Some help requested with deciding

[mikeyburger240]

Hi everyone,

First, I want to thank everyone who has helped me over the year since I started with helicopters. I own a blade cx2 and am ready for an upgrade. I have decided to get a T-rex 450 SE V1 or V2. My problem is with where to buy it from and getting my parents to agree with my decision.

Fortunately, the Willis Ave Hobby Shop is close to me, so I have easy access to parts in the even of a crash. So I went there with my mom yesterday to look at their prices of t-rex's. First I showed my mom the different helicopters including the t-rex and the blade 400. As I said before I have already decided that I am going to get a trex. One of sales people came over and my mom asked him a few questions about helicopters. The first thing he did was started to show me the blade 400. He starts his sales pitch and i listened and then moved on to the T-rex 450 SE V2 and asked him about the price, etc. It is the kit including the 430L Align motor, ESC, and one battery. The price is $500. After we talked more I added up all of the prices to see what if would run me to buy it new.

I included

Trex 450 SE V2
Align 430XL
Align ESC
Align Battery
Spectrum DX6i and AR6100
Futaba GY401
Hi Tec 56 MGS for cyclic
Futaba 9650 for tail
Battery Charger
Pitch Gauge
Case

The total came to about $1200 plus tax. Which I felt was an average price for getting one brand new.

Besides the one in the store, I have found a good looking used one online that I am very interested in being sold by Max Power.

It includes:

TREX 450 SE
Futaba 6EXHP
Electron 6RX
Futaba GY401
2 Batteries
3 Sets of Blades
HiTec 56HB (X4)
Align 430L E/ESC (Gold color end cap)
Charger adapter for batteries
Pitch Gage
Case
Real Flight Sim2 with box

some pictures are listed below and on the following link is also a video.
http://www.digitaleyesite.com/trex/trex450se.htm

For the used heli, he is asking $575, but I asked him to take out the radio to get the DX6i and that receiver. He brought the price down to $500. So this price is half of what a new one would cost.

The problem is that the sales man at the hobby shop got it in my moms head that no one ever sets the helis up right and that if I buy it from them they will give me hands on advice and check my set up before i fly it. I disagree with what he said and I feel that if I have any problems there are great people on here willing to help.

So I want to buy the trex online for half the price. Does anyone have any ideas on ways i can convince my parents its a good idea to. Also I have kept in touch with the seller of the heli a lot and he said that a 18 tooth pinion is on the motor and that he attached it with locktite red. This is the only thing about the helicopter that bothers me. Can this be removed without destroying the motor?

Thanks for reading this, I know its a lot.

Thanks,
Mike

[f5air]

Originally Posted by mikeyburger240

Hi everyone,

First, I want to thank everyone who has helped me over the year since I started with helicopters. I own a blade cx2 and am ready for an upgrade. I have decided to get a T-rex 450 SE V1 or V2. My problem is with where to buy it from and getting my parents to agree with my decision.

Fortunately, the Willis Ave Hobby Shop is close to me, so I have easy access to parts in the even of a crash. So I went there with my mom yesterday to look at their prices of t-rex's. First I showed my mom the different helicopters including the t-rex and the blade 400. As I said before I have already decided that I am going to get a trex. One of sales people came over and my mom asked him a few questions about helicopters. The first thing he did was started to show me the blade 400. He starts his sales pitch and i listened and then moved on to the T-rex 450 SE V2 and asked him about the price, etc. It is the kit including the 430L Align motor, ESC, and one battery. The price is $500. After we talked more I added up all of the prices to see what if would run me to buy it new.

I included

Trex 450 SE V2
Align 430XL
Align ESC
Align Battery
Spectrum DX6i and AR6100
Futaba GY401
Hi Tec 56 MGS for cyclic
Futaba 9650 for tail
Battery Charger
Pitch Gauge
Case

The total came to about $1200 plus tax. Which I felt was an average price for getting one brand new.

Besides the one in the store, I have found a good looking used one online that I am very interested in being sold by Max Power.

It includes:

TREX 450 SE
Futaba 6EXHP
Electron 6RX
Futaba GY401
2 Batteries
3 Sets of Blades
HiTec 56HB (X4)
Align 430L E/ESC (Gold color end cap)
Charger adapter for batteries
Pitch Gage
Case
Real Flight Sim2 with box

some pictures are listed below and on the following link is also a video.
http://www.digitaleyesite.com/trex/trex450se.htm

For the used heli, he is asking $575, but I asked him to take out the radio to get the DX6i and that receiver. He brought the price down to $500. So this price is half of what a new one would cost.

The problem is that the sales man at the hobby shop got it in my moms head that no one ever sets the helis up right and that if I buy it from them they will give me hands on advice and check my set up before i fly it. I disagree with what he said and I feel that if I have any problems there are great people on here willing to help.

