Two videos in, the Rlaarlo DSK has earned its place on the RC-TNT shelf. Building it taught me more than I expected, and not all of those lessons fit inside a YouTube cut. Here’s the stuff I’d want to know before starting again.

Kit, RTR or Roller? Choose Carefully

Three flavours exist: kit, RTR and roller. If you want to build, get the kit. It costs the same as the RTR but ships with a higher grade of hardware throughout: more alloy, more carbon fibre, nicer fasteners. You also walk away knowing the car intimately, which matters more than you’d think when something breaks and you need to diagnose it fast. RTR and roller are the right call if you’d rather drive than build, but you’ll be giving up some of the better hardware to do it. Explore the range and grab yours here.

One caveat for bashers: the kit’s carbon fibre rear shock tower is a racing weight-saver, but it’s potentially less impact-resistant than the alloy tower on the RTR. If your driving involves heavy landings, that’s worth factoring in (thanks to @Hutch_Davenport for raising this).

The Sneaky Extras Most People Miss

Many 1/8 kits don’t include tires and sometimes not a body shell either. The DSK kit does both. This is a help if you’ve ever priced 1/8 buggy tires or shells separately. Worth knowing before you write off the kit on price.

Diff Oil to Start With

Front and centre get 7,000 weight. Rear gets 3,000 weight. These are Rlaarlo’s defaults and they felt right for general off-road work. Pencil the weight on the outside of each diff housing as you fill them. Helps during the build if you pack up between assembly and installation!

Why You’ll Want Sealed Bearings

Almost every bearing in the DSK ships sealed, but there are a few shielded ones to be found. The distinction matters: shielded means a thin metal cover over the ball race, while sealed means a rubber lip that actually keeps grit and moisture out. For a clean race surface, shielded is fine, preferable even (less rolling resistance). For anywhere with dust, you’re inviting trouble. The four inner hub bearings are 15x21x4mm, and here are the sealed ones I fitted. Do this before your first run. Your future self will be thankful!

The 76mm Front Motor Trap

Here’s the one that caught me out. Up front, there’s only 76mm of clearance between the alloy motor mount and the steering bell crank, which is a moving part. Maximum motor length up front therefore: 74mm. A surprising number of popular 1/8 motors are 78mm long. Mine was. That single dimensional reality is why this review turned into two videos rather than one.

Rear Motor Mounting: Different Story Entirely

Swap to the rear motor configuration and the available length opens up dramatically. You’ll need to remove one of the two rear braces to make room. Once that’s done, you have close to 100mm of usable length, which is more than any 1/8 motor will ever need. The manual eventually mentions the 76mm front limit, but if you’re like me, you’ll find it buried on a later page, well after you’ve completed assembly!

One tip from Rlaarlo themselves: when switching to the rear motor layout, rotate the centre diff 180° and reverse the motor direction. For the 160A sensored ESC, use the S10 program card to do this. For the 180A sensorless ESC, just swap any two of the motor wires.

Pinion Maths if You Swap the Motor

Stick with Rlaarlo’s upgrade-spec 4278-2050KV motor on the 17T pinion and 6S, and you’re in the intended spec. Stray from that, and you need to think. Higher KV pushes more wheel speed per pinion tooth, which also pushes more stress through the drivetrain. The solution is to drop pinion teeth proportionally to keep wheel speed and longevity in balance. Part 1 had me running a 2500KV motor with an 11T pinion (the only Mod 1 pinion I had on hand – it fit because th emotor was a 39XX size). This put me about 14% slower at the wheels than the intended setup. Not a disaster and still very useable, but 14T would probably be a good all-round use for 4S with such a motor.

The Servo Horn Hole That Matters

Inner hole. Use the inner hole on the servo horn, not the outer. You get less throw, more torque, and faster response. Lock-to-lock travel on this car doesn’t need the extra throw of the outer hole, and using it just makes your servo work harder for no good reason. Not all horns are equal, so test your full throw can be achieved with that inner hole, and you’re good.

Tire Gluing: The Step Most People Skip

Stock tires on the DSK don’t come pre-glued. Before you reach for the CA, wet the tire bead with clean water. Skip that step and your tires will start peeling off after the first run. I learned this at the pump track when one nearly departed mid-jump. Proper tire glue with a needle applicator is cleaner than regular super glue but they’re chemically the same; surface prep is what matters most.

Another commenter’s tip: Loctite 480 is a rubberised CA (black in colour) that gives you more working time before it sets and holds better than standard CA, especially on alloy wheels. Not cheap, but worth investigating if you want a more reliable bond (thanks @steveblackbird).

Two Grub Screws to Watch

Those rear hinge pin grub screws both worked themselves out during the pump track session. I ran them in a fair way, but you want to go all the way until they stop turning, then back them off a shade. I think these grub screws could be an extra 2mm longer and you’d have a more reliable retention mechanism for those hinge pins. Mine keep backing out.

My Rlaarlo DSK Setup Sheet

Below is my full Pivot Ball version setup from the test build, sized for medium track, low traction, bumpy surface. Each setting follows in its own section so you can see the reasoning rather than just the numbers.

Camber: 2° (and Why You Can’t Have 1.5°)

Two degrees of negative camber up front, using 1.5mm + 1.5mm spacers. That’s the minimum the kit geometry allows. So, if you were hoping to dial in the 1.5° often recommended for 1/8 buggies, the DSK won’t let you. Not a deal-breaker by any means, but worth knowing before you go searching for camber gauges.

