About Us
RC4WD History
RC4WD has been a global leader in high end scale automotive model products for over 14 years, headquartered in Silicon Valley. Founded in 2001 in the San Francisco Bay Area, RC4WD was initially started as a one stop shop (website) for the RC monster truck aftermarket and performance parts. The business grew rapidly 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 the RC4WD founder 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 functioning windows. Working through the California heat in these conditions did not detour the owner from building 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 exactly what the enthusiast community was 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 controls all facets of its products, including engineering, manufacturing, sales, marketing, and customer service.
RC4WD now has designers on almost every continent developing the latest and greatest products to suit your RC crawling needs. The last few years have 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.
RC4WD products have been chosen by NASA and made many appearances in TV and magazines throughout the world. The company has contributed parts for the fastest battery-powered radio controlled car. 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.