Cactus Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 I was talking to a Hobby shop owner today after trying to buy an engine, it seems Nitro engines are becoming very hard to come across because manufacturers are moving towards all Electric... This owner said Nitro is dying! What are your thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capri-boy Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 Anecdotally the RTR / basher market is moving to lipo - but the racing scene is massively dominated by nitro. And as racers will drop huge $$$ on small incremental 'upgrades' i'd say nitro has many many years left. The only thing I see killing it is some issue with the manufacture / distribution etc of the fuel itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Posted March 8, 2019 Author Share Posted March 8, 2019 I think it's quite sad, I can't see any new Nitro models coming out either for the general hobbiest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumper Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 I think its coming back tbh. I have bought another nitro after being electric since 2016. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Posted March 8, 2019 Author Share Posted March 8, 2019 So have I but don't you think there aren't many new ones coming out and parts are hard to come by? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMballistic Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 Personally I think the problem is for the general hobbyist nitro can be a complete PITA. You can't just pick it up, run it, put it away and 12 months later do the same. The engines need more attention, general upkeep, knowledge for use than electric motors and obviously you need to adjust the tuning at times for proper/smooth running/starting. I think there will always be a market for nitro engined models but for most people electric is much more convenient and easy to use. I'd happily recommend an electric R/c model to anyone but I wouldn't do the same for nitro. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Posted March 8, 2019 Author Share Posted March 8, 2019 You're right there, I've always found that with friends who like my ones, end up getting one then get bored very fast when they find it isn't just start it up and go. I have an electric drift car, and I did buy a Savage Flux but I found the Li-Po batteries to be a massive pain when it comes to having to store them at a % etc... I find Nitro to be much easier. I got my first nitro in the early 2000's when the Savage21 was first released. That was my first Nitro truck, I find Electric boring which is why I sold the Flux. Anyway, my local Hobby shop seems to be 90% Electric now, it's very hard to get anything Nitro, it all has to be requested and ordered sadly. I'm having a very hard time finding a T3.0 engine which is what lead me to this subject in the first place lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitroholic Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 Noise is the biggest issue for me with nitro. You run one in a local park and it's only a matter of time before someone complains. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumper Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, GMballistic said: Personally I think the problem is for the general hobbyist nitro can be a complete PITA. You can't just pick it up, run it, put it away and 12 months later do the same. The engines need more attention, general upkeep, knowledge for use than electric motors and obviously you need to adjust the tuning at times for proper/smooth running/starting. I think there will always be a market for nitro engined models but for most people electric is much more convenient and easy to use. I'd happily recommend an electric R/c model to anyone but I wouldn't do the same for nitro. You say that, but once you get the hang of it, i find it to be the opposite sometimes. If i just want to have a quick run before work, i am not going to wait and hour to charge batteries, go out run car, come back, put on storage charge and then go to work. I would be and hour late The nitro is easy, make sure hump pack has juice in, put fuel in, turn on, start up and off you go. The when i'm done i can just turn it off and go straight to work. Electric is 1 hour before charging, run time, then another 20-30mins after. Nitro is 5mins prep, 2 mins tuning, run time then thats it. I think the main annoyance with nitro is if you dont have a spare glow starter or spare glow plug or the hump pack isnt charged. All the pesky electric bits cause all the issues shame they dont make a nitro powered steering servo For a new person running in and evening in summer, or a weekend electric is fine. Edited March 8, 2019 by Jumper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supersavage Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 As @Nitroholic said I think the biggest issue is with noise, I've had a few Nitros and I've had several people either complain or give me really dirty looks. I never had any complaints about running my petrol powered cars though but I think that's due to them sounding like a chainsaw, leafblower etc, even when I had my unlisinced pipe on my 5ive no one batted an eyelid and that thing was loud. I don't think Nitro will die out completely as it's still extremely popular in the racing scene. