Watch before you purchase Team Associated reflex 14t 14b

[@robrath31]

Saved me big time, thank you!!!

[@ag11b69]

You must have got a lemon because I have been beating the hell out of mine on all types of terrain and it hasn't failed me yet. I do agree that for an off road buggy, it just captures sand and debris like crazy. I just had to do a full tear down procedure on the suspension to get it cleaned and lubed up. Other than that it's been a solid addition to my fleet.

[@johnsteele8073]

I have FOUR OF THEM. All garbage. Its completely insane they run one run and strip gears. Sealed bearing failed. now Im spending $$$ on ceramic bearing. Ive owned associated 1/10 scale stuff for 20 years Ive never seem anything like this.

[@kevinknabe7252]

My son's did exactly in this video within the first 5 mins of running. He got it for Christmas from his grandparents. Now I have to fit it. Sucks.

[@ricksprings]

Great video. I noticed the rear diff case holding larger bearing was warped/worn out of round--causing spur gear grinding. The front has different design with 2 smaller bearing on diff out drive. Got this for my son & bought Tacon truggy for me. Both are good, both have pros & cons. Part of the fun/frustration factor of RC hobby. Tacon much easier to wrench on. Durability wise Reflex gets nod.. Reflex is headache for tear down & maintain.... I have Serpent 1/8th, Team Associated /Traxxas/HPI 1/10th, Tamiya 1/12th, Tacon 1/14th.....Reflex is the worst for disassembly & rebuild maintenance.

[@banddad5011]

Thank you, I was about to buy 4 as well...

[@tontoapache4948]

Thanks for the video! I drive mainly on gravel and I really get annoyed when I can't get more than a few turns before locking up. The e-revo 1/16th was doing that to me and I had to throw summit tires on it to almost stop all of it.

[@lyst5946]

i have one of the newer 14b gammas and they still havent fixed the rock problem :/

[@expediterfromgeorgia7981]

I’ve had mine for over a year now. I haven’t had any problems with mine. Sorry you’re having problems.

[@mikeday62]

I was able to remove both bearings front and rear of the center diff, without removing the speed control from it's perch. Either way it's a PIA. My bearings were fine, I was only replacing the spur gear. A member on RCtech forum reported damaged center diff bearings on two of his Reflex 14 buggies. He noticed it after crashing into immovable objects. The higher quality bearings (like you mentioned) sound like the answer for now.

[@johnsteele8073]

Even from gentle driving.. what I'm seeing is the spur gear is getting chewed up because the bearing fails.. ultimately the problem is it doesn't have a slipper clutch.. how to build a machine like this without a slipper clutch is just lazy engineering. I believe I know what they did they put in three open differentials thinking that would be enough wheel spin to stop the damage from happening but ultimately there's a giant shock load when you go in the air and land or whenever you go from spinning to high traction

[@donniemarks94]

Very good video and info, it’s the sand and rocks that’s killing your bearings tho

[@BlakeBeardsley]

Thank you for posting this. Wish I watched this before buying this buggy yesterday. Had a bit of issue just getting it to switch to lipo, but then it started screeching 5 minutes into my first drive. I checked the spur and pinion easily and they were fine. Now I know what the problem is. As soon as I get it fixed I think I'm gonna sell it. Was looking for something smaller then 10th scale for around home. Search continues...

[@ricksprings]

LCracing or Tacon 1/14th scale lineup. Way better than this platform... bought Tacon truggy for myself and got this for my son. We've had better durability with 14t than this, but once wear/tear started it's been a headache! Bought him brushed Traxxas Rustler to enjoy with ZERO issues... research LCracing or Tacon brands they're solid!

[@xrskidz]

Yiu clearly see he's been abuseing it with water and mud

[@993GT3]

I’ve had to rebuild my dif multiple times and am completely fed up at this point. That small gear on the front of the dif setup spins on the small metal pin it’s held in place with. I get no more than 30 seconds of run time before the gear strips out. Not sure what to do at this point.

[@kevinknabe7252]

My son's did the same thing. I didn't even realize this could happen. We've been using it and now it's fwd. I'm sure the back end is pretty messed up. My parents got it for him as a Christmas present. This was supposed to be an upgrade from his latrax teton that is always broken. Now we have 2 broken rc trucks. Sucks. Do you have the part numbers for the bearings???

[@RC-Fan]

Thank you for comment, so i will get better the losi mini T 2.0 for my 5 year old son, although its 2wd and not 4wd, but easier to repair....

[@christopherkinser1598]

You should Put a link to the ESC you mentioned in the video. great heads up though on the issues

[@johnsteele8073]

I think this is it I havent bought one yet www.hobbywingdirect.com/products/quicrun-wp-16bl30?variant=655602133

[@COSTALS6MARO]

You have a link for the bearings

[@kirkglundal4289]

Sorry about your bad luck. I have read on the forums about the center diff front bearing being a potential problem but I have had good luck w mine. No issues. Runs great! They must have had a bad run of bearings? Could have affected all four of yours. Maybe your bearing seat (in the chassis) has melted and no longer holds bearing in alignment?? Another user posted about potential chassis flex in rear (around center diff) but mine appears plenty stiff enough. Still I'll pick up some fast eddy bearings and swap them when I add diff fluid. I think its well designed really. I put the ESC on the floor of chassis in front of a Gens Ace 1300 2s Lipo. Also added an E-flite heat sink to motor. Reach out to Associated on this, I mean you have four and all w issues! Good luck!

[@4estrnr472]

How have the fast Eddy bearings held up? I just blew mine out and ordered a set of fast Eddy breathing and spur gear.

