Sept 17 after 6 months my love hate relationship with my EB48.4 has ended. My new love Kyosho MP9E.
Where EB48.4 and I fell out.
lightweight drive shaft is easily bent if chassis flexes too much which can occur if centre chassis brace is removed. $18 per bend
Motor mount sticks and required a diff seal to fix the issue. The two pieces have a lot of play making gear mesh difficult.
Very tight layout limits ESC options, my Vortex Pro almost had the wires burnt through due to bent drive shaft. No M4 mount option for Team Orion motors. Used a flat drill bit to fix that.
Narrow chassis is heavier yet flexes more than MP9E. Tekno has a flat chassis, MP9E is flat except the sides curl thereby providing much greater stiffness.
shocks are great but long and not as protected from impacts. This buggy jumps and lands like a cat but two of the shocks have sprung slow leaks - front and rear. Lots of forum chat about bent rods. $5 per bend. More money again if you wish to option the coated shafts (these do little to improve performance and the coating wears off)
D block - longer this version. Issue: hangs out from chassis, less protected and greater lever action on screws, scalloped to reduce weight but compromised strength (yet still heavier than MP9 block). With beefy A arms that won't give, strong hinge pins and pills, the blocks are the weakest part in the suspension link. Heavy crash the blocks will bend - $20 to get the strengthened M2C block.
poor plastic quality. After 6 race meets the A arms looks like I've belted them repeatedly with an axe. My longer term Losi has minor scratches and done far more work. The plastic can be easily stripped and difficult to screw in and out - the manual warns you in some areas but apply that warning to every plastic component. The plastic is very durable in that it will bend a lot before it breaks but allow to buy a hudy reamer $20 or for the brave use a drill bit. Note: it will remove material quickly. Having to ream the A Arms because Tekno can't get their moulds/plastic right is unacceptable. The MP9E hinge pins fall through effortlessly right out of the box with very little play and plastic strength is incredible.
Option the aluminium centre diff mount. Again, plastic is rubbish and another additional expense
bearings galore. additional bearings in the steering components offer no advantage but they're a PITA to service.
grub screws galore. You don't realize how many there are till servicing the buggy and have to clean these with a dental pick in order to remove. I also question their benefit. Servicing takes me twice as long than the Losi.
Conclusion
Tekno's desire to manufacture the best handling, most consistent, most durable, and highest value kit on the market.
No mention of quality in their own statement and it shows. By comparison the MP9E is outstanding and the Losi in between the two.
The Tekno feels like a pumped up 1-10 scale and best suited for carpet or non-abrasive surfaces. The losi and MP9E are natural 1-8 off roaders. The tekno is fast, maybe the fastest but I liken it to an early model Nissan GTR: very quick but repeatability and quality compared to a Porsche 911 just isn't there. it's more about gizmos than engineering that's been refined over decades.
Add the spare parts I've expended and the issues I've had my humble view is:
For $150 more the Kyosho is a better buggy, this is the Porsche 911 Turbo of my 3 buggies.
Would I recommend the Tekno? Indoors and drivers who seldom end up on their lid - yes. Basher-Beginner-outdoor abrasive tracks no. But why limit your options.
I personally like this kit a lot! Very well made with great Tekno quality. Run this kit at Amain silver doller raceway. Had awesome customer service like always by Amain.
The changes that Tekno made between the .3 and .4 equal an easier to drive car, with increased rear traction. Typical excellent tekno quality, great on-track performance, you can't go wrong with this buggy.
Car is as excellent as expectations, fast! Delivery was quick and car is a jewel
Fun to build, the fit and finish was great, I liked it so much I bought the truck version.
this was my first kit build. I must say tekno is on point with there manual it was easy to assemble and I had a lot of fun doing. I'm looking forward for the next build challenge..
6 weeks ago I bought my first Tekno kit, the ET48.3. I had so much fun with it that 2 weeks later I ordered the SCT410.3, and another 3 weeks later I got this, the EB48.4. Why? Because Tekno kits have by far the best combination of race winning speed, handling and suspension while also being super durable too.. My Tekno collection will continue to grow..
ONE YEAR UPDATE: So after owning this buggy and several other Tekno kits for just over a year now, i can still say that its an awesone car. In total i have only run around 20 to 25 packs through it, (Tekin RX8 Gen3, Tekin T8 2650kv Gen 3, Protek LiHV 100c 6500mah batteries) with 95% of that time being last fall, as ive worked so much this year i havent raced at all, just a run around the house every once in a while. I still haven't had any failures or parts that needed to be replaced other than a plastic spur. I have the metal ones for all my Tekno's, but after seeing how long the plastic ones last and how much quieter they are, Ive gone back to those. The only parts that seem to wear out quicker than some other brands ive owned is the suspension arms get some slop around the hinge pins quick. Sometimes it only takes a few tumbles and the holes in the arms get stretched out. Still completely driveable, but i just hate slop. Also, the diff outdrives on the gear side of the housings seem to get a bit wobbly and start to leak a bit after a couple dozen packs or less. I noticed that on the front of my ET48.3 and the center diff of both the ET and the EB48.4.
Overall if someone is looking for a 1/8 scale buggy or truggy that wants one that can turn fast laps at the track, take a beating over and over with awesome customer service as well as a great replacement part program, Tekno is at the top of my list. Ive never owned any 1/8 scale rigs that are really fast around a track but also durable enough for bashing if you are into that. Only downside to the design of the car is the chassis layout is tight and some big ESC's dont fit in the normal spot, especially if you run a longer can motor like the Tekin T8 truggy spec motor i have in the ET48.3. Its just tight to fit everything..
