Newbie Looking For Suggestions

[Grooves]

Hello. First of all, thanks for accepting me in. My name is Berns. I'm from Mexico, 31 years old with a son, 2 girl twins on the way, owner of a recording studio.

During my childhood I used to be all over electric RC cars. I had so much fun, I enjoyed it much. My first RC was a Nikko off road buggy, cannot recall the name, it had spring suspension, front was independent, stick control, and rear differential. I guess it was the "Pro" at the toy level. It was fun but broke quicly. My first real kit RC was a Kyosho Double Dare (at the time rival of the clod buster). That one was somewhat hard as a first model, but it went well. I did full bearings, upgraded the shocks to hard steel ones, improved the 4WS steering a bit, and upgraded the motors and installed a ESC. It ran very well, but my batteries ran out very quick. Afterwards I got a Tamiya Hornet wich became my main car. I just had so much fun with it. I did full ball bearings and swaped the motor with a nicer one as well as an ESC.

I actually got my father into it and he bought this very nice car wich I cannot recall the name or brand, but seemed very advanced for me at that time. The whole chassis was made by 2 steel or hard plastic walls (i don't recall well), the bottom was clear acrylic or some polymer I think. It was 4WD, with full ball bearings, aluminum oil dampers, double wishbone suspension. Some critical parts like the dog bones and shafts or even some of the gears in the differential I believe were steel made. The battery used was one wich had to be split in half and each half was hanged on the outsides of the chassis. This car rocked, it was very fast and had none of the stability / handling issues of the Hornet. The only problem was that one of the shafts kept bumping out. I think the motor was tied to a distro differential at the center of the chassis, and this one connected to the front and rear differentials trough shafts. Does this ring a bell to anyone? I'm going to see if its still laying around somewhere.

Back on topic, unfortunately, music became my main hobby at teenage, and as every kid in town, I wanted to play electric guitar, so I sold all my RC's in order to pursue that.

Well, after 15 years or so, I want to get into the hobbie again. I remember how much fun me and my dad had when we went out racing, and the time we spend together building these cars, that I know this would be the perfect hobby to spend more time with my son. I'm also talking with other friends who also have kids as well, and see if in the future we can build some sort of a racing club or something. I much rather start doing it with my son early, than see him tied to playstation or whatever later.

Anyway, my first tought was going after my old buddy, the hornet. I've noticed tamiya is re-releasing some of the older models. After that initial tought, I remembered how much at that time I wanted a 4WD buggy like the hotshot or Kyosho's Rocky or Optima's but I could not afford them. RC10 was on that list to, even if it was 2WD. So my next decision was for the re of the hotshot. After that I realized I don't have to be tied up with my old memories. So I started to look into modern options. My first tought was stick with good ol 2WD, targets, the B4 bug from associated, the Traxxas Bandit and Tamiya's Sand Viper. Then I found these youtube videos of 4WD cars and that spang the whole 4WD love again. It is very clear that these just handle better, why wouldn't they.

Anyway, another thing that concerns me is hop up options. I remember there were very few for the hornet at my time, wich was well, frustrating. So now I'm leaning over the DF-03 chassis models from Tamiya, the Avante or Dark impact in particular. I have to admit that one of the things I don't like of these modern models is the bodies. They are just, not as good looking as old school. It seems they came from a bad anime space movie or something, but oh well.

What do you guys reccomend? Is there a difference other than the body in these cars? One thing I like is that there is a bunch of hop up options from tamiya and even 3rd party stuff.

Now I also need to update my knowledge a bit.

What about batteries? One of the turn off issues I had with my DD was driving time. I bet there are better, more capable batteries now. I would love to run my RC for something like half an hour, is this possible today? I do not want to go the gas or nitro route for a starter.

Also I plan to run my model stock at first, but I've been reading about this brushless motors?

Last but not least, about Radios, do I need to get FM, or AM is sufficient?

Here's what I'm planning for now:

DF-03 (most probably avante or dark impakt)

Tamiya Anti wear grease

Futaba Remote (not decided yet between AM or FM I would love to save buck if AM works well).

Whatever long run batteries I can get.

Probably a tamiya sport tuned motor or something.

ESC...any suggestions?

Any suggestions are welcomed and thanks in advance.

[ryanbored]

Hi matey and welcome, I too am just getting back into it after a break of 10 years or so, be careful, your wallet will hurt!

If going for the "standard ish" spec then the esc that comes with most kits will handle up to a 'black can' motor which will be a fairly cheap purchase (about $25) and should give you a few laughs before you need to get a silly motor and uprate the esc

Regards

Ryan

[Grooves]

Thanks for replying Ryan. I think I'm going to follow your lead too.

What about the Radio Controller and batteries? I want to be able to run for long periods of time, and with good reach...?

[ryanbored]

AM will work just fine mate. I'd stay away from acoms though, as i have had a few problems witH THOSE, INTERFERANCE BEING THE MAIN

[igbandy]

I personally would go for Futaba, Tamiya (which is rebranded Futaba) or Sanwa radio gear. About the best of the bunch apart from Spectrum/gsm.

