JohnnyDanger

Hello all. Ive been wanting to get a RCCar for many years and am going to take the plunge. I was at my local hobby store the other day and they have a Traxxas Slash 2WD for $260 plus $50 for a battery and charger, so $310 plus tax. I wanted to know if this is a good buy for a beginner. Is this car upgradable allowing me to really dig into this as a hobby or is pretty much a cookie cutter car. I plan on using the car both on street and light dirt.

Iwould greatlly appreciate any advice that could be given.

If there is a car that anyone feels would be better for me in the $200-$300 range, I open for suggestions.

t-max97

My Feedback: (9)

Its a very popular and good truck, its pretty tough and has tons of aftermarket support. unless you just want to buy locally you can get it cheaper online. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXAPUW**&P=ML if you pay $10 and join this website you will get free shipping and very very good discount codes regularly like $50 off of a $300 dollar order.

JohnnyDanger

Thanks for your answer. I think Im going to order from the link you posted. At the bottom of the page there is a battery and charger listed for available accesories. Are those sufficiant or should I try to get something with more power?

Foxy

It's hard to recommend a 2wd and a short course, as a first RC. The short course body acts as a parachute and really keeps you on all 4 wheels, whereas a truck or buggy could be used to do some light jumping. Also, short course trucks don't have much ground clearance, and 2wd is virtually uncontrollable on loose surfaces, even with the right tires.

Try one of these... [link=http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_info.php/cPath/1_44_1258_2591/products_id/221119/n/OFNA-Ultra-LX2E-RTR-1-8-Electric-Off-Road-Buggy]OFNA Ultra LX2e 1/8th electric buggy.[/link]

It's a little more expensive, but it is 10 times the car, in all ways. The 1/8th buggy is the most evolved class in the hobby, the cars are very fast, very well handling and indesctructible. Consider saving a little more budget, I guarantee you this will be far more rewarding. Taking nothing away from the Slash, but I would personally only get one if I was planning on running spec Slash racing class (dictates you must drive a 2wd slash). For just about any other purpose, there are much better cars.

JohnnyDanger

Thanks Foxy. After reading your post Idid some research on the OFNAUltra LX2E and think your right. What iwant to know, which I forgot to check on, is how upgradable the buggy is? If I wanted to change or upgrade parts later, could Ieasily? Also, is there a battery/charger that is recommended for these cars?

Ireally wanted to get a car this week, but maybe I will wait a couple weeks and get that one.

Foxy

The car is highly upgradeable. There are a multitude of parts available of varying value in terms of increasing performance. Your first considerations for upgrades should be in the electrics department, rather than the kit, though some carbon fiber shock towers would be high on my list of chassis upgrades, as I've heard that the stock stamped aluminum ones bend more easily than perhaps they should. Those who want to do extreme bashing have been known to install extra bracing, though I seriously doubt I would do that myself, no matter how extreme the bashing.

On the electrics side, you should plan to replace the steering servo pretty quickly, but that goes largely for any RTR. The motor and speed control are limited to 4S lipo battery, this is not a bad thing. Buggies do not 'need' to be able to run 6S, but it is always a nice option to have. SO there's your battery choice, you want 4S lipo packs. You want them to be capable of delivering 200A, so at 5000mAh capacity, that requires them to be 40C (current handling = duration * C rating). If you go down in capacity, you need to go up in C, if you go up in capacity you can afford to reduce C rating, but really you should consider 5000mAh at 40C as your ideal battery overall, for physical size, capacity, charge speed, power delivery, it's the best of all worlds that battery. Of course more C is always better, and you will be able to feel increases of C (car will feel snappier), up to around 300A (5000mAh@60C). OVer 300A handling you will gain little.

Another option is to run 2S packs in pairs, with the same instructions concerning current handling. If you go for this dual 2S option you will want a charger that can charge 2 packs at once, BUT you will also have batteries that can be used in other cars. If you buy 4S packs, they'll be more convenient to charge, but can only be used in 1/8th vehicles. BAsically, with a combination of 2S and 3S packs (this is how I roll personally), you have the right batteries for pretty much all the models available and can just run them in pairs when needed for crazy 1/8th stuff.

Get the best charger you can afford, it is something you should only buy once, so buy well. If your budget can stretch to it, a dc and a suitable 200W 25A power supply is the way to go, though many prefer AC wall plug equipped units, they will not be capable of the same current delivery.

t-max97

My Feedback: (9)

The ofna would be a great choice and you will probably like it better.

