On or Off Road

[Kowalski86]

Simple question, do you prefer on-road RCs or off-road?

Right now I don't have any on-roaders, just a Stampede and a CR12 (and a Hornet awaiting bearings), and...let's just say that attempting to drive a monster truck on asphalt or a crawler has made me want an on-roader again.

Generally I'm more of an off-road fan, they can be jumped and clear bad roads better, but evidently they don't always work on asphalt.

[Andreas W]

I prefer both. It's mostly up to which time of year. After the snow is gone: M-chassis. When It's wet or winter: Rally car or buggy. When I just want to slide about regardless of surface or time of year: Buggy with tyres according to surface. 2 or 4WD doesn't matter. I like them both. 

 

[gogsyfinnie]

Also both!  Monster trucks for garden and trails with the kids, rally cars for dusty, loose surfaces and racing by post on car parks or the driveway and M08 and (very soon) TT-01E Truck for club racing on carpet.

My club are quite keen on GT12 which might be the next money pit for me to wade into 

[nowinaminute]

Mostly off road, although I do keep meaning to get 1 or two on road. 

Thing is, even with an on road car, I still like to go a little bit off road, like on mild dirt and stuff. Dusty car parks etc.

I was thinking of getting something like a Fat fox and trying to make it a bit more rallyish so that it's good on road but can hand a mild bit of off road.

Closest I have is the 2CV rally, but it's one of those never-ending projects.

[Mad Ax]

It's a mix for me, for various reasons.

Generally, I prefer off road.  It's such a big heading, it covers so much stuff.  My all-time favourite things to build and look at are solid axle monster trucks, which don't make much sense on road.  The LMT-1, which its hard tyres, is probably best as it tends to spin out on tarmac instead of rolling over like my other monsters.  That said, monster trucks are great to build and look at but are hard to run anywhere, and they get boring quick because nobody else runs them.

My scalers probably get more stick-time than anything, but that's because I take them walking.  I really enjoy a solo walk without a truck, but sometimes when it's just me and the truck it adds an extra element and an extra challenge.  I love that my scalers can go just about anywhere my feet can go.

I love buggy racing, or more specifically, I love the idea of buggy racing.  I'm not actually that good at it, and I don't do it often since it's mostly on road racing around me.  Iconic Revival is the highlight of my year, with 3 solid days of buggy racing and fun, but it can be frustrating if it goes badly and I can't keep a car on the track, or in one piece.  There's so much more to go wrong in buggy racing, and it's hard to account for all the possibilities.

So, when it comes to racing, I'm mostly on-road.  I've improved a lot in the last few years, and I've had lots of racing time this year.  I have to think seriously over the winter about whether I do more Iconic Cup on-road racing in 2025 or take a break from the long distance races and resume rallycross racing at the "local" club (it's 90 minutes away).

It's been many years since I went drifting - again I loved the idea of it, but I just can't get the hang of it.  I don't know if it's me, the car setup, or both, but my car feels like it's slithering around the track on a knife-edge the whole time, and one slight mistake causes me to crash out.  But the other guys seem to drift like they're on rails, they can follow and tandem and drift right around me when I'm spinning out in the middle of the track.  I guess I'd need to put in a few solid months to really get the hang of it, but it's another 90 minute drive to the club, so I haven't done it for ages.

Of course, big rigs count as on road, right?  I love them - although mostly I love going to the meets, hanging out with friends talking nonsense all day.  I do very little rig driving, and when I do it's normally because a friend gives me the stick to whatever random rarity he's brought along for the day.

[Gebbly]

There isn't much nice smooth tarmac or carpet near me so the only drives happen in my bumpy garden or one of the local bumpy parks so on-Road wouldn't really be suitable. Some of the M bodies are really nice but I'm more relaxed driving something that can happily bash over bumps.

[Hrimfaxi]

I think I prefer off-roading with the buggies - I have a TT02 in a rally setup, but i'm falling down the speed trap rabbit hole, so might convert that chassis to road (But keep the rally theme for a tarmac setup!)

But yes, I've got more places to run my buggies anyway - taking one over the park for my dog to chase is always fun.  There's a very local club to me that run on AstroTurf, i'm tempted to join in..  so buggies it is. 

[markbt73]

These days I'm strictly off-road, mainly because there is no paved surface nearby. The street is paved, but it's too heavily traveled by both cars/trucks and dog walkers to be of any use for RC cars. For just fun-running, off-road is where it's at anyway. Bumps and jumps and different surfaces keep things interesting. And crawling/scale/trail trucks are just a great way to relax. It's like Zen RC.

But I always enjoyed on-road competition more, especially indoors on carpet. Tuning is more challenging, and therefore more rewarding. Consistency and precision matter more than outright speed. And it seems like crashes are less frequent, and less severe.

[Saito2]

On-road you say...what is this on-road of which you speak?

Strictly off-road for me. I tried on-road once by myself and after 5 minutes, I thought, alright, now what? I think if I had others to race with, I could understand the allure of on-road a bit better but that would require me to physically interact with people...so that's out.

Seriously, I love road cars and driving but the scale version doesn't scratch the same itch.

Off-roaders are so much more engaging and animated in my eyes with their exaggerated movements, large visible shocks, etc., etc. While I dream of driving a 1:1 off roader at speed, Baja-style, my body is too busted up at this point to even consider it, so, in that way, scale off road does scratch that itch.

