Radio control nuts

Looking to get a monster/trophy truck type RC, cant decide between battery/nitro. Love the sound of nitro, a bit nervous of the 'tuning' required.

Is it a drive 5 min, wrench 5 hrs type of deal? Would like relatively low maintenance, don't mind spending some time though.

Any recommendations?

I have an HPI Trophy Truck but it's 1/12th scale (closer to 1/10th really) and is far from a "Monster". It does however look and react quite like the real thing.

My favorite "Monster" is my Traxxas Summit. It's huge, goes pretty much anywhere you point it, high and low range transmission and locking diffs controlled from the radio, waterproof...
It's the do-all basher. It can crawl or go fast and with high capacity LiPo batteries you can get runtimes of 45+ minutes.



Sean

My brother got the HPI Mini Desert Trophy truck ... it's pretty cool and I'd rather go electric vs nitro ... most LiPo/brushless setups will run 15-20min per charge

http://www.hpiracing.com/kitinfo/106546/

IMHO, nitro is really on the way out....now I don't want to start a big war on this, but in looking at stuff sitting on the shelf...just how much nitro do you see.

I agree nothing sounds and smells like a nitro truck....even the 1/5 scale gas buggies are just not the same.

I'm pretty impressed with the Twin Hammers so far. Good battery life. Fast enough and it crawls too. Youtube it.

More time runnin' less time gassin' tunin' startin' drainin' with 'lectric.

I agree that nitro is on its way out .. Electric is plug and play and brushless motors are far more powerful than any nitro motor . I like the noise and smoke .. But at the end of the day it's a pain .

I saw a nice cub model with a quiet 4 stroke engine, it sounded real on approach, had a bit of prop whine, and you could hear the wind in the struts.

The engine can definitely be a wonderful part of the total experience.

Time in a chunk you can devote to flying is a key determining factor as well.

If you have all saturday morning to hit the club and chat and turn in 2 flights, fuel power isn't going to slow you down much.

I have had several 4-5 foot planes, I have 15-30 minutes on the way to work to pack in as much stick time as possible, that's not even enough time to unpack, fuel, start, fly, refuel, start, fly, de-fuel, and pack, so e-power works great for me.

Also, if you can fly 3x a week, 2-3 10-15 minute flights vs 3x on saturday, you get a lot better a lot quicker!

Electric is also far more neighbor-friendly, whether you're flying, driving, or floating. Unless you live miles out in the middle of nowhere, running a nitro truck every evening WILL get your neighbors complaining eventually, even if you keep it in your own yard.

I live out in the country on 2 acres, but I still have neighbors. One of them flies r/c, but it's all nitro stuff. The neighbors have complained to him enough that he rarely flies at home any more. A shortage of spare time to go to the club for the day means he rarely flies, period. OTOH, I fly my electrics almost daily in good weather and the neighbors rarely even notice.

I still have two nitro birds, but haven't flown them in a couple of years. Electric is just too easy.

Yup - I got rid of all my nitro stuff. PITA to haul everything to the field, tune the motor(s), clean up all the oil, etc.

Only one I haven't gotten rid of is my H9 Twist 3D.. I keep meaning to put a big BL motor in it and e-convert it. I LOVE the way the plane flies, but haven't flown in years due to the nitro motor..

One of these days I will convert it!

Till then, all my others are electric. I show up to field with a lipo sack full of batteries and fly all day.

I live in the country and fly about every day that I can....I live on 13a, both people next to me have about the same and the guy behind has 26....they see them more than they hear them....my last fuel plane was converted years ago...just no point anymore....but I do agree those BIG engines do sound real....as in real expensive.

I did a mod to my MCPX BL that allows it to fly FOREVER! With no battery!

I'm picking up a 40" span Parkzone Extra 300 tomorrow for $50. All I need is a receiver. Least I've seen them is $100. PNP from Horizon Hobby is $150, BNF $230.

Good deal Dakar!!!


Had a few hours to myself this morning and loaded the car up..



Had the MCPX BL, Concept Pro jet with a new motor that I put in this morning, UMX Sbach, UMX GeeBee and the Hoverthings quad.

Well, blew through about 30 packs, and only one mishap with the jet.. I kind of slammed right into a light pole at Mach II. Glad I got a before pic! hahaa



I can't believe the lipo didn't catch on fire.


And an interesting "landing" with the Sbach, somehow this happened.. I dunno, don't ask..



All in all, four out of five are still flyable! Good day!!

That'll buff right out.


Sorry, couldn't resist.

hi all
So, my local hobby shop closed down, suspect the internet won.
I went there yesterday to order up a futabu radio set - a 3PM-X http://www.futaba-rc.com/systems/futk2021.html

I dont know much but believed that Futaba was the leading brand.
I had selected this radio as the write up indicated that it was going to be good for what I wanted - cars and one day boats - third channel for that extra thing.

I just called up a hobby shop in teh state capital and the chick said that they dont stock Futabu - JR, Hi-tec and another.

This has now put me in an unknown spot - I dont know.

What does the collective recomend?
I will be running some Tamiya 1/10 cars - BigWig, Supershot and Rallye Lancer and in the future want to get a boat - electic powered.

Suggestions please

Thanks
Hay Ewe

Yesterday's $50 purchase. All I bought for it was a receiver and a couple props. I actually have a 6-channel Ornge receiver but used it on my home made T-copter. I had the battery already. The seller included two props and a ton of printed info about setup, CG, fixes, mods, etc. He also added inset carbon rods to the horizontal stab and elevator and larger wheels for grass landings.

I'd be flying if it wasn't 10 gusting 40...

Nice. Craigslist?

Oh and wind is for the men. Lol

rcgroups.com, actually!

Yeah, sometimes wind is ok but not today!