Not the best RTR short course choice? Team Associated's Pro4 SC10

[@RazorRC]

You need to drill/ream 2-4 holes in each tire, it's SOP for driving in dirt or sand to let the dirt out.

[@GettingthruLife]

Let me ask you this,. What if no dirt/sand was allowed to get inside the tire in the first place? No other tire/wheel on literally every vehicle on the planet has holes cut into the rim and tire. (How come these great manufactures Proline and Jconcepts don't design their tires with hole molded into them? Only issue ive experienced in my last 40 years with rc tires is with water and moisture getting into the tire with foam inserts. Holes in that case cut into the wheel and tire allow moisture a way to escape. Plus, team associated customer support manager told me these rc vehicles are not designed/made to run in the sand. If that's true then their product isn't worth buying.

[@RazorRC]

@@GettingthruLife Arrma wheels and tires also have holes in both. Horizon owns Proline and Arrma, I suspect at some point Proline basher tires will have holes in them, Arrma started doing it a year or so back.

[@RazorRC]

@@GettingthruLife but if you don’t believe me, both Traxxas and Proline have videos on putting holes in your tires. Here’s Proline’s: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqWVpqGdZrdnm5osi=IDDna5ncIDIDtHU_

[@GettingthruLife]

@RazorRC I just ordered JConcepts Choppers tires and basic short course wheels. Instead of butchering up with holes into these tires, I'm going to try running gorilla tape over rim holes. When I get the RTR tires back with sand, pull the tires off, dump sand, clean and reglue. Those will be my junk street tires.

[@jamanepitcher8522]

That car was actually designed by Losi Junior who started the helion brand and sold through hobbytown. The team associated rival mt10 is also a rebranded helion

[@GettingthruLife]

Like everything else these days, made in china and not the quality sector of China. It's a fairly good platform otherwise in my opinion. Its just Team asociated customer service isn't what it used to be. The last team AE product I buy just from overall experience.

[@4412jj]

I have had mine for over a year and have ran about 40-50 packs in it and made in into a race truck. The problem was not with the tire you just didnt cover the holes with tape when running in fine sand. I covered mine and have not had a problem after i found out how it happened. The only real problem i have had was the front arms and servo that broke teeth and changed it with an ECO Power. Same story goes for the 4 other people that i told to get one and they all love it and as do i. You can ask the people i race with about the truck too.

[@GettingthruLife]

Oh its a good RC vehicle as I never state it's a bad platform. I just think their customer service didn't do their best attempt to help me over weeks of emails and 2-3 phone calls. I've been playing and racing at local tracks with RC buggies and cars since the late 1970's. Super Champ, Frog, AE's first series gold pan RC10, Kyosho electric and nitro, Ofna nitro, Traxxas, and the Associated Sc8e 1/8 scale SC. I've never had my tires fill up rock hard with sand before. This is the first time and when I ran this on the South Texas beach for just 10min first pack and 7-8 min 2nd batt pack it was not in fine or powder Destin FL beach like sand or Bahama resort sand. South Texas, Galveston/Freeport sand near the water is harder and it's much more substantial and grainy like very small pebbles or damp sand. Team associated customer service manager told me on the phone that this RC vehicle happens to not be designed to be used/run in the sand. I questioned him and he reassured me not designed/meant to use in sand of any type. I bet Arrma, Losi or Traxxas wouldn't tell the customers not to use in sand. Anyways, I bought it and its mine so it is what it is. I bought $80 JConcepts tires and wheels and I will be putting tape over the useless holes in the wheels. Last time I played with an offroad RC vehicle was about 11 years ago so I did not think about the holes put into the wheels plus there's foam in there taking up that void. (Maybe Team Asssociated needs to put a warning info/label on their boxes not meant for sand use or the warning to cover the holes on the inside of the wheels. $85-95 dollars is a hefty price for replacement toy RC wheels.

[@4412jj]

I will say they didnt use a standard foam that you see in tires so that may not have helped but i never had a problem other then the one tire starting to come unglued but that wasnt a big deal. If you shop around you can find a set of PRO4 tires for all 4 for about $60 i have only had to AE one time but it wasnt about warranty so that im sure but 7 out of 10 time companies are a pain to deal with when it comes to warranties.

[@Maximm_RC]

My experience with rtr’s is you’ll always dump more money in them after a big original purchase. I prefer to build my own from a kit or with this one buy the brushed version and rip out the electronics and put better stuff in like Castle. Replace shocks and tires and send it. Just my two cents worth..

