r/c cars

[savtraxx]

Hi was wondering if anyone else on here does r/c
ive been doing it since april of 2007 and havent stopped 1 bit since
over 3 years ive owned i think around 20 cars and 1 boat
its definatey an addiction , i rekon ive poured over 10k into r/c
here are 2 of my favourite cars , the big one i still have.
basicaly a 1/5 scale 29cc powered machine. it may be the size of a weed wacker engine but it will top out at around 20 000 rpm ( wel above weed wacker engines)
i reckon ive poured over 3k into this car alone on upgrades and replacement parts
once green , now black

my 2nd favourite was my rock crawler , was pretty much all upgrades and got a body airbrushed with my name on the side

Anyway its a lot easier to show videos rather then explain so here are some of my favourite r/c vids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQW4nO1TCXM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLOGAvhyJ84
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYqFfoGdDq4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKdPy5xDxYk&feature=PlayList&p=563AFA56CFC45516&playnext=1&index=31
and this one is my old brushless truck with 3s 11.1V lipo about 70 mph
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGsfa9bfEGA

 

[TONY M]

Nice videos savtraxx, I used to and still do have an on-off interest into R/C cars.

My first decent R/C car was a Kyosho Pure ten Mantis series nitro RWD Volvo touring car.I had a lot of fun with it at the time and would love to get something half similar to it again in the future. My first pic though would be a Traxxas Rustler VXL brushless as I feel that it is tough enough to not be too worried about damaging it and the technology of electric systems these days allows great benefits (power mainly) without having to go to with (IMHO) the hassle that nitro can bring. I also have a Kyosho Mini-Z MR-02 mid mounted that I rarely used unfortunately.

Love the 1/5 scale machine, I have never seen one close up and would love to give one a go.

 

[Norm]

Thanks for the vids, I wasn't aware that they had become so sophisticated.
NORM

 

[TedTheLed]

I can;t see the vids because my mac is 14 years old,,
But I'm sure this is definitely the right place to ask for some r/c advice --

I need an r/c 'robot' basically, to run up and down 500 feet or so of hill and rough dirt road, between my brother's office, and my house.

any recommendations? speed is not ofthe essence. I think electric would be the best motor choice, and would need a far-ranging r/c controller..

 

[AnAppleSnail]

I can;t see the vids because my mac is 14 years old,,
But I'm sure this is definitely the right place to ask for some r/c advice --

I need an r/c 'robot' basically, to run up and down 500 feet or so of hill and rough dirt road, between my brother's office, and my house.

any recommendations? speed is not ofthe essence. I think electric would be the best motor choice, and would need a far-ranging r/c controller..

Can't you hang a cable that far? My experience with RC at that range is that you can't steer from so far away.

 

[TedTheLed]

oh wait, this is a great idea. I hadn't thought of -- do you mean if I can string a wire down the hill, hundres of feet, it can still act as the transmit antenna wire all the way down? can it also receive??
would baling wire be OK?

or did you mean a cable attached to the car?

(ps- the cars purpose would be to carry papers, keys, cigar cutter etc..)

 

[jeeves]

Sounds like you want something programable, not R/C.

Though, I can see the fun/desire of being able to R/C it.

 

[fishinfool]

Awesome vids savtraxx! I used to run my r/c nitro trucks all the time when I lived in Alaska. It was all we did after work and on weekends for about 3 years before I move here. I still have them but they've been sitting in boxes for the last 7 years. I took them out a few weeks ago to take pics and get them running but all I did was take pics. So here are a few pics of one of them:

 

[PCC]

I did the R/C car thing. Still have a dozen or so cars and a Zagi flying wing that I need to assemble. I need flying lessons, too. I'll figure it out some day.

My brother and I got really into it for the longest time. We even got into modifying our own engines. Ever gotten beat in an R/C drag race by some guy running an OS 15CV-X? If so it was my brother or me. We graduated to RB Concepts engines then bigblocks. 1/8 buggies, truggies, and on-road are fun. 1/5 scale is just too large for this area so we never got into it.

My current favorite R/C would have to be an E-Revo with a Castle Creations Mamba Monster Max, their 2650kV motor, and a pair of LiPo batteries. Standing backflips, anyone?

 

[monkeyboy]

I was into electric r/c cars about 15-20 years ago as a kid. I've recently been looking at new products on the internet and it's amazing how far things have come in that time. The "www" barely existed back then and knowledge of recent products was hard to come by. Brushless motors, electronic speed controls and li-poly batteries are all new to me. I remember saving up my pocket money and buying the latest 1700mAh 6 x sub C NiCad pack for £40.

My old r/c equipment has long been thrown away but If I ever have some spare money knocking around I might put one together just for fun.

 

[Coop]

Used to play around with RC stuff too, but got rid of most of it. Still have my Corally C4.1 1:10 scale touringcar tho... awesome to see that thing go from 0 to 60 in 3.4 seconds with no more noise than a mere whisper

 

[markdi]

I have a modded traxxas bandit

brusless with a 11.1v lipo - very fast

has a High speed steering servo and gyro from a helicopter to assist with steering.

still it is a very cheap toy compared to this

ferrari bought it from him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncsaUNEzaTw&feature=related

 

[HarryN]

We bought a used electric r/c car "for my son" last year. The nice thing about the electrics is they are quiet enough to use around the neighbors. It also gave a good excuse to buy a decent charger.

