Introduction
Today we talk about the RLAARLO Omni Terminator. The Omni Terminator is marketed as a mini 1/10th scale Monster Truck by RLAARLO. We will talk about that and much, much more in our in depth review of the Omni Terminator after owning it for 3 months. Unlike reviewers that will tell you how awesome every new free car they get sent to unbox is after driving it once or twice, we decided to wait until we have owned it for a while, worked on it a few times and drove the snot out of it as our primary car used on almost a daily basis to let you know what you can REALLY expect as the owner of one of these cars. So, get yourself a beverage of your choice, sit back, relax and learn what we have learned in our three months of ownership thus far. It’s going to be a long one because we have lot’s to say!
First Impressions Out of The Box
Let me just say that RLAARLO vehicles are often some of the best looking rigs from the factory. The Omni Terminator is no exception. It looks epic. From the separate grill to the roof skids and the rear bed surround on the body, to the bumpers and choice of wheels and tires. It is a fantastic looking truck.
This is a completely new platform from RLAARLO. Many of their previous models were simply based off of existing WLTOYS cars. For example our 1:14 scale carbon buggies are simply WLToys 144001 cars that have a bunch of upgrades added to them to make them the RLAARLO version of that car. Many of their models are the same way but not this time.
Looking over the platform the first thing you cannot help but to notice is the aluminum chassis. It appears to be 7075 Aluminum and it has a really cool looking engraving on the underside.
Most of the plastics are gray colored and seems to be over sized and the A-arms have carbon inserts in them. It also has a double rail chassis brace that are also carbon fiber bits. There is some green aluminum parts sprinkled throughout including a heatsink (with fan), shock bodies and hinge pink capture plates. The car also features included sway bars front and rear and an alloy servo saver.
The Drivetrain
First, let me address a concern that many initial reviews of this vehicle along with many customer complaints about the product. The diff cups and dog bones. I have V2, which means they did change the materials to harder metals. That being said, I don’t think the materials were ever the real problem with the drive train in this car! So why were so many people breaking dog bone pins and diff cups? It is actually very obvious if you look at how the truck is set up out of the box.
The A-arms are short and the suspension drop is long. That creates a major problem. It might look cool and give it that “monster truck” appearance, but it is all wrong! With this much drop, the angle of drive shafts is severe, nearly 45 degrees. What this does is create a pry bar out of the shaft which tries to pry the diff cup open which causes either the pins on the end of the shaft to break or the diff cup itself to break with the right amount of stress, for example landing a jump with the suspension fully extended beyond what it ever should be allowed to do.
This is a design flaw in the vehicle. Either the A-arms and shafts should have been wider or it should have been limited with shock travel limiters from the factory.
The good news however is that it is easily corrected. You do not need to buy the upgraded parts to fix this issue at all. You can simply use the included droop screws to lower the car. This platform really isn’t a monster truck at all, it’s a stadium truck or truggy. This is how independent wishbone suspension is designed to work ideally.
The alternative and better option would be to use shock limiters inside the shocks and/or simply use a lower mounting hole for the lower shock mount (which is what I have done since this photo was taken). Just doing this will virtually eliminate the issues with diff cups. Keep in mind these are wear items on any car and will eventually need replacing BUT it will solve the premature failures many have had. Wishbone suspension was never designed to work at that out of the box ride height that puts the drive shafts at such a severe angle. I noticed it before I ever read about the complaints.
The Omni Terminator also features a full metal drive train with all metal gears. It also has a center differential which many more expensive cars do not even include from the factory and it is a much better option than direct drive or a slipper clutch. The carbon edition even has helical cut gears for better engagement. Nice touch!
