RAdio control car questions

[look 171]

Originally Posted by DAEpperson

No affiliation, just thought you might want to know about the place. (And I miss going there - son turned 16 the other day...)







Not my photos BTW

Thanks David. That place is about 30-45 minutes from us. I have to check it out. They are usually there in the mornings on the weekends? I am trying to keep them out of video games.

[cgarr]

I got this tracker about 16 years ago from Tower hobbies and its still going. Its a 2WD but still goes anywhere. The key for me was getting something that can be fixed, make sure everything is basic universal parts like suspension etc.

I upgraded the motor and put in a very nice speed controller, not cheap but you don't have to upgrade anything right out of the box.

[porsche930dude]

Im not sure about electric trucks but i have a hpi savage and its great. But its alot of work to keep running. i wont be buying any more nitro rcs

[look 171]

the lots of work parts I do not like. I try to not telll my kid that, but the driving part of the reward. I hate working on the 930 but driving part is a blast. No gas motor for us, only electric due the amount of tinkering.

[andyt11]

Start with used gear. It can get expensive and gives you the chance to meet people in the hobby. 4wd will make it a lot easier to drive fast, so he won't be disheartened by finding it too difficult.

I used to race electric cars competitively when I was young, you don't need all the best gear to win, just some good used equipment and a bit of improv. At one point we made roll bars for the rear suspension from coat hangers.

[onewhippedpuppy]

After the advice of this forum last year we bought my then 6 year old a Traxxas Bandit buggy, RTR with battery for $180 at Tower Hobbies. Selling points were the waterproof design (kids will find mud/water), cheap price overall, training mode on the speed controller to limit the car to 1/2 power until the kid can handle the 35 MPH top speed, and the fact that every hobby store sells Traxxas parts. He drove it and LOVED it for most of the last year, he managed to break it a few times but the fix was typically $15 and some quality time. Considering the abuse it held up VERY well, unfortunately his uncle drove it under a moving car. It's fixable but needs a lot of work so I picked him up a 2wd Slash. Frankly the Slash is a bit better for him, the better ground clearance makes it unstoppable in all but tall grass. It's also much better at jumping, which is inevitable with kids. Overall it's been the best toy he's ever had, and great for father/son time.

For any of the basic RTR cars expect to get a better charger and battery, the original charger took a day and the battery was maybe good for 15 min. New charger will do it in 1 hour, new higher mAh battery is good for 25-30 min run time. Maybe $60 total. Traxxas also has a great program for discounted upgrades, when he's ready we can trade in his brushed motor and original ESC for $120, giving him a brushless motor 60+ MPH car if we get a LiPo battery.

[mikester]

You can't really go wrong with the Traxxas cars. I remember when they came out in the '80s - I was working at a hobby shop in the 'valley of the dirt people' (if you don't know what that is you're lucky) and was about 13 or so.

They were pretty decent cars that were after the entry level market. Now they have a full line of cars for every level of driver. The Slash is a great product with excellent reviews.

A reason not to go with a crappy Radio Shack product.

When you're son's asleep you can play with it yourself. Totally not kidding there - I do it all the time with my indoor helicopters (and his). Also; those radio shack types can be upwards of $100 and if they break they are broken. They come with crappy radios that you are lucky if they work for very long. They eat batteries for breakfast, second breakfast, thirdsies, brunch, lunch, mid-day tea and supper. You can't get parts for them. I have family members who by my kids crap like that all the time because they know I'm into RC and figure the stuff is good enough. When it breaks on day 1 - my kid's in tears and there is nothing I can do about it.

You will likely need a better charger than what any RTR package will come with - I would look for a package that doesn't include one. Then you can get a reasonably priced decent one and some spare battery power to go with it. No reason to go after the high capacity (higher milliamp ratings) batteries to start with. Go for some 7.2v Nicd or Nimh batteries and run the speed control at 1/2 speed. That will make the battery last longer and slow the car down for the kid to learn to drive it.

You can also check out Horizon Hobby's selection. Typically when I look at RC Cars I'm going for the 1/10 scale types. These days they also have quite a few smaller scale cars that are a lot easier to do and friendly indoors as well. Like 1/18th and 1/24th scale. Horizon Hobby | Home has those.

[look 171]

What's RTR?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Ready to run. Fully assembled and ready to drive.