RC Trucks anyone?

I was thinking of buying a traxxas RC monster truck. Looks fun, it goes up to 45 MPH, what doesnt sound fun about that? :laughing: My back yard is about an Acre, so I figure I can tear it up a bit.

Anyone else into this? How much maint. does the truck require? This one runs on 10% nitro fuel. BTW, total RC newbie here!

The world of RC cars will be a whirlpool to your wallet, let me tell you. New cars, nitro, and mountains upon mountains of aftermarket parts for more speed, durability, or other sorts of performance. I used to be into it some years ago, but dropped away from it due to cost and the time it consumed.

I had a gas truck (HPI MT), and then an electric car (Associated TC3). Loved them both.

An E-maxx is a wonderful way to start. It's not gas, so it will be much less maintence intensive. One of the worst things about gas trucks is that their exhaust builds up all over their parts, and catches tons of dirt and grime. Electrics bypass this very nicely. You'll spend much less time having to clean grime off the truck and more time catching air.

But keep in mind, that you still will need to give a good deal of time to keeping the parts clean, especially any moving joints i.e. drive shaft, suspension arm hinge pins, and especially the transmission area.

But, know this: you will have a blast with that thing.

i have a freind that has one but its not a monster truck but more of a off road car. after he told me how much he spent on it i dropped my jaw i think it was like 350 or somthing. but his goes 55-60mph i think. there is a video of a man jumping his over his garage somewhere. he said it took a lot to break it in like he had to use the local RC airport strip to break it in cuz you had to do like 500ft of a stait line. also beaware that aregas guzzlers and take very expencive gas, butother than that the are super fun and go anywhere, grass mud, sand,dirt,snow.


i hope this helps!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tmaxx&search=Search

I like the Revo!

Nitro of course!

I was very much going to get into the world of RC Trucks but when I was more interested in them I had less money than I needed... Duratraxx makes some pretty neat models too... but beware you can end up spending a lot of money on hop-ups, upgrade parts for your truck.

I've got a the Traxxas Jato. I haven't played with it too much, lately, but I know I will. Mine will do about 50mph. That's with the 2.5R engine--now, they've got a 3.3! My friend got me into R/C cars. He's WAY into it, now, and has been for quite a while. All his cars have been modded with LED headlights and tail lights! He first started with an electric, but brought it back the very first day he had it, because he got it just a little wet, and the thing stopped running, so he went nitro. As for the monster trucks, I like the Revo, especially with the new 3.3 engine.

I've seen the video of the guy jumping his truck over his house. I believe it was an RC10 stadium truck.


I got my truck for $378, after taxes (not including battery (for starter), charger, and gas,) and I paid for it, in full, with money I got from recycling. Yep, that's right, the trash that people threw away got me a brand new R/C Nitro car!

PSM

It's a lot of fun. I agree with Razor it is hard to beat the Emaxx as a starter truck. Much cleaner than gas but with amazing torque (especiallyif you run it on 7-cell packs), and plenty of top speed for beginners. The truck is awesome value for money and you can duct tape a camera, transmitter and torch to the roof for awesome cross-hobby fun!
I really love the truck it is terrific and man does it take a licking!
There are lots of RC internet sites you can join- several have "Basic Hop-ups for the Emaxx" as stickies: check 'em out.
Good luck. Tower Hobbies often are a good spot to start to buy.

Thanks for the replies guys. I have a brand new store about 1.5 miles from my house called HobbyTown USA. About half the store is nothing but RC. (Approx 4000 Sq Ft.) I'm going down there later today to check it out.

Good location, a local place that stocks spares is a nessesity when running RC. I was heavily into off road 10th scale racing several years back. Gas is a lot of fun, but I'd really recommend an electric as your first purchase. Less maintenance and easier to get to run right. Gas motors can be finicky to weather changes.

I add another vote to the E-Maxx. I had a ton of fun with mine, until our house was broken into and it disappeared. I've been into RC since the mid-80's and have had a blast. I started out with a Grass Hopper (which they started making again recently!) and kept moving up. The thing to remember about the E-Maxx is that it takes 2 batteries, so you might want to get a quick charger that will do 2 at a time if you go with the E-Maxx. I had 5 different sets of batteries for my truck, so I could drive for a while before I had to wait for batteries to charge. I've always ran electric, just because nitro engines require more TLC to keep them adjusted, but a few of my friends ran nitro trucks. The do hold more dirt/dust from the exhaust and any spilled nitro.

Roger

I'm going to go with the Electric for my first truck. I will take you guys word for it.

I didnt see a E-Maxx at Hobby Wolrd, just the E-savage. Thoughts on the E-savage anyone? Price= $340 or $350....

