RAdio control car questions
 

Need to get my kid's hand eye coordination skill up to snuff. He wants an RC car or truck. I don't know what to get and man, are they $$$. What to look for says my brain trust here? No racing, no crazy speed like doing 60mph. A four wheel drive truck so he can learn how things work? something that will survive a crash. Any suggestions? I do not want to build it, that's for sure.

Jeff

Played with a traxxas slash 2wd kawasaki edition at my sister-in-laws kawi dealership.
It is a riot, quite fast.
search flea-bay and what not.
you can find them for about $250

Traxxas - The Fastest Name in Radio Control! | traxxas.com

A co worker had a nitro traxxas car that was stupid fast and silly expensive

1st RC truck
 

Get him a Traxxas Slash RTR, best value out there. Stick with the Nimh batteries for now, a 7.2 volt pack is plenty of power. When he wants an upgrade go to Associated or Tamiya kits. DP

Start small at first and relatively cheap, just to be sure he is interested in it.

Ibought my youngest the Traxxas Slash. It's a nice truck and there are plenty of race classes fot it when he's ready. The biggest complaint I have is that it's not a kit. I think that much of the RC hobby has been lost with the ready to run packages.

I'm a fan of local hobby stores first but when they don't have what we need I shop at towerhobies.com
Local is nice when you need a repair part quick. I'd make sure to buy a truck that they carry parts for.

Id start him off with one of the cheaper, ready-to-run out of the box cars. No sense getting him an expensive one, if he is going to trash it or have no interest in it. ( only speaking from experience..) there are plenty of decent cheaper ones that are easily replacable, if need be.

Kit or not, you'll end up breaking stuff and working on it anyways. SmileWavy

The electric monster truck is my suggestion, but stock they come with a lot more power than you probably need. I like the go-anywhere of the monster truck's, but I also live in the woods where I actually need it. The downside is more batteries are needed.


What I had where E-maxx's, more of a race truck(although not running race tires in this picture). The power is probably a lot more than what you're looking for. You could get one, and put in higher turn motors for less power.
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photo...876219_767.jpg

I've been out of it for years, and have no idea what's on the market today. I'm guessing most good chassis, are going to come with a lot of power. Buy the right chassis for what you want to do, electric motors are cheap to get the power you want. Hopefully someone has a 7.2V smaller 4wd ruck out there, otherwise you are stuck with a 14.4V system and a heavier 4wd like I have.(My race truck with twin NMHD for 14 cells was 7.7lb's, stock was 11lb's I think, thats a lot of force if it collides with something @ 40MPH)

I personally think Traxxas is trash - if you want a tough car (which you do) then look at Ofna, Hobao or Mugen

I would also suggest you find a 1/8 scale nitro car and then convert it to electric as the nitro cars are built quite a bit tougher. By converting to electric you can scale the speed down via smaller battery packs, ESC, and the expo controls on the radio. As you son gets more comfortable you can scale things up.

Currently I run all nitro stuff and while my son is able to run it but limiting the speed means keeping rpm's down which means the clutch is slipping a lot and the engine is not getting to proper temps.

I am about to do a conversion for him.... actually he will be doing the work.

You can find good kits on CL for $90 to $120 and then you pull it down and freshen up what needs to be done and do the electric conversion.

Look for the ofna ultra series or the hyper series. most bang for the buck and they can take a severe beating

That thing look so over the top. It must be fun and durable. What's something like that cost? The bigger they the more durable, right? That might be something I am looking for because they can play with it on the hill side in the back of the house.

Unless you have high grass or other items that require the "monster" truck type vehicle then I would go with a truggy or buggy

I run a buggy and it has plenty of ground clearance and are more stable

the monster truck types are actually more prone to breaking suspension bits, ending up shinny side down and when it comes time to put new rubber on it is more expensive (buggy tires run about $10 to $15 a corner) you are also eat the pinion and spur gears more frequently.

here is a picture of a converted Hyper 7
http://www.teamnovak.com/products/br...kits/OFNA7.jpg

I'm a heavy RCer - been doing Planes, Cars and Helis for something like 30 years now. You can't go wrong with that Traxxas car but there is another option that since you're in SoCal might be a decent and cheaper option.

Their site seems to be down now but Hobby People has an XTM truck that is something like less than $150 ready to run. Plus, since it is their local brand you can get parts at their local shop no problem.

There is also the Tower brand or Duratrax buggies which are quite excellent and come with parts replacement warranties.

Feel free to contact me directly and I can help you get onto the right track.

Thanks Mike. I like the term heavy.:) I have no idea what to look for and looked at Craigslist a little bit. They want lots of money for used stuff. I think a FWD truck will be good since we have the whole hill side where they can play. Do you know anyone that maybe selling one of those. I am trying to stay away from new because they will kill it but, for $150 it can't too bad.

I ran a Hobby People XTM-Xcellerator stadium truck and the build quality was great. Once you get into jumping stuff you will start breaking suspension components rather quickly - part of the learning process I guess. So whatever you choose make sure a local store with parts is convenient. The pre-built kits typically come with low quality radio/servos and after a year or less you will be looking to upgrade there as well.

Not yet mentioned - Nytro vs Electric. I went with Nytro and regret it. Sure they are a blast to run and the XTM truck came with a nice motor - but they are a PITA to keep reliable. I just didn't have the time to invest in learning all the little ins/outs of running nytro and ended up frustrated. I ended up blowing the entire kit out on Craigs list. I would still be fooling around with it had I gone electric. YMMV.

I'm not sure how old your son is, but my after playing video games for years, my 16 year old son opened up and flew the RC helicoptor right out of the box we got him for Christmas. Our son and daughter just seem to have the controllers down pat (I'm not sure that's a good thing or not...), while I suck at it.

The truck seems like a good great idea and I've wanted one for awhile.

I dont know where in LA you are, but in Montclair, right n the 10 freeway, is a hpbby store called Pegasus. They have their own outdoor dirt track behind the shop. On a Saturday morning you can watch 10 to 15 guys race, and their are work stations where you can talk to the racers while they are readying their cars. It's well worth the time investment to see what works.

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

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1325703195.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1325703211.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1325703225.jpg

Not my photos BTW

Definitely true on the suspension, more mass makes for more force available to break something.

Tires though, hard compound V tread monster truck tires have a very long life compared to the softer racing tires that you find for the buggies. I found RC tires and wheels are expensive no matter what I was buying them for.

Without knowing what he's driving on, its really hard to say. I ran in tall grass, woods with downed trees, and steep eroded dirt banks, and later, red clay dirt track.

If he's not jumping it, and there aren't objects for him to run into, almost anything will be durable, it will just come down to how much ground clearance is needed. If its bare dirt, and ground clearance isn't needed, a 2wd truck, or buggie, will be the best choice.

+288, or is it +2?

This is what I did to end up with what I bought. I got to see everything in the store in action, and it totally switched what I was going to buy(I wanted road) to realizing a monster truck was what I needed. Racing it is not as cheap though, those tracks have a lot of jumps that do a # on your chassis/suspension.

Why not start out with something around $20 from Radio shack or Wal mart??

He out grew the 20 dollar item in a few days.


Keep them coming guys. I really need all the help I can get on this RC thing.