Most of the "cars" that are sold as "ready to run" are really "ready to break", and there is a huge profit market in "upgrades". It makes flashlight mods look cheap.

In many cases, it is worth considering to build one up from parts rather than buying a pre-built. As you can see from the OP, $ 3K is possible to dump in a car, although happily we are very far from that number.

 

[orbital]

+

savtraxx, your videos are one of the coolest things I'v seen in a while!!

...as a little kid, I built a Tamiya Rough Rider {approx 1980}

I didn't even know how to solder,.. lol

 

[PCC]

Most of the "cars" that are sold as "ready to run" are really "ready to break", and there is a huge profit market in "upgrades". It makes flashlight mods look cheap.

In many cases, it is worth considering to build one up from parts rather than buying a pre-built. As you can see from the OP, $ 3K is possible to dump in a car, although happily we are very far from that number.

That isn't always the case. You have to look at the car in question on an individual level. For example, I have owned Traxxas T-Maxxes, E-Maxx (an electric T-Maxx), and Revo/E-Revo. All of these have been purchased as RTR cars which are 100% assembled at the factory. The T-Maxxes have been really fragile while the E-Maxx has been one tough little truck. That seems really strange as the E-Maxx is heavier than the T and share roughly half of the parts. The Revo has been relatively abuse-proof. The only weakness we've found are that landing a jump (20+ feet) squarely on the rear bumper or upside-down will result in a bent manifold/pipe or a broken engine mount, respectively. The axles used on the E-Revo are just strong enough to handle all but the most powerful brushless systems you could want to try but the closer to that limit you get the sooner you will be replacing parts on this truck.
In the past I've bought HPI NRS4-2s as kits and built them up and they'll break if you look at them wrong. Same goes for their Super NRS4. Their older "Pro" electric car kits are great, though.

If you really want to know what is a good or potentially bad RC car to get I would post on the RC forums. The problem is that there are a lot of kids posting there and things are all relative. I call a 30+ foot jump a big jump while some folks would call a 10' jump big. I'm talking distance, here. You will do a lot more damage landing a 30' jump wrong (or even right!) than landing a 10' jump wrong. Kids will tell you that at 30 MPH their RC cars are screaming but their jaws drop when the bigblock Revo pops a wheelie shifting into second gear on its way to a 50+ MPH top speed before it hits a ramp to be launched 30 feet into the air. I'm talking height, here. Been there, done that, have the broken parts to show for it.

 

[markdi]

My bandit seems pretty tough butI have never jumped it 30 feet.

Pretty amazing videos

My bandit does go over 70 mph - probably does 80.

So far Ihave not hit anything at top speed.

If I ever do the whole car will turn into plasma - the 4th state of matter and disapear

 

[TONY M]

The Bandit is super though I have never seen one in person. I must get away from this thread for good as the temptation to buy something is setting in. :shakehead

 

[TONY M]

still it is a very cheap toy compared to this

ferrari bought it from him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncsaUNEzaTw&feature=related

Thanks for this link and I urge others to check it out. I remember being amazed seeing this on the TV about 15 years ago - couldn't believe the meticulous detail. Incredible.

 

[fishinfool]

AWESOME videos!!! :twothumbs

.

 

[HarryN]

That isn't always the case. You have to look at the car in question on an individual level. For example, I have owned Traxxas T-Maxxes, E-Maxx (an electric T-Maxx), and Revo/E-Revo. All of these have been purchased as RTR cars which are 100% assembled at the factory. The T-Maxxes have been really fragile while the E-Maxx has been one tough little truck. That seems really strange as the E-Maxx is heavier than the T and share roughly half of the parts.

Hi, I am very pleased that you have had such success with the E-Maxx and feel they are so durable. We actually have the E-Maxx and my personal opinion is that is is a frail POS as delivered from Traxxas. This is more or less confirmed by reading the results from others on the R/C forums.

We don't run the car anything close to the abuse level you are talking about - just up and down the street, never more than a 2 ft distance x 6 inch drop jump, and a few scrapes.

It is a rare day that after using it one battery charge there is not "something" that has failed. The frame connections are purposely designed to break in a most inconvenient way requiring major disassembly. I know, because they break routinely, driving me to the point of considering buying a custom frame, making my own, or starting over.

The car, as delivered, has an exceptionally bad problem with roll over, which I dramatically reduced by slinging the battery packs "under" the tray instead of the original designed "over". With a standard battery pack configuation, you could hardly turn this thing at modest speeds with out a roll over, and the related damage.

The entire r/c car industry is built on hooking you on a "reasonably priced starting point", then selling you a ton of "fixes", and the E - Maxx is among the worst for this, IMHO.

There is no reasonably intelligent mechanical engineer that would design an r/c car this way if they had any intention of delivering a reliable vehicle out of the box. It was clearly designed, to maximize the number of replacement parts that would fail and need to be "upgraded / replaced".

BTW, we have the original 2 packs x 6 cell version, not the newest version, so it is possible that it is more rugged. I can tell you that selling me another one would be a tough sell after our experience.