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78Triumph

My midlife crisis backyard RC playground

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So much of this summer has been a complete washout.  I don't know what the total amount of rain we had all of August up to the current date, but it's way more than I can ever remember.   That being said, my track has taken a beating.  Lots of washouts ruts to repair.  This got me to thinking I should extend the crawler section, the reason being it's much easier to maintain.  Basically I pick the few weeds that pop up and that's it.  There's no washouts there as the rocks deflect the heavy rain, unlike the double jumps and the berms on the dirt track section.  Fixing washouts is time consuming and hard work.  I'm also considering smoothing out the jumps and seeding the dirt sections with grass.  This would keep the washouts from happening, and I can mow it short to use it with the cars.  I was also thinking of narrowing the track and making it more rally friendly, so no big jumps, and more plants and rocks along the borders.  We'll see.  

So today I started moving in some more rocks I brought home from work:  Just playing around with some ideas really.  I have a monster rock that I could use in this spot too, but I'll have to use the tractor to move it.

44681982931_c3a4213b36_b.jpg43964076524_b22ec4941d_b.jpg

I do like the moss that has started to grow all over the sections under the pine tree:

30811870898_6f782f72ea_b.jpg43964079204_0d5d114919_b.jpg

A few more current-status pics;

The plants really took off this year.  A lot of them need to be trimmed back a bit.

44681983361_ef27822512_b.jpg44681980951_8751c112c2_b.jpg44681983611_afc66e3eb1_b.jpg29744789117_bf11a0bf4f_b.jpg

 

 

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Sounds like a good idea - rally and crawler sections make sense together, with both types of car being of somewhat scale appearance. 

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London had 110 days of rain over 1mm in 2017.  In 2018, Philadelphia had over 120 days of rain.  And we have almost 4 more months to go...  This summer was rather cool, unlike everywhere else.  

It's a sign that you must run the living daylights out of your cars. You know what they say about rolling wheels gathering no moss...

At least none of your miniature plants died.  That's like 79% better survival rate than the plants my wife buys.  At that rate, it's like she enjoys the killing of plants.  I say, "for their sake, please don't buy."  

Jokes aside, even with some rain damage, your track is the best-looking one I've seen. 

 

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A very enviable back yard you have  @78Triumph, unlike your water logged situation it is the complete opposite on this side of the world. No rain here for months. I could water it but water is of a premium, and a voice of a friend here always resonates in my head when I consider getting the sprinkler out, "I'd rather be able to get a glass of water from the tap when I'm thirsty, instead of the greenest lawn in the street."

I have considered spreading a few ton's of sand over our yard for a man-made beach area for the Sand Scorcher to negate the need for a lawn. But we also have a cat. Hmmm, cats & sand. Maybe I'll have to wait until the cat moves out.

HSoM3ap.jpg

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11 hours ago, Juggular said:

London had 110 days of rain over 1mm in 2017.  In 2018, Philadelphia had over 120 days of rain.  And we have almost 4 more months to go...  This summer was rather cool, unlike everywhere else.  

It's a sign that you must run the living daylights out of your cars. You know what they say about rolling wheels gathering no moss...

At least none of your miniature plants died.  That's like 79% better survival rate than the plants my wife buys.  At that rate, it's like she enjoys the killing of plants.  I say, "for their sake, please don't buy."  

Jokes aside, even with some rain damage, your track is the best-looking one I've seen. 

 

Yeah, with all the rain the plants have thrived.  Last summer I found myself having to spray the track down with the hose to keep all the dust down, the exact opposite of this summer.  I really didn't have the opportunity to run my buggies on it all that much.

7 hours ago, Re-Bugged said:

A very enviable back yard you have  @78Triumph, unlike your water logged situation it is the complete opposite on this side of the world. No rain here for months. I could water it but water is of a premium, and a voice of a friend here always resonates in my head when I consider getting the sprinkler out, "I'd rather be able to get a glass of water from the tap when I'm thirsty, instead of the greenest lawn in the street."

I have considered spreading a few ton's of sand over our yard for a man-made beach area for the Sand Scorcher to negate the need for a lawn. But we also have a cat. Hmmm, cats & sand. Maybe I'll have to wait until the cat moves out.

HSoM3ap.jpg

Your yard has plenty of potential!  Use what you have and you can come up with some cool stuff.  The sand idea is a good one!  Plus you have palm trees!  You could have an awesome dune buggy track!

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11 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

Sounds like a good idea - rally and crawler sections make sense together, with both types of car being of somewhat scale appearance. 

I've been watching a lot of the rc rally events they have in the Czech Republic on Youtube.  It's inspiring me to go more towards the scale "track" route.  Those guys over there have awesome rally layouts, and a lof of them are really good drivers too.

