brehio

Hi everyone!


I have always wanted to get into R/C cars but I've never actually jumped in. I think I'm finally ready to take the leap. I am starting at absolutely square 0 however, and that amount of information I have tried to absorb this weekend during my research is overwhelming. I've browsed these forums, watched youtube videos, read articles, and now I am just nervous. Growing up the only brand I had heard of was Traxxas, so I thought that was what I was going to buy, but after my research it seems like this isn't the greatest path to go down if you really want to get into R/C, which is what I want to do.


My goals:

Spend around $750 (including tools/batteries/chargers)

Understand the "correct" way to do things (not break my car constantly)

Be setup to go to my local track and start joining leagues/races

Be able to work on my car/understand how to upgrade it

4x4 short course truck 1/10 or 1/8 scale (ideally but not required, just always been drawn to these)


Options I have looked at this past weekend:

Traxxas Slash/Rustler 4x4 (what I always thought I would get but have heard bad things about Traxxas)

Losi Tenacity TT Pro

Arrma Senton 4x4

Losi Baja Rey

Arrma Kraton 6S


Questions:

Too many to list but big one is Nitro vs Electric. Always thought nitro should only be for experienced people..is this correct? Should I stick with electric?

Seems like brushless LiPo is the only way to go if going electric, correct?


Thank you so much if you took the time to read this!

Slotskim

You and i are in this together! I just recently started a few weeks ago from square one with my 8yo son. I went with 1/10 associated buggy. I am doing tons of reading and still after 3-4 weeka of reasearch, i find myself thinking ill need an electircal engineering degree and 10 years of field study to know which battery works best with which motor and which esc etc lol. Then thres the chargers

Nothing more from me, but im subbing to your thread to hear the answers to your questions! Good luck!

asadrian

iTrader: (7)

First thing I would recommend is to find your local track and see what classes they run and what class you would enjoy. Take a look at talk to a few people about what cars they are running. If there is a local hobby shop, or one at the track, see what parts they stock. Always helpful if you break something at the track vs that ending your day. If you want to race, I think everyone would recommend either buying a used kit off here (best bang for your buck) or building your own (more $$ but you learn about the car and how to work on it and fix it). And if you are in it for the long term, do not go RTR (ready to run). You will spend more time and money trying to get it to perform to the stock performance of a kit.

killer rock

congradulations on taking the step to join the hobby.

sorry this post turned to long......... to to long

first the first. were are you tracks drive time wises? ovel or off road? indoors or outdoors? what are the classes at the track? what are there race days, would you be able to make them? and how often do they race?
(don't need to awncer the question but know the awncer) this will deturman what classes you can run. example many indoor tracks are to small to do 4x4sct and ebuggys so if this is what your getting you'll be up creak till.

second im not turning you away from the class but 4x4 sct and ebuggy are fast fast heavy truck. there a hand full to drive on the track. because of this your will find your self a speed bump or plowed thro alot because of the difference in skill levels between your self and other more seasoned drivers. also because of there size weight speed many tracks won't let you run them in the rookie classes. they also dont teach you to drive as the power and speed hide many mestakes from beeing seen making the learning curve take longer. so you'll be last longer and driven thro more often leading to more frustration. If you ok with this and i would recomand a 4x4 sct over a ebuggy, cheaper batteries more forgiving truck less likely to serious hurt some one when you fly of the track and hit some one.

i would recomand a 2wd class you will have just as mush fun. it will still be fast and exciding, plus will teach you to drive, require less maintenance. often theres bigger turnouts int those classes and you'll guys closer to your skill group.

