Advice
 

My 12 year old son and I have decided that we want to build an rc...we have never this before so we need some advice ....we have decided that we want to get a kit instead of an RTR kit .....what do we need and where is a good place to start ....any good Internet stores that have good fair prices and good prouduct and honest .... we want to do and off road drift car any and all advice is welcomed and appreciated thank you for any and all help

my favorite place on line is rpphobby.com they have reasonable prices and fast shipping for cheep. and by off road drift do you mean rally? cuz i dont think there is off road drift just on road

Hi Tim..well Tim and his son.. what are you 2 into ? there's a entire world of RC..from micros to 1/4 scale,,, 1/10 and 1/8 is the more popular scale.. is it going to be a basher or racer ?..Then there's Remote(as in radio) and brushed or brushless (motor esc combos work great) also Nicads nimh A123 or Lipo's batteries.. then a charger..Tools..hex drivers-small needle nose pliers-...minis are fun driving in the living room or basement..(1/16-1/18 scale)..if it was me i would start with a cheap Used truck from like Craigslist or ebay.. tear it apart with the correct exploded parts view and rebuild it take alot of pics for reference.. theres alot of screws same dia.. but have many different lenghts..
Tamiya--MRC--Losi--Team Durango--all make kits.. from $79 to $600+++ Best of luck.. Just get a Traxxas

If you want to try it out first, get a RTR and take it apart and put it back together or buy used and do the same. This is going to be the most economical way to get into the hobby.

Buying a kit is great but it'll cost you more as people tend to have nicer electronics than the RTR ones.

Do you intend to race? If so check out local tracks.

Good luck! It's a great hobby.

I've been buying from Tower Hobbies since the 80's and I've always been satisfied with them. Been using A Main Hobbies for about a year now, also very pleased with them too (Tower doesn't carry some brands I'm running - so I tried A main).

http://www.towerhobbies.com
http://www.amainhobbies.com

www.stormerhobbies.com has a pretty good inventory and some of the best prices on the 'net.

I agree with a previous poster. The easiest/cheapest way would be to buy an RTR or used rig to at least get your feet wet in the hobby. If you and your son like it, there is about a 99.999% chance you will end up getting a second vehicle anyways. Then you will have a little bit of experience and might feel more comfortable building a kit for your second vehicle.

If you think you might want to race, visit your local track to see what the popular classes/vehicles are and get one of those. For general bashing, a monster truck would be at the top of my list.

If you don't buy an RTR, you will need:
1.) Vehicle Kit
2.) Radio System - 2.4Ghz for sure. You will need one servo for an electric vehicle or 2 servos for Nitro vehicle
3.) Nitro Engine/Pipe for Nitro vehicle or Electronic Speed Control/Motor Combo for electric vehicle
4.) Batteries - Pack to suit the ESC/Motor for electric or Receiver Pack for Nitro and AA's for the Transmitter.
5.) Charger - Get one compatible with your battery. I would probably also get a multi-adapter for the charger so you can charge batteries with about any popular connector.
6.) Basic Tools - Get at least hex drivers to start with. Building a kit with allen wrenches really sucks... Probably an Exacto knife with a few extra blades as well.
7.) Fuel - if you bought a Nitro
8.) Tires - some kits include them, some don't

These are the basics. Hopefully, you have an adequate LHS nearby. During the course of a build, you will probably be making a few trips for things i've overlooked here such as paint for the body, threadlock, shock/diff fluid, soldering supplies, etc. This list is not all-inclusive, but should get you started.

Tim and Trenton,

If this is the beginnings of a father and son thing, I totally get it as I started with the very same idea with my two sons and we progressed onto racing on-road cars and racing and have had many great years of fun.

Don't buy the RTR, there's something special about spending days with him learning about suspension and differentials, teaching him patience and reading through the steps of a manual, checking each screw is the correct one, filing off the sprews (sp?) and enjoy the whole experience of putting it together.

My experience is that Kyosho or Tamiya kits have the best build manuals. I assume you will want an electric model and the real question is whether you want a Rally Car or a Buggy. Take note that most have HEX wheel hubs and you can change wheels later, as long as the wheel diameters front to rear are the same, the gearing front/rear will be too.

I very much recommend holding onto some of your budget and focussing on the experience you will get from it, it will be worth every penny as while mum may think this is very expensive, consider how many hours of entertainment you will have together and amortize the cost based on quality father/son time and not the model itself.

Whatever you do, don't get caught up in the hop ups, you could later come back to RC Tech and check the for sale threads to find RACE Spec chassis going a lot cheaper.

