New to KM

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hi a welcome to lsf , a good choice of buggy but make sure you check it over before running it make sure all nuts and bolts are tight, oil the inner filter and take it easy for the first couple of tanks.
 
Questions

This is not to start a flame war. But I just received the buggy looked it over well. All the aluminum parts are insane. I not sure what my weakest link will now, whatever it is is probably $$$.

But on to the King Motors,and HPI, can someone tell me with knowledge of both and not just the opinions from those that bought HPI and feel an allegiance to them for the price they paid.

Is the any concrete evidence of the fact KM "stole" HPI's design and please no " I heard it from a buddy at a Hobby that sells HPI" Was there an actual "lawsuit" If so where is documentation.

I have owned 1/5 from a Duratrax Firehammer and some in-between to a FG Monster Beetle Pro and now a King Motor Baja 2.0 Aluminum. The King Baja looks like a unbelievable deal for the amount paid.

And please no "you get what you pay" for crap. I have spent 1700$ on the Beetle Pro and still had the loose screws and various broken parts
 
Your evidence that KM and Rovan stole HPI's design is the parts compatibility, even the bodies are compatible exactly. China's copyright laws are pretty loose, so I don't think lawsuits really apply in this case due to the sublte changes, like minor shape changes in the suspension arms and materials used.
 
Ok, just curious where did HPI manufacture there parts? I think there is alot more to the "clone" than they just "copied the parts" For that matter where was the HPI designed and does anyone know for a fact?
 
hpi does all there design in the usa and most of there parts are manufactured in yep you guessed it china. even there engine is a clone of the japanese zenoah. as for the differences every thing from your km will fit a hpi and vice versa. my km buggy is now half hpi and hpi baja 5b upgrades.

and for the law suit there wouldnt be any as copyright and patents only last for 5 years so (for lack of a better word) clone companies can reproduce for a cheaper price. and this isnt just done in rc just about everything in life is cloned from one product or another
 
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Yea, I have a lot of companies in my city that have developed this or that but yet did not want to utilize American labor to produce the final product while I understand prices would be entirely too high. Which they are close to now.

I have no love lost for any of them. HPI included. But kudos to their designers for making innovative product but I am sure they are not starving by any stretch of the imagination. Now the labor they use to make their rc's hmmmm




OuttaLuck said:
Hpi history

http://www.hpiracing.com/history/

The chinese copy and clone everything
Click to expand...
 
I have an HPI SS, and I have delt with many "clones" My biggest complaint on the km's is the hardware (screws) thy are cheap and every time I go to do abuild I have at least 4 that strip or break off heads .. I am just glad they don't use loctite. The km and HPI are not 100% compatable the diffs are differnt some of the srews are differnt size and the ring gear that bolts to the outside of the diff is differnt. also I hate the km brakes the one I have now in the shop came with some brakes I haven't seen before on a km thay look like real brake pads but poorly made.
 
yah i had a screw or 2 on mine that wasnt too good upon reassembly or disassembly the heads strips out, so yah, thats a valid point, but i also can go down to local ace hardware store and buy new ones cheap, so really not a issue. i have heard the thing bout the diffs being a lil different but on mine mine had the alloy diff, BUT it had NO fluid in it, so a first thing to do is pop it and fill it, if it has the plastic case i reccommend getting the alloy version, and the plastic diff outer case was plastic on mine too, i sprung for the split diff case so now my whole inner and outer diff is metal, one other thing i highly reccommend too is get a set of fast eddy bearings and as you tear down swap out the bearings with FE ones, and remember to add the missing one inside diff housing that sometimes isnt there. mine was there, but i swapped it out anyways, the brakes, yeah not the best deal there, i swapped mine out for a TR one piece upper mount setup, miner drilling of a upper plate hole to fit the recessed end on one TR post, but again no biggie. mine has the 2 speed gearing, now the clutch, well, isnt too bad as is, but i upgraded to a alloy version of the stocker 3 point arm style, with oversized FE bearings. tried the enclosed one, not happy with it really, so stuck with ally 3 point setup instead. the first major thing that ever happened right out of box was the PS it screwed up on 2nd tank, replaced it with a collared pawl version no probs since.
 
I will have to admit i keep hearing about the pull starts being bad on the kms mine is doing very well at 10 tanks now. but i do pull it off every couple of tanks to blow the dirt out of it and give it a small shot of grafite dry slide lube. the diff and screws are good on mine so far. diff was full and already the alloy version.
 
does yours have the collar around the pawl? mine didnt, and just bout everyone whose had similar dealings with the PS all have not had one, but upon replacing it with one that did, mines been just fine since.
 
nope no collar just a plastic pawl. but i don't pull on my baja like its a lawnmower either. nice easy pulls with the choke on till it pops once. then turn choke off hit the primer once and one more easy pull and its running
 
Yeah I keep reading about how bad the PS are on KM but I haven't had an issue with mine either. After every run session I have been blowing the dust/grass/crap out of the PS with my air compressor, maybe thats my secret?

I have been slowly replacing the parts I hear are bad from KM with true HPI parts, but other than that the buggy is top notch. Only thing I have really blown was the spur gear holder. I thought I smoked the clutch after I put the Proline Badlands on, but the spur gear holder metal got hot and melted the plastic, don't understand why. The spur gear itself still looks new, no wear at all, which suprised me since there isnt much for backlash in between the spur/pinion.

I rebuilt the shocks and put in the HPI pistons and the missing e-clips. Used HPI 5wt in the rear on 12 hole pistons and 30wt in the front on 3 hole pistons. My suspension is silky smooth, doesn't bottom out on jumps (I haven't gotten crazy on hieght yet) and it handles well.
 
New to the forums and 1/5 scale in general. I picked up the KSRC-002 version and have read some of the issues and problems that others have had.

Who ever assembled mine used loctite, to the point were I actually had to use heat to get some loose. I've run through 3 tanks so far and the only issue that I have had was the spur gear holder. I too thought I burnt up the clutch, but after pulling it off the track I found that the metal insert in the holder had spun free. Not sure what caused it, gear mesh was a little tight when I got it and had to loosen everything up to get it to set better. So far the pull start is holding up and haven't had any issues. I do the same as others have stated, by blowing it out after running it.
 
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