hey guys, finally had the last straw with my flysky radio. Sick of having 1/2 recievers going bad and having glitching constantly. Almost lost a $600 kit because of runaways. Been asking around about a good $200-350 transmitter for my racing. So far i have narrowed it down to three choices,
airtronics mt-4, futaba 4pl and the radiopost radio.

Radiopost: top of my budget, but has a lot of features and feels nice in my hand, lesser known brand, color screen.

Futaba: Best price of them all, good features, backlight, doesen't feel quite as good in my hand, heard futaba recievers get hot and shut down. latency is the slowest.

Airtronics: telemetry, no backlight, pricey recievers, have heard of no problems with airtronics radios.

My question is, which one is the best bang for the buck and which one would be better in the long run. Would like answers from people that have owned at least 2 of the radios listed above. listed some disadvantages and advantages, but wondering if there is anything else i missed. Will be running them with a nitro truggy and a losi 4wd shortcourse. oh, and nobody dare mention getting a spektrum as i hate those with every fiber of my being.

Well, I can comment on 2 of them. I had a Futaba 4PL and sold it when I got on the RadiOpost team. The 4PL is very nice in your hand, light, easy to use and the cheapest to own. I also owned the Futaba 4PKS (pro version) and I would say for me the only difference I felt was not being able to position the wheel. The radiOpost is also very comfortable in hand and pretty easy to use. Not a fan of the twist screen or the color screen as it's not the easiest to see in sunlight.
Now with all of that said, I have made the switch back to the Futaba 4PL and won't switch again. The receivers are the cheapest out there and their service (if needed) is second to no one. There is no overheating issues with any of the 4PL recievers, there was with the earlier fasst recievers though. Unless you are a worlds driver, don't worry so much about the latency of the radio, but more of the feel.
I also had an MX11, nice radio, but this is where the "feel" comes into play...running 20 minute nitro mains felt like I was holding a 10 baby in my hand. Heaviest radio I have ever owned.
I hear you on the spectrum stuff...tried both the DX3S and DX3R and didn't like either.

Just to add a little to the post above this...
Never heard of the 4PL's receivers overheating and the latency is still faster than human perception. I use one and it has about a 50% market share of all the radios out there at the tracks in my area for the reasons of price and quality.

The telemetry could be nice on the Airtronics setup but I've never seen anyone actually use it regularly and only heard of a handful of people who do. Not worth the extra $$$.

Also rare is a glowing endorsement for the Radiopost stuff from real racers who do not also have some variation of sponsorship from the company listed in their sigs.

I have heard more positive things about the futaba than any other radio on the market. Just to let you know, the guy who reccomended the radiopost was sponsored by them. Gonna look at a few more posts on here before i see a clear winner. With the radiopost it seems like it has more features than i need or will ever use. The airtronics i would say is kind of out, because of the telemetry that i dont need and the lack of a backlight. All between the radiopost and futaba now.

From my study about them. MT-4 is capable of FHSS-3, which is the faster receiver but you will lost the telemetry, FHSS4T. This means you can swap receiver to the faster one once your skill become better. I'm using 3PL right now but many people at my track are using MT-4. I'm waiting for them to switch to M12 so I can get MT-4 from one of them.

I use to be sponsored by radiopost and got my radio for free and will never suggest it to anyone. I had numerous electric run aways. Don't know if they ever took care of that issue and dont care. That free radio paid for itself with the parts needed to repair basically the entire car. I've heard of a steering lock issue with the 4PL but I have yet to experience it myself. I paid $209 new for mine and receivers are only $50. The backlit display and feel of the trigger is what sold me. The MT4 was high on the list as well. They both have the same trigger feel and I didnt have to run fuel tubing on the trigger to take up the huge gap between my finger and the brakes.

Yep at this point futaba seems the best for the price. I'm sure the radiopost is a decent radio, just i haven't seen much of them without sponsors. The futaba is the most unbiased reliable option. Have been pretty sold on it for a while.

I've not had one issue with the 4PL. Its comfortable, reliable and easy to set up. I love the internal antenna, small receivers that you can get for it that cost under $40. I've ran my Futaba equipment in everything from a lightened F104 to a loaded SCTE running a RX8/4600 combo, a Savox high torque servo, motor fan and transponder. I added a glitch buster and haven't had any brown out issues. I've never had control issues at distance.

The radio does all this with just 4 AA batteries too

I would highly recommend the 4PL to anyone.

I did not choose the 4pl becouse of the outside antenna.
But i did choose the mt4 becouse of the internal antenna.
The mt4 does have telemetry but you dont need to use it.The only good thing for me with telemetry is monitoring the rx battery voltage.

The only bad thing with mt4 is the lack of backlight display.But it is not really
needed.
The remote is werry light and have a good feel about everything.
And compared to my preveous spectrum dx3s it is really a state of art.

For me hands down 4pl, its sweet easy to set up and use just my opinnin

4pl for me its a great all around radio. Very nice feel and light.

Thanks for the input. I think we all know what radio i'm getting now due to the enormous non-sponsored support for it........the futaba. Gonna pick one up very soon. I appreciate all of you guys chiming in.

Well bit the bullet and got a futaba 4pl. Got it super cheap at my local hobby shop for only $210 brand new. Popped the reciever in my truck and took it for a spin. First impressions like the radio, just didn't like what it did to my truck next. Tons of glitching, servo was sticking, throttle would say on a little longer after i was completely off the trigger, and sometimes it would steer the opposite direction i chose. Completley un-heard of on this radio. Binded it to my friend's 4pl at the track and it did the same thing to him. At least I now know it was only the reciever. Guess i just got the first dud out of like a million as i have never heard of that before. Luckily i have a great hobbyshop and they'll swap it out for me no problem on monday. Just kind of irks me i didn't get to race. Not the radio's fault just a bad reciever. I'm sure with a new reciever i'll have just as positive of an experience as everyone else has had with this radio.

Keep us posted!

Hi, just want to know if the 4PL's steering and throttle are ball bearing supported?