i will agree with jason on something. it is kind of annoying that a manufacturer would allow their team drivers to use parts from other manufacturers. i can understand if when the buggy is first released and the springs/pistons aren't available yet, but when tekno came out with their springs and pistons, IMO, the team drivers should be using them.

as for jason's other issues with the buggy, he keeps dropping the $550 price tag, then talks about how a losi 3.0 converted to electric would maybe be a better alternative. what's the cost of a new 3.0 and all of the parts to convert it?

body...well i'm not all that fond of it either. it's not horrible, but not good either.

parts support? always an issue with brands that aren't traxxas, associated, or losi. it's a factor, but how much is determined by where you are.

front center driveshaft? mine has a bit of wobble, nothing that effects performance or creates any noise, so for me, it's a non-issue. jason's certainly seemed to be on the worse end of the scale and i would be surprised if tekno didn't send one out after seeing that video.

Who cares really. Buy a losi and rebuild it every month (been there done that) and the rest of us will keep winning with our EB48s... The world goes around still.

I believe the Tekno pistons (specifically the 8x1.3s if not all 4 options) were released in May 2013, at least on AMain, so guys were running their EB48 for 6-8 months with no Tekno piston options other than stock. Kyosho pistons fit so those were used to tune. So there are setups on the Tekno website w/ Kyosho pistons out of necessity more that anything, I think.

Differences? The Tekno piston can be used convex cone facing down for most track conditions to provide faster rebound and slower compression. But, they can also be run with the convex side facing up for extremely smooth, high traction tracks, but will limit the overall shock travel. I don't know if Kyosho used 'upside down' will do the same.

I have both used both Tekno 8x1.3s(stk orientation) and Kyosho 8x1.3s and I could not tell any difference on the track. There may be a difference but my driving consistency just is not there to say yay or nay.

Why are Tekno factory drivers using Kyosho springs on their setups? I know the Tekno rears are rated pretty soft when compared to others. Or it may just come down to familiarity and what ppl have in their pitbox already???

J, were you running the center brace? Mine started making that noise you are referring to recently. It only does it under full throttle and I believe it is caused by chassis flex. At King Hobbies, mine would do it on one part of the track where you accelerate hard right after a jump. It sounded like the center diff guts were getting ripped out. I haven't been running the center chassis brace.

The front dog bone is so long, there is bound to be some warping in it with the chassis flex front and back.

I think it is a relatively minor design problem all things considered though. I've owned just about every major 1/8 brand buggy and the Tekno is one of my favorites.

My car actually did it more with the aluminum dog bone.

Just got back from the track the car was good. Tweaked the drive shaft and car went back to sounding very smooth. And pretty quiet compared to the snugged I've heard.


I tried 5/7/2 and not sure i liked it as much as 5/5/5.


Hobby shop didn't have the blue or orange Kyosho springs or pistons. As soon as I get to California on July 1st. I'm going to order a full set of Kyosho light blue and orange springs and some Kyosho pistons.

I also played with rear roll center and shorter rear camber links. Definitely like the middle inside hole at this point on the rear shock tower. When I used the upper hole the car didn't square up fast enough and tended to feel like it would want to over rotate on throttle exiting a tight right hander.

For only having raced two days and having very few parts to tune with, the car is pretty sharp. I've come to the decision it's worth ordering a couple of the aluminum drive shafts and just keep one as a back up in case for some reason you tweak your primary one.



Hell ,JHautz made a good point. Even if you had to replace one every month it's a helluva lot cheaper than replacing out drives and a whole driveline on another buggy.

Obviously we prefer to have our drivers running only Tekno products. For something like springs where it seems that the Kyosho springs are made of magic fairy dust (that's a joke), we just don't see it as being a big issue, especially since we don't offer some spring rates. I think a lot of companies get into a mindset that only their products are worthy and they start trying to control too many things - to the detriment of their own success.

If our drivers are experimenting and finding something that works better for them, we'll look into it and see if we can make our car better. In the case of springs, we don't yet offer a spring with the rate of some of the K springs. We still want to win races, so if our drivers are faster with a different spring, they can use them. If/when we release a comparable product, then yes, we would expect our drivers to use it.

Yeah I was running the center brace and the rear brace. I've bent it back to correct it twice. It seems to fix the issue for a while. I'm gona try takin the rear brace off like your car. See how it feels.

I wasn't trying to bash Tekno. I was just a bit disappointed and it came across more than I realized. I'm probably gonna re edit the video.


On a side note I just had a factory driver tell me he never reads the magazines anymore because the reviews never seem say anything other than the good points. Once he said that I kinda noticed that its more or less true.

Hello Jason,
I am sorry to hear that you had issues with your front drive-shaft out of the box. We offered you the option to send the shaft back to us, we would have sent you a brand new in package front drive-shaft(we have done this in the past). It is a known issue but it is not an issue in every kit by any means, this is why we only replace the shafts that are new and bent out of the box. The advice that was given to you over the phone was for people who didn't want to wait the 3-6 days to send in their drive-shaft for replacement. I am a customer service rep at Tekno RC and know how frustrated you are that the shaft was bent out of the box. We strive to make sure that the consumer gets the best support possible, and we do everything in our power to make it happen. I am sorry that you didn't think we took care of the issue like you wanted. If there is anything we can do for you please let us know.

-Thomas
TEKNO RC
Customer Service
(858) 997-0833 Ex:2053

+1. My first time out was with my Serpent pinion and it sounded like a cement mixer. Put a Novak one on and it was silent.

Not huge but it was noticable.

Thomas no worries....buddy.....you were helpful and not rude in any way at all! I understand that you were doing what I'm sure TEKNO has asked you to do........

I appreciate the help you provided......I was just hoping you wouldve been able to send me a replacement without needing me to send mine in and provide a video

Either way.....I've ordered the aluminum ones and should be good from here on out......

I hope you're not catching any heat from this.

Any of the Nor-Cal guys know what they are doing to the offroad tracks? I was planning on going over and getting some testing/tuning done today as well as some wheel time before coming out and racing but both tracks are closed.

1/10th track was ripped out a while ago and made into a bash park. They are going to put in a new 1/10th track in the next couple weeks. The 1/8th combo track is supposed to be redone to a more 1/8th type track design this week. They will be racing 1/10th indoors and 1/8th outdoors for a few weeks.

Just for the records, I had a slight wobble to my driveshaft but it was no more than what was on my Serpent 811BE but the shaft is much shorter on the Serpent. The aluminum one was dead straight on my EB48.

Funny you mention about springs because from all the hype, I tried light blue K springs. They were pretty good but when I went back to your green springs, I got alot more mid corner and exit steering. I think from the coarse wind on the K spring, it helps a little on the bumps but they suffer in the corners. They seem a little too progresive. However, I never did try any softer than the light blue. This is just what I found.