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If you could keep the soil moist, that moss will continue to grow as long as it's not in direct sunlight most of the day.

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16 hours ago, 78Triumph said:

So much of this summer has been a complete washout.  I don't know what the total amount of rain we had all of August up to the current date, but it's way more than I can ever remember.   That being said, my track has taken a beating.  Lots of washouts ruts to repair.  This got me to thinking I should extend the crawler section, the reason being it's much easier to maintain.  Basically I pick the few weeds that pop up and that's it.  There's no washouts there as the rocks deflect the heavy rain, unlike the double jumps and the berms on the dirt track section.  Fixing washouts is time consuming and hard work.  I'm also considering smoothing out the jumps and seeding the dirt sections with grass.  This would keep the washouts from happening, and I can mow it short to use it with the cars.  I was also thinking of narrowing the track and making it more rally friendly, so no big jumps, and more plants and rocks along the borders.  We'll see.  

So today I started moving in some more rocks I brought home from work:  Just playing around with some ideas really.  I have a monster rock that I could use in this spot too, but I'll have to use the tractor to move it.

44681982931_c3a4213b36_b.jpg43964076524_b22ec4941d_b.jpg

I do like the moss that has started to grow all over the sections under the pine tree:

30811870898_6f782f72ea_b.jpg43964079204_0d5d114919_b.jpg

A few more current-status pics;

The plants really took off this year.  A lot of them need to be trimmed back a bit.

44681983361_ef27822512_b.jpg44681980951_8751c112c2_b.jpg44681983611_afc66e3eb1_b.jpg29744789117_bf11a0bf4f_b.jpg

 

 

Looks great, i wish i could do that to my yard. My wife would flip.  I remember you telling me youre from NJ,I am on Long Island and this summer has been horrendous for rain. Basically every weekend rain. I hardly drove my cars this summer. 

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On 9/15/2018 at 9:48 AM, Rb4276 said:

Looks great, i wish i could do that to my yard. My wife would flip.  I remember you telling me youre from NJ,I am on Long Island and this summer has been horrendous for rain. Basically every weekend rain. I hardly drove my cars this summer. 

Yeah, the rain has really been a nuisance!  I'm ready for some cool crisp autumn air.  It's the humidity that drives me really nuts! 

I've been re-watcing a lot of those Czech Rally events on Youtube.  Their layouts and tracks are really inspiring, and those guys can really drive well through all the tight turns!

 

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...all while running, and not tripping over the course too! :)

I wish we could organise a similar event here in the UK. I'd certainly be up for it.

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1 hour ago, TurnipJF said:

...all while running, and not tripping over the course too! :)

Yeah. Impressive. I can't do both at the same time. I'd likely trip and land on my car. 

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2 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

...all while running, and not tripping over the course too! :)

I wish we could organise a similar event here in the UK. I'd certainly be up for it.

You've got more of a chance getting something like that organized in the UK then I do here in the states.  Here people like to watch cars drive around in circles (NASCAR )   Rally racing is totally obscure to most Americans.  I hate NASCAR.

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31 minutes ago, 78Triumph said:

 Here people like to watch cars drive around in circles (NASCAR )   Rally racing is totally obscure to most Americans.  I hate NASCAR.

Completely agree. Not many people know of any other racing here besides NASCAR and drag racing. Good luck finding a live F1 race on TV. 

I was watching a Stadium Super Trucks race on Youtube, and a coworker came up, saw it, and said "Wow, it's like NASCAR, but for men". :lol:

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Yes that running around watching not only your car and where that is heading next to prepare approach speed and angles, but also your own feet ... that takes some doing... likely no one could have a go after me as I’d destroy the track in my wake and fall over running myself over with my own car, that would be a fail!

Back to your track, never considered the work involved to maintain it, that’s a bummer however I get the impression you like garden work to some degree so  I hope it’s not a total chore for you.

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A decent amount of changes have happened since I last posted.  The trail section has been expanded, the double jumps are gone, and I planted a lot of grass seed to narrow the track lanes up to go full on scale RC Rally.  It will be easier to maintain and to be honest I was getting sick of running the buggies on the track.  The XV-01 rally car is so much more enjoyable to drive and a lot more scale. 

Where the jumps used to be is more trail sections for my unimog, there's a small concrete block pad where the cabin will sit, and the straight before the jumps I planted grass to outline a rally sized road. which will lead off to the left under that group of maple trees in the background. 

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Scale cable guardrail

45161361782_7ecd3cf2a6_b.jpg44300248025_8ae29ea255_b.jpg44300246915_482c6ccfe9_b.jpg

jumps are gone and I brought in a lot more rocks and boulders.