as fare as nitro vs electric
electric
pros
easier all around
less maintenance
just works
is both faster and slower
cons
batterys
batterys
batterys
battery charging
battery runtimes
battery prices

nitro
pros
can run all day off 1 charge (assuming you have the fuel)
tinkers play house( carb ajustments through out the day four changers in temp)
sound the ewo and ahhh effect
fuels cheap more or less

cons
maintenance
maintenance
maintenance
maintenance(carb tuning)
maintenance(gets dirtier faster 'oil' need to be clean)
maintenance(motor should be torn down for long storage wd40 wash out the alcohol and keep the motor from rusting)
inproperly tuning will reck you 300-500$ motor before you know what happened(this is more maintences ah has to be done throw out the day)
sometimes they just don't want to start.....(intense anger)
are more pron to run away(not saying electric won't do it, but nitro/gas motors when they go out of range or the recever/ controller battery dies they do what ever they want)

as far as used, new kit or rtr. they all have there pro and cons

used can give you the best bang for the buck but can also be a basket case (know what your getting and if spare parts are included, complete, exc )

new kit can easly cost the the most. many of rc cars i have 1000+$(i do have a few the only cast 250$ onroad only tho) to get them on the track not including optional parts and performance tuning or tires, but this will teach you the most about your car build and set up wise.

rtr. this is the most middle of the road you can go no possibility on getting the best band for your buck, or end up spining 1000 just to get it on the track(first race). you will find that the electronic aren't made for the long haul or fast enof in some cases and will cost you later. But it can get you on the track with a truck that has not been killed off(the inevitable dc replacement part, most race trucks run into) not it wouldn't ever be competitive as the kits in big events but for club race often is more then enof. Losi and Associated both have rtrs that are based on there race kits (altho dated race kits there still race kits) losi 22s sct and associated sc10. they have there flaws, but many of the parts we use to race with are compatibale. (the TENACITY TT Pro 4WD SCT if based around the latest kit if your still hell bent on racing 4x4)

pnr

Chalk me up as another newb. I got into RC a backwards way. My sons (11 and 9) received a Traxxas Raptor as a gift during their quarantine from school in the spring. I recently had an opportunity to purchase 2 more Traxxas vehicles (Bandit w/ brushless and Stampede) so I did. I've been reading a ton - used the search function to find out things without asking the typical newb questions. Currently, I just want to enjoy the hobby with my kids not necessarily racing. I am looking forward to being able to have little family competitions.

Looking forward to learning with and from everyone.

killer rock

don't worries about asking the topical nood questions. ive been the hobby for 20 years. asking find my self asking a nod question, for an ancwer to the question i already know. only to conform my knowlage or see if things change and/or if the cences desided that this is now better.

lol glad you got in to the hobby.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

Welcome. Be prepared to be overwhelmed.

Do not rush to buy. Since racing seems to be the goal, I’m going to assume there’s a track in your area. Or within a reasonable drive. Over this summer I’m finding that in my area, an hour drive(50-60 miles) seems to be the limit for the average person.

the vehicles you listed



Options I have looked at this past weekend:

Traxxas Slash/Rustler 4x4 (what I always thought I would get but have heard bad things about Traxxas)

Losi Tenacity TT Pro

Arrma Senton 4x4

Losi Baja Rey

Arrma Kraton 6S

non of these would be considered “race grade”. A lot do have 2wheel Slash based “novice” classes. But that seems to be the limit for it.

Visit the track if possible. See what’s offered.

DirkW

iTrader: (1)

killer rock : Funny, I have always thought quite the opposite of electric vs nitro. Buy a good (not the best) charger and 1 or 2 decent lipos and you can get literally years of driving out of it. While fuel (which I don't actually consider cheap) just gets burned, so you have to buy more all the time. Plus the sound gets old really quick, IMO.

brehio

Yes after more research those do seems to be quite bad for what I want. I'm going to go to a local event this Sunday and then probably buy a kit and slowly assemble it.

Thank you to everyone else for your responses

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

Sounds good. I just started with clay in June. I’ve done few carpet off road races. I also race carpet/pavement on road and 1/27 scale. Clay has been the hardest to adjust to so far.

