Does someone else fix your R/C?

[Platymeris]

Is it just me, or is a relatively new thing for hobby grade R/C people to have someone else do all their repair work? When I first got into it about 7 or 8 years ago, everyone I knew who was into R/C did all their own maintenance and repairs, if not totally alone, with friends. Since I've been into it, I have never once brought a vehicle to a hobby shop to have it fixed. However, when I go to the local one now, the owner is pretty much swamped with repairing broken RTR monster trucks that people pay to have fixed. Sometimes they don't even have a clue about what's wrong, they just know "it doesn't work".

For me, one of the main things that separates hobby grade cars from simple toys is the fact that they're modular designs, made to be repaired or upgraded by anyone. This actually bothers me more than "Bashers vs Racers" whether someone is racing or bashing, if they're paying someone else to do all their servicing, they're really just playing with a toy in my opinion, a really expensive one at that. Besides, some of the "bashers" come up with some of the most interesting vehicles in R/C, that wouldn't fit into any racing category, all of these mod clods, for example. I guess the RTR market is pretty much responsible for this, since people aren't required to know how to build something to run it anymore.

I do own a T-Maxx, and I think it's great, but if that's one of the results of the RTR side of the hobby, I think it's kind of sad. It also brings people into the hobby who might have no interest at all in engineering or design, I guess that's fine, it makes things more popular, and brings in money, but it also kind of changes the face of the R/C hobbyist. I get the impression that the majority of the people on this board fix their own equipment when they can, and have a real interest in the engineering behind it. Do other people feel the same way about this?

[Ventman]

I hear ya man, ever since the RTR's came on the scene, many people haven't had the learning experience of building a kit. I feel half the enjoyment of this hobby is learning how the car's opperate, how to tweak it to run better, and come away with a greater sense of knowledge of the engineering that goes into creating these scale vehicles as well as how the real thing works. It seems that there is a big gap in the kit market, the resurgance of the classic Tamiya models has resurrected the budget kit market, but there isn't anything in between a professional grade and the budget kits. I once looked at getting a monster truck, but beeing an "old skool" modeler, I wanted to build one up from a kit, the only kit that was out there is the Savage SS.

I will say this, by having RTR's, we have gotten a lot of new people driving these things that wouldn't have otherwise, and by having these people in the hobby, they are patronizing their LHS's with having them serviced, hopefully for a decent fee, because with the hobby industry as cut-throat as it is online, the LHS's need some way to compete with the online stores.

[RON F]

I fix my own. Not only do I enjoy working on them,I really don't trust my lhs
to do it.

[dodgeguy]

Our country is turning into a button pressing you do it for me society.

[-=ADA$=-]

i usually do everything for friends, and sometimes for others. With friends its ok, but for others i charge them, because my time is also precious, and the fact that i spent most of my time in RC'ing in repairing and fixing my cars gives me more experiance :D

[RCRevolution]

i fix my own stuff and sometimes other people's stuff.

[admiral12r]

i fix my own stuff. i have been in rc for bout 3 years now, at first i was a lil scared to fix the harder to repair stuff. now i am all good. my first rc was a arr xxx-nt. not much left to install but the servos and receiver. i learned the hard way i guess. anyways a friend of mine is the one who got me into this hobbie. he was tellin me about all the cool monster trucks at his lhs and how much he wanted one. after talkin bout it for a few months i went and got the xxx-nt. now flash back to today, he still does not have a rc but loves to drive the $-word out of mine with the intent of tryin to do as much damage as possible lol. he can do his worst to the xxx-nt i dont care but he gets a stern warning before i hand him my lst2. why does he still not have a truck you may ask, he does not want to work on it rofl! i tell him i would fix it for him but he does live bout an hour away.

[jato12]

Ive never had someone fix it for me but also i dont have a hobby shop within 20miles and R/C isnt popular here few bashers here and there and i hate RTRs they come with stuff i all ready have and dont need more of it kits are just better

[genericuserid]

I'm all for people having thier vehicles fixed by the LHS. More business for the hobby shop. All the RTR's out there enable anyone to get into the hobby, some who wouldn't have gone into the hobby otherwise. As long as your local hobby shop is charging correctly for the time spent on vehicle and people are willing to pay for it I think it's a wonderfull thing.

