RC4WD History
RC4WD was founded in 2001 in San Francisco Bay Area, California USA.
Initially RC4WD started as a one stop shop (website) for RC monster truck aftermarket and performance parts. The business grew like wildfire through the help of RCMT.net, a forum community dedicated to the RC monster truck enthusiasts. The owner quickly gained an in depth knowledge of what the consumer was looking for, and developed relationships with all the top manufacturers of aftermarket parts. His extensive networking abilities gave him the opportunity to manufacture some components for the companies whose parts and kits he was selling. In 2005, the business was thriving, stocking nearly 800 parts from companies like Thundertech Racing, JPS, New Era Models, Imex, Defiance Racing, RC Alloy, Vertigo performance and many others. Up until 2006 RC4WD was a one man operation, when business was booming RC4WD employed the help of his friends and family to keep up with the orders. 2006 was a pivotal year, as a college friend of the owners dropped his full time job in effort to help build RC4WD into a force to be reckoned with. Like many companies suffering growing pains, RC4WD and crew rented a small garage unit without amenities such as air conditioning or opening windows. Working through the California heat in these conditions did not detour the owner from building on his dreams. In the summer of 2006 RC4WD reached another milestone as he was seeing a significant shift in the market place. The demand for specialized rock crawling products was emerging, and there appeared to be a lack of interest from some of the manufacturers in filling this demand. Perhaps the owner just had the foresight of what the market was going to do, either way a decision was made. RC4WD scaled back on their distribution of other companies products and began to focus on delivering the enthusiast community exactly what they were asking for. The RC4WD manufacturing company was born. This stage was the most difficult, as engineering, manufacturing, sales, and marketing staff had to be hired to make it all work. RC4WD now has designers on almost every continent developing the latest and greatest products to suit your RC crawling needs. The last few years has brought about some extremely detailed products catering to the “Scaler” segment of RC rock crawling. It is not uncommon to see an RC vehicle clad with RC4WD products that requires a second look to know if you are looking at a scale model, or at the real thing! The RC4WD team would like to thank each and every customer, contributor, and dealer for their continued support, feedback, and ideas, they have all helped to shape RC4WD into what it is today! The owner and the RC4WD family will continue to strive to bring to market high quality products that answer the demand of the consumer.
RC4WD’s innovative key products and actions over time:
April 2002 TXT Differential was made and sold on Ebay.
August 2002 Over 60 different kind of RC performance truck products were available. We are officially the reseller for Thundertech Racing, JPS and Xtreme Racing. 7 of those products are made by RC4WD.
September 2002 From just a few visitors per day, now we have over 1300 page views per day. For the month of August, we had over 13,000 page views and 1800 unique visitors from around the world.
May 2003 The first bead lock wheels for Clod style trucks were made. Initial prototype was made in Massachusetts, due to various reasons a patent was never submitted. Ever since, we have made 100+ types of bead lock wheels for various trucks.
Oct 2006 The first GRU (Gear Reduction unit) to fit a 540 size motor was built.
April 2007 Smallest 6 tooth pinion for 32 pitch gears.
June 2007 Our first complete full metal 3 speed truck kit was brought to market
August 2007 We developed a created the worlds first Dig Transmission for the RC rock crawling community. In late August we also developed a true scale tire. This was an item that all scale builders had begged for.
February 2008 We released the very first exclusive RC tractor pulling tire.
May 2008 RC4WD manufactured a set of custom billet wheels for Nic Case to break the current RC speed world record for the Guinness Book of world records. These wheels were made to run at a speed of 200 mph (321 km/h).
June 2008 We offered our very first plastic axle for sale.
March 2009 Our first booth setup at RCX show in Los Angelos CA.
October 2009 We presented Dennis Anderson (Grave Digger Monster truck driver) with an exclusive RTR Bully kit.
Feburary 2010 Booth setup at KOH (King of the Hammers) in Johnson Valley. The largest 1:1 crawling/racing event in the world.
June 2010 Started to carry other manufactures parts again.
July 2010 Released our first licensed product. The Dick Cepek "Mud Country" 1.9 tire. Starting a revolution of licensed products to hit the market. Feburary 2011 Our products started being offered by Horizon Hobby
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