I went out with my new EB48 on practice day and had some fun. I've made only small changes from stock (a bit more rear ride height, some droop adjustment all around), and was able to keep up with one of our consistent top a main performers. I let him drive it for a few laps as opposed to his AE 8.2e and he was hooked and wants to get one (and was definitely a good chunk faster with it).

I had a couple HUGE hits (full speed down the straight into a car that decided to pull out sideways, and full speed down the straight into an 8th scale SC that decided to stop). I popped a turnbuckle ball joint off of the ball to the edge of the ball, but it popped right back without issue. That was the only damage to the car, though I was expecting horrific results. Unfortunately, my servo seems to be fried (about a pack after the hits) and dead, so I finished off the day driving my SCTE.

All in all though, having only put about 5 packs through any 8th scale ever with this thing, I'm impressed at how well it lets me hang near the big guys already, despite my lack of experience (at least until I land on a pipe instead of the track). I look forward to getting even more out of it in the weeks to come as I get more consistent too.

Cant comment on the Serpant. Ive never driven one, but I just got the tekno and have been running the RC8.2e since the week it was first released. Now please keep in mind my comments below are based off of anly about 20-25 minutes total track time with the tekno so far.

The tekno feels more stable than my AE. But the AE has alot more steering into and mid corner and they are about equal for exit steering. The EB48 reacts faster and feels a little more connected than my AE which seems to be a little lazier feeling in the air and reacting to steering inputs. I haven't gotten to do any real setup work on the EB48 yet and have had my 8.2e for almost a year now, so the comparison is not quite fair, but I was still turning faster laps with the AE. However, I was close with the Tekno in box stock setup and with the limited time so far only really getting to run a couple packs thru it, I feel like there is alot of potential in this car.

All that said, I was sold enough on it in that short time that I ordered a second EB48 kit yesterday to use as parts support. That means I must be pretty sold on it because the RC8.2e is just about the best driving 1/8e buggy Ive handled, and Ive been through a number of them. When I ordered the EB48 I was fully prepared to stay with the RC8.2e. Haven't sold the AE yet, but its looking like it may go that way.

Amain and Tekno got parts in. I'm trying to decide what spares to buy. I'm definitely ordering a couple spur gears, camber link ends, steering link ends, and hinge pin inserts. I'm undecided on what else I should order. I thought I might want arms, inner hinge pins and maybe camber and steering links.

I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't break anything over the weekend, but I know that sooner or later I'll have The Big One and things will break.

Danny,

Would you foresee any possible changes to the kit between now and say, 6 months - 1 year from now? Like, might you change a mfg tolerance on the shocks to address the build issues some have, or change something in the diff to allow it to assemble smoother? These are just examples, not statements that changes would help

I know there are a few people out there "waiting" to see if any problems get fixed, but to me it doesn't seem likely that anything would change between now and even a year from now.

From a guy very very inside the business of RC, how does this work?

Thanks,

Joey

There will always be running changes, but major changes are usually saved for a future release. Running changes might include instruction revisions, fine tuning the hardware list, etc. People have had issues with the shocks and we will address that with instructions and information. If customers continue to have issues, then we might consider changing something else. But the shocks work great with the parts in the kit, it's an information presentation issue at this point, we need to improve that.

For the diffs, we were a little more concerned at first, but after monitoring all the cars that are local to us, we feel that the diffs are actually better than what we tested with for the past year during the prototype phase. I wish they went together smoother, but if they didn't break-in so good we would be more concerned.

At this time we don't feel there is any reason to wait to buy the kit . We'd like to hear more feedback though and if other issues come up we will address them. How it gets addressed (running change or official release) will be determined later. The 2nd run of the EB48 (and subsequent runs for the foreseeable future) will have all of the same parts except for 2 screws and different instructions.

edit: 2000th post in the EB48 thread!

I just picked up the eb48 as well and like you I also have the RC8.2e. Like yourself I have a lot of experience with the 8.2e and agree with you that once dialed this buggy rocks. I just got the eb48 dialed in and It's better in the air, and better with on power steering than the RC8.2e. I raced on two different tracks today and found that in a smaller, tighter, more technical track the EB48 shined liked no other. But on the bigger track,with more traction my lap times were the same as my RC8.2E . The Tekno buggy would have had faster lap times than my RC8.2e on the bigger track, but with the eb48 I spent more time in the air lol. This buggy flies awesome and lands the same. Great buggy and money well spent.I still love my RC8.2E.

awesome! Do you plan on heading out to dirt burners tomorrow? We've been getting a large 8th scale turn out every week full A & B-main sometimes run into a partial C-main.

Yea Jay, After we left the track yesterday, I was thinking about 7/5/3 (or even trying 7/7/3 in the near future like MY Serpent likes on our track......
But either way, I have to say the Tekno EB48 is one well designed car.....very nice job guys.... To simply take a car and run it 100% straight out of the box, with rear springs that were obviously WAY too soft for our local HUGE JUMPS track, and already (in just a few battery packs) be every bit as fast (even felt slightly faster in the technical sections) than our 811e's with TONS of hop-ups installed, and months worth of dialing them in.... That's pretty CRAZY ......... I'll have mine all ready for this Sat...just gotta get some paint on the body.........
Joe

Two questions here during my build....

1) On the center diff. The spur is a bit unbalanced, once its mounted on the diff mounts, I spin it by hand and can see that it "wobbles" some. I caught this at first because I felt minor rubbing of the spur on the brace on the top. At first I dremmled the top brace, but then I realized that the spur has a "wobble" when it spins. I thought this might be linked to the screws holding in the spur being slightly tightened at different torque levels, so I made sure that I tighten them all the same (turning the screws in by hand, with approximately the same torque). But still have this wobble. Not sure if using a torque wrench type crew could fix this, or if the issue could be somewhere else in the diff. The diff gears turn smooth (for not having been broken in yet).

2) The rear chassis brace. Having a problem with securing the top screw on the brace, because the head of the screw is too large and does not fit, due the head of another bolt, which is part of the wing mount. I have tried to take both of these screws out and try to put one in at a time, to see if they will fit, but no luck. Only solution I can thing of is to dremmel some of area where the brace screw sits, so make the head of the counter sink and be flush. However, I didn;t want to weaken the brace, so I held hoof on this and see if anyone else has had this same issue and sound another solution. I attached a pic below.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Here's how I connected up my RX8 & T8....this setup gives me enough room for maintenance, such as pulling the motor out completely, etc.

You have the wing mount bolt in the wrong way around. It should go through the shock tower from the back and thread into the plastic tab on the gear case.

you've installed the lower shock tower screws in backwards causing the heads to interfere with each other. go back to page 7 in the manual and review the screw orientations.

Oh C**P! THANKS guys...a late night build mistake!

If anyone has feedback on the SPUR question.....greatly appreciated!

Mine was a little wobbly too. Once it was all mounted up it wasnt enough to rub on anything though.

My spur also wobbled. I tightened up the side that wobbled towards the edge of the diff holder a bit to reduce the wobble, but ended up taking plastic out of the top as well. It hasn't been an issue with lining up the pinion though.