JohnnyDanger

Looking at batteries and charges all I keep seeing is dollar signs. Wow, I didnt realize how much investment there is in just batteries. Its almost 1/3 the cost of the car itself. Then add the charger to that and there goes the price again. Im going to have to figure out some way to fit this into my budget. I guess thats why the Traxxas Slash from my local hobby store(and online) looked so good, because I was looking at $310+ tax and would be ready to go. With the OFNA it looks like Im going to be more in the $500 range.

Can you actually recommend a specific battery and charger for me. Im looking through a bunch and being that Im totally new to this, Im getting pretty overwhelmed. Ireally cant tell whats different between one and another.

SyCo_VeNoM

that $50 for a battery and charger I somewhat doubt would be very adequate as the cheapest wall charger I can think of is $40 alone (there are $20 DC only chargers), and the cheapest batteries I can think of are like $22. I'm guessing that LHS was trying to clear out some old stock on NiMh gear and trying to package it as a deal instead of a waste of money that it would be.


http://www.hobbypartz.com/thac6smbachw.html low cost charger would work fine if you got 1 4S battery.
If you want 2 2S you could get the cheaper $20 chargers, and convert a computer power supply to charge them for around $60-65 total (I went this route personally)

dunno if this would fit http://www.hobbypartz.com/98p-40c-50...se-direct.html if it does that would be a decent battery if you want the 1 battery route

Personally seeing I own multiple vehicles I use 2X2S in my 1/8th as I can use them in my 1/10th scale RC's too

JohnnyDanger

You said there are batteries for about $22 a piece. Can you share a link to those batteries? I will go with the 2 2S route if they cost that much. Also, if I were to get 2S batteries, could Iuse the same charger to posted a link to?

The other thing Im thinking is this, are there any ready to go kits/packages out there? One that will come with a good started car/truck/buggy, battery, charger and everything else needed? I think that might be the best if it exist that way I can make sure everything Iget will work with eachother.

JohnP2

Are you looking only at electric? If not, consider this:
http://www.nitrohouse.com/product.as...FVSSPAod1kwAGQ

I'm merely throwing out other options. ;-)

SyCo_VeNoM

only things that come in one box is sub standard gear. Most RTR's the battery is only sufficient enough to make it move for a few minutes so the company can claim its ready to run out of the box. The wall chargers the average RTR includes are complete trash (that from me end up straight there), and the batteries honestly last 5 mins (off an 8 hour charge with the included charger... just to point out how junky they are)

as the the $22 a pack batteries(hmm they went up to $24 since I bought em) dunno how they would work in that RC. I've used them in my truggy with no issues http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store...dProduct=14991 that place also sells a pile of other low cost batteries, just make sure you select usa warehouse or shipping gets ridiculously high(well its not ridiculous due to how hazardous most shippers list lipos now which increased shipping cost)

http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store...Lipo_Pack.html doesn't look bad wither if you want the 1 battery approach. Just note 95% chance you will either have to change the plug on either the RC, or the battery by soldering a new one on.

Here's another tip if buying from hobbyking don't add it to your cart immediately if you leave the window open on the item you want to purchase the price will drop as a "one time offer" like on the 4S battery the price came down $2 in the time it took me to type this reply lol

JohnnyDanger

Im definitely open to going with Nitro. I just always thought electric would be easier. That way If I want to run my car I can always count on having a battery. I wont ever need to run out and get fuel.


Thanks for those links. Im looking at that 4S battery as a possibility. I also have to check the prices at my local hobby store. My concern is what you said about the soldering a new plug. Why would that need to happen? I have soldered in the past, but I wouldnt say Im great at it so that worries me a little.

Oh, and I was readying about LiPo explosions, then Igot kind of freaked out. lol. Is that something that I really have to worry about?

*Edit*
How is this for a starter? http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...LNP**&P=ML
Whats the benefit of a Lipo battery over Nimh?

SyCo_VeNoM

only if you don't follow proper safety precautions.
here's a quick summery of every lipo fires I've read about
1. Fast charging the battery as the wrong type (charging a 2S as a 3S etc...) and walking away leaving it unattended
2 charging a damaged battery that you can clearly tell was a goner
3 stabbed the battery
4 putting lipo on charge then going to bed while lipo was in RC
5 charging an over discharged lipo unattended
6 putting a nail (or bullet) into the battery (and yes people have done this look on youtube)

Basically if you follow proper safety precautions, and don't try and be cheap saving a lipo that s swelling lipo its pretty safe.
Me I charge my lipos in a lipo bag that sits in an ammo box I picked up from a army surplus store as if they ever do go up I can just slam the lid to smother the fire out. I also store them in it so if they ever go up there will be no damage. I saw a video where they purposely blew a lipo up in a box and the box didn't even hit 100 degrees before it was smothered out.

