Help PubBurgers out!

He didn't think this warrented it's own thread. I do.

PubBurgers said: I don't think this warrants its own thread so I'm going to threadjack for a minute here: For the past few years I've wanted a gas (nitro?) powered RC car. Anyone have recommendations on where to start? I'd like something that I could upgrade and tinker with. Any particular brands? Should i be afraid to buy used? Things to look out for if I do buy used? I guess I just need a general edumacation on them. In GRM fashion cheaper is better. thanks! Jacques

Platinum90 wrote: He didn't think this warrented it's own thread. I do.

PubBurgers said: I don't think this warrants its own thread so I'm going to threadjack for a minute here: For the past few years I've wanted a gas (nitro?) powered RC car. Anyone have recommendations on where to start? I'd like something that I could upgrade and tinker with. Any particular brands? Should i be afraid to buy used? Things to look out for if I do buy used? I guess I just need a general edumacation on them. In GRM fashion cheaper is better. thanks! Jacques

I got one i'll sell its a ofna 4wd buggy... Needs a few thing done to it but not too bad

Not cheap, but the Traxxas Revo is awesome.

http://www.traxxas.com/products/video/5309revo33_2006/

I need to call my son and tell him to bring mine back.

Do you want a car or a truck?

From personal experience when I was younger, if you just want something to screw around with drive it around the yard/neighborhood, but a truck.

I had a nitro RC car and unless you have nice pavement and some space to open them up, it gets old quick.

Oh and I'd pass on Nitro now that they have LiPo batteries. Nitro cars cover the entire chassis in gunk every couple of tanks that needs to be cleaned.

Thanks for starting the thread!

A truck would probably work best, I have a cheapo battery powered RC tank my brother got me a couple years back and it's fun to see what all I can run over with it. Like you said, I can see getting bored with pavement a lot quicker than off road.

So what's the difference between nitro and gas? Just a different fuel type? What kind of maintenance do they usually require?

Fit_is_Slo; more info/links?

thanks!

Jacques

What's the difference between stadium, monster, etc? I probably won't be doing anything mega extreme to start.

The Revo does looks sweet but a new one costs almost what I paid for my Civic. As far as price I probably want to stay in the $200 range.

OO i used to do this! That was back before battery tech was good, so all of of my stuff was nitro. and yes, you have to clean nitro cars almost as much as you drive them. I had some decent road, though, so cars didn't get boring for me. Trucks are great fun, though, but i had a Tamiya truck wiht a 2 speed forward/reverse auto transmission. It was all very complicated and cool, and therefor hardly worked properly. I'd say simpler is better, as something to look for.

Stadium trucks and monster trucks differ most strikingly in ride height. Monster trucks are obviously very tall, very large (some are bigger scale) and stadium trucks are closer to the ground, usually faster in those windy offroad tracks. Really, though, anything RC is amazing fun. Good hobby. I have stuff i could sell you, but most of it is so worn out and fried that it now takes a ritual dance to get the engines started. Electrics are easier like that. and cleaner. but you can always refill a nitro tank and keep playing without charging down time. At least that's how it was 5-10 years ago.

Oh and for products, i alwasy had really good luck with HPI products. Not super fast, but i found it hard to break them, or harder than some others i had.

I have this:

http://www.traxxas.com/products/nitro/maxx/tmaxx/trx_tmaxx_over.htm

And yes, it's everything you ever hoped it would be.

Usually in R/C cars, gas and nitro are interchangeable until you get into the big expensive stuff. Most of them run a mixture of methanol, nitormethane and some type of oil. Most cars run between ten and thirty percent nitromethane. There are a bunch of brands out there. Traxxas stuff had a good reputation for being durable at a reasonable cost, at least when I was in the hobby shop business. The other thing is their parts support is top notch. You won't be left with a car you can't get parts for. Best thing I can tell you is find a local shop and see what they have and what they stock parts for. You might also try an online dealer. These guys were pretty popular when I was in the business. Keep in mind if you end up with problems the local guys aren't going to be very nice about helping you out.

I would be wary of buying used until you are familiar with what you are getting into. You can end up with a pig in a poke. The little two stroke engines can be a bit of a pain as they age.

Nitro = gas in the RC world. Unless you're looking at 1/8 scale monsters with 2 stroke engines, any gas powered RC car will run nitromethane. Monster trucks are like the Revo and stadium trucks are like the Jato, if you look though the Traxxas website. I had never heard of the short-course trucks before today, however, I REALLY like them. I've sold my RC cars right about when brushless motors first came out so I'm shocked at how fast they've gotten. 80+mph is insane.

PubBurgers wrote: Thanks for starting the thread! A truck would probably work best, I have a cheapo battery powered RC tank my brother got me a couple years back and it's fun to see what all I can run over with it. Like you said, I can see getting bored with pavement a lot quicker than off road. So what's the difference between nitro and gas? Just a different fuel type? What kind of maintenance do they usually require? Fit_is_Slo; more info/links? thanks! Jacques

there isnt a difference. gas, is how the lay person ould refer to a nitro rc car, called as much because it is a 2 stroke engine that runs like a diesel engine would, except instead of burning diseasel, it burn a mixture of nitro glycerin and alchohol, 60/40, 70/30, or 80/20, depending on your engine

EDIT!: re reading an above post, it is true that the much bigger ones, like 1/5 scale, often are actual gasoline engines. also, for cheap and tunable get a tamiya

^Yeah there is. 1/8 and smaller run nitro, 1/5 and larger usually run gasoline, like 91 out of the pump.

