Good ESC for mod buggy.
 

I am in the market for a new esc for a 2wd buggy with a 7.5 motor. Im not looking at low budget ESC's as the one that was there (trackstar) caught on fire last race. I had all tekin ESC's and currently use the RSX and I like it. I just want to give a chance to a different brand. ie. Orion, Reedy, Novak, LRP or If I should stay tekin and get another RSX. Which one should I get? I never used anything else but tekin, trackstar and speedpassion. What would you guys recommend?

Thanks.

Reedy Black box, Hobbywing Stockspec.

Personally I switched from Tekin to Speed Passions and they have been superb for me. However, from the end of 2014 to 2015 their Customer Service was reportedly dropping the ball which is an area of concern for pretty much everyone. I bought a Hobbywing 3.1 and it is also excellent but I find has superior brakes, pretty much to any other ESC. I have an XR10 Justice in my 2WD RM car and the brakes are nice, but not as goos as that found on the 3.1.

The Toro TS120 is an excellent ESC and with Programming Box you're still under half of the cost of an RSX. Rick from crpplus.com runs them in all his cars and he's winning races consistently. The Toro seems to be made by Speed Passion as are a plethora of other ESC's from well established RC Brands, so it speaks to how good Speed Passion products are.

If you use a Sanwa Radio, their Vortex ESC's are definitely worth looking into because you can adjust settings on the fly via the radio, provided you have a corresponding receiver.

If you prefer to keep things consistent, just get another RSX if it works for you.

If you want to try a moderately priced esc , check out the smc 120 or the hobby wing 120a 2.1 . Both come in under $100.00 , just over $100 with a programmer

The Toro ESCs I believe are the same as what G-Force has for ESCs, from what I hear they are good stuff. That TS160 using is quite interesting. That CRP place you mentioned also has a 90 day warranty and a pretty good price too. If they are great with how they handle warranties, could be a good way to go.

G-Force from what I understand has Nick from formally Viper heading up things too, had good luck there for any warranty issues.

Hobbywings line of ESCs do offer a lot of bang for the buck, however my only experience with them recently for a warranty issue left a lot to be desired. Performance wise though, no complaints on the stuff I have that does work.

I am looking forward to seeing what Maclan comes out with as customer service is a big deal to me.

I do wonder whatever happened to Novak ...

For me right now, with what is out there from a customer service side of things, I'd probably stick with what you have for now at least unless you hear some great things on the place selling Toro, or G-Force as well. Tekin's service has always been excellent.

Hobbywing ESC
Trackstar Motor

I know you said no to the trackstar esc's, and I completly agree with you to stay away from them. Some people have good luck, but not I. However, their motors are pretty damn decent for the price. I run 4 of them all with Hobbywing 3.1 120amp esc's.

unfortunately i had bad luck wit ts esc's. on the other hand the warranty is been great. they sent me another one right away. I do like their motors and i had a few of the old trackstars and now both 7.5T are thrackstar v2 motors and i like them. i was looking at some reviews on the LRP team works esc and also a blackbox reedy. the orions are just priced kinda high for my budget.

LOLOLOL…

In my former racing life Novak was the benchmark for ESC's but the 4 I bought were utter JUNK and their customer service back then was non-existent. We are talking almost 30 years ago though.

So, when I hung up my paintball cleats and decided to get back into RC almost 5 years ago, I did a bit of research and Novak once again looked to be a very popular brand and I bought a top of the line Brushless ESC and motor. For a couple of months everything was excellent. Than one day I dropped my truck on the track and half way through the first lap the car began to sputter and I immediately pulled it off the track and the ALL TOO FAMILIAR ODOR I had the displeasure of experiencing all those years ago was back! Burned ESC and motor!

With it being just a couple of months old, I immediately contacted Novak to explain what happened and the customer service I was treated to was for me to send the combo back in at my expense and they'd give me a $20 discount towards a new combo. I told the guy it's more cost effective for me if I throw it in the trash and he didn't care one bit.

The name Novak itself should serve as warning enough to stay away just like Nova was for Chevy's junk heap. In Spanish No Va means NO GO and I will NEVER again buy another Novak ANYTHING. If they were the last brand in RC I'd go with an old mechanical throttle setup from the old grasshoppers and the like or quit.

And just an FYI, today's Tekin isn't the same Tekin I used to love.

My love for Tekin goes so far back I STILL have my original 411P on my Andy's Carbon Composite kit so I was quite happy to be able to run Tekin again and bought a couple of RS Pros, but I had an issue with my cars browning out and was told it was my servo causing the issue because they were drawing too much power. So, I bought different brand servos and the issue continued. I contacted Tekin again and again they swore it wasn't their ESC's causing the issue. Luckily a couple of sponsored drivers on the stand saw it happen and both asked if I was running Tekin ESC's and I said yes, and both suggested I try a different brand ESC to see if the issue disappears. low and behold I got a couple of Reventon Pros and never had the issue again. I've also run Hobbywing and never had this issue so I know it wasn't ANY other equipment in my cars.

LRP are likely still the most powerful ESC's in the industry but I believe they are still programmed via buttons rather than a box or computer and they are absurdly overpriced. Their Motors are unquestionably among the very best available.

Black Box is a bit overpriced and Orion is absurdly overpriced along with LRP.

I suggest you try something at less than half the price and see how equal the performance is to the majority of the expensive brands.

I've been running the Hobbywing ESCs and motors on everything from bashers to buggy to 4wd SCT and have no problems. I think it's hard to beat the value... fantastic performance and extremely programmable for a moderate price.

i know that its not a big name company, but I run Dualsky brand motor and esc. You program it via, computer link, programming card or button press. If you have any questions feel free to ask. You can order them through BellgateDistributors.com

Orca esc's are really good for both mod and stock racing, ive been using them for two years now without any issues. The only initial down side is you have to use a program card to set them up which is sold separately.

lol that treatment you got sure makes you want to run back to them :rolleyes::lol:

yeah, the HW stuff I have had before the Stock Spec esc I got in new had no issues, works great, runs,etc. For me, the response I got concerning their policies or I should say, how they were hard to find and contradictory in what they would send you via email has put me off on them as far as buying anything new I hate to say. But, in general the stuff works and has been reliable. The replacement SS esc I got works great so far, just like I would expect. Heck even got another cheap HW 120 V2.1 coming in because of that to tide me over.

But customer service matters a lot for sure to me when I buy new, if it sucks but the product is known to be good and reliable, I'll just buy it used.

The whole Toro thing through Caster Racing interests me, especially that 160A that is pretty cheap.

Well if crpplus.com is interesting to you, I can speak to Rick's customer service and attention to detail is unparalleled in the industry. Every time I've ordered anything regardless of how large or small an order, it's shipped promptly and NEVER a mistake on any order.

Buy from him with confidence!

Good stuff. The TS160 unit has some features I like. I also like the fact that the esc has a HV bec and appears to have a build in cap too.