Battery wise, I use 3000 NI-MH and they give me great run times, and dont take too long to charge. You will need a new charger that is capable of charging them, as the majority of older NI-CD peak chargers dont work properly with NI-MH.

[Grooves]

Thanks for the suggestions fellas.

Yes I was planning for futaba. Back in the day I had both my RC's with futaba's. They had, and for what I see still, a good reputation.

Also is there some kind of 3rd party bumper for the DF-03?

I see a lot of people talking about a "one way". What does this mean exactly?

Thanks in advance!

[taliesin]

am radio will probably be fine for general bashing, especially if you are alone, but you really might want a 2.4gh radio if you plan to run with other people around. not having to mess with frequency crystals is awesome. if you have the money for a 2.4gh spektrum radio... well why not. its awesome and not terribly expensive, but still a lot more than a good am radio from fleabay.

just my 2 cents worth here, but i've found that with brushless motors and esc, you often need to upgrade to better batteries and radio gear to avoid glitching, so i rather like the simple teu-101 esc and sport tuned motors. just haven't had any problems with that combination, but i'm not expecting world class results either. just me and my rc out for some fun. i'm not bashing brushless, i just found that for me the benefits just don't justify the cost and the investment. most people swear by them though, so its something to consider. i just figure i can wear out 10 sport tuned motors for the cost of 1 brushless system, and i just can't imagine how long that would take me do. but i'm not racing every weekend either!

nimh batteries from 3000mah to 4200mah are awesome for run-time, particularly with stock, or near stock motors. the faster you go, the less time you get with the batteries. i can run about 20-30 minutes with a silver can motor and a 3300 nimh stick pack, but with a brushless 8.5 motor and the same battery, i was out of juice in about 7 minutes and the battery was so hot the tamiya connectors were nearly melted. deans plug connectors will, of course, help that problem, but the basic fact is hotter motors = run less time. i just got a couple duratrax 4200 stick pack batteries, and i'm super impressed with the run time. they only cost $39 so i recommend them.

lots of good threads regarding chargers, and lots of choices. pick the one you like, it will probably work fine. i really like the ability to charge 2 batteries at once, so i got a twin peak from dynamite. love it and it's really inexpensive. doesn't have many features though, and i really would like to be able to discharge and this one doesn't.

the df-03 is a great buggy, i think, and reasonably priced. good support and hop-ups. hope you enjoy it. welcome back to the hobby and best of luck.

cheers.

[Grooves]

Hey man thanks a lot for replying, that was a wealth of info and I really appreciate it.

I'm just exactly in the same boat as you. I just want to have fun, altough I do want a fast car, but nothing that would turn my RC hard to drive, or would limit my runs to 7 mins or so.

I don't definetly want that. I did not know brushless was that expensive either. I would rather buy a new guitar, lol.

I took note on your suggestion about the radio controller. For starter, I'm going to stick with AM for now and see from there.

[Grooves]

Fellas, what is a "one way". I see lots of mentions of this term everywhere.

Thanks in advance

[ryanbored]

A 'one way' refers to the Diff. It means that it's a bit like the gear on the back of your pushbike/ bicycle, ie you pedal one way you go forward, when you pedal the other way it just spins

[taliesin]

i talked to a guy at a club race one day and he kind of showed me what a one-way did by using his car. it had a one-way in the front, and when entered a corner off power, the car turned in sharper, with less 'push' or 'understeer'. then he nailed the throttle at the apex and was quicker than a similar car without the one-way through the tight corner sections. that's how he explained it to me in terms of what it does. that's all i know about them. hope that helps.

[markbt73]

A 'one way' refers to the Diff. It means that it's a bit like the gear on the back of your pushbike/ bicycle, ie you pedal one way you go forward, when you pedal the other way it just spins

That might be the most concise, easy to understand description of a one-way I've ever read. Well put.

[highflyer]

Thanks for the suggestions fellas.

Yes I was planning for futaba. Back in the day I had both my RC's with futaba's. They had, and for what I see still, a good reputation.

Also is there some kind of 3rd party bumper for the DF-03?

I see a lot of people talking about a "one way". What does this mean exactly?

Thanks in advance!

Welcome,

For that 3rd party bumper, here is a link to one on ebay (are you a member?). They make both front and rear..

http://cgi.ebay.com/RC-Bumper-Tamiya-Dark-...1QQcmdZViewItem

Hope this helps..

[ryanbored]

That might be the most concise, easy to understand description of a one-way I've ever read. Well put.

Thanks

[acprc]

Welcome to the club Grooves,

Prepare to spend some money!!

Adam

[Grooves]

Thanks all.

About the spending gas, I'm gonna try to take it slow, just the avante or dark impact, and upgrade it over time, otherwise my wifey is going to hang me.

[taliesin]

buy her one too! once she's hooked, she can't be mad when a new kit follows you home.

[Grooves]

lol...hrm...I don't think she'll bite. She'll tell me why I bought her a stupid car instead of NW shoes or something...:S Fortunately, my son will reinforce the need later on lol.

[knotty]

AM will work just fine mate. I'd stay away from acoms though, as i have had a few problems witH THOSE, INTERFERANCE BEING THE MAIN

what kind of interferance?i wish id known that sooner,i`ve just ordered a new transmitter