Look around on the forums for some used stuff. But generally I'd stick with HPI, Traxxas, AE or Team Losi. All American stuff and parts are readily available.

There is some higher end RC cars, Schumacher/Yokomo and such but parts aren't nearly as available (at least from my experience).

If I were you and you just want something to bash around with, I'd look at a Monster Truck. They look like they would be the most fun to screw with. Setup big jumps, crawl over stuff, etc.

Thanks for the advice! A new RC shop just opened up down the road, think I'll head down there today and check it out.

Jacques

I had a 1/8 scale Inferno. Ended up selling it because I had nowhere to run it. It was stupid fast and had no business being run in anything smaller than a football field. I bought it as a package deal for $150 with all the stuff to go with it.

I want a smaller nitro and Traxxas seems to have some great rigs now. Prices are pretty decent now too.

I have a couple of electric stadium trucks... I have no need for nitro. I have a t4 truck set up for track racing, and a basher Traxxas Rustler on lipos that'll exceed the speed limit on most major highways. Nitro is a pain IMO, I'd stick with electric. Even a 7 cell humpback in a decent truck w/brushless with stomp the E36 M3 out of most of of what you've seen. It's FAST.

I've had a few, but nothing brushless electric. Nitro is way cooler and generally either much faster or much better runtime (and no recharges) but they require tuning and cleaning and nitro tastes quite bad. I had a HPI super nitro on road car, and always wished it was regular 1/10th scale for better body selection, but with a two speed the thing went nearly 60. By the way, a shifting transmission on an RC car is sweet. The engine made 1.25 hp and only cost like $150.

I've had a myriad of electric, including the RC10 series, both T2 and B2. If you're playing around mixing the road and the yard, you'll want a stadium truck or a buggy. Monster trucks are fun but don't expect any actual handling. I had only one, an old traxxas.

You really can't go wrong. Stick with major brands, shop at local hobby stores if you can, tower hobbies if you cannot.

don't forget crawlers! one of the big things now is scale rock crawlers, in all scales just about, so you could crawl all over your desk, or all over the back yard, depending on what kind of area you have to play on.

there are some fairly cheap, while still fairly capable out of the box crawlers available too. and you don't have to worry about having the best gear so you can be the fastest out there.

Ended up going with a new HPI Firestorm stadium truck. Should get to fire it up tomorrow. Ended up having to go over budget as $200 just wasn't going to cut it, the wife was less than thrilled.

Hopefully I'll get some pics up soon. Any pointers for a noob?

thanks for all the advice!

Jacques

In reply to PubBurgers:

Don't run it into stuff. There is a reason why the 4x4 nitro monster trucks became such a success over the lighter duty 2wd "stadium" trucks. Because you could do stupid E36 M3 like scale it off a 20 foot high berm 30 feet into the air, land, and keep on trucking. Been there, done that, done a lot of competitive racing back when extended chassis first gen T-Maxx's with big blocks were the rage (oh the days when .21's were big blocks. LOL!)

I was heavily into RC cars for a long time (when I was only 16 at that, we're talking $3k race 1/8 nitro buggy). I would suggest buying the HIGHEST quality fuel you can (I believe at the time it was blue thunder around these parts). Also, get ready to learn how to tune and rebuild the motors. You'll enjoy yourself so much you'll go through buckets of fuel and motor rebuilds.

And for all of our sakes, buy a rechargeable battery pack for the receiver/servos in the truck itself. Only true n00bs run double AA packs (and you can't run rechargeable double AA's as they only have 1.2V instead of 1.5V, not nearly enough jam). You'll have batteries that will last more than one run, and you won't have to worry about the truck suddenly dive bombing down your street at 40mph with no way to stop it.

Question:

I'm ready to fire it up and break the motor in. I started it real quick but shut it down because it sounds like it's revving really high. Not having any RC experience I don't know if this is normal or not.

edit: Looking around online i guess it's pretty normal. Guess i just didn't expect such noise.

PubBurgers wrote: Question: I'm ready to fire it up and break the motor in. I started it real quick but shut it down because it sounds like it's revving really high. Not having any RC experience I don't know if this is normal or not. edit: Looking around online i guess it's pretty normal. Guess i just didn't expect such noise.

They normally rev pretty high. Don't hammer it on break it, but the really hi-po engines "redline" somewhere in the 40,000 RPM range. They don't really "idle".

Ok, started the break in. Got the first tank through idling, no problem. Got the second tank through driving in circles half throttle.

However, now the car "idles" high enough that it wants to take off on its own and when i try to adjust it down via remote, it dies when it reaches an acceptable level. I called the hobby shop and they said adjust the low idle and check the clutch (on a new car?). I'll continue my research and have another go tomorrow.

From what little driving I did do I can tell this is going to be quite fun.

thanks!

Jacques

High idle can mean a couple of things. Too lean, idle stop set too high would be my guess. They do idle around 2k rpm, but it shouldn't be a whiny sound, it should be a brrrrrr. Having to hold a little break to keep it from rolling isn't unusual for a new truck.

Here's a pretty good video showing how it should sound idling. Link

In reply to Toyman01:

Thanks once again! This begs the question, is there any subject that can't be answered by GRMers?

PubBurgers wrote: In reply to Toyman01: Thanks once again! This begs the question, is there any subject that can't be answered by GRMers?

Don't ask me about filing your nails or curling you hair, but probably not.