Chucksolo69

This weekend was an RC disaster for me. I took my 19 year old nephew and his buddies with me to run my collection of 1/16th Traxxas vehicles (MERV, Mini Slash, Boss 302, and Rally). Well, there werethree of them, plus my brother, his daughter,and me. My brother has his ownTraxxas1/16th Fiestaso he andhis daughterwere driving that. My nephew and his friends picked out a car they wanted to drive and we hit a smooth, dusty asphalt parking lot. That's when the mayhem began. Instead of one way driving in an oval conifguration like Iwas doing with my Losi 10 T, they proceeded to run forward, backward, figure eights, and basically the afternoon deteriorated into a Traxxas1/16th destruction derby. Needless to say, I did not come away without damage to my cars. I know now why people in this age group are constantly posting about breaking stuff on these forums; absolutely no discipline or concern for property of others. Well, one of the yo-yo's proceeded to run alipo battery in one of the cars in NiMH mode and now I have a dead $40.00 lipo battery another pulled the plug on one of my Traxxas batteries so hard, the plug came off in his hand,and another succeded in destroying the center driveshaft on my MERV. I don't even want to mention what the bodies of the cars look like, especially my Mini Slash, my Boss 302, and my Rally; mainly the Mini Slash. To add insult to injury, one of the idiots asked me if he could drive my $500.00 Ten T. My reply: "I shouldn't have trusted you with my $300.00 mini cars, why in hell would I let you drive a car that is almost twice as expensive!!" He couldn't understand why I wouldn't let him drive my Ten T! Needless to say, none of this is gonna happen again. What really bugs me though is that I told them from the beginning that these cars were fast and to please take it easy and "drive" the cars. It did no good. Afterward, not one of them offered to help me clean the cars or asked me about helping repair the damage, they just went on their merry old way. Never again will Ilet those guys run my cars again, that includes my nephew..........well, live and learn I guess. In the meantime, I'm out close to a hundred bucks!!

DarkFire989

I dont let anyone touch my large scales unless its the guys in my club, who I all know very well, and would pay for damages.

Ttam Says Blarg

Ill even tell my family strait up. You break you pay.

proanti1

My Feedback: (2)

Since when does a Ten-T cost $500?

FahrtAutoRC

We used to let my 24 yr old lil bro drive my fiancees Blitz bashing and at the track on occasion, and my Slash 4X4, under the condition of "You work too, so you break it you buy it!". He was very careful and never broke nothing. Then about a week and a half ago I kicked in the final $75 to get him his first hobby grade (Slash 4X4 Platinum). He had his first race this past weekend with us and did fairly well, six seconds behind the fastest guy but at our track, which is great sincethe fastest guys in each class made Team TQ look like amateurs couple weeks ago. Anyways, he has done very well and is already throwing the best tires and upgrades he can at his truck, we wants a straight-away wheelie monster* like mine hehe


*Had my Slash wheelying the length of the straight on command Saturday, got a big rise out of everyone seeing as how it "only" has the Castle 1410 3800kv and 2s LiPo

tommygun32

Lesson learned Chuck.

Good luck.

robwiljas

Where were you when this was happening? If you were there couldn't you see what they were doing and ask them to stop? Your post made it seem as if you were right there when they were doing this and didn't say anything.

I have no problem letting family drive my R/C's.

sloppyG

heaven forbid anyone have some fun, you better put those things up on a shelf somewhere or else they're bound to get broken again!

SyCo_VeNoM

Don't mention just post pictures of the carnage. Remember pictures are worth a thousand words

Seriously though I won't let my nephew ouch my RC's (he's a fair bit younger than yours though). At 1st he was wondering why till he got his own and has to pay for replacement parts himself (I do the work)

As for running the lipo in NiMh mode why didn't you set the ESC yourself seeing I doubt he knew better. That one I would lay the blame on you.

The rest is just how people are if its not theirs they don't usually give a crap. For an example its why I won't let my brother EVER borrow my car after I seen what he did to my parents van years ago (neutral drops in a mini van...). He looks dumbfounded when ppl tell him no, and gets pissy but hell he does not respect peoples property so he don't get anything in my book

OvalRacer99

Shows the attitudes of kids nowdays, if it isn't their's and they don't have to pay for repairs, who cares. Feel for ya man. Thats is why none of the kids around here is alowed to drive any of my cars even though they beg like little starving puppies.

electricrc68

im 5 years younger than them and i don't do that stuff to my cars.

