A little backstory. I used to be into R/C cars in the late 80's when I was still in high school. I had a Tamiya Frog and a Kyosho Javelin. My brother had a Tamiya Hornet. Back in the day the Associated RC-10 was the car to have.

I'm finding things have changed. I bought my son a 1/18 Redcat Volcano and that little thing is fast and impressive! I'm thinking I need a buggy or truck for myself so my son and I can race each other.

I was looking at a Associated Reflex 14B or a Losi Mini 8eight

Any other brands or model I should look at?

Tony.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: benny6,

I don't know about the smaller ones 1/14 and 1/18.

For 1/10 I would look at Traxxas. I got my Nephews ones a few years ago. They are worlds better then what I used to have from the same time frame it looks like you had cars.

Thanks. Looking to go with the smaller scale cars so the cars my son and I will race will be of similar scale.

My neighbor has a 1/10 Traxxas and I was very impressed with how far they've come.

Tony.

I'll be following this. I grew up in the 80's with Hornets, Grasshoppers, etc... too. My boys are 8 & 9, and I need to get us into it as well.

From a former novice.

Just know it's not going to be a cheap hobby. I bought an entry level Traxxas (i think) car a few years ago. While super fun and fast as hell, it broke a lot. What I figured out was, the thing was built with a lot of plastic parts that broke easily, but you could buy metal replacements , not cheap.

Check with local hobby shop it there is a track in your area. Go to track and talk to racers. They will be glad to offer advice.

Also buy a car that is easy to get parts. You will break the car.

Fun hobby I raced for years. The new stuff is so much better than what I started with 30 years ago.

Traxxas car are durable and a good starting place.

I came from the 90's era of RC cars. I had Losi XX series.

I suggest whatever you decide to go with, look for something with good replacement part support.

Tony,

The major brands all sell solid models with good online parts support. If you prefer to purchase supplies locally, stop in a hobby shop to see what brand they primarily carry. I have over a dozen vehicles from many different brands (Arrma, Team Associated, Traxxas, Axial, and Losi).

As with anything, there are brand loyalist and fanboys that will leave ridiculous comments on any YouTube video that doesn't glorify their particular model. I don't particularly favor one company over another. I have been pretty happy with most of the vehicles I have purchased.

Parts can get expensive. For example, I got my son a Traxxas Rustler VXL 4X4 for Christmas. Within a week he broke two of the plastic drive shafts and popped the shock caps off multiple times while we were bashing around the yard. I have upgraded to steel drive shafts and the shocks to aluminum shock caps with hardened steel shafts. Price of those upgrades were close to $200. However, the vehicle is a blast to drive and I knew going into it what parts were most likely to fail right out of the box.

My most recent purchase was an Arrma Notorious 6s. The truck is a beast and I have been hitting a 2 foot high 45 degree ramp at about 40MPH. It's a matter of time before I land wrong and I start breaking parts.

Also, most of the companies use their own proprietary connectors for the ESC and Battery connections. I cut these of as soon as I open it and use XT90 for 4s and higher and XT60 for 3s and smaller vehicles. Changing connectors will void the warranty, but I prefer to keep all my connectors the same. There is nothing wrong with the house brand connectors, I just don't like swapping adapters every-time I charge batteries.

Get yourself a good Lipo charger. Charging Lipo batteries is a little more dangerous than the older NiMH or NiCd batteries.

Best of luck, have fun!

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
From a former novice.

Just know it's not going to be a cheap hobby. I bought an entry level Traxxas (i think) car a few years ago. While super fun and fast as hell, it broke a lot. What I figured out was, the thing was built with a lot of plastic parts that broke easily, but you could buy metal replacements , not cheap.

Former wannabe racer from several years ago. I saw lots of "bashers" put metal control arms on their cars and run them only to crash and bend the those fancy arms. Either of the two models would be good choices, I'd go with whichever one your local hobby shop stocks more parts for.

Well, looks like Associated has plenty of spare parts. I'll go with the Reflex 14B. And I've always wanted an Associated.

I understand about how expensive parts are. My son's Redcat Volcano 18 cost us $80 initially. I've replaced the rear shock tower, upgraded all the drive shafts and differential outdrives to aluminum, burnt the motor out as well as sent the ESC into full meltdown. It literally smoked and melted into square blob. I've probably already spent what it's worth in replacement parts.

I like how the Associated has upgradeable aluminum parts, as well as the differential drive gears.

Tony.

quote:

Originally posted by hlb14:

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
From a former novice.

Just know it's not going to be a cheap hobby. I bought an entry level Traxxas (i think) car a few years ago. While super fun and fast as hell, it broke a lot. What I figured out was, the thing was built with a lot of plastic parts that broke easily, but you could buy metal replacements , not cheap.

Former wannabe racer from several years ago. I saw lots of "bashers" put metal control arms on their cars and run them only to crash and bend the those fancy arms. Either of the two models would be good choices, I'd go with whichever one your local hobby shop stocks more parts for.

Yeah. Like on our 1/10 buggies, it was easier to replace a broken graphite control arm than it was to swap out a cracked front bulk head. Sometimes getting some parts that are stronger, will has negative consequences on other parts.

Wow! They didn't have any full kits anywhere, so I had to buy the buggy/radio kit minus the battery and charger.

It took me about a half a day to get familiar with LiPo batteries and find an aftermarket one that was better than the standard one in the full kit. The place where I got the batteries sold them separately from the charger and the battery I bought didn't have a recommended charger listed. After some research, I think I got the right charger from the same company.

The standard full kit used a 1600mAh battery and I ended up getting a 2000mAh battery, charger and charging safety bag.

I seem to have all the parts inbound to have a ready to run buggy.

Thanks for all the advice.

Tony.

So I got my buggy last night and we ran through two 2000mAh packs pretty quickly. I was expecting a little more run time.

I do like this buggy a lot! It's built pretty tough, from what I can see. I didn't want to run it on the street and went to the schoolyard behind my house and there just wasn't any good area to run. I pretty much used it on grass, so I couldn't really go that fast. We had to find a patch of grass that wasn't as thick as the rest because the wheels just spin if the grass gets too tall. I tried running it on the areas under our big evergreens, but small twigs kept getting getting stuck in the suspension and tires. I tried running it on the blacktop, but the surrounding trees are shedding something that looks like a cross between empty grape vines and lint which kept bundling up around the car.

Alas, I finally took it out to the street out in front of my house. I dread it, because it's certain death to my Redcat Volcano 18.

The car was really fast and handled really well. The steering and control was great! This is also the first car I've owned with a low voltage cutoff and I will most likely be replacing the ESC with one that is programmable.

At one point, I took the car sideways and it lodged the front left wheel underneath a car tire. I thought for sure that I broke something. The wheel was parallel to the ground. After I pulled the car out from under the wheel, it popped right back into shape like nothing ever happened! I was impressed. I've done the same thing to my Volcano 18 and it always destroys my shock towers. I'm on my third upper deck for that car.

The shocks are quite mushy and I really don't know if that's ideal or not. The rear settles down a bit and I'm not used to seeing the springs be so weak that the weight of the car make it settle, but maybe it's supposed to be that way.

Anyway, here are my minis. My Volcano 18 is waiting on a new front left knuckle and hub. I put the wheel on for show.

Very cool. That's some good father son time right there.

I have the Traxxis T-Maxx (truck). Kicks ass. Even has a 2 speed trans. sounds cool switching gears too. Its an older version (2.3) engine. As much as I love this MONSTER I am porobably going to sell it so I can get the vehicle that runs on Battery. These things are as fun as a car VW loaded with clowns.