I have the Baja Rey, it’s a cool truck. It would be great to actually see a solid axle style class. But there’s no real interest in it

For clay i currently race
13.5 4wheel buggy
17.6 2wheel buggy.
I have a mod stadium truck. But not run that class yet
mod 2wheel buggy. Not raced yet
2wheel short course truck. Not built yet.

brehio

Yeah I'm hoping my local track runs 2wd short course truck. I'm leaning towards getting Losi but I'm gonna see what's available at my local shop

Slotskim

This is EXACTLY what i did. took my son to the local track(beachline raceway). Luckily when we went on a hot florida friday evenin, and not a soul was there. We rented their rc10b6.1 and drove aeound for about 2 hours. We were hooked. We came to a few events and then bought a new b6.2. We did tue build together... a bit over his head for 8yo but as a former modelist and machinist by trade the actual build was fairly simple even with new to me terminology.

i have been doing reaearch for weeks on whats what and just splurged and bought all new reedy parts for it so we can stop breaking the rental cars lol.

The boy has lots of chores to do now lol

fast_gc8

iTrader: (2)

Welcome, I hope you find what you need in this form it’s really great and has a lot of useful information

killer rock

just a clarification on my thoughts and what i experenced

i don't disagree with what your saying but i've seen fellow racers trash batteries, with out getting in to it buy abusion there batteries and replacing then either every mouth to 6 mouth to year. he is also looking at classes that are buy nature very abuse to lipo batteries (4x4 sct), granited inexperece in the racing leads to a higher chance of battery abuse, leading to higher costs, including the destroction of the car (fire). and the only way to get around that is higher capability batteries and turning down the truck or slower motor. the later of the two new drives won't do. and higher capasity batteries costing far more. far as chargers i didn't talk about then as we all know we can get a 50-to 50$ depending on your setup and fetchers you want. my most expencive charger only 150 and thats because i needed a power supply. but i also have buoght more chargers because the last one lacked a feater i did relize i needed. like my first charger single port no balancing. it couldn't balance and could only charger 1 battery considering i only had 2 batterys at the time it didn't barther me. but when i picked un the second car and got 2 batteries for it was i had defently seen all my 75$ charger was insafincint. my next one could charger 2 batteries and had balancing built-in. but could only do 5 amp and 3s, while the other one could do 6amps and 4s. i didn't care at the time because the biggest batteries at the time were 5000-6000. fast forwards another 2 years and that charger felling dated. in the face of battery capasity uping to ~8000, and the increasing size of the fleet. i also deside i need to figure out why my 100$ batteries for my 4x4sct puffed hard every 6 mounts (yes i figured it out it won't goin to it). but yes after i got all thoughts all the bug. in my setup. over the chage's in the inderesty i spend over 1000$ on batteries alone(for those two cars), chargers not included. yes i would have spend far more on fuel but on the flip end of the coin. A few of my less used cars i won't have been money ahaed if they were nitro as i put in less then 20$ of nitro fuel thro them. i also Know how to make nitro fuel its cheap and easy to make just goes bad fast. with that sad i do standby nitro fuel being cheap more or less( ovesly in the long run mores expance then lipo batterys. but its alot easier mentally and on the wallet to buy a 20$ bottle of nitro fuel then 100$ charger and two batteries @ 50-100$~ each).

yes nitro sound like nails on a chack board, and i do my best to avoid turn marshing/the-pit-guy for the classes. I can't standed more the 1, let alone 1 hour main. but it still perduses a ewo and ahhh effect, take both to a park you'll get more people talking to you with nitro then electric any day.

i how every don't recommend or not recommend nitro. Its just not for me. it the added maintenance that gets me and it shows when i see people get then out from storage coverd in nitro and it barely runs or thay can't get it running. but don't get my wrong i'm not saying electric with out it faults. electrics biggest weakness no matter how you look at it is the batteries. and will be till we get better batteries technicality in 10-20 years(my moneys is on super-capacitors, i fellow battery tech and news)

as aside note after i finally figured out my batteries issues i have been run the same batteries in my 4x4 sct for 6 years now and i and just looking at changing them out because they started to puff alittle and i have noticed one is considerably faster then the other.