it a boost in performance or durability. There are a few things you need to do before you run it for first time and I do have one or two recommendations so here goes: First thing we did before we drove it was set the gear mesh. This step is imperative as it ensures the gears won't strip from being too loose and also ensures if they're not too tight which could burn up the motor or ESC. We really didn't have to do much else out of the box except for charge the battery. I definitely do recommend getting an upgraded charger when you buy this truck they really don't cost that much and they cut your charge time and a half. You're going to run nimh batteries I also recommend getting at least a 3800 mAh battery. I would even go so far as to recommend purchase the battery box as an upgrade and run this with 2s lipo battery, you won't be disappointed, it's a serious performance enhancement. The batteries that was included failed after about 2 weeks and I called Redcat and they told me how to file a warranty claim. Within one week I received not only a new battery but one that was 200mah larger than the one that came in the box with the truck, free upgrades are always cool. One more thing to remember, if you do upgrade to LiPO batteries you need to switch the ESC to Lipo mode by moving the jumper. This will enable the low voltage cutoff so you don't ruin your battery. You can see how to do this by Consulting the ESC manual that is included with the truck. In conclusion I definitely recommend this truck to anyone starting out in RC. You don't have to spend a ton of money to get a really good amount of performance and durability. This is an extremely well-built machine in general but even better when you consider the price point. If they can handle my five-year-old I think I can handle pretty much anything

As an owner of several Traxxas [Stampedes, Emaxx, Tmaxx] and a couple OFNA vehicles, I was looking for a vehicle for my 9-year-old son who was ready to move up from New Bright RC's. Something I wouldn't get totally bent out of shape about if he lost control and rammed a tree or rock, but not a piece of junk either. This Redcat truck was at the perfect price point between the $199 Stampede and the flood of sub $100 vehicles. When we unboxed it, boy was I surprised. Nice looking vehicle. Good heft. Solid appearing. Nice anodized aluminum bits. I'm a little jealous and may have to get one for myself! Decent charger that shuts off when fully charged. Single brushed motor with anodized cooling fins, 4x4 transmission, nice tires and wheels. The remote bonded with the EC immediately, minor adjustments to the trims, and he was off and running. Good power band, steering, lots of 7.2v power. Easy to recommend even not considering the great price point. Pros: - Quick & Solid connection between controller and vehicle. - Plenty fast, good control, good stability for anyone, including a 9-year-old for sure. - Nice looking truck, black on black wheels/tires, nice body paint. - Anodized aluminum bits - 4 wheel drive - Waterproof ECM - 2000 mAh battery is adequate, however we purchased a couple of 3000 mAh batteries to extend the play time - Torque is adequate/good for a 7.2 volt single motor vehicle Cons: - Wall charger is a 600 mAh unit. It appears to run on a timer type basis and doesn't trickle charge after the cycle is complete. Additionally, a wire from charger into the connector came apart about two weeks after purchase. I took it apart and resoldered both connections, the charger wires are a very small gauge without any protection from flexion/bending and would be prone to breakage. - Unique battery/component connectors that don't seem to protect the wires very well from stress flexion/pulling/bending

