Which path to take?

[Ventman]

I've been in RC for quite some time now. As the years have gone by, all I've done is bash my vehicles in the street, the backyard and parks, I used to have a bashing buddy, but he has moved out of the hobby and I got left alone. After a few months, I took a retirement of the hobby and around a year and a half ago, got back in. Now this was back when I had no mobility outside my hometown, since then I've ventured out to a racetrack and got really interested in the race side of the hobby. I used to run an electric RS4 MT as my basher, so I wanted something electric and 4wd, which brought be to buying a XXX-4 G+. Unfortunately, all I got around do doing with the XXX-4 was play around with it and shelf it for a half year due to lack of funds. Now that I have the cash to persue some serious racing, I've sat down and calculated the price of replacing my basher equipment with competition-grade electronics, the list wasn't looking pretty, close to $500 with 4 batteries, a charger, discharge tray, motor, lathe, tires, backup replacement parts. At this price, I could get a good mid-level 1/8th scale buggy thats much more popular than the 1/10 4wd electrics right now. I have a good computer FM radio and a servo that could handle the duty's the 8th needs to be happy. I also have someone who is experienced in nitro engines to help me with tuning the engine, so thats not a problem.
So my question is this, get all the electric gear or change over to a nitro vehicle, either way, I've got cash to burn and want to persue some serious racing.

[ChuckDeez]

yeah, you should change over to nitro. its alot fun. i'm getting out of nitro though. getting into gas.

[Ventman]

Lemmie guess, Baha 5B? If I had that much cash to burn, I'd love to have one of those, would make neighborhood pets think twice I'd think.

[702nitro]

Electric can be just as expensive as nitro, maybe even more. It all depends man, I find nitro to be the most fun and exciting, but personally electric just seems to be more challenging.

[ChuckDeez]

Lemmie guess, Baha 5B? If I had that much cash to burn, I'd love to have one of those, would make neighborhood pets think twice I'd think.

lol yeah. well, i spent close to $900, all i have to do now is sell most of my rc's. i have someone that wants my

hpi mt2 18ss for .........................$375
another mt2 18ss for....................$222
hpi rally ....................................$290
___________________________________

=.............................................$887

and i have like 4 gallons of nitro fuel i can sell for $30 to my cousin and friend and i'll be set!!

[LD3Furious]

One of the biggest cons to nitro is the mess. Do you live with a g/f, wife, kids, etc etc...They might not like you bringing a nasty , dirty vehicle inside. Personally, it doesn't bother me nor my roomate, so things work well.Electrics will get dusty dirty...but unless you are caught in the rain or some stupid circumstance, they rarely get grimy dirty.The second issue is the noise, if you plan to run a vehicle near your home, neighbors might complain.
And, also as you stated, 4wd "flashlights" don't appear to be so popular in your area.
"I used to have a bashing buddy, but he has moved out of the hobby and I got left alone. After a few months, I took a retirement of the hobby..."

My last sentence and your quote combined point me in the direction I would recommend. RC is great fun, bashing CAN! be awesome, but being alone it gets old. My suggestion, get the nitro buggy now and have a great summer racing...save the 4wd flashlight and get it hooked up in October for the indoor season. Hopefully you'll find an indoor facility to race at in the cold months :)

[rocknbil]

... Baha 5B? If I had that much cash to burn, I'd love to have one of those, would make neighborhood pets think twice I'd think.

Word of warning here, if you're the type to zip up and down neighborhood streets and sidewalks with your RC's, don't even consider a nitro, especially in a large metro area. All you'll do is piss people off, and we already have too many people in this hobby who are giving RC hobbyists a bad name. :D

Streets are bad for any RC. Curbs are unforgiving, parked cars are worse, a runaway in the neighborhood can cause (and has caused) serious property damage, and in my travels I've had the misfortune to read many posts where 1:1 vehicles were involved, including hundreds where $1000+ RC's were turned to pancakes in an instant, a single misjudgement is all it takes.

"There's no traffic on my street."
I'll be careful, I know what I'm doing."
"I've got nowhere else to run."

All of these are excuses for not taking the time to run your RC in a place designated for it, or at least away from people or property where damage can occur. The really bad thing is - due to the fact that most people completely ignore this advice, many areas are now passing legislation to put bans or restrictions on RC vehicles in any area not designated for their use. Like most legislation, this does not differentiate between electric or nitro, ALL means ALL. There's an area in FLA where RC vehicles are banned from an entire city.

