jbrow1

iTrader: (28)

A brushless has no more or less advantage over a nitro than a brushed does. Now a brushless has some advantages over a brushed motor though. Very minimal maintenance, and very long motor life if you don't kill it with heat by gearing wrong for to long. That will kill both a brushed or brushless motor. Now if you couple a brushless with the right lipo battery you will really see some fun. You'll be able to run nonstop or until you break for 20-30 mins depending on your battery. Some might say that would make it equal to or even a little better than nitro since you don't have to refuel or tune. All the batteries be it lipo, nimh, or nicad, all need proper care taken of them. Some will say they one is dangerous, or all is dangerous. There's already threads on that if you search though.

Nitro and electric are both really fun. They are both really different as well and people like them for their own personal reasons. If you are the kind of person who does your own oil changes on your car, or work on your own lawnmower you might really enjoy nitros. If your the person who doesn't have a ton of free time to spend working on engines, clutches, diffs, you might like electric better. Get some batts charge them, plug them in and go have fun right now. No finicky little 2-stroke or glow plugs to possibly ruin your day.

As for speed and power... they both can be stupidly fast and overpowered. Just depends on what you want and how you want it.

joe of loath

iTrader: (1)

mmmmm.... nitro.... nitro is good!

xmach1man

hmm.....I've heard the opposite, that Nitro is a lot more expensive than electric and this is coming Nitro guys who were into electric first. And all I hear them complain about is cleaning and seizing motors and tuning. So just how easy is it to gas up and go without out too much motor tuning?? I eventually want to try 1/8th nitro buggies but all the negative things I hear has stopped me from spending a fortune on something that is requires more fiddling than driving! Right now I'm into lipo/li-ion and brushless and it is nothing like the old Nimh/brushed days. imo

jbrow1

iTrader: (28)

You can make the cost of either one however much you want. The price of either nitro or electric is daunting to a spectator if they walk up and ask you how much you have sitting on your table. I guess I would think the long run lipo/brushless would be the cheapest. Unless one is prone to smoking esc's or not being careful with batts. The nitro guys to ask are the ones who have been doing it for years. It takes at least a year if not more to learn how to tune confidently. 1/8 scale and truggy require alot more work involved just to do routine maintenance. It's just more time is all and if somebody doesn't have that time to give or the desire to, then it is frustrating. Gas truck on the other hand is really not much more time consuming than electric truck.

I got into nitro in 1994. Todays engines are so much better than the ones back then it's not even comparable. A nice os engine will cost less than $150 and will give you one if not more race seasons. And there's very good "sleeve pinchers" that can work the innards back to new performance for under $30 and prolong the engine life for a long time all over again.

Cain

iTrader: (294)

Jbrow1: To a point I agree with you but there is one nitro cost that doesn't go away, and is worse with bigger sized engines. FUEL. At 20 - $30 a gallon. Spread that over time with regular usage with a monster truck or 1/8 scale buggy, you really can go through that stuff fast.

Nitro I think has less up front cost to get into it, but is more expensive down the road.

I would say if maintenance is really not your thing, electric is where you want to be for now. Or if nitro, go with something that has very minimal moving parts like a 1/10 scale gas truck.

LOWGEARED

iTrader: (2)

It depends on how machanically inclined one is if he tunes well or not !!! My dad was a machanic so I learned quite a bit over my years with him.. how to opperate on engines and what to listen for!
This is my first nitro and It took me all of a week to learn the ins and outs of nitro tuning... That of course with members on this site giving me tips...Thanks Aaron for that one!
Thats just MO but its not a HIGH.MIDDLE. AND LOW needle carb either so..
but I think with proper care and maintenance the nitro cars and trucks can last a long time. Mine is freakin insane fast,, and I cant wait till I upgrade my engine... to the OS CV-R engine... And money is just what this hobby/sport demands... Who wants to play with a piece of junk ?
So money really shouldnt be an issue on either sides
electric or nitro
there both gonna cost at one point sometimes!
Plus Im not afraid with my nitro to blast through a puddle of mud or water?? Soon I will dip my electronics in molded plastic...Then WALLA water proof.. Not to say I will make it into a submarine but yall know what Im sayin!

jbrow1

iTrader: (28)

Ya I forgot to mention the fuel thing. My cars only see track time, never backyard or parking lots so I don't burn as much fuel as alot of guys. But definately it's a cost that will never go away. I race electric too so I can use those when I want to mess around and not waste fuel doing it.

Lowgeared makes a good point about mechanically inclined people picking up nitro faster. Same point I try to make when I say if you work on lawnmowers or your own cars than you'll probably like nitro. But for the guys who just think the nitros are the shizzy and go pick up an rtr whatever, it's an almost true statement to say you might as well figure only half the normal engine life on your first nitro engine. Not meaning you personally, just the average joe that goes and picks one up for the cool factor.

And when I said sleeve pinchers above I meant guys you send your parts to. Like osrocket and rayaracing. Not the cheap tube clamps you see on ebay. Just wanted to clarify that.

