RIO Ep good design, Walmart quality

[petricek]

:ThumbsDown01: I came to rc boat world from off road vehicles ( Traxxas and Losi products). Here is my honest evaluation of RIO ep.
For about $160 it is not much a boat ( I bought it for $139 from Tower ). You will get a flimsy plastic hull, kind a Dannone yogurt cup plastic, ESC, which in my case literally melted down second day running on first 7 cell NiMh pack. I took ESC apart, just because I was curious what happened, and discovered that one of transistors melted completely down and turned into brown, stinky liquid. After that I installed Traxxas XL-5 even though I received new ESC promptly from Hobby Services.
Battery holder started to crack after second pack installed and I never tied down battery straps too much. That plastic holder is maybe good for lightweight Lipos but not for heavy NiMh.
A motor mount is a joke. There is a rubber strip glued to it and it melts down slightly when motor gets warm which looses up because of that. By its cheap design it also doesn't cool the motor at all.
Plate which holds receiver and servo is piece of cheap Chinese plywood. I made me new one from aluminium and aluminium hardware bought off ACE Hardware.

Driving impressions : contrary to cheap materials used, I thing that boat drives awesome. If I am not mistaken it was designed by Grimracer and it shows. I was driving it lately for two days on the bumpy ocean down to Florida and it was one of biggest blasts I lately had with rc. Until boat broke. The battery holder broke completely off, and motor "mount" is no longer able to hold motor tight. Boat's hull was also flexing a lot when it hit a wave and because of that, boat was taking a lot of water.

Next steps to make boat more durable and reliable:
- make good battery mount
- change motor mount for good one ( from Offshore electric )
- cover flimsy hull in fiberglass or carbon fiber to make it rigid.
- lately, install brushless system.

In my opinion, RIO Ep will be chosen by many new to wonderfull rc boat world but I thing after cheap materials experience they may not to go with Aquacraft again.Traxxas product are much better choice for hobby and entry level. They have superior products and costumer service.

[hyrulejedi86]

The only problem with traxxas, and I agree they are awesome, is that their boats to date aren't on the level of aquacrafts upper class boats. They were ment for beginner fun as the Rio is. Now, the Titan of course looks amazing but only time will tell.

I stripped the boat almost right away to put a brushless system in it when I got it. Once, I got it fined tuned it has been working very well.

If nothing else it's agreat learner boat.

[forescott]

I think the rio ep is a good buy for the money. I bought mine from tower for $159 minus 15-dollar off coupon and free shipping over 150- bucks = $144 shipped. The radio alone is worth 80- bucks. That leaves 64 dollars for the rest of the package. I cant complain to much about quality for that price. And the rio ep is definetly upgradeable!

[petricek]

In my opinion RIO is worth no more than $ 100. 80 bucks for radio is for what it is sold (you can buy it actually cheaper) not the price Aquacraft is buying it for. Every major component on that boat is cheaply made, except for ruders and hardware around it. ESC will break, battery holder will break, motor holder won't hold motor tight for long. I am just justifying by Traxxas entry level boats and how those are made. RIO made me not to buy another Aquacraft product anymore. It is better to buy or make your own hull and hardware, because that is, what you will do with RIO anyway to brink it to decent quality.

[Diesel6401]

I think the rio ep is a good buy for the money. I bought mine from tower for $159 minus 15-dollar off coupon and free shipping over 150- bucks = $144 shipped. The radio alone is worth 80- bucks. That leaves 64 dollars for the rest of the package. I cant complain to much about quality for that price. And the rio ep is definetly upgradeable!

:iagree:

The RIO is what got me into rc boats. I would say the esc is by far the weakest part of the boat, but other than that i enjoyed it. Only thing besides an esc i changed was the servo and that was because i stripped the gears which was all my fault. I did drop a titan 12t in it for some more speed, but now it has the stock motor back in it. Sorry you don't like the rio, it was made as a entry level boat and I think it served its purposely greatly. Aquacraft is a GREAT company IMO, sorry you don't feel the same. Like forescott said, the radio is great which I know use in my SV and that doesn't leave much cost for the boat.

[petricek]

I like how RIO drives, though. Riding it on bumpy sea was a blast until it broke ( battery holder went off. Yesterday I lost complete drive shaft with propeller etc. I don't understand it, I tightened both screws on coupler very tight. Next step - Octura flexible, teflon coated cable from Offshore, Octura coupler and better motor mount.

[Diesel6401]

I like how RIO drives, though. Riding it on bumpy sea was a blast until it broke ( battery holder went off. Yesterday I lost complete drive shaft with propeller etc. I don't understand it, I tightened both screws on coupler very tight. Next step - Octura flexible, teflon coated cable from Offshore, Octura coupler and better motor mount.

Did you use thread locker? And their should have been 3 screws on the coupler not 2. 1 on the motor side and 2 on the shaft side.

[petricek]

No, I was lazy to. I like that Octura's better, no screws. My 1.5 mm wrench is also chep one, I need to buy me good one ( true 1.5 mm ). By to way, it is marine grade grease o.k or that Grimracer stuff is better?

[forescott]

Thats too bad about all the issues your having with the rio. We have to remember this boat is entry level, and aquacraft is catering to the first time boater who probably would'nt know or care about the durability of all the plastic parts. But it should perform reliably with the stock components using the recomended battery. AQ is really a good company, and the supervee 27 is probably one of the greatest rtr fe boats ever made to date IMO.

[forescott]

No, I was lazy to. I like that Octura's better, no screws. My 1.5 mm wrench is also chep one, I need to buy me good one ( true 1.5 mm ). By to way, it is marine grade grease o.k or that Grimracer stuff is better?

Use blue locktite. It works really well, and you wont have to tighten the screws soo tight that you might strip something. I have used the marine grease, but it is too thin , and washes away quickly. The Grim stuff is thicker, and will stop more water from entering the boat through the stuffing tube!

[res3567]

I bought my dad a Traxxas Blast to get him into the hobby, and upgraded it with the XL-5 and Titan motor from a Slash. I also replaced the crappy engine u-joint mount with a similar one like the Rio....the stock one broke! Traxxas rules when it comes to cars and trucks, but the boats are way behind AQ and PB....the Titan should have been released in July....and we still waitin......I raced my dad's Blast against my cousin's Rio...and got smoked!!!!( did I mention I also have the metal propeller upgrade as well?). So I got my dad a Rio and I am keeping the Blast for a retrieval boat with Diesel's rig. I have 3 AQ boats, an Airforce airboat, a SV 27 nitro, and a Miss Vegas....so you know were I stand on AQ. The Rio is not as high quality as the race boats....but as Grim said......it was not designed to be. Try one of the more expensive AQ boats and you will see the difference. The Rio is a well designed BEGINNER boat. It is what it is.......

[onegreenray]

i agree the Rio is a great boat to learn on. its the boat i let any new comers to the pond driver for the first time. handles great and is not that easy to flip with the stock setup. actually the wife loves it.