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You can see all the new grass that I grew in where that big banked berm used to be.  I'm trying to keep the rally "road" about 24" - 30" wide.

43398399430_15a317bcd5_b.jpg43398395020_258c09ab75_b.jpg

more grass planted to narrow up the path going back up the hilll.

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The pad on the left side is where the cabin will sit.

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more guard rail going down the hill

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The propane tank will be the death of me!

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a couple of slo-mo shots I took

 

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Always looks awesome. If it were closer, I would ask the price for admission and then buy a season pass.

 For some Group-B realism, you should add some scale spectators standing on a corner trying to reach out and touch the car as it goes by. :D

For the propane tank, can you change the appearance of it? Such as painting, vinyl wrapping, or anything like that? At least it's green and blends in well. 

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That really does look awesome.

So now you need a fleet of rally cars, multiple video recorders, timing equipment and then you can run a rally championship for us all to watch once you have taped and edited it!

Seriously, awesome work. B)

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On 9/16/2018 at 6:01 PM, Kingfisher said:

I'd likely trip and land on my car. 

I have actually done this...

I have also tripped while marshalling a race and stood on someone else's car, breaking the suspension.

Unfortunately he was one of the guys known for flying off the handle and shouting a lot when things didn't go his way.  Fortunately he's a mate of mine so he accepted my apology with humility and declined my offer of spare parts and time to fix it, claiming "he wasn't enjoying the racing anyway and was looking for an excuse to sit in the pits chatting all night."

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@78Triumph that new layout looks superb.  It makes me wish we weren't patioing most of our garden.  My plot is a lot narrower than yours but if I lived alone, I could create an awesome scale rally track in it.  I'd even put in a twisty asphalt path which would double up as my pedestrian route between house and workshop when it's wet.  Every rally needs a blackstop stage, right?  But hey, it's not going to happen with a wife to keep happy and a baby that needs to play outside.

I'm hoping to start work on my crawler course soon, though.  I don't have a huge area to play with but I've got lots of concrete and stones left over from destroying some other structures so I'm sure I can make a gnarly mountain.  I'm going to use some leftover slate (or maybe some painted paving slabs) to make a paved mountain pass that will snake along one side for good static shots of road cars and big rigs.  I've got some leftover fence panels and I figured they'd make a really nice bridge (a bit like yours) that could be made to fit over the paved road section so it doesn't turn into wasted real-estate when I'm running the crawlers.

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10 hours ago, Kingfisher said:

Always looks awesome. If it were closer, I would ask the price for admission and then buy a season pass.

 For some Group-B realism, you should add some scale spectators standing on a corner trying to reach out and touch the car as it goes by. :D

For the propane tank, can you change the appearance of it? Such as painting, vinyl wrapping, or anything like that? At least it's green and blends in well. 

Thanks man, admission would be free to anyone!  Eventually i will add scale people as the build progresses. 

The propane tank would be a lot worse if it was the usual white, and in a few years a lot of the shrubs and trees I planted should hide it pretty well as they fill out.

1 hour ago, Badcrumble said:

That really does look awesome.

So now you need a fleet of rally cars, multiple video recorders, timing equipment and then you can run a rally championship for us all to watch once you have taped and edited it!

Seriously, awesome work. B)

Thanks!  I wish RC rally was popular in the states like it is in the Czech Republic.  Heck, I wish real rally was popular in the states! 

1 hour ago, Mad Ax said:

@78Triumph that new layout looks superb.  It makes me wish we weren't patioing most of our garden.  My plot is a lot narrower than yours but if I lived alone, I could create an awesome scale rally track in it.  I'd even put in a twisty asphalt path which would double up as my pedestrian route between house and workshop when it's wet.  Every rally needs a blackstop stage, right?  But hey, it's not going to happen with a wife to keep happy and a baby that needs to play outside.

I'm hoping to start work on my crawler course soon, though.  I don't have a huge area to play with but I've got lots of concrete and stones left over from destroying some other structures so I'm sure I can make a gnarly mountain.  I'm going to use some leftover slate (or maybe some painted paving slabs) to make a paved mountain pass that will snake along one side for good static shots of road cars and big rigs.  I've got some leftover fence panels and I figured they'd make a really nice bridge (a bit like yours) that could be made to fit over the paved road section so it doesn't turn into wasted real-estate when I'm running the crawlers.

Sounds like you've got the plan and the material, time to get out there and start building!  :)

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Awesome stuff looks real, I subbed you on youtube love things like this. If I had the space in my garden I would do the same! 

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