DaveG55

I doubt that you much like my response...
I put 90% of the blame square on your shoulders.
You did not set any parameters at all.
You did not give them any instruction at all.
You did not take charge of the situation or your cars when you saw how they were driving.
You did not require their help on clean up or after run.
You did not require any responsibilty from them at all

You got what you set yourself up for.

fasterrcs

What are you talking about your always posting that you braking stuff and mad you pops wont shell out the money to fix them lol

electricrc68

actually, that was a burnt out motor. and i pay for my own stuff.

ZeroKelvin

I don't feel sorry for you. It sounds like you were there watching it all unfold. Should have stopped it at the first sign of trouble.

Chucksolo69

Well, before we even started, I told them to be careful because these cars are expensive, and I told them to only go ONE WAY like on a race track oval. After they began they couldn't believe how fast they were and it deteriorated from there. Bottom line is, you don't deliberately try and tbone some other car. I did stop and told them to take it easy, that lasted about two seconds. If these guys were ten year olds I would excuse it, but they are 18 and 19; they should know better. It all comes down to me telling them to "drive the cars" not go full speed and traction roll the things!! As for the LIPO, I showed them how to change to LIPO mode, but the one guy just grabbed one without me knowing and the rest is history. In any case, I just spent 3 hours rebuilding the drive shafts on the MERV and Mini Slash. They seem to be good as new, all except the bodies. Pretty much beat up. As for the Losi nitro Ten T, check the prices. Most places they are $499.00 plus tax. I got mine for $489.00 out the door. Yeah, pretty much $500.00 bucks. Seems you need to do some research. When someone let's me use their equipment, be it a pistol, camera or RC car, I respect their property, I don't go out of my way to abuse it. As for putting them on the shelf, that's the most asinine thing I ever heard. I have run these cars a lot, and fast, and have never broken anything, why, I respect the price I paid, AND I know how to drive the things. Anyway, never again. Lesson learned is right.

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

Ill have to say a lot of people drive these things like they want to break them and then gripe and moan when something does break. Or they wonder why they keep having problems. I very rarely have to replace anything on my r/c's besides bodies and regular maintenance items. All of my vehicles are monster trucks, so they tend to be rough on bodies, but other than that i dont break much at all. I drive them how I want, but I never drive them carelessly. I dont like paying to fix them all the time, so i dont drive them like i want to break them all the time.

You would honestly think that 19 year old kids would have respect for someone else's property, but they probably looked at it more like a no strings attatched bash fest on someone else's dollar. You really cant trust many people to use your stuff. I will let most of my family run my stuff, including my wife (who has her own stampede), but she drives pretty carefully for the most part. I would never let anyone i didnt know run my stuff. I let my boss run my brushless MGT one day and never again will that happen. He didnt break anything, but going from reverse to wide open forward doing donuts, etc... and barely missing things at 30mph had me pretty worried.

Anyways, you just cant trust people. You pretty much have to be a snob and tell people they cant run your stuff i guess. Its bad it has to be that way, but unless you know them, its your money at stake, not theirs.

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

"Is it fast?"
"Yes"
"How much does it cost?"
"More than you can afford, pal."
"Can I drive it?"
And the answer is always a resounding...
"NO"

Foxy

Meh, if you don't take charge of a situation, what do you expect. I'd have given them what for the first time any avoidable damage occurred, and if it happened again or I thought they were being reckless, I would have picked up the cars.

Still, on the bight side, your cars are relatively cheap and tbh, the damage of one day's teenage bashing ending up at $100ish is pretty good going. The body on one of my 5th scales is worth more than that! :P

Never Enough Toys

My Feedback: (11)

Chuchsolo69 I agree 1000% with robwiljas,sloppyg,DaveG55 and Foxy.It is ALL on you. They are your property and you need to show and lead the path as to how you want your stuff to be treated.I do what you were doing quite a bit with my nephews ranging age 6 to 18.As you did explain how you wanted this to work and they did not listen STOP! Rexplain and teach and show them how you ddo not approve.If the problem continues as yours did again STOPITALL! Pack it up giving exactly why fun time is over before too much damage occurs.Myself have done this where we played with about 7 kids for 5 minutes for lack of listening.I explained to each one what they did wrong and why I did not approve.That is your responsability as an adult .somesituations work out greatas in my case,we always have fun now and I get appologized to if something happens.Others well if they don't get itthey just don't.Let those go.Do'nt we want to bring people into the hobby? Oh sure blamethem they don't care.It's not theirs.Leave me stuff alone andnow go away.PLEASE! Grow up,act like an adultandteach them.Think about you maybe the first to them to do so. With that a bid youy ado and you got what you deserved.