[@kirkglundal4289]

They are still in the box. My factory bearings are still running fine. Although, I can tell the factory bearings aren't as good of quality as the fast Eddie bearings for sure.

[@endliberalism4305]

#1Gear mesh is too tight and you’re overheating and blowing bearings, #2 esc is going into thermal because your gear mesh is too tight, you are stressing the system. #3 I know 3 guts that drive these little platforms into the dirt (no pun intended) and have had ZERO issues ! I’m willing to bet this is 100% user error .

[@jon200sx]

Out the box it should be set fine. Just has the same on one of ours whereas the other is fine. The one thats fine does seem to have more oil/grease around the bearing though which is maybe why its lasted. Hopefully a warranty repair!

[@kirkglundal4289]

The stock ESC lets me run the Lipo down to 3.75 w no signs of cut-off. I would prefer it cuts off there or even earlier at 3.8V (static, no load) per cell. I had some old batteries and they must have been sagging bad cause they would cut off around 3.8V. I prefer not to run my lipos too deep for longevity sake.Maybe your lipo's are sagging??

[@johnsteele8073]

Hi Kirk. 3.8 volts is not even half discharged... It should cut off at 3.2. I have a more advanced charger that shows me how much charge is getting put into it... And I'm only putting in about 750 milliamps... Which is ridiculous considering it's a 1600 pack. The cut off doesn't seem to work right at all...

[@kirkglundal4289]

Yes, I get that but it is quite possible that your lipo is sagging to the cut off voltage when under load during a punch out for example. I don't know. I had some old lipos that sag bad from near full charge and the ESC would demonstrate cut off behavior (throttle to zero, brake on). When using new quality lipo the ESC has NOT cut off on me yet. I stopped w cell voltage at 3.75 V static just because I think they last longer. If you were to run down to 3.2V per cell the lipo no matter the quality will sag to damaging levels during high loads. Good luck! Hope it helps

[@johnsteele8073]

@@kirkglundal4289 it could be that I have a defective battery... But I've seen the same effect with my kids cars also I guess I'd have to do a little more experimenting.. I get that there's a voltage drop under load... But my other speed controllers (castle) seem to be programmed extremely well where they can tell the difference between a temporary drop and a real drop. This thing will pretty much cut 90% of the power and then you let go of the throttle and then it gives you full power again. It's very erratic. I don't know how I can make it any clearer if you're only draining the battery to 3.8 volts you're only using half the capacity. To my knowledge it does not hurt lithium polymer batteries to drain them completely because they're not really draining completely that's why you have the 3.2 cut off. I believe you are thinking about sealed lead acid batteries where draining them below half capacity is very detrimental to the lifespan

[@kirkglundal4289]

@@johnsteele8073 Yes. my stock ESC does the same thing. If I try the throttle again, after cut off, it takes off then repeats cut off. That behavior doesn't happen with a Li-po in good shape though. YMMV. The sc300bl manual states, 3.2V for more than 2 sec.. I suspect my very old small 2s packs are indeed sagging enough to induce the cut off. Nice, Castle is quality stuff and likely much more efficient for sure. I expect to get 50-60% of the rating on any battery and be doing well. I shoot for 3.8 to 3.7V in general. Maybe go down to 3.6V but Lipo's drop off the cliff at 3.6V. It's really diminishing returns after 3.7V. I just throw in a fresh pack, it's just a number (mAh.) I am used to aviation where a little safety margin is important. A car, I guess it matters less except at the cost of battery longevity. Stay above 3.7V and your batteries will last longer, no doubt.

[@jameswisecarver]

I have the same issue with the esc, they told me I need to buy better batteries....we'll see then I'll hobbyywing this mofo. Yea rocks get stuck back I have no other car that does that and it was running quiet then not it's not horrible but doesnt sound great guess I'll do a tear down and check for that failed bearing, has anyone tried the huge spur it comes with 70t I think?

[@user-fh5sm5rf9o]

215 bucks is a night out. Maybe you’re putting too much power into it - and over heating the esc and causing the spur gear to strip.

[@4estrnr472]

Ive replaced two steerings servos in less than a week. Dont buy the factory servo as a replacement. Unfortunately thats all they have... Update: have gone through 3 front bearings as well. When this bearing goes out the spur gear gets shredded. Team fast Eddy bearings didn’t help. Another thing is the screws ALL over the car strip constantly they are super cheap. The steering arm also strips I’ve gone through three steering arms because they strip 🙄

[@crazymariofan8806]

I was driving my friends earlier today, and I was just driving it down the road not abusing it at all and the servo just died out of absolutely no where

[@christopherwelch5568]

well.. not buying one of these now. thanks for the warning. wanted to get back in to rc's but I guess I forgot they're a money pit.

[@Tattvadarzin.]

So as I understand it, you contacted Associated and your retailer. They did not reply? On seeing the video I did not realise this but thought you should see what they had to say. It is a pity because you do seem in a minority. However I would avoid a manufacturer and retailer that could not care less about a product that demonstrates serious serial failures not long out of the box. Despite supply problems I think I will not support Associated nor my LHS and I will get an LC Racing EMB-T from China.

[@estegerset]

Lc embt rocks...rips, takes a beating and runs 3s.. but ive snapped cvds on 3s with big tires

[@johnsteele8073]

SEALED BEARING failed. Now I'm at $4 each ceramic bearings. Insane. I spent over $1,000 on the four of these so far and I've had zero support from Team associated corporate and A main hobbies.

[@jonathansheeder5153]

I wish there was a Losi like this. I love my mini T. Granted, they're all horizon hobby.

[@chuckyfreebirdking8709]

Losi mini 8

[@nateandyourmom]

Now I don't want it. Shit