[apollo]

if you buy a nitro r/c, plan on doing maintenance, period, it will run better and it can save you lots of money, the 2 main problem with pople that arent willing to learn are they dont know how to tune and are too stubborn to learn, and people that think oh well i shouldnt have to fix it, you can have alot more fun if your car or truck can be easily fixed rather than going all the way to your lhs the next time a tie rod endcap pops off, im not trying to make fun of pople but if your going into r/c, you will ahve to learn some things

[Duster_360]

I fix, maintain, repair and upgrade all my rcs on my own. I only pay for parts. Its forums like this one where you can get answers to perplexing ques that help you learn. Critical for a racer to be able to wrench his own. Less critical for a basher, but still an important and easy way to really learn your rc.

[guver]

I just want to run em' and break them. Then let someone else fix them.. Oh I can't afford that.

[kawasakirider]

I try to fix most of mine i pull it apart when i have to usually i don't fix it but i try i have fixed it a few times but im still learning. Since i have been into rc (december 05) i have had my hyper 7 and my LE savage i have learnt allot more about them and mechanics than i ever did with my dirt bikes. An rc is fun to wrench on but cometimes when i can't fix it the lhs is the only real option after i ask a question on here.

[suckfish]

Well this is kind of a good topic for me as I have been into the hobby for more than 20 years. When I started only way to get into the hobby was buy a kit and build it. That to me was the most fun about having a Kit I built so if broke I knew how to fix it. Now mind you over the years the hobby has gone more main stream offering most everything in RTR. Ask yourself why, wouldnt it be cheaper just to make the parts an toss them in a box an sell. then having an assembly line of people putting them together as RTR.. But ofcourse with RTR they will sell more to the average joe/jane on the street who doesnt know a thing about them other than WoW those a cool. But after they buy them they wonder why it wont start or turn, stay running they get frustrated an end up just getting out of this Great Hobby.. Now my local Hobby shop would always wrench on people's vehicle's mostly for no charge.. good business right until recently he's had to start charging people, especially since most that come in say I bought this on the internet it doesnt work.. yes thier is a learning curve after a few times of getting charged to fix your vehicles most smart people would learn to wrench their own.. I know personal I lik having newbie's at the track an do offer help especially to the young ones.. passing on your knowledge or experience is truley Priceless.

[kawasakirider]

Well said suckfish. I'd like to get a kit but they are to expensive. They are the same price as rtr and u have to buy radio gear and in some cases an engine. If i had the money for a kit i'd love one because i have the time to build it. But even with rtr when u clean ur car u take it apart and learn how things go together, it is fun and im learning :)

[Tighty Whitey]

I fix it when I can but I am very new to the hobby. If I cant fix it myself I do have a good friend that always helps me but I have not and will not take it to the LHS to fix my problem.

[Combatcm]

At the H-town near me they have a story about this deaf kid that always brought in his nitros cause he couldn't tune them. Apparently he (or his mom) made a big deal and the shop refused to sell any more to him.

I think it would be pain to have to deal with all the parents yelling. "you mean I have to buy fuel with it! And more batteries! Jimmy, you better wash the dishes when we get home!"

Oh well, they let people drive that don't know how to change a flat tire....meh

[mook]

For me, building and wrenching is half the fun the other half is driving.

[sasonrally]

Oh man I know what you guys are saying. I was just at a local race this Sunday and it is behind the LHS. I went in for some things and noticed like 10 RC's laying in the corner waiting to be repaired. I am serious...why would you do that? Take a crack at it and see what's really wrong with it. I love working on my two trucks and racing on-roads, I've learned so much by jsut rebuilding them once a year and doing the KITS, that's really the thing that got me hooked into the hobby. I guess young kids getting into the hobby today do not know the vallue of wrenching anymore. I know it can be time consuming but hey its all fun.