[@GettingthruLife]

Yea I know your point well and that works for some but not everyone thinks, does and spends their monry the same way and looks at this hobby as a money pit which equals fun. The Pro 4x4 is good minus the inferior ESC that came with mine. Shortly after I made my video/was in touch with AE customer service, not saying my video had any effect, but Team Associated made an change to their esc that came in the SC10 Pro4. It allows the owner/user to custom set parameters like Low Voltage Cutoff. I made a semi big deal with Team Associated's customer support staff and they told me tough luck, bye bye. My RTR was so new and all they had to do was say send yours to us and we will send a new replacement for you to try. Terrible customer service and then they gave me the run-a-round on another item they said they exchange but changed their minds after I spent the time, money and effort to ship it back. That's my real gripe. A product is essentially only as good as the people who back it. This is why I will never buy another Team Associated product. I had a 2009-2010 team associated SC8e 1/8 scale SC truck and it was the absolute best RC racer/track basher I could have ever owned. It was an RTR. Soon after getting it, it had a steering servo failure. I called team associated back in 2010 and their customer service in a moments notice sent me a new one and upgraded it to a 199.00 XP digital high speed/high torque pro servo free of charge. Clearly not the same people running the company last 4-5 years.

[@dang3402]

No matter what what RC brand anyone gets you’ll always have to replace what’s considered the weak links. So the bucks don’t stop at stock.

[@MrLuv115]

Thanks for telling me that I will not purchase.

[@GettingthruLife]

Yea, just good to be informed. Then if you/a person still wants to buy then great. Just nice to be informed when buying spending ones money so no dissappointments. This was pointed out to me so I didn't personally figure this out. Just passing the info along.

[@jasonrhodes9726]

Except for the missing belt drive, this truck looks pretty much like the first AE short course 4X4 SCT I built in 2011 or so. It definately has AE front and rear clips. The control arms are Associated, no doubt at all, the shock towers and diff cases are AE so it has their suspension. I wouldn't be surprised if AE hadn't sold the truck to Helion and bought it back later or is having Helion put their parts on the truck. They should have helped you on the tires, I don't think it would have broke them. The electronics on all RTRs are crap, even the Losi Tenacity and it is really a 10 SCTE. The Reedy are probably sitting on the line between toy and hobby grade. You can't change the cut off, the ESC isn't adjustable, the steering servo controls are locked at 6 volts. The stock servo probably won't last long at 7.4 volts anyway. The shocks don't look like much either. I am planning on getting one to club race this summer, first round of changes will be tires and servo. I will replace the shocks as soon as they start wearing our and the ESC and motor when I can drive it well on that slow speed.

[@GettingthruLife]

The cheapy tires because the foam really can't be considered anything positive. They sell at the over inflated price of 39.00 for 2. AE probably has 10.00 invested. Stuff in China seem fir crazy cheap and u.s. market marks that price way up. If AE had given me 2 pro4 tires just to keep me happy, a drop in the bucket. I have bought new tires, concepts tires/foam/ wheels, though really didn't need/have to for what I'm doing. I also bought the upgraded, higher model spec so called Reedy servo.Slightly highter speed and more torque metal gear, ball bearing steering server 2513. I'm just not ready to spend another 125.00 -150.00 on a esc. I don't even think the weak China, "with stuck on Reedy label," is overheating on my 2s 6000mah 120c batteries so that's a plus. 3s might be a whole different story.

[@jm4472]

What is the voltage of the batteries after the ESC low voltage cutoff. The Reedy SC-600BL is supposed to be set at 3.2 as the cutoff. Just curious what your batteries were reading at cutoff ? I just bought the Pro2 SC10. It has the same ESC.

[@GettingthruLife]

Mine is set to 3.68 - 3.7 LVC and it stops the Pro4 in its tracks. I even have a hand held HiTec lipo voltage checker. Team Associated told me tough luck, by one of our more expensive ESC's with a 10% discount which the only other one to buy was close to $195 and for 1/8 scale buggies.

[@jm4472]

@@GettingthruLife wow. Ya I guess I’ll have to check mine now to see what they cut off at. I am generally getting about 30-35 minute run times with a 5300 Mah battery but haven’t actually checked the voltage after. But again mines the 2 wheel drive.

[@GettingthruLife]

@@jm4472 Then you most likely are getting the near full use of your batteries at 30 min. That's what I was expecting but I'm topped out at about 14-15 min. And note I have plenty of other youtube trolls commenting saying I'm a whiner, stop being ridiculous, you are in the wrong hobby, man up and buy a better esc, what did you expect with a rtr? KZbin can be a pretty obnoxious platform.