RC is a lot of fun, but if you think flashlights and scanners are expensive, wait until you start playing in the RC world.

When I was in it 15 years or so ago, my battery packs were good for about 5 or 6 race runs, and then became practice packs, and then became giveaways. To get max performance from the NiCad packs, you ran them as close to destruction as you could, and that meant they were only good for about that many runs before performance decreased somewhat. Those were 30 dollar packs then, and I used 2 per race weekend.

Not to mention that unlike flashlights, RC is a destructive process by nature, so you are constantly buying new parts!

It is FUN though! Good luck!

Bill

I've been into r/c for about as long as I can remember: electric offroad cars, electric offroad trucks, electric boats, gas offroad trucks, gas boats, 2 helicopters, electric onroad cars, etc.

I've got a handy tip from my first foray into gas cars/trucks. Add a throttle return spring. It will increase wear on the servo and drain the receiver pack more quickly, but it will likely save your model one day.

I had a receiver pack wire get pinched in half and an out of control truck (mine) that soon hit a 5" high concrete barrier at about 40 mph.

After that I had:
2 broken front arms
broken body
folded-in-half frame
folded-up nose plate
broken body posts
broken connecting rod in the engine
split fuel tank
crumpled nose tubes

Electric will usually cost more than gas for the novice. It's easy to make beginner mistakes that will destroy motors and batteries and lock up countless bearings. However, there's less learning required.

Gas tip: eventually your piston and sleeve will wear out and require replacement. Keep the old one. After set #2 wears out (or #3) you can often mix and match piston and sleeves and find a set that fits tightly. I had 3 sets and was able to mix and match them for about 3 more sets' worth of usage, which is nice since a set cost about $40.

Heli tips:

#1. Power poles always win in a fight.

#2. Parked cars always win when you fly UNDER them and into an axle or part of the frame.

#3. Fasten the receiver battery securely. I had one that fell out while flying. After that, see tip #1 for what happened.

#4. Check your carb linkage. It sucks to have a heli stuck wide open. That makes a tense 20 minutes until the tank runs dry.

TD, sounds like you have been through it all! LMAO @ the Stuck Helo!

Thanks for the tips, I have done some research. Unless anyone can talk me out of it, I'm going with the E-Savage. :rock:

good choice...

I have a bit of RC kit lying around... mostly on road stuff... including a Corally C4.1 (electric powered carbon chassis 4WD touringcar) which is currently setup to reach speeds up to 100KM/H... in less than 3 seconds (if grip levels allow it), on the official circuits that will never happen, as I have to race on rubber tires, but on the parkinglot, where I can race on sponge... :naughty: It really is priceless to see the looks on the faces of the local nitro powered parkinglot racers when they get completely spanked by a car that doesn't even produce more noise than the average whisper... And when they've spent about 15 minutes gaping at the chassis and all have decided to sell their nitro stuff and go electric, I casually grab my Nitro powered car (heavily modded Kyosho), Fire it up and have them drooling all over again. This one is setup for pure top speed, and with enough space to run it, it will reach speeds over 100MPH (checked by friendly police officer with lasergun). And still has more left, but as the car becomes completely uncontrollable at that speed, I wouldn't dare to push on... I made that mistake once and that resulted in about $400 in replacement parts

I'd like to get some off-road stuff too, but at the moment all my money is going towards flashlights

When you are ready for a nitro truck, may I suggest the Monster GT by Associated Electronics. It is very reliable and for the most part indestructable. Plus, if you live where it snows, you can get a set of Jumbo Kong tires (8.5 inches tall x 4.75 inches wide) and play with it year round. It is very versatile depending on what tires and suspention set-up you use.

They all have their good and bad points, it depends upon what you intend on using it for. Like everyone has said, it is expensive getting started and gets even more expensive if you plan on racing it, but for just beating around the yard and general FUN, I recommend the MGT.

Those things are just begging for a wireless video camera to be mounted on it and driven into the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders' locker room....

KDOG3 said:

Those things are just begging for a wireless video camera to be mounted on it and driven into the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders' locker room....

Click to expand...

yeah that would be nice, but i think straping a light to it and driving around at night would be pretty cool too.or get a surefire m1 strap it to it then get a video camara with night vision would also be pretty sweet.

i have an older model of the tmaxx and nitro 4 tec from traxxas very happy with both - & i have had good luck with hobbytown usa electric is easier for a beginer ,but there is something to be said for the nitro stuff . another suggestion is to buy an extra body for whatever you buy or dont be hung up on appearance because they will get torn up by rolls,flips & crashes. i also recomend one of those heavy duty after market bumpers (well worth the 10 or 20 bucks) good luck and have fun