On a side note I do agree there plenty of jerks out there that don't care and have that whatever attitude,but look for the ones that don't know anybetter or want to do the right thing and take a step forward.

stoya789

When i let my cousins (9 and 12 year olds) play with my R/C I expect there to be broken parts. It goes with the territory... its the nature of the beast. In my opinion, for you to lend a group of 19 year old kids a bunch of R/C cars and not expect broken parts is a bit unrealistic. I know it sucks, but its just the hard reality. They don't have any respect for the R/C because they see them as "toys" to play with, and probably don't know the time and effort you put into building/maintaining them. 100 bucks damage is not too bad, consider it an entertainment expense. You were entertaining your guests. What does a box of fireworks cost? Probably more than 100 bucks for a decent amount.

Chucksolo69

Jeez guys, expecially Never Enough, you are comparing these guys to  small children. These are not children, these are MEN. Don't you guys get it, a MAN should respect another MAN's property. They were told ONCE, that should have been enough. I'm sorry people, but when I was 19 I was no longer living with my parents, was going to college AND had a full time job and I respected other's property. Sadly to say, of the three of those guys only my nephew has a job. The only thing I am guilty of is thinking that a 19 year old is a MAN.............I guess with this generation, you have to be 35 and no longer living with Mommy and Daddy to be considered a MAN. And I suppose it was ok for them just to leave without even offering to help me clean up.........another sign of advanced MANHOOD..........sheesh.

cheezer1222

My Feedback: (3)

18 and 19 year old "men" can still be very childish. I have friends older than that who I wouldn't trust with my RC stuff for just that reason. You can only HOPE for a certain level of maturity out of somebody, you can't EXPECT anything


Living in a dorm/apartment and paying for college. You are far from the minority in that situation.


Oh please. If you're making a statement like this, it means that you don't have a clear enough memory of what "men" were like during your generation. Nothing has changed, just your memory of the details.

Was it OK? Yes. Was it polite? Not really. When hosting a party, you shouldn't expect the guests to clean up when the party is over. It would be nice if they offered to lend a hand, but you can by no means expect it. I see this as being a very similar situation.

I wouldn't lay ALL the blame on your shoulders. You were hoping for a certain level of maturity that just wasn't there. Things spiraled out of control. It happens. This was a good learning experience that only cost you $100 or so.

cumquat

i wish people would stop overgeneralizing. i turn 18 next month and i have always been respectful of other peoples property, it is how i was raised. its not the teens fault that they dont know how to respect others property, its their parents fault for not teaching them. some people are naturally bad, regardless of their childhood but in most cases a better childhood, with parents that knew what the heck they were doing, would have made them grow into respectable, upstanding citizens.

p51Dpony

My friend you have stumbled into one of life's great mysteries, why do we follow our heart and never our head?!!

Done the same stuff w/ model cars, model boats, model planes, even a bit of that w/ real cars.  I used to think is everyone getting dumber or am I just getting smarter???  Then I realized maybe a bit of both, my dad has a saying "the fox is'nt so smart because he's a fox, but because he's an old fox."  Experience and wisdom only happen after a long series of dumb actions and adverse outcomes.  If you don't have those adverse outcomes you're not doing anything anyways.... like another saying "if you aint crashin you aint flyin!"  

Another part of the equation, these things are much funner when your sharing it with someone, unfortunately most of the time that someone is a weekend warrior compared to your enlisted green baret that most hardcore modelers are.  Family, friends, and neighborhood kids at least get some exposure (at your and my expense) but I think they too are the better for it.  I do hate the sense I have that they never really appreciate the amount of work, time, and money that I spent to get such and such rc vehicle running only for them to run it wide open into the curb, or full power into the ground, or wide open into the dam face....

Happy driving, flying, and floating[8D] it all makes the world a better place!  Steve.