Suspension
The metal bodied shocks have adjustable collars. As I mentioned above it sits a little too high from the factory but it is easily lowered to a proper ride height. Lowering it not only fixes the diff cup problem but also helps to keep the vehicle from traction rolling as much. The suspension out of the box is nice and plush and feels pretty good. It does have a couple of down sides which I will discuss in our future post about upgrading the Omni Terminator, but for out of the box stock suspension there really is not much to complain about. Many more expensive offerings do not offer anything as nice as what comes with the Omni Terminator.
Electronics
The Omni Terminator Carbon Edition Features a 3650 2650KV brushless motor with a metal heat sink and cooling fan. This motor is plenty powerful for this truck. It is surprisingly quick and it is a wheelie monster.
The ESC is a 3s capable 60amp non programmable unit. It does come with a fan mounted which is good. Personally, I would have liked to see at least 100amps but I have not had any problems so far with it. I will say it would be nice if it were programmable. One of the “tricks” the OT can perform quite easily is front flipping on itself when you touch the brakes at any speed. It would be nice if you could turn that down a bit, which is achievable with a 3rd party remote but not on the esc itself. The programming has quite an aggressive punch set from the factory.
Speaking of radio’s. I cannnot speak much for the included RTR radio. Mine had all kinds of strange things going on with it that I could not immediately figure out. It would take off forward by turning the wheel right and backward while turning it left. I know there are ways to punch the various buttons to set it up properly but I couldn’t be bothered to watch videos to figure it out. I just simply swapped out the receiver to a Radiolink to use my Radiolink R4GS V3 radio. People that have figured out the RTR radio do think it is pretty solid, I just never did.
The steering servo is adequate but not waterproof. To replace it with a standard size servo you will need to buy an upgrade servo mount from RLAARLO as the included servo mounts to the receiver box and it is an odd size with no 3rd party option that I could find that will fit. Kind of a strange choice.
Hardware
This is the elephant in the room with the Omni Terminator. Let me make this loud and clear. THE HARDWARE SUCKS! The bearings are all metal shielded variety that the shields fall off almost instantly. There are 28 different screws with 3 different head types and they are soft as butter. They are made of some low grade pot metal. They strip out very easily and rust if they get near moisture.
To be honest, it is enough to make you want to throw it across the room when you are trying to work or maintain anything on this truck. I don’t know what else to say other than I hope they do better in the future as it is the one thing that prevents me from considering this the best RC in our collection. The hardware sucks bad enough that I would have to think long and hard about getting another RLAARLO until they address this problem.
Conclusion
Even with the hardware issues, I love this truck. It is super fast and it takes one hell of a beating. The Omni Terminator takes crashes that make me think that I surely destroyed it, only to drive away completely unscathed. It’s actually quite remarkable.
The tires are the best grass tires I have ever used tho they are a bit hard and slippery on pavement. The original body took quite a beating and while scratched up and starting to get a little bit raggedy after about 20 battery packs, it held up better than I expected.
I have bent the shock mounts, I have bent a couple of hinge pins and I have bent the wheelie bar wheel screws but nothing has actually broken except one c clip in a shock. For the money, I am not unhappy with the truck and give it a solid 8.5/10. Better bearings and better hard ware and a standard servo would easily move this truck to a 10/10 for me
If you want your own Omni Terminator you would be helping us out by using this link to pick up one of your own. (It is an affiliate link and we would get a whopping 4 bucks or something like that if you use it) https://amzn.to/41ecdat
Support
I almost forgot to mention. Many people say they won’t buy these China cars because of lack of parts support availability. In the USA there is no parts problem that wasn’t self inflicted by RLAARLO themselves. On the RLAARLO amazon store there are hardly any parts available. The reason this is, is because for some reason unknown to anyone their USA division is called Amoril and they have nearly every single part in stock on 2 day Prime delivery here : https://amzn.to/4fSgYv5 . I feel like this is a missed opportunity for RLAARLO and I really cannot make heads or tails out of why they would put all of their parts under a completely different brand name. It makes those who don’t know, feel like there is a lack of parts when clearly that is not the case at all. You just have to somehow know that Amoril is the same company?