LOWGEARED

iTrader: (2)

Jbrow have you heard of that nitro boost by Hot Bodies?
Its suppose to coat and restore the piston sleeves on old engines?
Kinda like lucas oil treatment or something for nitros!!
I was acctually thinking about trying it on this RTR nitro engine to see how it works!!

xxx-ntad2 racer

iTrader: (24)

with electric, every thing improves like batteries, speedcontrols, motors, etc. nitro stays the same except for motors maybe and servos. i like nitro because you don't have to keep up with the new batteries and motors to win races. most of the driving is from the driver but if you have two drivers that had the same driving skill the faster one will win. Nitro can be the same as electric but it doesn't happen as fast. most stuff stays the same longer unlike electric batteries.

jbrow1

iTrader: (28)

Nope had never heard of it till now. Looked it up at tower and wow that's kinda expensive. I would be to skeptical to try it myself, but if you do write up what ya think of it.

LOWGEARED

iTrader: (2)

Ya it is !! but it only takes like 1/8 of a tspoon or less for ten tanks of fuel if you even need it that much!!!
I dont know I might try it I really want someone else to be the ginnypig on that one!

Drift_Buggy

iTrader: (22)

Well brushless motors done have brushes so the motor is basically maintaince free. It is funny as everyone with nitro is crying about buying battery packs and that is expensive A nitro engine has alot more parts than electric motors so there are alot more parts to need changing with age - piston and sleeve, clutches, glow plugs and of course fuel which disappears pretty quick I have owned 11 electric kits and 4 nitro kits and electric I find to be much more fun. Don't have to worry about engine tuning or anything like that with electric brushless whereas you do with nitro. Another thing I like with electric is that when I come home from work and feel like giving me rc a drive I can just charge up a battery and set up some jumps in the back yard with some lights and not have to worry about a loud engine revving and annoying the neighbours

Cheers

NitroLuver

iTrader: (48)

love em both....like nitro for the sound and tuning... hate it for the bother of getting it to start when fresh...and having to tune it lol....kind of a love hate thing, lets see electric...fun yet boring( i like noise what can i say).....but plug and play is awesome...no tuning or frustration due to starterbox issues!

Craps

1/10th scale 2wd Stadium Electric Pro Truck
Losi XXX-T or Associated T-4 $225
Steering servo $75
Novak GTB with 5.5 brushless motor $230
Motor bearings $30
TrueRC 8000 mah li-po battery $79
Astro Flight 109 Charger $110
Total $719

1/10th scale 2wd Stadium Gas Truck
Losi XXX-NT or Associated GT2 $290
Steering and throttle servos $150
.12 Gas motor $230
Glow plugs $72
R/X battery pack $20
Starter box $75
Starter box batteries $18
R/X battery charger $8
Starter box battery charger (Piranha CX-10) $26
Glow ignitor $13
Temp gun $23
Fuel Bottle $6
Fuel 12 gallons $300 (might be equal to half the total runtime of 8000 mah li-po)
Total $1231

Before everybody jumps on me, I just bought a GT2 to race at the ROAR Nats in August and I am allowing for 1 years worth of fuel and glow plugs in the gas motor that I have also added motor bearings in the Novak system. Other wise you will have the same truck maintence with bearings and trannies on both trucks along with the same part breakage. Also note I have not included the gas truck clutch maintence nor I am not even sure I can get 12 gallons through a .12 gas motor without maintence. I did go the cheap route with starter box battery, R/X battery, glow ignitor and the temp gun because I know you guys will not like me throwing the prices in for the good stuff like li-po R/X packs and starter box options with chargers.

$1231 versues $719 is a $512 difference that is a huge chunk a change along with no pit man, no fowled glow plugs, no flame outs, no dead starter box batteries, no run aways because the R/X pack went dead and yes....NO STARTER BOX SHUFFLES!!!!!

The choice is yours!

barnettgs

Thats easy...Nitro!

In stock form, $300 Nitro RTR wins every time out of box! GT2 RS RTR for example, can reach 36mph out of box or Losi XXX-NT Sport RTR 45mph!

For electric to match the speed of stock nitro, you would need to fork out much more $$$.

For electric on every outing, I would have to tug a few battery sticks, a charger, heavy 12v power supply or 12v battery when with nitro, you only need to bring nitro fuel, glowstarter with charger and AA rechargeable batteries. Nitro is much ligher to carry with fewer stuffs to worry about. NiMH AA batteries and charger are dirt cheap to buy.

In fact, AA batteries are the only ones you need to worry about/prepare before going out and glow starter is not a problem as it lasted a long time without recharging since I only need to start up few times. With Electric, you need to take more time prepare, e.g. to charge up three battery sticks AND AA batteries for radio transmitter!

Craps: You are adding up unnecessary things to run nitro kit which many people like me don't need:

Glow plugs $72 - you're having a laugh, right? Maybe $10 or $20 but $72??!! I used to own HPI Nitro MT and its glow plug lasted a few years without need for replacing! That is if you know how to tune it properly!
R/X battery pack $20 - Don't need it either - my NiMh AA batteries does the job.
Starter box $75 - Nope, GT RTR or XXX-NT has a pull start.
Starter box batteries $18- Not this either.
R/X battery charger $8 - Nope, NiMh AA batteries does this too.
Starter box battery charger - Nope.
Temp gun - Don't need this if you know what you doing.

You haven't added 12v power supply for use with Astro Flight 109 Charger? Also you would need more than just one stick of 8000 mAH battery if you want to run for longer time or go to race?

At the end of day, the experience of nitro is unbeatable!