When you step up to nitro, you need to consider the added responsibility of the potential problems above, most people don't. If you're good to go with a safe place to run it, by all means, gas it, crank it, and let it rip. :D

[ChuckDeez]

Word of warning here, if you're the type to zip up and down neighborhood streets and sidewalks with your RC's, don't even consider a nitro, especially in a large metro area. All you'll do is piss people off, and we already have too many people in this hobby who are giving RC hobbyists a bad name. :D

Streets are bad for any RC. Curbs are unforgiving, parked cars are worse, a runaway in the neighborhood can cause (and has caused) serious property damage, and in my travels I've had the misfortune to read many posts where 1:1 vehicles were involved, including hundreds where $1000+ RC's were turned to pancakes in an instant, a single misjudgement is all it takes.

"There's no traffic on my street."
I'll be careful, I know what I'm doing."
"I've got nowhere else to run."

All of these are excuses for not taking the time to run your RC in a place designated for it, or at least away from people or property where damage can occur. The really bad thing is - due to the fact that most people completely ignore this advice, many areas are now passing legislation to put bans or restrictions on RC vehicles in any area not designated for their use. Like most legislation, this does not differentiate between electric or nitro, ALL means ALL. There's an area in FLA where RC vehicles are banned from an entire city.

When you step up to nitro, you need to consider the added responsibility of the potential problems above, most people don't. If you're good to go with a safe place to run it, by all means, gas it, crank it, and let it rip. :D

very well said. I keep telling my cousin to play in the backyard instead of the frontyard. he says,"So, i live in a coldy sac, no one passes near here."

barely any cars do but theres alot of cars that are parked on the side. he has already crashed into a dozen of cars. he's lucky he only breaks minor stuff.

[Ventman]

Thats one thing that I really don't get, it seems many people can't handle their vehicles and end up plowing into the curb at near top speed. I guess after breaking so many old Tyco cars years ago I learned to avoid inanimate objects well, as well as getting to know the feel of how the vehicle handles under changing conditions. But yeah, a street is really no place for an RC, stick to an evacuated parking lot if you need to burn rubber. And running without at least a failsafe device in a nitro is just asking for trouble. ALWAYS double-check both your Rx and Tx battery levels and wiring harnesses, ignorance is just an accident waiting to happen.

But I have a bunch of wide open spaces to be running around in that aren't classified as a typical park with people and animals running about, so if I even do get the itch to just run the car, I'm fine. But mostly this vehicle will be strictly a race vehicle. I just don't feel like running a car by myself anymore.

[rocknbil]

.. And running without at least a failsafe device in a nitro is just asking for trouble. ....

Since you have some people that can help w. nitro, you probably already know, but just in case - a failsafe is not "fail safe." If you lose power to the RX, it's worthless. All it does is protect you from radio signal loss, "dirty" signal, or and a dying battery. But if the battery loses connection from the RX, it's still going to "stick" wherever it's at at that moment - and in accordance with Murphy's Law, it will usually be at WOT.

[Ventman]

Which is why I said in the next sentance to double-check your Rx and Tx battery levels and wire harnesses to make sure that the possibility of a runaway is minimized. I'd say the best way to minimize the chance of a battery disconnection is to eliminate any sort of switch between the Rx pack and plug it straight into the Rx, the only problem with this is that the plug will become loose over time, you could easily fix this by removing the pins from the plug and bend them back into shape with an X-acto knife so that they fit snugly in the Rx again, inspect the wire for frays or shorts in case the wires got too close to the engine and melted the shielding, reposition and repair as necessary. My old bashing buddy had a nitro and I picked up a lot just from being around him and his car, that and my father used to fly nitro planes in the 70's-80's.

[Grant Tokumi]

If your goal is to "pursue some serious racing", then my advice to you on your path choice is to get whatever is the popular class. And not surprisingly, it sounds like 8th scale buggy is that class in your area.

Following up on rocknbil's failsafe discussion, in case you haven't heard of or seen a throttle return spring (TRS), I'm attaching a picture of one installed on an 8th scale buggy engine. I hear ya on the checking battery connections, etc, but in my experience and observation, nothing beats a good ol TRS. Even if you decide not to add a TRS, at least its an idea you can have in your back pocket for future consideration.

http://www.rcarchive.com/pics/2005/trs8th01.jpg

http://www.rcarchive.com/pics/2005/trs8th02.jpg

[Platymeris]

Personally I'm doing the opposite of you, getting out of nitro because there's just nowhere to run it around here without disturbing people. Local parks are way too crowded during the summer. Anywhere I could run it in peace requires a long drive. So I'm going to get a XX-4, and give it the best equipment I can. Yes, it will definitely end up costing more than my T-Maxx to get running, a lot more, but after the initial cost, there won't be the same kind of running costs (fuel...etc) that a nitro requires. I also want the challenge of driving and tuning a full race spec car, and learning everything I can about electric. I was thinking about a 1/8 nitro buggy too, but I want something I can use around here without making everyone hate RC. If you have a good track where you are, and everyone is running nitro, I say go for it, but it's not the kind of thing you can just play around with outside the house or in the street if you live around other people.