losi09

I thougth I would start a knew thread on the tpoc Electric Vs Gas? What do u guys think is better and why? I like Electric cause it is fun and easy going and most of the parts do not cost as muh as it does for gas. Just tell me what u guys like and wich one is u favorite and why u also think wich one is better.

mremtr

iTrader: (1)

Batteries Speedos and brushes , SUCK!! Nitro for me!! I like r/c so I will drive electric when I need to ,but totally prefer NITRO !! As for cost ! To be competitive in electric I have found to be EXTREMELY expensive! $120 batteries , $170 speedo ,$50 motor plus $100 steering servo YIKES ! And you need more than 1 battery to be "on your game " . Then you need to get a dis-charge tray , really good charger and powersupply. Holy smokes ! I'm broke just thinking of the stuff you need to be "fast " .
1/10 scale nitro is WAY cheaper ! 1/8 scale now ..... You can spend some pretty big bucks and if your a rookie..... yikes ...... You are sure to smoke up a few engines and servos before you get things sorted out , but in the long run , nitro is far less money. And for me WAY more FUN! Cutting comms...... yeah..... OK... now I need a lathe ..... buying another case of fuel...... much easier !
Not bashing electrics mind you , just my own opinion is all . Like I said I do enjoy running them ,just hate the electric stuff upkeep. One reciever pack is pretty easy .

party_wagon

iTrader: (29)

At the moment nitro is better. It is cheaper to be competitive, you can run longer, it requires less maintance, the cars are more durable. Do I need to keep going?
Now, here is the grey area. If electric continues to make a push towards brushless lipo then I would never go back to nitro. You would be able to be fast for less money, less maintance, and cheaper cars. Let's do a quick comparrison of the 3 fields I listed above w/ the same roller.
We can do 1/10 mod truck.
current setup-
esc,motor=$200
4 batteries=$250
discharger=$100
charger=$200
power suply=$75
servo=$100
lathe=$175
Now, if you add this up you come out with around $1100
then once a week-engine rebuild $10
once a season new batteries & engine $300
so you are looking at around $400 a year in maintanance for the running equipment.

1/10th nitro truck
engine-$200
charger-$75
hump pack-$25
two servos-$150
differance in roller values-$100
starter box & batteries$150
glow plug igniter $25

This comes out to around $725
Then, once a year new engine & 10 gallons in fuel.
$400

now, brushless lipo
esc/motor
$200
charger/power suply $175
$servo $100
two lipos $160
This comes out to around $725
maintance
once every two years pick up two new lipos for $160.

Simply put. To purchase your hard wear and keep it running for 5 years it would look something like this.
around $3100 spent on mod electric
nitro truck $2725
lipo/brushless $1125
That is around the cost of purchasing top of the line hard wear and running it for $5 years. Yeah, there are still bearings and such every so often. However, lipo/brushless is head over hills cheaper. Not to mention that when you charge lipos at 8 amps you can virtualy run two packs non stop an entire afternoon. They will charge at 8 amps for about 90-95% of the charge proces then slow down. You 35 amp discharge at a 90% effeciency is eating up much less then that which means that you are running for around 30 minutes and charging for around 30-40 minutes. You can count me in on that.

glassdoctor

iTrader: (4)

You can make the same arguments about nitro.
For the sake of discusion consider a race 1/10 truck for a summer of racing:

Nitro:
$300 kit
$300 motor
$100 pipe
$100 servo
$100 throttle servo
$100 starterbox
plus about $300 worth of misc stuff like a couple gallons of fuel, a pack of $10/ea plugs, and
rx packs, glow ignitors, (chargers for box, rx, ignitor)
temp gun...

Electric:
$220 factory team kit
$250 for a brushless motor/esc
$100 servo
$200 for ICE chargerand a power supply
$250 for 4 good matched packs and a discharge tray, or a couple good lipo packs.

You can run this electric setup all year and have no added expense... and still be running the same stuff this time next year. Seems that both classes have a similar total cost depending on how high-end a guy goes... but electric can actually cost less, even long term.

For every brand new matched pack or gizmo an electric racer could buy, there's also a new nitro motor and case of fuel for the nitro guy.

Is there anything I'm missing?

Of course this topic will be debated for all eternity in the r/c world.

party_wagon

iTrader: (29)

If you decide to run lipo you spend about half the amount on batteries, and half don't need a discharger. Then two years down the road when your packs are shot you spend about half the amount as you would w/ regular packs.

mremtr

iTrader: (1)

Yeah until you have a cell short out and burn your race rig clean to the ground LOL !! I have seen this first hand

party_wagon

iTrader: (29)

The funny part though is that spending another $500-$600 to replace your roller, servo, lipo, & esc would still cost less then picking up a new nitro engine & fuel once a year or a new set of batteries once a year. Lipo/brushless realy is the true budget r/c racing class. No matter how much they spend on lipos & brushless motors a $80 max amps 6kmah and a $200 novak or mamba system will push you toe to toe in 2wd off road. You will still get 20 minutes of run time and more power then the truck can handle.

dirtracer1

yea, there is.......all of you guys have forgot to factor in one of the biggest expenses for all classes of racing....off road AND on road..............TIRES!!!!!

losi09

Ok I wil tack the cost back. Yes in some ways Electric does cost has much as gass does. Batteries do not cost 120 a pack that ways to much to put there packs cost about 60 to buy then when u have them put to gehter there about 65 to 70 bucks. Electric there is less mantince then gas, to me gas as more mantince. I have talked to some people that have gas and some say they wiss they had a electric car/truck. With tires u go througth more tires in gas when u run stock electric they last longer even sometimes they last with mod. It all depends on what tipe of track u are racing on. I know u can run longer times with gas. I know people that have put like 1,000 dallors in there 1/8 scall buggys in and I have not even put out that much money in my electric cars/trucks. One thing too is that u do not need a pet man too and the electric is not a as loud as gas is, so for me I have to say electric all the way.

losi09

In my last post I was talking about matched packs not lipos. If u are going to run lipos yes they do cost a lot.

party_wagon

iTrader: (29)

If you plan on racing then I realy think it depends on where you are. I would just go run what ever the most people run. It's always better to race in a field of 50 at the local track then to race in a field of 6.

losi09

I agree with u on that one.

glassdoctor

iTrader: (4)

I wasn't missing tires... no more than I was missing a radio, lol.

This is only about the differences between nitro and electric, not the things in common. That's why I got a chuckle out of the $100 servo complaint against electric, as if a nitro car doesn't use any servos...

Radio, tools, tires, etc....kinda need them no matter what powerplant you use.

Why do you have to buy a new esc every year?

losi09

Yeah that is very true.

xxx-ntad2 racer

iTrader: (24)

i'm going to have to go with gas. to get into the hobby by buying RTRs, gas is cheaper cuz all you need is to break-in and tune your engine, get some gas, and go. electric you need to buy batteries, motor(s), charger, and discharger.

i'll say the price is close, but i think gas wins. plus they got good runtime and can be fast.