So I want to buy the trex online for half the price. Does anyone have any ideas on ways i can convince my parents its a good idea to. Also I have kept in touch with the seller of the heli a lot and he said that a 18 tooth pinion is on the motor and that he attached it with locktite red. This is the only thing about the helicopter that bothers me. Can this be removed without destroying the motor?

Thanks for reading this, I know its a lot.

Thanks,
Mike

well the price on the used one is not bad..of course buying a "used" heli it can be great or nightmare, i dont know which one will be for you. IF you want to spend less money on the heli kit, check the copterx 450, its a clone of the se v2 and a few people can asure you that is from the same factory than align(i dont know, im just telling what i read on the forums). You can get it at www.heli-bros.com and you can use align parts 100% on it if you crash. I mean, $195 shipped, compare to $500 aprox is a huge difference and you can save a few bucks. And also protect your investment and use a 2.4 radio!!!.

IF you want to get the rexxie anyway, try:
www.helihobby.com
www.ehirobo.com/shop/index.php
www.rchover.com
www.rcplanet.com
www.grandrc.com

[airjawed]

No matter where you get your heli you really should set it up yourself. That is the only way of doing it right!! From what you've said so far it seems you know a good amount about helis. Good call on wanting to use 2.4 ghz radio stuff. Also the 18tooth and motor seems no good. Do yourself a favor and get a stock 430xl or scorpion -8 motor. I also think you can get yourself a better deal than 500.

My advice...think about gettting a 6s setup...I hear great things about the G5.

[Slyster]

FIrst crash you have to set it all up anyway. I wouldn't worry about that. If you are on a budget I agree about CopterX. It's great! That's what I started out with and slowly replacing with align parts. Now I only have the X frame and gears and tail left. Not sure if I even needed to 'upgrade' the parts it flies just the same!

But start out with good metal gear servos and a good gyro!

[The Steve-O]

You'll need a good gyro and tail servo, the 401/9650 is a good combo. That 18 tooth pinion sounds bad, I would replace it, or upgrade the motor. The gear you have listed will work well, although I would advise making a training gear out of some dowels and balls on the ends. I can't say how much that saved me when I was learning on my heli.

[Bob O]

Don't forget to factor in the cost of extra batteries. You can get four Zippy batteries from hobbyking.com shipped for about the price of one at your LHS.

[Slyster]

True.. I have 8 of their Zippy-H 2200mah lipos and I truly LOVE them.. look into that.

[Dufault]

I just bought a set up that looks pretty similar to what your looking at. My advice to you is that you should probably just buy new. I have been selling and buying used bike parts for years so I thought I could expect more less the same thing in the heli market. My experience has been theres alot of people who can't fly these birds, have 0 mechanical knowledge and are looking to sell off there stuff and cut their looses. The only thing is that in my experience they havent been totally honest. My advice, if you can buy used from someone you absolutely trust and you can check the setup in person and make sure they knew what they were doing, buy it. If you can't, check out some of the really good online site.

Im not saying that the helicopter your looking at isnt up to snuf, Im just saying be weary, in the couples of months Ive been in this hobby, Ive been burned twice. If I could do it all again, I would buy the v2 kit off ebay and a dx6i. Then just get all the electronics from an online store. Save me some headaches but it was all worth it.

If you want to sell it to your parents, just say you want to hone you mechanical aptitude for school and dont want someone else setting up your heli. You are going to crash this thing alot anyways so it makes no point not to set it up yourself. Plus it's half the fun.

[f5air]

Originally Posted by Dufault

I just bought a set up that looks pretty similar to what your looking at. My advice to you is that you should probably just buy new. I have been selling and buying used bike parts for years so I thought I could expect more less the same thing in the heli market. My experience has been theres alot of people who can't fly these birds, have 0 mechanical knowledge and are looking to sell off there stuff and cut their looses. The only thing is that in my experience they havent been totally honest. My advice, if you can buy used from someone you absolutely trust and you can check the setup in person and make sure they knew what they were doing, buy it. If you can't, check out some of the really good online site.

Im not saying that the helicopter your looking at isnt up to snuf, Im just saying be weary, in the couples of months Ive been in this hobby, Ive been burned twice. If I could do it all again, I would buy the v2 kit off ebay and a dx6i. Then just get all the electronics from an online store. Save me some headaches but it was all worth it.

If you want to sell it to your parents, just say you want to hone you mechanical
aptitude for school and dont want someone else setting up your heli. You are going to crash this thing alot anyways so it makes no point not to set it up yourself. Plus it's half the fun.

learning to built and set your own heli will help and save time and frustration later cause you will understand a lot basic thing and technical info, believe me a was so mad with my self a lot of times, and also i hate to run with a friend everytime that i was with an issue. Btw we have finless videos believe me liks 3 months ago i didnt know anything about helis now im not an expert but at least i know what im doing with my heli and help a bit other friend with basic problems and other things that i learned on the Bob videos... is like a huge manual on a video to know almost everything of mechanical, data, info about helis. Flying your heli is other thing, but you will learn fast.