jcrack_corn
Senior Heliman
Location: Lafayette, LA
| Official Align USA bashing thread.I'm done with them. After sending my SE tail case over 2.5 months ago, I am left with nothing, no replacement, and they wont send the orginal one back that failed where the mount meets the backend. (they claim they sent me a replacement, uninsured via USPS, lol, no insurance or priority mail on a ~40 dollar part that weighs under 8 ozs).
I can live with that. I cant live with them denying to me and others that there is no tail belt issue, no ESC/430L issues (random smokings), no QC issues with "supposed" factory loctited parts, no main gear trueness issues, etc, etc, etc.....I'm tired of hearing from Andy "we have many professional pilots who problems have none, if T-rex problem, our pilot would no first." lol
They will never get a dime from me again, i will continue to morph my current t-rex into a hybrid of aftermarket parts, and the next one will be aftermarket everything.
Add your rants to the list (although it wont matter because "Mark" at Align USA told me "we dont read runryder because you cant believe what you read there" ...
Known Align Quality Control
All Versions
1.) Swash (all variations except those with "Align" printed on front) may seperate during flight...search for fix.
2.) Ball Links - change to SS to avoid tight or loose fits or out of round conditions.
3.) Tail belt - will fray randomly OR if front and rear pullys are not aligned. No predictable way to keep pulleys aligned flight to flight. Fix is remove roller, change all pullys to metal (with high rims) and spray with lubricant.
4.) Main gears, blue or white - out of round causing mesh issues. No fix known except aftermarket gears.
5.) Any align Screw - metal is soft and will strip, must use high tolerance drivers to have any chance or switch to SS upgrade kits.
6.) Landing skids - no known difference b/w standard and "bump resistant" besides color and price.
7.) Rotor blades - all versions of align "Fiber" blades are plastic and wont track due to "floppiness"
8.) Main shafts and Tail shafts known to be manufactured outside of spec being too large or too small to fit bearings properly.
9.) Beware of all Align motors (quality), random smokings/bearing failures reported in all flavors. (430L is great power for the price but you get what you pay for)
10.) Align front metal tail pully....spins off of shaft eventually.
SE
1.) SE tail hub and screws - Change screws to hardened socket head caps if not included in kit and change hub to steel.
2.) 430L motor with gold endcaps - will seperate eventually causing catastropich failure of heli in flight.
3.) 35A ESC w/ gov mode - known to smoke spontaneously under no great loads with both 11t and 13t pinion.
4.) SE metal tail case known to fail where round mounting section meets tail case (only two small aluminum strips hold these two pieces together, one on top, one on bottom
5.) Pre-assembled Parts requiring loctite per manual, have not had loctite applied. ESPECIALLY SWASH BALL LINKS! CHECK!
XL
1.) HDE-CDE upgrade - links wont clear canopy. No fix except to cut canopy or use align branded servos (iffy at best).
2.) XL Plastic tail case has been known to fail (likely due to screws only "biting" on one-half of case.
NEXT!!
....... |