Reason to solder a new plug its cause there are 7 common plug types, and generally people will choose one for all their models and convert them all over to the one. Makes it hard for battery companies to supply a certain plug.
Traxxas, Deans, EC3, JST, Tamiya, HTX, and bullet connectors. are the ones I know of and dealt with (there are probably more).

Traxxas are ok, but can be a pain to solder 8 AWG wires to. I use them mainly cause I got big fingers and found deans too small to comfortably grip when separating the battery
Deans very popular plug is a tad small which makes it ideal for some situations
EC3 I find are extremely easy to solder, and offer good current flow. Honestly if I knew of these prior to the traxxas connector I'd be using these instead
JST are for smaller RC's so unless you look at the under 1/18th scale RC's you won't see em
Tamiya seen mainly on brushed ESC's, and NiMh batteries in RTR's not fit for use on modern RC's as they heat up and melt due to their high resistance.
HTX are essentially bullet connectors in a housing (similar to EC3) they came about cause the battery companies don't want to pay for EC3 as EC3's are proprietary
Bullet connectors are easier to assemble than EC3, but unlike EC3 you can plug em in backwards


As for nitro the buggy JohnP2 recommended is probably the best RTR nitro you can get under $400.

JohnnyDanger

So after my last post I started looking at that nitro car that was linked. Im really liking the look of it. Ihave a question about that one though. Ichecked out the car TowerHobbies cause they have a lot of information. It says in the info about whats needed that it needs 12AA Batteris, 8 for transmitter and 4 for receiver glow started. What exactly is a glow starter?

Ihave one more question about Nitro cars and this one is important. Are they loud? I ask that because I remember when I was much younger my older neighbor (older at that time) had a rc car that ran on "gas". It was super fast, but was also super loud. Are all nitro cars like that? If the Hyper 7 is loud then I can forget about it. My neighborhood is really quiet and dont want to be disturbning neighbors with a loud car.<font color="#ae2b2c" size="+2">
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SyCo_VeNoM

yes they can be pretty loud
not as loud as a gas mower, but it can be pretty bad.
I once had a tuned pipe fall off a nitro and it sounded louder than a lawnmower

a glow starter is a thing you put on top of the glow plug to get the nitro to fire up. Basically put iton pull the starter cord till it fires take the starter off and run. They are also called glow warmers.
as for super fast it was probably in the 30-40's as it seems most nitros are geared for somewhere around there from the factory (well ones I've had)

Brushless RC's in all honesty depending on the type can generally hit 35mph to over 100mph(certain on-roads). Generally off roads you aim at around 35mph as after that I find they can become quite uncontrollable.
Also if the brushless model has a steel spur, and pinion the sound they make can surpass the sound of a nitro believe it or not. If they have a steel pinion on a plastic spur they can be kinda quiet

BTW nothing I've said is in scale I'm talking real MPH

JohnnyDanger

Well a 35mph car would be a ton of fun. You guys have all given me a lot to think about and Igreatly appreciate it. Im now highly considering getting a nitro car instead of electric. Im going to probably be buying a car within the next few days. If its going to cost more, Im going to say oh well and bite the bullet and get one. Ive been looing on towerhobbies.com and they have some decent discounts. Plus the fact that if I dont have enough for whatever I end up getting I can always do their payment plan.

I have just two more questions for now. As a beginner what would be better, nitro or electric? I do want to eventually mod whichever one I get, but I would like to be able to use whichever one Iget for a while without having to worry about changing parts. I would also like to take in consideration how long a car can be used on a charge/fill of nitro. The longer the better.

The last question, what kind of range do these RCcars have? Its been a long time since Ive personally used one so I dont know what to expect.

Thanks again for all the info.

rcpowerhorse

For a beginner, electric would probably be better as they are basically just plug in a battery (or two) and go. A nitro car must be started and often tuned (this can get frustrating especially if it won't fire and you can't figure out why). A good thing to do (if it is financially viable) is to have one of each. I appreciate this may become very expensive.

In terms of modding, both nitro and electric cars can be modified, the only difference between them is the power source, the general workings of the cars are the same (drivelines, diffs, shocks etc).

The range of these cars is normally good, I have personally never conducted a range test, However my cars have still been responding at distances where if i was to drive the car further I would not be able to see it to control it.

My electric car seems to get around 25-35 minutes of run time (5000mah lipos) as compared to my nitro car which gets about 7-10 minutes a tank. However a nitro car can just have the tank refilled for more run time and it should just keep going until the receiver battery dies. An electric car will need to have its batteries charged if they were run down sufficiently and this may take an hour. BTW the cars are the exact same model, just one is electric and one is nitro.

