Xterra Trail Racer 3.0 2017 Treadmill Review

Xterra Fitness equipment is produced by Dyaco, an award-winning manufacturer and one of the largest global manufacturers of high-end home and light commercial in the fitness equipment industry. Introduced to the UK a few years ago off the back of great success in the US, the Xterra brand has found a dedicated following this side of the pond due to the good build quality and sheer value for money that their treadmills offer. We were keen to find out more about the latest version of the Racer 3.0 – their entry-level treadmill in the range!

First step: Assembly! We can confirm that the most challenging part of putting this together is actually getting the rather heavy base unit out of the box so we didn’t bother trying to! Instead, we just cut the corners of the box to end up with the treadmill sitting on a flat piece of cardboard. The Racer 3.0 isn’t a pre-assembled machine, but once all the parts are out of the packaging and laid out on the floor the process is pretty straight-forward without too many steps that could go wrong. As ever, we’d advise having two people to make it easier to hold bits in place whilst securing them with screws.

Once assembled, it’s clear that the Racer 3.0 isn’t a flimsy bit of kit. We couldn’t wait to get running on it! Our first observation of using the machine was that it’s actually pretty quiet compared to what we’re used to seeing on most treadmills in the budget category. Whilst quite a number of budget machines end up with their motors sounding like a hair dryer when running at top speeds, the Racer 3.0 was far quieter and composed. This will be thanks to the Racer 3.0 being fitted with rollers that are larger than those typically found on lower priced machines. Having larger rollers on a treadmill results in the motor needing to run at a lower RPM for any given belt speed. The bigger the rollers on a running machine, the more power and torque the motor needs to be able to deliver and the Racer 3.0’s motor copes with no issues at all.

The deck is a full sized one and provides a nice level of cushioning, making it really enjoyable to run on! The cushioning provided is just right to reduce the joint impact without feeling so soft as to make road running following treadmill come as a total shock!

Another aspect that really makes this machine stand out is how stable and rock solid it feels when running on it. As well as the machine itself being quite heavy (at well over 90kg machine weight), the metal bar connecting the uprights just below the console increases the stability of the frame. This combination really helps to make running on the Racer 3.0 feel like using a machine at the gym, rather than a home treadmill – let alone a budget one!

There’s a 10% powered incline and once again, the incline motor makes light work of moving the deck up and down, even with the ‘chunkier’ members of the team running on it 🙂 The maximum incline is a true 10% gradient which is steeper than some other treadmills with specs that claim to have 12 or more ‘levels’ of incline. At its maximum setting, it really does make you work hard so unless what you’re really after is an incline trainer then the Racer 3.0 can go to a level of incline steep enough to make you break a serious sweat and get your heart pounding.

The console is clearly and logically laid out with quick speed keys and quick incline keys on either side of the screen which is a good sized blue backlit LCD display. Again, the screen is an improvement on the previous model and has a higher contrast ratio, making it nice and easy to see all your workout data. It’s also very simple to use. A quick glance at the controls is all most people will need in order to start using it – you don’t get much simpler than stop, go, speed up/down and incline up/down! Selecting a programme is also just as straight-forward but of course, we have to say that you really should read the manual…..

A nice feature of the Racer 3.0 is that it has a quarter mile track in the middle of the screen that shows your progress, which is something that’s sadly missing on a lot of treadmills. Above and below the track there is a series of dedicated windows that display your pulse rate, duration, calories burned (theoretical of course), distance, speed, incline and also the workout that you’re on. No messing about with buttons here to select the mode or toggle between one set of data and another which makes it very easy to instantly see all your workout data.

In terms of preset workouts, there are 9 which sounds a bit low, but the programmes are all scalable so each programme can be adjusted for difficulty. This then completely changes things because you can alter each workout for the duration, maximum speed and incline the number of options increases massively. This facility is very useful indeed as it means that it’s possible to increase both the duration and intensity of your run as your fitness improves over time. In addition to the preset workouts and manual mode, there are also two memory slots for user-defined programmes so you can create your own specific workouts and just run them at the touch of a button. But, unlike most other treadmills that have user-defined programme memory slots, at the end of a workout in manual mode, you’re given the option to save the session that you’ve just done as one of the user-defined programmes – a nice touch that!

Something else we spotted is that when selecting a programme, the console asks for your age and weight in order to provide more personalised calorie consumption figures. While you don’t have to enter this information to use the programme (a generic setting will be used if you skip this part), if you do, then you’ll find that the calorie burn figure being reported back that bit more accurate. While it would have been nice to include proper user profiles, it’s nice to see the calorie figures being displayed aren’t just counting upwards in proportion to the current speed and incline, but rather they take into account some of the details of the person that’s running!

Finally, the console has a pair of speakers and a fan. Both work reasonably well and do a job. The fan blows at an upwards angle so you do get a refreshing breeze in your face and the speakers work well enough to provide a nice backdrop for your run.

Finally, the warranty on offer with the Racer 3.0 offers comprehensive on-site 3 years parts and labour cover. The warranty on offer is a testament to the quality of the components used in this machine.