xsidx

I'm pretty new to nitro-RCs and just wondered how environmentally critical nitro is.
I have neighbors that race their nitro buggies in their yard for an average of about 5 hours/week - and we live right next door to protected wetlands. also, we have dogs living and playing in the yard. I just wondered what the regulations here usually are, and despite that, what other concerns are there to think about.

Thanks a bunch in advance!
sid

Bkag

I think nitro is as damaging as petrol but since it is such small quantities (compared to petrol) it isn't a concern for the wetlands. I drive my nitros in the garden and in my opinion it is fine for our 3 dogs. The nitro does kill some grass though as its idling with rich fuel settings for running in

Rs43EVOman

I think nitro is about the same as regular gas, but its such small amounts you it really wont hurt anything.

125cchyperman

Nitro I think is a little more harmful to the environment. But the alcohol we use is a lot less harmful then gasoline. Thats why they make E85 vehicles now, but the oil's that we burn are once again the most harmful of the liquids that we use ( environmental wise ). We burn the 2 stroke oil that, when you burn oil it always sends off bad things into the air. In the otrher form of racing we do, we use bean oil for the 2 stroke oil. That is however environmentally friendly as it doesnt send off as much co2 and other harmfull fumes into the air. T

The nitro is the only thing I am not to sure about. The other things I am sure about as in the other form of racing there has been tons of test's done and came up with these results.

snowbl!nd

Unless your neighbours are dumping gallons of the stuff direcrly onto the ground i doubt it's going to do anything. As people have said the quantities used are too small to have any real impact. Running the engines in confined spaces also isn't a good idea, as wind dissipates the exhaust gasses into the atmosphere.

Unless your dogs are having a tipple out of the fuel tank they should be absolutely fine too.

boltech

It's not... and your dogs being affected by it won't hold up in any legal court. especially if you own a full sized car, or if you or any your friends smoke, BBQ, or use a lawn mower. Any of thise activities put out 10 time more damaging toxins than nitro RC's.

Unless they are dumping excess fuel into the ground which I doubt since it's costly there will be no impact whatsoever to the wetlands.

You are probably doing more damage to the wetlands if you don't clean up after your dogs when they go in your front or backyard. Sorry if I come off as highly critical here, but seeing as this is your first post and this is the topic you bring up most likely you are looking for some sort of legal or ethical recourse to put a halt to their activities.

xsidx

well - im sorry - i have to start at some point, dont i? unfortunately i could not find any real info on that specific topic online, so i figured i would check here - and most people gave me useful answers.
i used to be heavy duty into electric RCs until about 7 years ago - since i will be done with my masters degree finally in about a month or 2, i will get back to the states and hopefully have some more time to finally start a hobby that i have been wanting to get into since i was 10. the gear just used to be way too pricey for a little high schooler back then.
as i love my dogs a lot more than any hobby, i would not want to put them at risk. a clerk at a local rc store here (in europe) explained to me, that here they have very strict guidelines about where you can and cannot use nitro RCs, due to environmental reasons. I haven't considered this an issue before actually, but it did get me thinking about my plans and what my neighbors are up to (they also ride ATVs around their yard for that matter).

i'm not trying to sue anyone, i want to prevent harm to the environment and my companion animals.
as for the lifestyle questions: i don't drink or smoke, am vegan and we have an electric lawn mower. i do own a car, but i also own 4 mountain bikes and a racing bicycle, on which i wrecked up about 1000 miles this summer. i also prefer them for short errands, if i dont have to haul anything bulky around.
oh yeah - we DO have a "pooper scooper", as we don't like living in a disgusting yard.

rc monkey

lol, i think you'll be fine then

and_des

You can obtain the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) from any of the nitro fuel manufacturer, you just have to contact them and request it. there a lot of information on those sheets.

Wide Open

what do the MSDS's tell you exactly? you seem to have sparked my interest

and_des

Some of the information you should find on those sheets are :
Manufacturer Information
Hazardous Ingredients/Identity Information
Physical/Chemical Characteristics
Fire and Explosion Hazard Data
Reactivity Data
Health Hazard Data
Precautions for Safe Handling and Use
Control Measures

Wide Open

hmm, i should get one of those and see what it says. then ill be able to know ALL the ingredients in the fuel i run

and_des

Here's some info on how to read those sheets, hope this help.
[link]http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/nfpa.html[/link]

splcrazy

your neighbours are cool i wish i had people next door like that ......... and who cares about the environment things that run on fuel and that are noisy are fun ........... thats why trees exist lol ....... it must be awsome to see them celebrate the new year in the stroke of midnight

153stars

your are forgetting 70% is alcohol pure clean burning ,ever use a bunson burner no smoke, water vapor & nitrogen released .Part is castor which they used to give people for everything.Nitro contains o2 & also burns off cleanly.The rest is synthetic oil.

xsidx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation

in my opinion they are rather obnoixious.

KillerKiwi

[X(]No response...

boltech

Sound like you are better suited for a domacile in a more rural setting. I have a few pro earth friends and they seem to favour such settings.

Are you considering them obnoixious because they run their atv's and rc's during they day? Well they are allowed to as long as they are not running them at 6am in the morning or way late at night.

I'm a homeowner and my neighbours are advid snowmobilers. sometimes they run late at night and it doesn't bug me at all

xsidx

i'm a big city person actually and like it best in chicago and nyc. well - except the mountainbike part. that gets somewhat hard, and officials usually arent too happy about me toying around downtown.

good for you, but thats not really the point of the whole discussion, nor do i want to take it on topic.

SpeedAddict

Wow this thread is bloody!!!!!!![X(]

As far as toxins, it's so little and diffuses in the air. I wouldn't go running them inside or smelling the exhaust however.

And Blotech needs to lighten up. Jeez![X(]

boltech

it's BOLTECH! and no i'm just giving my opinion on a situation.. gotta play devils advocate sometimes to understand the situation.
never once did i put down xsidx's beliefs. I actually respect them.

I live by the motto "let bygones be bygones"

boltech

You don't know what bloody is, if you want to see bloody.. try talking about Smartech outside the smartech threads!

RURC

Haveing lived in Europe for 15 years (its nice to be back home) I can tell you that what the employee in the store told you is correct. That being said these are the same people that tried to outlaw the diesel engine because it put CO2 out the exhaust. They thought it was the reason for some of the problems with the trees in the Black Forest. After forceing manufacturers to put exhaust coolers and scrubbers and jump through hoops the problem is still there. So like most liberals they took a knee jerk reaction and the problem is still there. But they are good people because they tried. Wrong they just pulled a fast one on junk science. Kind of like Ralph Nader, a noted lier and king of false science. I do agree with the regulations on the noise however. Not everyone loves hearing a mosquito at 119 dB. The world will survive you and your neighbors nitro cars. But if we could just mutate one rabbit with 300 gallions of nitro, I get tingles just thinking about it.

I love Halliburton.

hands without shadows

Alcohol composes most of nitro fuel and it is renewable, its only byproducts when burned are water and C02. Both come from the environment so your not adding anything into the athmospehere that wasn't in the plants it was made from. The oil in nitro fuel is minimal, and I don't think it has a large impact. If you are feeding your dogs fuel or trying to run into them at full blast you might cause them harm. Have you looked into electric rc cars? With mod motors they can easily compete with most nitro cars and with brushless motors and li-po batteries they own nitro cars. Electric has a larger start up cost but if you are serious about rc then you will make the money back in all the nitro you don't spend.