[jck_ahk]

My lhs doesn't have a track yet and he has at least 10 trucks on his bench at all times not just for repair but for upgrades too. What's the fun of buying cool stuff for your car and then waiting a week for him to get around to putting it on.

[khyron]

Our country is turning into a button pressing you do it for me society.

Exactly, this is the same sort of attitude that now pervades anything that's become a commodity. Just like they throw out a TV or computer when it stops working right, many people now seem to think that the vehicles at the LHS are just more expensive "cooler" versions of what's at Toys R Us and are buying them for their kids just to one up the other soccer moms.

The real PITA both for patrons and the folks who work at the LHS are these angry parents who get dragged into the LHS by the excited super happy kid who's finally convinced them to buy something they saw in a magazine. This conversation happens at the counter all the time - wait you mean it needs this, and this, and this, and one of these, and the batteries only last FIVE MINUTES!? People react like they are at a car dealer and being nickel and dimed to death by some sleazy salesman. But the people at your average LHS aren't car salesmen at all, in fact generally they're really cool, friendly, helpful, grossly underpaid experts in their field.

That kind of behavior just sucks. Look, if you don't understand something, and don't want to understand it, and refuse to listen, and just want to be angry and superior and think you're some savvy genius uncovering a great conspiracy to take your money, just bugger off okay? We don't need sales that bad, it's not like people with that attitude expand or help the hobby at all. Radio Shack is down the street, thanks, drive thru... :mad:

[Platymeris]

Wow, from the responses it's clear that I'm not the only person who feels this way, glad I brought it up. It really is a shame though, khyron summed it up perfectly with "many people now seem to think that the vehicles at the LHS are just more expensive "cooler" versions of what's at Toys R Us". I would argue that it's not even really a hobby, in the conventional sense of the word, if all you're doing is running them and letting other people take care of the rest.
At my LHS, there was a guy who brought in a 1/5 scale monster truck, and had it sitting in the show for days before the owner could even look at it, when he did, the only problem was that the servo horn for the steering servo had stripped at the attachment point, literally a 2 minute repair, and this guy went to the trouble of bringing his truck in, and leaving it for days to have that figured out. To me that's just ridiculous.
Sure, you can say a lot of people drive and don't know how to change a tire, or change their oil or whatever, just like a lot of people who use computers all day at work don't know a thing about fixing them. Although, with that stuff, it's transportation or a job, so they'll know what they need to know, and might not be interested in anything more that they don't need to get by. On the other hand, this is supposed to be a hobby, the idea is that you're involved in it because you're interested in it. It just doesn't make sense to me to choose something like this as a hobby, and then choose to know as little as possible about it.

[khyron]

It just doesn't make sense to me to choose something like this as a hobby, and then choose to know as little as possible about it.

That doesn't make sense to me either, but I also have no problem with people who seem to "enjoy" ignorance blissfully. I do have a major issue however with people who stick their nose in where it's neither wanted nor needed and act like know-it-alls, acting superior and antagonizing folks for no reason.

If someone wants to be so foolish as to buy an expensive model truck and never comprehend how it works, and pay someone else to fix it, that to me is lame, but also innocuous. If that person came back to the store over and over again demanding it be fixed faster and insisting they were being ripped off somehow however, that's when they need to be booted out the back door with their "toy".

[rocknbil]

Our country is turning into a button pressing you do it for me society.

^ ^ ^ That's it to the core, people don't want to put in the work, just reap the rewards.

This has **really** boosted the RC economy though, there was never a market for "RC repair" until RTR's. The third-party hop-up market is exploding, whereas before it was barely surviving. Because of the expanding market, a lot of stuff is available now that was only available to those with lots of money to burn, such as lipo packs and electric aircraft. So it's not all bad.

I think the sad part about it is hobbyists who don't wrench their own rides are REALLY missing out on a major enjoyment in the hobby. "Back in the day" you couldn't fly or drive without building your own, which is a pretty rewarding experience.