I bought this buggy to get into racing more seriously. I spent a lot of time on my lid as a beginner running the SCT410.3, and that trend continued when I moved to this buggy. Right after I started running this buggy my local track underwent a track change with two gnarly back-to-back triples. I spent a lot of time smashing into pipes, hitting walls and beams (indoor track), and wrecking really badly.
From the get-go I was not nice to this buggy. The day I built it I sprayed up the body as a one-color-wonder and threw it on the track before putting in a single practice lap. During the first qual both rear shocks blew out and half the screws on the car backed out at least partially and several were lost completely. My inexperience as a kit builder was showing, but determined to continue I rebuilt the rear shocks and bought replacement screws and headed back in to the second qual. Both rear shocks blew out again, but I didn't lose any more screws and only a few backed out a little. After rebuilding the rear shocks again (properly this time) and tightening everything back up I hit the main as TQ in the sportsman class and went on to take 1st in my class.
All these months later the track has been through a few more track changes and I've continued to improve my driving immensely thanks to this buggy's durability keeping me putting down laps. Just a couple of weeks ago I finally replaced the chassis (that honestly didn't really need it, I just didn't want to look at the scratches anymore), and just this last Saturday finally did any kind of maintenance (replacing diff/shock oil, cleaning parts, new hinge pins, etc). This came about because after my second ever qual in the open class I pulled it off the track only to realize that there was only one bolt holding on the front shock tower. But like a complete champ the buggy had pulled through and I had qualified 5th in a fairly large field in my first outing in the open class at my local track. Only the rear portion of the front diff casing broke where one of the top-most screws went in. I've since run it like that several times without issues.
I've spent the last few weeks contemplating moving to a "better" platform, and after talking to many very talented drivers I've arrived at the conclusion that while there are more race-oriented buggies out there that push the envelope of what is possible, until you've gotten to the point that you are trying to run in the open class in series races and/or you start travelling for bigger races, Tekno's offering is more than capable of running with the rest of the pack, and even then with a proper setup (which can be admittedly a little difficult on this platform) it can still run with the big boys.
My local track is known for eating cars alive. The packed clay is filled with sand and you can watch sparks fly off of your car every time you hit a jump. In the cold it eats plastic parts without mercy. Despite all of this I have yet to bend a shock shaft, legitimately wear out a chassis, break any plastic part (except due to negligence and lack of maintenance). During my complete break-down and cleaning I replaced the following parts: Front hinge pins (one slightly bent, one with a major bend), and inner wheel bearings (worn out, but not dead. Replaced because I was there). The car was still functioning perfectly.
In short, I love this buggy, and I think it's a great place to start for anyone wanting to get into racing more seriously from any level other than absolute pro.
Some tips if you are going to run this car:
1. Make sure you get the updated upper shock mounts. The old version is known to wear through the aluminum shock caps. For a budget fix simply take the plastic spacers out and use a small piece of nitro tubing in its place. Change if shocks ever get loose on the mount.
2. Remove the motor from the mount every few races and clean well to prevent sticking. If stuck, gently wiggle back and forth while applying firm but gentle pressure to remove it. Forcing it is not necessary. This is common to many cars with similar mounts.
3. Zip-tie around the ESC mounting plate and ESC to help it from coming off, or use a high-quality mounting tape (Kyosho or Gorilla Heavy Duty mounting tape works well) and make sure to use an adhesion promoter pen on both parts before adhering.
4. If you run on a high-abrasion surface track make sure you get rear skid plates. Tekno also makes a front bumper with an integrated skid plate. Skid plates are much cheaper than chassis!
5. The .4 aluminum shock caps like to break loose. Make sure you tighten down firmly using your Tekno shock wrench (or similar) and a driver through the cap (don't use pliers on the cap).
6. This is more general knowledge, but helped me immensely: before using loc-tite on screws going into metal, spray them with MAF cleaner (available at any auto parts store), electronics cleaner (available at Frys or any other electronics store) or any other cleaner containing heptane, hexane, and/or acetone and clean vigorously with a rag or shop towel. Screws ship with machining oil on them that wont come off even after months of use without a proper cleaning, making loc-tite ineffective at securing them.
This buggy is fantastic! Invest in the CNC split center diff mounts kit when you can. The center diff rolls truer with the CNC components. I highly recommend Revolution Design's 8th scale shock o-rings. These shocks are great as-is, but RD's o-rings make these shocks much smoother. Consider buying 'red' rear springs and possibly 'blue' rear springs too. With the stock rear springs I've got too much chassis slap and scrubbing on the downside of smaller jump faces. It may be wise to have a set of pink front springs on-hand, too. I think pink fronts and red rears would be best for tracks with large jumps. You'll need a 15 or 16 tooth spur gear with a 1900kV motor with the new internal gearing. Tekno put a really cool insert in the kit explaining which spur gears to use and associated rationale. Run the long battery strap through the front holes in the battery tray--the center diff outdrive will rub on your battery in the rearward position.
Best buggy available hands down. The only thinG you will need is a proper aluminum servo horn. I chose the tekno clamping servo horn.
Quel est son bas zheskost je 4 fois changé la transmission, avec pas un bon saut.
Amazing build and incredibly durable while easy to maintain. Probably the best bang for your buck in RC racing!
