Hello Marc and welcome aboard. I feel compelled to jump in here ( I know this is none of my business) but since I've had a very productive and long term relationship with Jan - I build boats for people, and along with Stephen at OSE I've always had the best service one can ask for.
Let me start off with a statement that sounds terrible but my boating buddies here on the forum will surely back me up : " Almost without exception, one's first FE boat will pretty much be a disaster when it comes to asking it to do things beyond it's design intent". OK ; slam away- I can take it
To begin with, a boat like the Zonda, given it's size ,rigging, and price point is decently priced for all that you get. It isn't intended to deliver the performance or survive like a similiarly sized high end cat which can't be had for easily twice the price, usually much more. Additionally, you'll find that just about every RtR boat, including those from the big name RC companies need a fair amount of blueprinting to overcome weaknesses caused by holding to an accessable retail price point. It can be viewed as an open door policy to creating an advancement of our skills if looked at it that way. I'm not attempting to invalidate your experience but this is the reality of the hobby. You get what you pay for.
A few points :
Cats are tunnel hulls They pack air and blow over. They do, and I can supply tons of vids to demonstrate that. Go to my Youtube channel [properchopper1] to see some cat aerobatics Between myself and my club members, we hold multiple NAMBA SAW records with cats. As does Bill (above). For every record I'd estimate that there's a minimum of a half-dozen blowovers getting there !
I've been rigging customer's boats with the Traxxas servo. Admittedly not the best, but decently priced and are claimed to be waterproof. No come-backs to date. The often revered Hitec 645 MG is on my banned list. The gears are a combination of plastic and metal, one metal gear being LITERALLY paper thin and is highly prone to shedding teeth - the rebuild kit is @ $18.
I also oval race. Seven classes when the opportunity arises. My $40 2 year old FlySky has NEVER glitched or failed in all my oval boats (SAW too). Yup I get heat from my compadres but I'm a happy camper and can't argue with success ( or $7 Rx's)
Jan, and with personal conversations with Stephen at OSE to back this up, is taking on a big risk selling RtR or ARTR boats. By definition, they will very likely be purchased by those with not the most complete understanding of what the boat's potential is. Often expectations outweigh the boat's capability. It may be looked on as a bit of a "bitter pill" learning experience when expectations exceed the boat's capability, but as I said above, we've all been through it and with perserverance we end up in a better place and reap the joys of this thing we call "FE".
Please consider taking my comments constructively and hang in there.
Tony
rcboatbuild@hotmail.com
Originally Posted by
trimarc geico
awesome track kevin pratt cant wait to duplicate it at my house. kintec doesnt know there ass from there elbow unless theres a book in front of them. they say cg doesnt matter other than how it sits on a shelf. no wonder the zonda from them blows over on 5s. they have the batts mounted in the rear most parts of the boat. idiots. its a f!@#$%g 41 inch cat. i revamped all the crap they did when i got it. now it does damm near 70mph smooth as glass with the front 40% of the hull completely out of the water. they said i erased 8 months of r and d. what a couple of liars jan and kent r. the boat is made completely by tfl hobbies. kintec just slaps there junk in it. who puts a traxxas servo in a high end boat like that. it lasted 3 charges. they f!@#$d up the y harness and burnt out channel 2 in receiver because they thought they could make a better y harness than proboat or hobbico. they shrunk wrapped the black and red together and tried saying i did something to it. yeah i did i made the whole boat properly set up with quality components like a hitec 645mg servo for example and a much better quality futaba radio not a 25 dollar flysky. u get a great hull with crap in it set up completely wrong. lets mount the seakings right on the cg so now u cant use the batts to adjust the ride at all.morons. but they had 8 months of r and d in it. hahahahahahahaha more like 8 mins of scratchin their heads. sorry thats my experience with jan and kent and this was a month ago. they didnt want to hear how the boat should have been set up. they r perfect!!!!! lol not
Last edited by properchopper; 04-03-2013 at 02:57 PM.
2008 NAMBA P-Mono & P-Offshore Nat'l 2-Lap Record Holder; '15 P-Cat, P-Ltd Cat 2-Lap
2009/2010 NAMBA P-Sport Hydro Nat'l 2-Lap Record Holder, '13 SCSTA P-Ltd Cat High Points
'11 NAMBA [P-Ltd] : Mono, Offshore, OPC, Sport Hydro; '06 LSO, '12,'13,'14 P Ltd Cat /Mono
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