[@jm4472]

@@GettingthruLife of course but it sounds like you got a bad ESC that is not functioning properly and obviously they should send you a replacement. Who did you buy through directly from associated? If you bought through a hobby shop, they’ll probably replace it for you.

[@jm4472]

@@GettingthruLifealso there’s an Ebay store called RC Nitro Hobbies who sells that same ESC for $45 brand new. Other hobby shops have them for $75 to $ 100. I know it sucks but that might be worth it 🤷🏽‍♂️

[@dang3402]

With my upgrades I’m keeping up with tekno and Losi. It’s expected that you’ll have to upgrade these short course trucks based on your needs and tracks you run it on.

[@GettingthruLife]

Some people buy these just to have fun and their goal is/was not to be forced into upgrading, be the baddest short cousre Rc truck at the track or the intent to run them/jump them so hard and high that buying future replacement parts is a must do. Not all have the same mentality or method of spending money. I'm not playing with mine as much as I thought. Thinking about selling. I've used it a handful of times (10) and put about $140 extra into it plus $130 in batteries. A RC track/hobby shop 10min from me. Likely can find someone who will appreciate it more and will build it up to take the track ad crash abuse.

[@SleekHobbies88]

My sc10 pro 4 has no issues, probably default on yours. Sorry for your luck

[@GettingthruLife]

It's not all bad. I'm having fun with it. Just making videos and this is content, life experiences. They obviously set LVC to come in way early because most people clueless and need extra help to not set their house on fire or damage their batteries. ONLY grip is when it hits 3.7 volt the esc shuts off the power completely.team associated warranty department wanted no part of helping. Life goes on, lesson learned with associated's customer support.

[@nightcoregirlprinzeugen7234]

I know how you feel. Most of these companies like "Team Associates" will only help you out if you're willing to spend more money on their products.

[@fishininjun]

It's the downfall of RTR's really.

[@GettingthruLife]

I've had a couple really good RTR rc vehicle. I've also built my own and spent large sums of money on upgrade parts. With this said, main point of this video was to bring up the disappointing aspect of rebranding. I personally find it kind of disappointing for such a legendary rc company but like you mention the direction things have gone for US products. Doesn't mean the Pro4 is a bad product because it's fairly good, but something people should be aware about so can make more informed buying decisions. Makes the Losi great rtr vehicles and super popular Arrma brand look like the better investment.

[@fishininjun]

@@GettingthruLife Thats some good investigating, for the ones of us that've only been in the hobby for a few years and never question where the design comes from, I like that kind of info.

[@yesidtac7863]

Que endia bro 😮

[@Abdulaziz3131]

I have exactly the same issue with voltage cutoff

[@GettingthruLife]

OK, thanks for letting me know. Team Associated's help/service person stated that whatever I was experiencing was the factory spec setting yet some part of me feels they themselves didn't know what it was set at. I feel I was just was told excuses, and it's just fine. I got the impression i was more blown off rather than helped or seen too. NOTE: Their customer service main person at Team Associated told me on the phone, our last conversation, that the vehicle I have was not designed or promoted to run in sand or sand like conditions. If I had known this, I would not have spent my $350.00 with Associated. I should have spent a little more and bought from one of the two other big, and very popular brands. Team Associated isn't the same company these days as in the past. Made in China seems to be main emphasis now. A lot of their replacement parts and upgrade are and have been out of stock for months.

[@jozy5154]

That stinks, especially customer service. I heard nothing but good things about this sct

[@GettingthruLife]

It's still a good platform but all arrows point to Team Associated company having nothing to do with this RC vehicle's build, development and design. It's 99% most likely produced molds and setup in China and Team Associated just has the latest rights to sell it. The electronics is what I hear is rebranded Hobbywing motor and esc which isn't bad either just not Reedy/AE derived and made products. I'm going to keep my SC10 Pro4 and enjoy it and play with it for near future. Not worth buying a new ($150-215) motor and esc yet but I did bite the bullet and spend $75 towards 4 x JConcepts Choppers tires and basic blk SC wheels. Sucks that I spent the time packaging and going into the postal office and then spending $15 to send the tires for possible warranty claim per AE customer service but immediately having them rejected to send at least 2 replacements. They knew what was wrong with the tires from my explanation and video I sent them. Wasted time and effort on my part plus they spent shipping sending them back to me. Get this too, the manager there at Team Associated told me on the phone that this truck was not meant or designed to run in sand. If I had known this piece of information, I would have definitely bought one of the other short course trucks from the other 2 to 3 manufactures that will say their RC vehicles can be used in sand. Buy this truck and there is really no warranty because it comes from China. Go to China to seek warranty.