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off roader for a young lad


stannyblade

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Lots of things to think about here:

 

1) What's your budget ... and does it include money for batteries, charger etc. or is it just for the truck?

 

2) Where do you plan to run your car?

 

3) How fast do you want to go ;)

 

There are lots of options, but depending on where you want to run...not all would be best. For example...if you want a buggy, 1/10 scale ones would struggle on anything other than mown grass down the park, where a 1/10 truck would cope with more. But a buggy will handle better.

 

I bought my youngest a Traxxas Stampede to get him started. They are 2WD, but cheap to fix when they break...which hasn't been often. You can buy a brushed one...which would be slow and steady....but then upgrade to brushless and LiPo batteries later on for decent speed and a load more fun once he's got the hang of things.

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I've had alot of luck with finding vintage tamiya on ebay, had to pay a bit for them but the majority of the parts are still available, ive found a supplier on ebay called Europro975 and hes got literally everything, for every model, if you type 'Vintage Tamiya' into bay you'll get hundreds of results which should give you a range of budgets... I have found that you get what you pay for with RC though, the more you spend the first time, the less you have to spend on repairs, my 4 year old nephew has smashed my lunchbox, and his mighty bull round my garden, up the fences, smashing flat out into my shed and they've survived it and never given up... 

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I always recommend Tamiya kits to people starting out because they are so fun to drive and easy to build and maintain. Just look at my YouTube channel for some vids of my grasshopper.

Ben.

Edited by GilbertRC1
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The Lunchbox is awesome, and its been pretty bombproof in my account, I paid 100 quid for it in kit form, came with the standard 540 motor and the ESC for it but no radio or batteries... in hindsight, id have bought either the black edition, or the midnight pumpkin, I've just been infatuated with the Lunchbox when it came out in '87!! (it does fall over though which is a bit annoying, but the wheelies on tap more than make up for it!) 

Edited by '83Junglizt
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As long as you don't go nuts with the motor there are a whole bunch of entry level RC's that will fit the bill. I'd suggest a stadium truck layout for someone starting out - they have higher ground clearance than buggys which helps a lot on longish grass, but are generally wide and low so don't roll over like monster trucks.

 

There are several cheap options here:

 

FTX Siege : Very cheap but durable. The 3 in 1 electronics package included is waterproofed (good) but makes upgrades expensive/difficult (bad)

 

Team C Hyde: A little bit more fragile, but easy to repair and parts readily available. Its an updated version of the immensely popular Ansmann Macnum owned by quite a few people on here,

 

Maverick Strada  and FTX Carnage. Compared to the earlier 2 these are 4wds which means a little more complex (but nothing to worry about) and a bit better offroad. Not much to compare on cost, but I think the FTX is better.

 

Personally I'd avoid Tamiya's if money is tight. The built quality is great but they always work out expensive compared to other brands. Basic spec on Tamiya's are just that, basic.

Edited by Si Coe
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The Colt is smaller (1/18th) so its onroad only unless you have a bowling green!

Its ready to go, just needs transmitter batteries. Note - some of the stuff I've linked to comes with a battery and charger, some don't.

Edited by Si Coe
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Tamiya can be expensive, but to those of us who have grown up with the likes of the avante - grasshopper

lunchbox , clodbuster , tnx , TLT there is one thing that always brings us back, childhood memorys

and the longing to just be that young lad again for 5 mins. 

 

Lunchbox is a great little bouncer , but does means it is a little top heavy and prone to rolling over.

Tamiya did a stadium truck, a yellow looking low rider truck, using the very cheap TL01 chassis plan

its like a car but off road and onroad running , cheap and easy to repair and upgrade.

small things like adjustable tie rods and alloy little parts. 

 

for a young 8 yr old i would say a TL01 chassis would be great, simple to work with being a box design

low speed, but an option to fit upgrade speed gears. and other small fancy parts, a cool feature

is you can pop on four onroad wheels and and a car body shell and tear up the local carpark.

or pop on the off road wheels and a truck body shell and eat up the local dirt tracks and bike trails.

 

the pumpkin/lunchbox is nice and its beefy but always needing to upright it can put the younger child off rc. 

so i would say for a very first RC for a young lad you cannot go far wrong with a TL01 chassis type.

 

here is an image of a Stadium raider off road truck. 

 

gallery_2.jpg

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Being in a similar position I ended up getting 2 TL01's for my 8 and 9yr olds.  They we're very cheap and needed a little TLC but came in orig boxes.  However after factoring in batt costs etc I prob should have just bought a cheap himoto / Maverick etc.

 

Amazon had this one for under

Edited by capri-boy
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With regards to the Carnage and maverick. Will any 7.2v NiMH battery pack fit it?

 

Is there a big difference between say a 3300 and a 3800mah? will they give a lot longer running time?

 

Sorry for all the questions just trying to get my head around it all.

 

 

I can't speak for either truck exactly but 7.2v nimh stick packs are pretty much a standard size - prob give or take a few mm.  The extra 500mah probably won't amount to much extra run time when you consider the mav runs for roughly 10 mins on an 1800 pack.  

 

Found a cheap truck for you, check your pm's :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

A beeping ESC can indicate many things, you need to get the manual and refer to it.

Did this himoto come rtr, with a tx and Rx installed and bound, and tx and ESC calibrated properly (ie so that the ESC knows where neutral, full throttle and brake are)

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A beeping ESC can indicate many things, you need to get the manual and refer to it.

Did this himoto come rtr, with a tx and Rx installed and bound, and tx and ESC calibrated properly (ie so that the ESC knows where neutral, full throttle and brake are)

 

Sorry, What? no idea what you just said

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Oh dear, that isn't a positive sign. The electrics may need replacing. Contact the seller, was the item described as fully working? Perhaps you have a just cause to claim a refund, although faulty electronics can be tricky to prove.

Sadly, this is the problem buying second hand from eBay, especially on a brand like himoto; they're cheap for a reason....

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