[khyron]

This has **really** boosted the RC economy though, there was never a market for "RC repair" until RTR's. The third-party hop-up market is exploding, whereas before it was barely surviving. Because of the expanding market, a lot of stuff is available now that was only available to those with lots of money to burn, such as lipo packs and electric aircraft. So it's not all bad.

Oh dude, am I ever ALL for the awesome RTR models you can buy today! Used to be buying RTR meant getting, basically, almost-unusable crap - raise your hand if you ever watched someone catch a mechanical speed controller on fire? Roll out of control on bouncey shocks with no oil? Crack a hard plastic body?

Today's RTR cars are literally race-ready, especially in a novice RWYB (runwhatchubrung) class. They have quality components designed to last, just not super competitive ones - and most importantly they are upgradable! Anyone ever try to turn a Kyohso Raider or a Tamiya Super-G into a racecar? Ain't gonna happen.

It's awesome that RTR kits are so great these days, but they need to be a "gateway drug" and not a "crutch" if you know what I mean. When they're the former they really do help the hobby because they produce new hobbyists, when they're the latter they're really just very expensive toys.

[mook]

i dont know. RTR's are good for some, for others there not to good.

If RTR's rock your world, then fair enough.

I still think people are missing out with rtr's though.

Building a kit aint rocket science. That said, spending three days building a kit and being full of anticipation is a great feeling. For me, wapping out an rtr and driving it after 5 minutes just would'nt feel right

Horses for courses.

what ever makes you happy...

my 0.2

[MAXXTRAX]

I fix all my own r/cs and do work for my LHS. He is swamped with trucks to fix all the time. I bring my tools when I come in cause he puts me to work LOL. I also work on my father, and brother's trucks. So thats about 10 in my family alone and the LHS's etc...

[Brian23]

i work on my truck mostly myself but sometimes i have trouble where the screws go after i take em out

[evaderstman]

I only brought my truck to the lhs when i first got it, and couldn't get the engine to stay running at all. The guy helped me tune it, and it was free. Other than that i do all my own work on my 3 cars. I also work on my nieghbors truck a lot. I don't do it becasue he can't i just have a better set of tools, and it saves time if i use my hex drivers instead of him using allen wrenches. He is quite good at fixing it though if i am not around.

[cnroman]

Why do people keep harping that RTR buyers are missing out. I hang out some weekends with an RC Heli club, RTR's are not frowned on. They are welcomed. Same with the RC Airplanes.

RTR's are good for the manufactures, the LHS's and the newbies.

Remember if you by a 'Pre-owned' car/truck its ARTR.

[mook]

my first heli, a kalt space baron, was second hand and rtr. I still stripped it down and re-built it

not looking for trouble, its just what happened

[Platymeris]

Why do people keep harping that RTR buyers are missing out. I hang out some weekends with an RC Heli club, RTR's are not frowned on. They are welcomed. Same with the RC Airplanes.

RTR's are good for the manufactures, the LHS's and the newbies.

Remember if you by a 'Pre-owned' car/truck its ARTR.
I don't think anyone is looking down on running or buying RTR vehicles in itself, as I already mentioned, I own a T-Maxx, but when it breaks, I fix it, when I want to upgrade, I buy the parts and do it myself. It's not a matter of buying the RTR itself, it's a matter of learning about the vehicle afterwards, or just using it as an expensive toy. If someone buys an RTR and never takes it apart on their own, they are definitely missing out on a big part of the hobby.

[Chris LaPanse]

I have owned RTR machines many times, but I definitely fix them myself. Part of the fun is finding out how everything works and knowing you can fix it if anything goes wrong.

[ErikRC10]

My first car was a RTR but never once took it to the LHS. Most of the time my dad would fix it but that's because when I would say something was wrong he would imediatly take over and not let me do anything. Me and my dad got to be good friends with the 2 guys that worked at our LHS and the fast guys so if we didn't know what to do we just asked what it was and did it our self. Now that I am more experienced (and don't see my dad but a couple of times a year) I will only run kits and nothing else. I think for racing just about everything that comes with RTRs are use less. The servo's usually strip in the first run the esc wont run a fast enough motor that I want and the radio is usually worth about $2. You know what I think is even worse? When somebody buys a real expensive kit and gets somebody else to build it for them. I think that is completely pointless. If you are going to buy a kit you should build it yourself. I mean that's one of the best parts of the hobby!

