ORIGINAL: flatout->

Ever heard the saying "knowledge is ignorance surrounded by laughter"?

ORIGINAL: RC_Diablo


My point exactly... Whats the first thing everyone wants to do when they get a RC... Why dont you look into how real rental cars are treated and think about what people would do with a rented RC

ORIGINAL: robpe
he's not listening, he's so convinced it's a good idea he hasn't listened to anyone since the beginning of the thread

ORIGINAL: mechanizeddeath

Reading this thread, all I can think about were the handful of times I allowed someone else to drive my RC cars:

...A friend's toe was broken when a touring car was rammed into it at full speed.
...The rear gearbox was literally ripped open on a buggy.
...An axle was bent and a dogbone lost forever after a collision with a fire hydrant.

And that's just a few incidents. I can't imagine a rental unit being treated much better. The $50 total in parts required to get my cars running again were still smaller than if I'd had to pay for medical treatment on the toe, I'm just glad the person involved was good natured enough to think the whole thing was very funny instead. (I learned my lesson and only let people drive with the throttle set to 50% or less.)

The only way I could see something like this working out would be to design and produce your own RC cars from the ground up. That way, you could design in several inexpensive points of failure, parts almost guarunteed to break but dirt cheap and easy to replace. But as you stated, the whole point would be to try before you buy a regular retail RC, so that wouldn't work either. If you could get parts from say Traxxas or Tamiya at or below cost, it might work, but you'd still have to hire someone to perform the unavoidable mountain of repairs.

ORIGINAL: robpe


that's why I'm laughing, and you're washing cars for a living

ORIGINAL: mechanizeddeath

Reading this thread, all I can think about were the handful of times I allowed someone else to drive my RC cars:

...A friend's toe was broken when a touring car was rammed into it at full speed.
...The rear gearbox was literally ripped open on a buggy.
...An axle was bent and a dogbone lost forever after a collision with a fire hydrant.

And that's just a few incidents. I can't imagine a rental unit being treated much better. The $50 total in parts required to get my cars running again were still smaller than if I'd had to pay for medical treatment on the toe, I'm just glad the person involved was good natured enough to think the whole thing was very funny instead. (I learned my lesson and only let people drive with the throttle set to 50% or less.)

The only way I could see something like this working out would be to design and produce your own RC cars from the ground up. That way, you could design in several inexpensive points of failure, parts almost guarunteed to break but dirt cheap and easy to replace. But as you stated, the whole point would be to try before you buy a regular retail RC, so that wouldn't work either. If you could get parts from say Traxxas or Tamiya at or below cost, it might work, but you'd still have to hire someone to perform the unavoidable mountain of repairs.

ORIGINAL: Darkbird

Renting to experienced RC types would not work. Renting highly durable and de-tuned (ie, slower) vehicles to complete novices, such as at a fair or amusement park, would and has been very profitable for some. No one with experience is going to want to drive the type of vehicles that would be needed for the rental business. I have seen this done with old style Clodbusters, the trick was that they were so slow as to be unable to damage anything. Kept the little kids entertained though.
If you want to preview something, take your chances like everyone else and just buy it. Then sell it if you don't like it.

ORIGINAL: mechanizeddeath

Reading this thread, all I can think about were the handful of times I allowed someone else to drive my RC cars:

...A friend's toe was broken when a touring car was rammed into it at full speed.
...The rear gearbox was literally ripped open on a buggy.
...An axle was bent and a dogbone lost forever after a collision with a fire hydrant.

And that's just a few incidents. I can't imagine a rental unit being treated much better. The $50 total in parts required to get my cars running again were still smaller than if I'd had to pay for medical treatment on the toe, I'm just glad the person involved was good natured enough to think the whole thing was very funny instead. (I learned my lesson and only let people drive with the throttle set to 50% or less.)

The only way I could see something like this working out would be to design and produce your own RC cars from the ground up. That way, you could design in several inexpensive points of failure, parts almost guarunteed to break but dirt cheap and easy to replace. But as you stated, the whole point would be to try before you buy a regular retail RC, so that wouldn't work either. If you could get parts from say Traxxas or Tamiya at or below cost, it might work, but you'd still have to hire someone to perform the unavoidable mountain of repairs.

ORIGINAL: flatout->

Like I said, you're ignorant. I don't "wash" cars for a living, valeters do. Detailing is specialised and a skilled art that takes years to master. Paint correction alone is a 13 stage stage process, "washing" is the first.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL6Re8xB-yk

ORIGINAL: flatout->

I think parts can be bought around cost, maybe a little more when ordered direct from traxxas

I think choice of model would play a crucial part, it would have to be very durable, easy to work on, cheap parts etc, revo 1/16th vxl running on nimh's might not be a bad choice and having only a small fleet could make things easier on the repairs side. I would be happy to carry out the labour FOC.

ORIGINAL: skrilla


I'm no business man, but here's why I think it would most likely not work. Flash back about22 years ago when I was12 years old. This is when I started in hobby grade RC. Ibought a kyosho ultima. Shortly after Traxxas started in the nitro scene with the nitro buggy, hawk, and street...Ibought all three....had to clean a whole lot of toilets at the local library to earn that money.I broke a whole lot of stuff back thenbecause I was learning. At that time in my life, I would have definitely been interested in rentals because the opportunity to drive other cars would be very appealing. The problem is, the business owner would end up paying a fortune in repairs had I been given one back then. I wasn't too reckless, but I bashed around pretty hard and sucked at landings, avoiding things, etc. I would have put the renter out of business with all the damage.

Fast forward to today. I have about 5-7 RC cars at any given time now, all quality vehicles, driven every other weekend at local parks through the woods, parking lots, etc. At this point in my life the stuff a renter will have is probably of no interest to me, unless of course they had an MBX6T with a nice modded racing engine that I could take for a spin, but I doubt that.So,I wouldn't do business with them now.

At both points in my life, beginner and experienced, I would be no value to a renter of RC cars. That is how I come to my conclusion.

ORIGINAL: bad=traxxass


Perhaps you shouldn't be so defensive since ''car washing'' is part of your, woo-hoo, ''13-step'' process.
Overstating what you do for a living is like a garbage man calling himself a sanitation engineer.