rodrigorajao

Hello, first post

As a kid, I remember a lot of older kids and their dads (mosty their dads) played with RC cars. It was a lot of fun. The only RC cars I ever raced were the Radio Shack ones. Details are kind of fuzzy (this was like 25 years go), but I clearly remember them assembling, tweaking, testing, fixing, cleaning stuff before and after playing around.

Then my brother bought a nitro on-road one. It said RTR in the box, but it was anything but ready to race. He soon was in same treadmill I had seen so many years ago. He was spending so much time maintaining his RC that he barely had time to race it on weekends. This was some 15 years ago.

Now I ask, has the tech involved in the hobby improved, so that I can race around with minimal maintenance required?

Deja Vu

iTrader: (11)

15 years ago, we were flushing motors, turning comms, building battery packs and discharging them at the end of each race day. Granted, some of that stuff was kind of fun...I actually liked tuning motors, but it was a lot of work.

Today, well, there's still maintenance, but not much. You can spend more of your time rebuilding your diffs and shocks...but that's not even a weekly thing. I likely spend only around 25% of the time on maintenance as I did years ago.

tntpoof

iTrader: (3)

Welcome Rod

The gear now a days require less maintenance than15 years ago..I have a Losi SCTE with a off the wall esc and motor and I spend less than 10 minutes each week in maintenance and I race 2x a week.I have literally drove my Losi full speed into a brick wall with no damage.. in the past 3 race seasons i have broken 1 part a A arm when i landed on a steel 3/4" rebar spike..The batteries(lipo) need much less time but u better read and learn as they are very dangerous if charged wrong and so on..The brushless motors require the occasional drop of oil to bearing and a nice blast of Air from a computer cleaner or ur own air tank..The esc are much better as long as you dont think ur gonna run this thing for 45 minutes without a break..keep runtimes down 20 minutes.. and let it all cool..once ur 3 diffs are setup and have proper lube in them u are set..same with shocks..alot more fun greater speeds better batteries and most of all much better radio systems(dont buy a cheapo radio) go with something good..if you need message me i can point u in a good direction without all the sponsored bs that some people push..Best of luck and always have FUN I do..

MarkA

iTrader: (21)

In the electric realm, most stuff is now truly plug-and-play. There will be maintenance but not as much as there used to be. For Nitro, not much has changed. If you prefer driving over tuning, stick with electric and you'll be happy.

cdwilliams1

iTrader: (38)

+1 to this. Not only are the electronics much easier, the cars are much more durable. I never broke anything on my short course truck in the season I ran it, and haven't broken anything on my current buggy either. Much less maintenance but a lot more performance!