[Wooders28]

Off Road, mainly as there's loads more places to run them (throw a set of road tyres on, and it's an on road anyway!!).

But also, Off Road involves jumps, which makes it feel far more 3D.

[Kowalski86]

5 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Strictly off-road for me. I tried on-road once by myself and after 5 minutes, I thought, alright, now what?

Seriously, I love road cars and driving but the scale version doesn't scratch the same itch.

I find that in order to get on-road to really "work", you need to setup your own course, and ideally you'll have a chassis that's engaging to drive.

Just for on-road RWD chassis were always the most fun for me, 4wd chassis were usually a bit stale (not helped by most of them using the same core design), FWD M chassis can be fun with how light/simple they are.

You make a good point about how off-roaders let you "feel" their weight and show movement more. There's also the simple fact that most on-roaders (rally or not) are bad at jumping.

There's a big "bling" aspect to on-roaders that I  have no interest in, I don't race so expensive carbon/aluminum bits don't mean much to me. I'll let the bodyshell do the talking.

[Kowalski86]

3 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

Off Road, mainly as there's loads more places to run them (throw a set of road tyres on, and it's an on road anyway!!).

But also, Off Road involves jumps, which makes it feel far more 3D.

Ironically the only on-road chassis that I found to be any good at jumps was a TA02T, which has a lot of off-road buggy in its DNA. It's also the only "rally" chassis that I liked.

[skom25]

On Road, no matter if it is Touring Car, Rally Car or Buggy.

Reason is very simple:

I can run cars On Road for many, many packs and just clean them from dust, which takes 5 - 10 minutes and car is like new.

Off Road is totally different story. I killed my TT-02B after +/- 1 hour of running in dusty conditions. 

Off Road is fun... for a moment. After short while everything is totally dirty and broken.

[Rinskie]

I have wrestled with this ever since I first became interested in RC. I have always thought on road cars were just plain sexier but growing up I pretty much only had off-road cars. In the full scale world, on road or rally wins every day. 

[Wooders28]

1 hour ago, skom25 said:

Off Road is fun... for a moment. After short while everything is totally dirty 

One of the reasons, race tracks are mostly Astro or indoor on on Carpet now, where the only cleaning, is a bit of fluff on the driveshafts.

 

But aye, wet grass isn't quite as enjoyable...😳

 

 

 

 

[Rinskie]

Those grass UK tracks look like so much fun until you see the "after" shots. I am way too anal to enjoy that sort of dirty. 

[Wooders28]

On 7/18/2024 at 8:10 PM, Rinskie said:

Those grass UK tracks look like so much fun

Racing on grass is brilliant, with the track evolving as ruts develop, where what could have been the fasted line, a few laps before, is suddenly not.

 

On 7/18/2024 at 8:10 PM, Rinskie said:

until you see the "after" shots

Yeah, the clean up, the time and cost of replacing bearings etc. Then if it's your club, the track needs fully lifted (as the grass is ruined in the corners etc) and grass seed / fertiliser layed, the other grass mowed etc, another reason Astro is so much better..

 

On 7/18/2024 at 8:10 PM, Rinskie said:

anal to enjoy that sort of dirty. 

My 12yr old sense of humour, is going to chuckle at that for a while 🤣🤣

[ABigChungus]

Where I live, off-road is the more sensible choice. The paths and roads are fairly bumpy and cracked, not very smooth and the parking areas are usually either gravel or again, not very smooth, so my M05 and TT02 usually rattle around everywhere. Whereas my buggies and monster trucks have no problem at all. Shame really though as the on roaders are a nice change of pace, but it's not really kind on their suspension to drive them in conditions they aren't meant for. The problem of living in the Fenlands!

[Kpowell911]

For Tamiya, on road only. Tamiya dont make anything thats worth using off road unless its just a slightly dirty track……. 

[guggles]

On road is really cool, but as may already said most places are not properly suited for 1/10 onroad cars.

Most parking lots are just too brutal on a 1/10 onroad car. I think a stadium truck or a buggy or 8th scale onroad car is more fun to run on road. 

Yeah a TT02 or the simillar can take on the roughest and most pebbly parking lots without problems, but its just not very fun. Any more power than a stock motor cant be put down on even a slightly dusty surface. I love running on road, just with a offroad car and some appropriate tires and suspension tuning. 

 

 

[Rookie Rabbit]

Off Road. It allows me to use my RC car more often, "see the world as one's race track" (which is a fun creative process), and it adds a "third dimension" to driving (quite literally in the case of the DT-01).

 

Best,

"Rookie Rabbit"

[Sogogi]

Onf road. Lol

focused driving: on road

mindless driving: off road

[Kowalski86]

On 7/21/2024 at 12:17 AM, guggles said:

Yeah a TT02 or the simillar can take on the roughest and most pebbly parking lots without problems, but its just not very fun.

My Postal runs could be quite interesting sometimes, be it twigs, cracks in the road, puddles, or pebbles causing my cars to roll over. Meanwhile I could run old-school buggies without any problems as long as I had the right tires installed.

1 hour ago, Sogogi said:

Onf road. Lol

focused driving: on road

mindless driving: off road

I like to think that crawling bridges both of those, since it can take a lot of focus over certain obstacles.