blarouche

I'm looking to build a track in my backyard. I have 100x40 feet to work with. The dirt at my place is super hard packed can barely dig into it. I live in Southern California it is hot most of the year with very little rain. I want to be able to run my short course truck on it with a few buddies. I was thinking about a 5 foot lanes with at least one over under jump. I'm looking to bring dirt in I was originally thinking about bringing 100% clay in. I think it will be to much maintenance with the heat and sun. Looking for dirt idea. And any general knowledge that will help.

Thanks in Advance for the help!

justpoet

iTrader: (16)

You'll probably be best served by either going for a surface that packs a lot but ends up with tons of dust on top. This lets you have fun with a more scale style short course driving experience (sliding and drifting corners), yet if you decide to go drive something else or go for precision, you can broom or blow off the dust top and end up with a hard pack surface that should have reasonable traction (possibly even with slicks if you texture it with a broom when making it wet during forming).

Fletch7276

iTrader: (4)

I keep moving to places that don't have RC tracks...forcing me to build many over the past few years. my advice would be to stick with dirt similar to what you have... the more you mix it up, the more maintenance and headache you are bringing on yourself. clay will only dry out and crumble if there is no protection from the SoCal sun, making the track miserable.... unless you put in serious prep time each week.
start by soaking the dirt every day for a week or two... once you'd had a lot of water pass through the first 12" of the soil, you'd be surprised how workable it becomes. we did this with the hard dirt in AZ a couple of years ago.
I agree with justpoet, the dust brings the reality of SC to your backyard..

blarouche

Thanks for the advise I started by scraping the top layer of loos dirt off and started to water and compact. I'm going to bring in some dirt from the local mx track and work that in. It's going to take time but when I'm done I will report back with some pics.

MarkA

iTrader: (21)

My only thing to add is that 5 foot lanes will really start looking narrow when running SC trucks. If your layout is going to have any element of permanence, I'd aim for at least 7-8 feet from the start.

Stangas

iTrader: (11)

dont make the jumps too big...

my mate built one in his backyard for 1/8 E-Buggies.. awesome.. but anything 1/10 breaks.