But if I am correct, go to Amainhobbies and look for a 4WD Electric car, this will have all the elements of mechanics for the transmission in a shaft drive, differentials and so on.Try and get one with a Brushless Motor and LiPo battery and keep a few pennies aside for a good charger and a spare set of tyres so that when you wear out your off road tyres palying on the asphalt, you can keep them as on road SLICKS and save the second set for the off road drives. You will also require a Radio and Servo set and preferably get a Digital Spektrum system bundle. Otherwise you may be forced into a RTR in terms of budget but you will be getting a poor radio and servos that will likely fail.

Enjoy

h

A santa list

http://www.rctech.net/forum/11503907-post16.html

Do you have an example of something that was hard to find? Or what makes it "suck". We make little tweaks to our search engine all the time and appreciate any input you might have. :)

Some we can control, some we cannot. But I'd like to see if I can help or look. :) Over 100,000 parts on there, that can make some things tricky to find. I'll grant ya that.

Let me know if I can help in any way,
-Bob

Probably A Main Hobbies and Tower Hobbies are your best bets, A Main is where I tend to go as they have an easy to use menu, usually ship quickly and give you a shipping price on checkout. Most importantly is they take Paypal, and IMO this is the 21st century, people shop online and most of us who shop online now use Paypal, there are some stores who still refuse to use it, but really not taking Paypal online is like not accepting Eftpos or Credit Card payments from a shop front isn't it?

If you want a kit, also look at www.rcmart.com who do a lot of Tamiya kits which are very easy to build, have good parts support out of Hong Kong and also take Paypal so you're covered in the event of a parcel non arrival rather than chasing your tail calling banks etc which can be a major headache. I used to be the biggest critic of rcmart as they used to have dead slow processing times and charged fees for paypal, but they seem to turn around items quickly now and have stopped the paypal fee grab so I'll give credit where it's due and sheepishly admit to having placed a few orders there in the past 3 months all have been turned around quickly without any issues.

At the end of the day it's your hard earned $ you're spending, and I myself prefer to spend it at stores that are easy to use, are upfront with shipping charges and take a payment method I know is safe for me, without me having to hand over personal information like credit card numbers etc, that stuff was ok 10 yrs ago but not now but I guess some stores are still stuck in 1986 :nod:

I was probably a little bit harsh, Bob. Sorry for that. I will change my original post. You guys have a ton of inventory and awesome prices. Keep up the good work!! I will send you a PM, which is probably what I should have done in the first place.

Don't worry about that stuff, We value customer feedback.. A LOT. and I'm glad you wrote. I'll bring everybody up to speed.

He was looking for the Robinson slipper for the Axial Wraith. Simple enough. but couldn't find it listed. Hmmm.... We had removed Axial from the description, just left it as Wraith slipper. Not gonna get a result that way if you leave Axial in the search. So we, more specifically "I" (just now), changed those descriptions to include Axial, and now they come up in a more broad search.

So I appreciate the note, you made searching just a bit easier for everybody. Customer feedback is critical! :)

Number one thing I see with people and failed searches is searching to broad with to many words. Example, "Purple hinge pin traxxas slash 3mm with eclips". that one is already doomed because eclip is misspelled. Start with "slash", add "pin". Also traxxas calls them suspension pins, not hinge pins. Manufacturers names can mess things up a lot. :)

Here's another. People search our site for receivers. You'll never get a hit that way because no manufacturer sells a box with receivers in it (more than one in the box) they are found by searching reciever, no plural. we use exact manufacturer descriptions where possible. So on that receiver example, we automatically drop the plural if you search for it. Try it out. search for receivers, then misspell it and search for recievers, we fix the spelling and drop the plural. Cool stuff happening behind the scenes to help you be successful with your searching. :)

A lot of that happens because people took the time to write. And we appreciate that. :)

If you ever have trouble searching for something that seems obvious, drop me a note, I'd like to see if I can help.

Hi Tim 'n Trenton

I know im only new and dont have much experience, so I'm only going off what I've seen a friend of mine build and one was a Sakura Zero S and a Tamiya 1/10th (but dont know the model) which are both electrics and appear fairly simple kits to start off with. Like sdtech58 mentioned theres a lot of extras that will be needed especially the tools, radio and receiver to control the car, batteries to provide power, motor combo to make it move and a servo to make it turn. I know from experience that it must look like a lot to take in for someone just starting out but its definitely an enjoyable hobby

Thanks to everyone for your imput we got a lot of usefull information we have decided to go with the 1/16 car ....is the best way for us to start??? And what would be the best one to look into

Also should we get gas or nitro powered ? How much and how easy is it tomfindmthe fuel for the nitro cars

another point of view........................
 

The only big drawbacks to those small scale cars are they, by nature are difficult to work on just because of the size of the parts and components. Run time are very short and if you guys make the transition into competitive RC you'll have a hard time finding that size car in any local venue, you'll end up going to the larger 1/10 scale or larger cars anyway. JMO Have fun.