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Posted March 9, 2019 Author Share Posted March 9, 2019 10 hours ago, Jumper said: You say that, but once you get the hang of it, i find it to be the opposite sometimes. If i just want to have a quick run before work, i am not going to wait and hour to charge batteries, go out run car, come back, put on storage charge and then go to work. I would be and hour late The nitro is easy, make sure hump pack has juice in, put fuel in, turn on, start up and off you go. The when i'm done i can just turn it off and go straight to work. Electric is 1 hour before charging, run time, then another 20-30mins after. Nitro is 5mins prep, 2 mins tuning, run time then thats it. I think the main annoyance with nitro is if you dont have a spare glow starter or spare glow plug or the hump pack isnt charged. All the pesky electric bits cause all the issues shame they dont make a nitro powered steering servo For a new person running in and evening in summer, or a weekend electric is fine. I'm with you, Nitro is so much faster and easier lol. That's what I don't like about Electric. Having said that I've never messed around with all that discharge and what ever with Li-Pos lol they stay in the box until I wanna use them next ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everclear1984 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 13 hours ago, Cactus said: You're right there, I've always found that with friends who like my ones, end up getting one then get bored very fast when they find it isn't just start it up and go. I have an electric drift car, and I did buy a Savage Flux but I found the Li-Po batteries to be a massive pain when it comes to having to store them at a % etc... I find Nitro to be much easier. I got my first nitro in the early 2000's when the Savage21 was first released. That was my first Nitro truck, I find Electric boring which is why I sold the Flux. Anyway, my local Hobby shop seems to be 90% Electric now, it's very hard to get anything Nitro, it all has to be requested and ordered sadly. I'm having a very hard time finding a T3.0 engine which is what lead me to this subject in the first place lol. In what way did you find storing charging lipos a massive pain? You plug them in, press a button, done. Literally a 10 second job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Posted March 9, 2019 Author Share Posted March 9, 2019 23 minutes ago, everclear1984 said: In what way did you find storing charging lipos a massive pain? You plug them in, press a button, done. Literally a 10 second job. Well I mean you're supposed to store them half charged or what ever aren't you. I never bothered but I did try to for a while. With Nitro you can simply finish playing around, put it away and forget about it. Next time you wanna play with it, you only have to charge the hump pack but that's like once every month so you just need to fill the tank, and go. I always have 3 or 4 glow starters with me and those are simple to charge. No messing around putting those into storage state lol. I just found electric to be more needy than Nitro. I know some of you mess around with after run oil and all that but that's another topic. I have Li-Po's still for my one remaining electric car and I never store them how it's recommened and they're fine but my point is, it's good to follow instructions when you spend £70 and up on a battery so the hassle of them compared to Nitro is massive in my opinion lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumper Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 3 hours ago, Cactus said: I'm with you, Nitro is so much faster and easier lol. That's what I don't like about Electric. Having said that I've never messed around with all that discharge and what ever with Li-Pos lol they stay in the box until I wanna use them next ? i dont discharge anything on the charger, i always make sure the power is used in a car. I only take batteries i am going to use and if something breaks i will use another car to discharge it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everclear1984 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, Cactus said: Well I mean you're supposed to store them half charged or what ever aren't you. I never bothered but I did try to for a while. With Nitro you can simply finish playing around, put it away and forget about it. Next time you wanna play with it, you only have to charge the hump pack but that's like once every month so you just need to fill the tank, and go. I always have 3 or 4 glow starters with me and those are simple to charge. No messing around putting those into storage state lol. I just found electric to be more needy than Nitro. I know some of you mess around with after run oil and all that but that's another topic. I have Li-Po's still for my one remaining electric car and I never store them how it's recommened and they're fine but my point is, it's good to follow instructions when you spend £70 and up on a battery so the hassle of them compared to Nitro is massive in my opinion lol. I really don't understand why you wouldn't store them correctly. It's simply a case of plugging it in and pressing a button. Not storage charging is just lazy, it takes virtually zero effort. Edited March 9, 2019 by everclear1984 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMballistic Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 2 hours ago, Cactus said: With Nitro you can simply finish playing around, put it away and forget about it. Next time you wanna play with it, you only have to charge the hump pack but that's like once every month so you just need to fill the tank, and