I have owned this "Ready to Run" RC vehicle for 6 and 1/2 hours. The battery is still charging. It might be a fun and rugged RC vehicle but I don't know as I have been waiting 6 hours for the battery to charge. This vehicle was expensive, too expensive, but I wanted to do a one-time big deal present for my son, and this is what he wanted. A stock battery that takes 8 hours to charge with a stock charger is a really lame way to get people to upgrade the first day they buy this vehicle as the upgrade battery will last longer and the upgrade charger will charge in less than half the time of the stock charger.. Had it not been for my son, I would never have purchased this vehicle but now that I have I feel it's important to anyone trying to do something special for a kid, that you have to buy an extra battery and charger right away, plus the connectors to make them work with your RC vehicle unless you want to spend 8 hours charging the battery after each 15 minutes of use (I got this from other reviewers, I still don't know how long the battery will last as it is still not charged. "Ready to Run" is true false advertising. So for the "Hey son, let do something on the spur of the moment factor I give it less than one star, for being lame and requiring upgrades to function in any reasonable way, I give it less than one star, because it looks pretty cool and the shocks seem bouncy, I give it one star. I may update once the battery is charged, but probably not. I am none too happy with Redcat Racing right now. UPDATE: An Hour Later Well, I gave up on the charger turning green, but while I waited I charged the extra battery with the new replacement charger. However the new replacement battery requires an addition connector to work with the car and the original battery requires the reverse of that piece to work with the new charger. Ok, well all of that will be here on Thursday, I may update again then. So the review has gone from 1 star to 3 because the 15 minutes we got out of it was pretty awesome. It is fast and on the loose dirt baseball field where we tested it, it performed quite well. It threw up a lot of dirt and dust and had lots of people looking at my son as he controlled it. He really liked that. He likes the truck a lot. I do feel deceived by the advertising, but what's new? Pros It is fast, and fun. It's huge and makes other kids want one. I do like that if parts break, which I'm sure they will, they can be replaced and repaired. I think if any plastic parts break, I will replace them with the metal ones. Since it's not cheap, at least not to me I'm glad I have the less expensive option to replacement. I think that when I get the new battery in it will be much fun for me and my 10 year old son. Both he and I will learn about hobby RC vehicles and it's a long term project with my kid. Cons As stated above, original battery and charger are pretty much worthless. Requires additional pieces and parts to function in a reasonable way. UPDATE: The Next Morning. Back down to 2 stars. 8 hours of charging later the original charger will not fully charge the stock battery. I would not recommend this product to anyone and I would not purchase again. The fact that it requires additional purchases to work at all is just wrong and false advertising. UPDATE: 3 Days Later Got the new battery and charger, now batteries charge fast and the new battery lasts a long time, almost an hour. Rating has gone from 2 stars back down to one. Today after total 3 hours of play over the course of 3 days, two gears have stripped. One made of brass and one made of plastic. I am going to replace them with these http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NHLD7BS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1J6PP8BXYDR1H I had to call Red Cat Racing customer service for help and it was like talking to a brick. What a jerk. However this is just insane that 90% of the time we have had the truck we have been working on it, not playing with it. This vehicle is a misery to own from a parents perspective and I would warn everyone away from this product. It should come "Ready to Go" as it says and should last longer than 3 days of regular use before breaking.

This truck is not "ready to run" as advertised, but I still like it. While this is the first RC car I've ever purchased for myself, I've gotten the impression that this truck is not up to snuff. THE BAD: The stock battery/charger are bad; the charger is unreliable and is more likely to ruin anything it charges, and the 2000 NiMH battery doesn't last more than 10 minutes. I bought a 3800 NiMH and a new charger with this truck when I first bought it, and that brought me up to $183 w/o shipping. At this point I've only had it for about five days, driven it maybe a dozen times, and the first time I took it on asphalt the brass motor gear and the plastic drive gear began slipping and chewed each other up, so now I'm replacing those with steel. This brings me up to well over $210 spent on this truck. THE GOOD: Other than the two gears mentioned above, everything else seems pretty rugged. I wasn't easy on it, and there are no cracks or other damage (I still wouldn't recommend doing a lot of stunts with it or running into anything unless plan on replacing all of the plastic with the aluminum upgrades). It's very responsive to controls and a lot of fun to drive, and you'll very easily get it to top speed. I don't have a way to measure to speed, but it looks like the advertised 30mph to me.

Great truck! Lots of fun! Excellent entry level RC truck. Have only run it in the snow so far and it's been great. No issues with moisture, yet. Only had it less than a week and already upgraded to a 2S LiPo 4000Mah battery, probably twice the punch and significantly faster top speed than the stock 2000Mah NiMh battery. The stock battery does not last very long and gives kind of poor performance. This version of the Volcano EPX brushed truck has an ESC that is designed to also run 2S LiPo. An almost necessary upgrade. Some of the parts will break if bashed hard, especially if it's cold. I broke a front lower suspension arm the first day, hit something to hard with the front tire. Aluminum upgrades are on the way but meanwhile I repaired it with some thin metal strips and tiny screws and it's probably stronger than the original plastic was. Overall it seems to be a great entry level truck with some potential. It will likely get a brushless system eventually. Also aluminum upgrades, hubs/carriers, suspension etc. The 2.4Ghz controller is pretty good in my limited experience, great range and instant response all the time. Full proportional controls, forward, reverse, left, and right. Steering can be trimmed for straight travel and also for more/less steering force for better control at high speeds. Update 01/30. Broke and axle stub. Seems it may have been defective however from the way I've bashed it maybe not. Still have not installed any aluminum upgrades so far even after putting a brushless 120A ESC and a 3000kv motor on it. On 2s LiPo this a very fun setup, on 3s it is wild crazy fast. (almost fried the Hobby Wing motor on 3s though because it is basically 380 motor internals in a ribbed 540/550 can). Will be upgrading to a full sized 3660 2600kv motor with possibly different gearing.