loone

Noise, smell, maintenance. Pretty well everything you already listed. You can take your current trucks out and use them when ever and where ever you want. With nitro/gas you wont have that luxury. The power delivery will be different aswell. With your electric trucks all the power is available instantly, With nitro you need to wind up the motor to get power. Im not sure about current nitros/gas but when I had a 3.3 swapped rustler I was always having to retune for temperature and humidity so I was never able to just walk out back and bash around. They both have a place, I've also been throwing around the idea of getting a 1/8th nitro truck lately just for something different

1/8 IC Fan

iTrader: (102)

For one, you do realize you are posting this in the Nitro On Road Forum. Given your mention of trucks.


We have multiples of similar threads:
Electric guy who may try nitro again, advice?

Nitro or Electric?

Nitro vs Electric for our next truck.

I know you may have just joined, and are getting a feel of how this forum works, as such, look around. We have many different forums, and lost of information within. Most are easily accessible with our search function.

BladeRunner24

RB_Racer

Maintenance is a killer for most people with nitro and especially on-road. Unless you are prepared to spend the time between race meeting cleaning, checking and ensuring things are set right it will be too frustrating. Unfortunately people just want to race and then put car away until next race day.

Roelof

Maintenance is so overrated with nitro. With electric you also need to replace gears and belts on period base, check diffs and re align all setup settings, with Nitro that is not any different. While most topdrivers do rebuild their car after every run I can tell you that is not needed, you can even run 3 races w/o any maintenance than only using an air compressor blowing off the dirt.

PROVK

iTrader: (14)

I'm a die hard nitro guy but running in tight new engines sux!!

RB_Racer

Yes those things are similar, but a centex clutch will reward you in reliability/consistency if you give it some tlc and check measurements etc. I also wouldn't be just leaving fuel sit in my nitro engines unattended for weeks even with ARO. With brushless setups in electric now no maintenance required.

UrabusDenis

Trust me- nitro is the glory! I was a die hard electric guy but when I tried nitro, that's when I finally realised it! Compare 45 minute finals to 5 minute finals without any refeering!

About the maintenance- it is more than with electric, I admit, but it is really no big deal if you do it regularily. Once you get in the groove, it will become fun. After I drive, I check the piston isn't at top and just pour out the remaining tank. If I won't drive it for a week, I put after run oil- that's all. I will remove the engine every liter of running to maintain the clutch (some do it more often, some more rare), the whole process of removing it, refreshing the clutch and installing it back into the car now takes me 10-15 minutes. I will do this before every race: club, national of international. All other maintenance is the same as with electric- fyou will spend the same amount of time preparing an electric or a nitro car for big races. A full rebuild is the same with both cars

windellmc

iTrader: (4)

TurnNBurn

Gotta agree about the engine. Believe me, you won't want to have to deal with a gunked engine.

Anyway, personally I loved both when I ran years ago. I'm trying to get back in now, and I plan to do so again. I found that Nitro required its fair share of additional maintenance compared to electric, but the additional run time is well worth it.To think, Battery technology has gotten SO MUCH better compared to 20 years ago, but in most classes it has amounted to only ONE additional minute of runtime (we used to run 4 minute heats/mains). Yeah - the flexibility that Nitro gives for run times is a big plus - not to mention that you can practice as much as you want. Well, almost - you don't want to wear your engine out before a big race!

EDIT: Oh, as far as cost, I'd say that Preparing for Nitro is probably marginally more expensive, but the difference is not as much as years ago. As I'm finding out now, equipment across the board costs a lot more now. Hell, a decent, competitive .12 motor costs now what a .21 used to cost years ago (the price difference between sizes used to be greater - then again, .12 was just getting started). On the electric side, speed controls and motors are quite a bit more these days, and even though they are MUCH better quality across the board than 20 years ago (with many more options), servos are easily double what they cost years ago. So in a nutshell, you'll probably pay about the same in start up costs no matter which way you go.

racingnewb

iTrader: (7)

Ask your pit buddies if they will pit for you. Running nitro w/out pit help sucks, qualifiers aren't too bad but practice at large races sucks. Mains is a must to have pit help for refueling and the start of the race. Maintenance isn't too much more, clutch maintenance is the main thing. As said above, Nitro is great when they run good.

johnnydmd

For old hotrodders such as myself, Nitro is simply the best! The tuning, tweaking, modding, you can do with nitro is simply awesome. Electric has it's place, but if you want to have a real racing experience, nothing comes closer than nitro.

rrb1399

iTrader: (12)

fiveoboy01

iTrader: (30)

The longer mains, for me, is the main draw.

Also, lipo cycling/maintenance is a pain equal or greater than clutch maintenance... for me, anyways.

I also have an e-buggy. Both have their upsides and downsides.

Interesting first/second post though. LOL.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)