go. I always have 3 or 4 glow starters with me and those are simple to charge. No messing around putting those into storage state lol. I just found electric to be more needy than Nitro. I know some of you mess around with after run oil and all that but that's another topic. I'm glad you obviously love your nitro R/c but this isn't a "nitro is better than electric or vice a versa competition". I've known a lot of people who buy nitro and attempt to do what you do, ...eg. play with it, put it away and forget about it till next time, ...depending on the time scales that the vehicle is left, maker, engine, fuels used as well as climate conditions it doesn't always hold true that you can do that. Imho electric power for R/c vehicles is the cleaner, easier and best power source for the "majority" of hobbyists especially those just starting out or more occasional users. Oh and FYI nitro isn't "much faster" as you put it in your earlier post. Both electric and nitro models can both be made to go extremely fast. ? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCbutcher Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 Ide say so on mass scale. Nitro will always tempt new guys to rc and have its hard-core fans. But i thought i was a hard-core fan of nitro. Until about 4-5yrs into the hobby now i only have electric. But i will get another nitro some day mayb soon. The revo 2.5r mayb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Posted March 12, 2019 Author Share Posted March 12, 2019 On 09/03/2019 at 15:21, GMballistic said: I'm glad you obviously love your nitro R/c but this isn't a "nitro is better than electric or vice a versa competition". I've known a lot of people who buy nitro and attempt to do what you do, ...eg. play with it, put it away and forget about it till next time, ...depending on the time scales that the vehicle is left, maker, engine, fuels used as well as climate conditions it doesn't always hold true that you can do that. Imho electric power for R/c vehicles is the cleaner, easier and best power source for the "majority" of hobbyists especially those just starting out or more occasional users. Oh and FYI nitro isn't "much faster" as you put it in your earlier post. Both electric and nitro models can both be made to go extremely fast. ? Haha true, ad you know what I meant, not speed as in how fast they can go, speed as in preparation time. ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMballistic Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 4 hours ago, Cactus said: Haha true, ad you know what I meant, not speed as in how fast they can go, speed as in preparation time. ? Well that's debatable too, ? ...all being fair with batteries ready charged for nitro & electric R/c vehicles then the electric R/c vehicle would win as you'd still be filling the nitro R/c fuel tank whereas electric just needs plugging in to connectors. ? I get what you mean though (sorry not trying to be over argumentative). Tbf some of these chargers nowadays are fast even on balanced charge with Lipos. I usually know the day before that I'm planning to use my R/c the next day so getting my battery charged ready isn't a big deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Posted March 12, 2019 Author Share Posted March 12, 2019 It's alright, I didn't think we were arguing anyway lol. See I don't usually plan, it's more of a random thing usually. I might find myself with half hour to kill so out comes the Savage or what ever. Start it up and go... With my Electric ones I can't do that because of the batteries... But as I already said I store them fully charged so they are ready to go but my point is if you store them properly then, you have to charge them before you go lol. I've really enjoyed this little thread, I love a discussion lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willb Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 (edited) I've purchased 2 new nitro models this year. 1 for proper racing and the other just for messing around. I seem to have gone full circle and come away from brushless a bit and back to nitro. It's the having something to tinker with rather than plug and play that appeals. Plus, you can't beat a properly tuned and reliable nitro car, what's not to like?! And they're way smaller than l5th scale which I'm becoming less and less interested in by the day. My poor Losi just sits there doing nothing! Edited March 13, 2019 by Euphoria 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam354 Posted April 17, 2019 Share Posted April 17, 2019 There are lovers or people who do not have time for long service or maintenance, for the electric models are the way out. The market with nitro will not die, but it will be for geeks and small. Here the issue of crowding out on the market, the demand for electronics will only be greater. In the future, I can say that there will be several manufacturers of nitro or will produce individual parts for self-assembly. Future will tell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 Yes indeed future will tell lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brett and Laos Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 Just bought this. Plus still finding new parts for it including a new gx12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cactus Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 I have one of those, bought it as a kit years ago lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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