[rocknbil]

My first car was a RTR but never once took it to the LHS......

HAHAHA . .. I know this is totally pointless but the only time my RC's have seen the inside of a hobby shop was the day I brought my Mayhem in. Opened up the RX box and said "It looks a little tight in there, you got a 5-cell hump pack that will fit?"

:D

[MrCrash]

As a current owner of an RTR, I must say the convenience is nice, but given the chance to get my LST in kit form, I would jump on it. I started with an Inferno MP-5, and building it was the single best thing I ever could have done in this hobby. It seems that once you have taken a bunch of seemingly random parts, and assembled them into a functional object, you aren't afraid to strip it back apart, and redo it. I'm sure that if it weren't for me constantly rebuilding shocks and differentials, and tweaking the suspension on that Inferno, I would be much less likely to just tear into my LST, and that experience is what is missing from the RTR scene.

[civicslayr]

I do my own work. Also do work for friends. (Just finished soldering up larger wires on a friends x-mod) I actualy spend more time working on my r/cs then running them (I despise nitro now, thank you traxxas).

[DarkSavage]

Ever Since i started getting into rc ive been working on my cars, i had some times where i wanted to bring it to the LHS but i decided if i know how to fix/upgrade it ill be able to do it whenever i need to thats why i work on my cars, Another issue about the RTR, i bought all my trucks/cars/mts ready to run since they have it so people uneducated can work them without a problem, but since you start getting more into the truck you start to feel how everything works on the car. so i dont see how rtr your missing out, like what i say, You Get what you pay for.

[2mcgrath]

i also work on all my own cars and sometimes help friends with theirs..i think rtr's are a great idea.i like being able to buy a new car bring it home and start running without having to build for hours before i can run.i have built a few kit cars but i like rtr's just as well.

[admiral12r]

ok if you want an rc car go to radio shack or get a tyco, if your havin fun and gettin into it then go to an lhs. any questions?

[admiral12r]

I actualy spend more time working on my r/cs then running them (I despise nitro now, thank you traxxas).

that is what i been sayin this whole time

[rezenclowd3]

When I was new I needed help fixing my stuff, but only because I didn't have all the tools that I needed at the time to do any number of different jobs. I do agree with most on the board that repairing your on vehicle is just as fun, or more than running the vehicle.

[Joose]

I also think it is fun to repair and maintain your car. Its half the fun but sometimes it can also be a pain to do it. I would love if kits got cheaper than they are. Many times its more expensive to buy a kit and then buy all the equipment beside it. An RTR is cheaper and I think that's sad... I also very often repair a friend of mine's car...

[offroaders]

ya i only got a savage and had it all apart but the tranny so far and i just put a mach 26 in it and i have only been in the hobby for mabe 1 1/2 years
and i would buy a kit over a rtr but i cant for the money i can only buy used :(

[jck_ahk]

Now if eveybody here works on there rc cars do you also work on your 1:1 full size car? Or pay somebody to change your oil?

[E-MO]

I work on my own-yes i change the oil in my truck
Heres a question (off topic)
would you kick down a few buck to have
your buggy-truck-car set up by a pro?
thats right i knew you would

[maxxenitout]

I used to work in a hobby shop that didn't do repairs at all. So I had the chance to take home a few cars and make some extra money.The store was in a pretty affluent neighborhood that was in between beverly hills and westwood so I used to be able to pretty much charge any amount and the parents of the spoiled kids would pay it. When I started working there I worked on cars for the love of the hobby and as long as I had time I wouldn't charge. But then got so burned out that I had to charge or else I wouldnt be motivated to fix the car.I think manufactures made it to easy on the "new generation" of rc'ers by making the rtrs.