Overall though it just comes down to personal preference, parts availability and price.

JohnnyDanger

Thank you for your answer. At this point, Im pretty sure Im going to go with the Ofna Ultra LX-2E. I keep reading all the information and cant figure out which battery and charger to get. Thats something Ican say I truly dont understand. Can anyone point me to a 4S battery and charger that would work with that car. Or even a couple of 2S batteries (and a charger) since that is whats appearently recommended. Im trying to keep my budget down, but even if Im shown a battery and charger that will work out the box then I know what I can look for when looking for one at a better price. If anyone can give me a link to a battery and charger that you feel is a very good price, that would be appreciated also.

Foxy

Yeh, sadly, it sounds like you will have the same issues that I have nowadays with nitro, I just have to go too far to run them because of the noise.

Electrics have a heavy initial investment, but lower running costs, and most of that stuff you only buy once. Here let me make your battery choices easier...

Get a pair of these... http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s..._4S1P_30C.html
And one of these... http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s..._GENUINE_.html

there is no cheaper way to get a pair of 4S batteries and a charger, and this stuff is perfectly adequate.

The charger will plug in the wall and charge the linked battery in about an hour.

Alternatively, if you want to save some shipping...

Charger... http://www.hobbypartz.com/thac6smbachw.html
Unfortunately, I can't find a battery that I would call cheap at hobbypartz, but they do have a lot of batteries available. I suggest accepting some additional shipping cost ordering from hobbyking, as the batteries are that much cheaper. Being as budget is a real concern, I would say don't worry too much about finding 40C, 30C will do to start with, you can buy some more expensive batteries down the line.

By the way, don't worry about lipo fires, you have to really screw up good to start a fire. Good glitch-free range in my experience is between 50 and 100m depending on conditions.

JohnnyDanger

Thank you Foxy, that helps me so much. One question, you said I should order a pair of those batteries. Is that so I could have a backup or would I run both together?

Im pretty much ready to order and should have a car ordered by end of this week. Im just going to read up a little more before Imake my final decision, but Im pretty positive Im going to be going with the OFNAUltra LX2E. I just hope that I can find it in stock somewhere because it seems like no one has it in stock.

Thanks again for all the info.From all of you. I hope that Ienjoy RCCars for a long time to come. Ive really been wanting a new hobby and this seems like its right up my ally. Iwill probably be back to ask more questions once Ido get a car and maybe some before I buy, but right now Ifeel like Ihave all the info I need. At least I think Ido.

JohnnyDanger

Can I also get anyones opinion on the Duratrax Evader? Someone locally is selling one with two Venom Power 3000ma MAH NIMH batteries and a charger for $250. Is that one that might be a good starter or just stick with the OFNAUltra LX2E?<a href="http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_info.php/cPath/1_44_1258_2591/products_id/221119/n/OFNA-Ultra-LX2E-RTR-1-8-Electric-Off-Road-Buggy" target="_blank">
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Foxy

I think that 2 batteries is minimum for a satisfying hour of non stop running (you'll get about a half hour per battery). If you are the type to only run for a half hour at a time, then you should only need one. To be honest, its up to you, but I always take two packs out with me for whatever car I'm running (or more).

Foxy

The evader is a very cheap (but decent for what it is) REAR wheel drive 1/10th buggy. It will not have nearly the same good handling, it will be more of a challenge to drive, especially on dusty surfaces, be CONSIDERABLY less durable, and generally less versatile as its significantly smaller than a 1/8th. No doubt you could get the Evader up and running much cheaper (it only needs 1 2s battery for starters), but the 2 vehicles are not comparable at all, the LX is many times more car.

There are many cheaper ways to get up and running, but I think you'd be doing yourself an injustice not to get yourself at least a 1/8th buggy or truggy, they are so far apart from all the other classes in terms of driveability, power, handling, and durability, that its hard to recommend anything else to someone who has the budget to play with the big boys. And don't get me wrong, that LX is still a very cheap car, a real bargain. I have two 1/8ths, a SC8e short course and an Xray truggy (my pride and joy), both of those cost over 500 just for the chassis, and have another $500 of equipment in them. The servos I use cost $110 each for example. Even with the LX you are at the low end of the 1/8th spectrum, but the LX has very few compromises to make that budget (OFNA's power, they have always cheaped out in the right areas in order not to sacrifice durability or compromise the platform, strong plastic, strong drivetrain, but few bells and whistles, which is fine, you cna add those yourself slowly).

What I'm trying to say is that further economy over the LX is probably false economy.

JohnnyDanger

Thanks again Foxy, I really do appreciate all the help. Just waiting for the OFNAUltra LX2e to be back in stock and Im going to order.