1/18th Outdoor Off road track design advice wanted

[imjonah]

I am in the putting the final touches on my backyard 1/18 scale dirt track.
Currently it is about 20' x 30' The lanes are 4 ft wide, and a lap is about 150 feet. Right now the track is more or less flat with slightly banked turns at the end of straight portions.

My big indecision is about jumps and other obstacles. Without jumps and with the wide lanes, I have been able to log several hundred laps with my Vendetta ST without having to do more than blow the dust off and change batteries. I enabled the reverse on my ESC and I can often run 5 or 10 minutes without having to marshal the car once. If I charge 3 batteries in advance, I can go out and run my Vendetta ST for 45 mins with very few interruptions, then do the same the following night without having to mess with the car.

When I told a friend about my set up, he said: "you got'a have jumps". When I read about other peoples indoor or outdoor tracks, it seams like jumps and other obstacles are standard or an expected part of the design.
Obviously they add to the excitement (particularly for those watching) and the fun. The downside which isn't discussed that much; is that, you need have a couple track marshals out there to put cars back on the track
and
you break drive shafts, hubs, knuckles and other suspension parts.

I don't have any real experience in off road, I just know that running on a 1/10 th scale on-road paved race course, I broke suspension parts, 3 cvd drive shafts and had a hard time keeping the wheels on.

I read a lot of posts about people busting up their 1/18th and some of those stories may be related to running them on big 1/10 1/8 the scale tracks.

Any advice from those with experience would be helpful.

[jaejw1]

YOU CAN STILL BREAK PARTS WITHOUT HAVING JUMPS.... sorry for the caps..

the thing is learning how to drive without flipping, or atleast not flipping so much....

what was told to me by a pro driver is this..... "drive like your racing for 5 minutes... if you keep the rubber side down for the 5 minutes then your ready for racing... til then keep practicing"

i love huge jumps ,, i love going fast... but most of all i like the challenge of keeping the car upright in any situation...

here is my latest video.. http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x...rcraceway3.flv

im not th best of fastest driver in these forums,, but i have taken my vendetta to the ends of the earth and back,,, and i love every minute of doing it...

want to see smooth driving.. look for "eamedia" or "frogger" videos on youtube.. just freakin awesome drivers

[Bermbuster]

by putting obstacles on your track you now turn your world into 3d....
start w some small jumps and learn how to clear them then add a double...
w practice you will need very little marshalling as well. With jumps your set up now becomes even more criticial.

[nutz4rcyktw]

I stopped losing wheels after I replaced the stock Vendetta wheel screws with 4/40 bolts, oval head, and used a cone washer behind each one. When you tighten these down they will hold the wheel securely. It will take some work the first time you thread them in so take it easy. It is worth the effort. I never lost a wheel after this mod.

[imjonah]

[Note] After a lot of frustration, I eventually used a method very similar to yours to securing the wheels.

Thanks for the information, I think I will experiment with some jumps and other typical offroad obstacles, its just dirt and I can flatten them out later if I get excessive breakage and I have to marshall the car every other lap.

One thing I am trying is a little different. I am not going with the "industrial-duct tape-PVC look. I am using 3" x 3" by 8' landscaping timber as barriers and filling in anything that is not track with landscaping or ground cover rock and bark. I am trying to partially emulate the scale model look of electric train layouts. I really don't like the white PVC,scrap 2 x 4 or round black flexible air vent hose stuck together with grey duct tape look.

I will post pictures and see what you all think.
_______________________________________________

I may do another post on this subject, but I think 1/18th scale on home built backyard, basement or driveway tracks may be the future salvation of RC Racing. I think with rare exceptions the dedicated track/hobby shop model or the Sunday parking lot track model is dying a slow death.
I think also 1/10 scale TC has become so expensive both in time and money that it is also slowly dying out.
The 1/18th electric buggy monster truck Vendetta/RC18 type vehicle has the advantage of low initial investment, dual purpose race or bash, multi-surface dirt, asphalt or carpet and multi-race format on road, dirt oval or off road. The big advantage is that the size is such that it is an order of magnitude easier to set up your own track, a typical suburban homes backyard, basement or driveway can potentially be a race track.

[rocket-mtrsprts]

A couple of years back Losi ran a contest for folks to send in pictures of their backyard tracks, some were pretty neat, but one guy outdid himself with all the landscaping and by the time he got done it hardly looked like a track at all.

[Rapid Roy]

check out this thread

please help me design a small track!