Everyone is going to have their favorite (and least favorite) brands for a myriad of reasons. I've been club racing for about 10 years and have tried dozens of brands across the board where generally speaking you get what you pay for. There are some hidden gems that can save you a little cash here and there and this is what I have found to work best for me in finding a good balance between budget and performance:
- Radio - Which surface radio system is the best?
- I have settled on the Graupner X-8E
- USA Distributor closed 25-FEB-2020, no word from Graupner if/when a new distributor will take over, parts/service is limited to overseas at this time
- Color touch screen is the easiest to navigate of any of the dozens of systems I have touched to date
- Integrated USB charger port, no fuss having to remove LiPo to charge it
- Rx's are in the $30 range making this system one of the most affordable of the high quality systems
- UPDATE NOV-2020, I recently bought a HITEC LYNX 4S to compliment my Graupner, both systems are excellent choices!
- Servo - Which servo is right for me
- Battery - of the dozen or so budget brands I have tested, all of them typically last around 6 months before performance starts to drop off and they need to be replaced.
- Trinity White Carbon packs can handle 40A cycle rates and will last over a year before they start to degrade making them more economical in the long run over most budget brands
- Zeee Lipo packs are a solid compromise for the price, I would limit these packs to 10A charge rates
- Motor
- Mod - it doesn't matter what brand you get, RCJuice (USA) and Banggood (China) are great resources for budget older generation motors
- Stock - is a completely different animal... stick with a high end name brand (I prefer Trinity), How to tune a Stock Motor
- ESC
- HobbyWing offers some of the best quality/features you can get for the price, there are many other budget brands that are cheaper but you will end up buying twice before you know it... HobbyWing offers deep discounts for any ESC damaged outside of warranty protection
- Tekin is a little more expensive but they offer more features for the discriminating racer
- Which charger is the best?
Last edited by billdelong; 11-05-2020 at 08:02 AM.