Caster: Minimum and Happy

This only counts if you’re using C-hubs instead of pivot balls: I set twenty degrees of caster (4mm spacers), which is also the minimum the DSK offers. More caster gives high-speed stability; less gives sharper steering response. As a basher, I went for steering response. The good news is the adjustment uses small tabs on the towers rather than requiring full disassembly, so changing your mind later is easy.

Front Kick-Up: A Sensible 1°

Half a degree on the FF position, plus another half degree on the FR position, totalling 1° of kick-up. That sits in the sensible-neutral zone for off-road and is a good starting point. Crank it up later if you’re catching the front on rough terrain.

Rear Toe-In: 2° and Stable

I set two degrees in the back, which is the minimum the DSK allows. Options run out to 4° if you want more rear grip and straight-line stability at the cost of some agility. Stock geometry felt right for the surfaces I drive on and it still pulled like a train on my brief speed run!

Rear Anti-Squat: 3° via 2mm Spacers

Three degrees in the RF position, set using the 2mm spacers. Anti-squat controls how the rear suspension behaves under throttle: more anti-squat means the chassis stays flatter as you accelerate. Three degrees is a sensible middle ground that doesn’t commit you to any particular driving style.

Shock Setup

I went with the default of 550 weight oil up front, 600 in the rear. Soft springs all round (the kit includes both soft and hard sets). Starting preload was 1mm front, 2mm rear, with the goal of arms sitting roughly horizontal at rest. By Part 2 I’d wound preload up significantly to compensate for an oversized 6S 6,000mAh battery. A smaller capacity pack would be more appropriate for actual track use. Go with hard springs if you’ll be on tarmac most of the time.

The Electronics Mystery

Rlaarlo supplied their upgrade motor (4278-2050KV sensored) for my review, but I had a sensor fault. Sensor cable plugged in, the motor would get hot and produce no torque. Unplugged, it ran perfectly. Several viewers suggested the motor wires might be in the wrong order (A-B-C). They were correct based on what I showed in the video, but unfortunately I had already swapped them as part of my troubleshooting. So, that wasn’t the issue either.

Unless there’s a break in the cable I can’t see, the likely culprit is the encoder inside the motor rather than the ESC or anything mechanical, since the drivetrain itself is good. My video Part 2 ran sensorless on 6S with no practical drawback. Sensored matters most from a dead stop; once you’re rolling, you won’t feel the difference unless you’re running track laps and working on PB times.

Speed: 93kph Measured, More Projected

On MJX Tarmac road wheels (103mm diameter) with the 4278-2050KV motor, a 17T pinion and 6S, I measured 93 km/h (57.8 mph). Smaller wheels than stock means smaller readings, so the projected figures with proper DSK rubber are 106.5 km/h on the large-pin RTR tires (118mm) and 103.8 km/h on the mini-pin kit tires (115mm). Projections assume identical motor, voltage and pinion, which is fair for the conditions tested.

The Weight Question

Buggy mass without battery is 3.6 kg. That’s solid for a 1/8 of this build quality, sitting on the heavier end of competition spec. Add a sensibly-sized 4,000mAh 6S pack and you’re looking at roughly 4.2 kg race-ready, or 4.6 kg with the oversized 6,000mAh brick I was testing.

Pivot Ball vs C-Hub: Your Call

The kit ships with Pivot Ball Suspension (PBS) steering, which delivers precise, linear response and is the right pick for track or high-speed work. Rlaarlo also offers a C-Hub Steering Block conversion as an optional kit, no drilling required. C-hubs trade some steering linearity for more structural rigidity through impacts, making them the better pick for heavy bashing. I ran PBS throughout with no complaints. Worth knowing the option exists if you find yourself crashing hard regularly.

What I’d Change About the Rlaarlo DSK

The list is short, which speaks well of the car. Sealed hub bearings as standard would help anyone driving in dust. Adding a pinion shroud would protect the gear mesh from debris without much engineering effort. On that same note, keep your motor and battery wires well clear of the exposed gear area; I use wire looms to secure everything, and it’s a habit born from an expensive lesson on another car (several commenters also appreciated this approach).

My long battery strap snapped on first tightening, so a more robust strap (or just a spare in the box) would be welcome. Bashing-friendly tire options aren’t currently shipped with the kit for this car and they’re not yet available from Rlaarlo for sale, so aftermarket is your only path if you want to do anything other than race. I do expect these will become available soon but can’t confirm it!

Final Word

After all the building, fixing and driving, my take on the Rlaarlo DSK is this: it’s a serious 1/8 buggy, full stop. The build quality matches established names in the class, which is genuinely impressive for a company that hasn’t turned five yet. Treat it as a racing platform that happens to bash well, not the other way around, and you’ll have a great time. If you’ve been on the fence about the kit version, build it. The hardware is worth it, and you’ll know the car better for the experience.

Explore the range and grab yours here.

See the Build for Yourself: Part 1

The full build process, first drive impressions, and a few moments of real surprise at how this thing went together. Worth watching for the build alone, even if you’ve already decided.

The Full-Power Test: Part 2

The 6S rebuild, the speed run, the pump track session, and a closer look at the electronics fault. Everything I couldn’t predict when I started.

A note on affiliate links & review product/s: I was provided with this car by the manufacturer for review purposes. The link to Rlaarlo’s store in the above article is an affiliate link, which means I may be paid a small commission if you choose to click on it to make a purchase. As always, I make every effort to ensure that no review is impacted by this: I still report on bugs and issues encountered during product testing, and my fixes or solutions if found. Thank you for reading and happy RC-ing!