GREAT IDEA CRAIG. GETTING THEM INTO RC. TEACHES THEM HOW TO PUT THINGS TOGETHER AND EVERY LEARNS INCLUDING YOU. NOTHING LIKE HAVING YOUR OWNTEAM. I AM NOT INTO CARS OR TRUCKS. SO I CAN'T HELP YOU HERE. I AM A FLYER AND BUILDER. AND WHEN MY GIRLS WHERE YOUNG THEY LEARN HOW TO FLY RC PLANES. THEIRS NOTHING LIKE HAVING COMPITION IN THE FAMILY. GOOD LUCK AND KEEP THEM INTERESTED YOU ALL WILL HAVE A BLAST AND HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON. :rolleyes: :).

The RC18T2 and B2 are NOT good cars for young ones. They have a whole bunch of issues that need hobby skills to solve, right out of the box. They are also capable of great speed, which their small fragile frames cannot absorb when the inevitable happens (crash).

More C is always better up to about 90-100C after which you will rarely notice any difference in a car. C is what you generally pay for in a battery as it is a direct relation to the battery's current handling capabilities. It's an easy calculation; multiply the mAh by the C rating and you get the battery's current handling capacity. For example, 4000mAh @ 20C is a battery that can deliver 80A. Armed with that knowledge, you now need to know the maximum amperage your motor can pull, and that the ESC can handle, but it all comes down to the motor. A regular brushless 1/10th 36mm motor will pull around 25A with the wheels on the ground at running speed. Initial acceleration depending on weight of truck and grip will draw up to about 60-70A, but this is only for a very short time, which almost any ESC and battery can handle. The 'continuous' draw is what interests us, and in the case of the average rustler, you can figure that around 35-40A to be on the safe side. So in this example, your 80A battery is more than adequate, and you would 'technically' gain nothing from getting a higher C battery.

HOWEVER... the C ratings aren't really all that accurate. We as consumers have very few ways to determine the true C rating of a pack, we can only go on what the manufacturer says, and in many cases, true C rating is somewhat lower than stated on the sticker. This is not necessarily a bad thing though, because you only need to have the ratings there or thereabouts and it'll be ok. The anomaly this does create though, is that the higher in C you go on the battery, the punhcier the acceleration feels, this is valid right up to about 60C plus in a lightweight 1/10th and much more in heavier cars. A higher C battery also indicates (obviously) a generally more robust battery.

Have a read of my electric guide in the second post of the thread stickied at the top of this forum, it has some things that you should be aware of as a parent of kids using lipo batteries. Hope all this helped. :)

Oh and by the way, all Traxxas current gen ESCs (that I know of) support LVC (low voltage cutoff) for lipo. :)

@Foxy
Those last three posts just made my head stop hurting! :cool: And yes, I have extensively read most of your write-ups. Thank you for your advice and knowledge.

@ HOTCOALS

Thanks for the kind words. That's my idea - to get them familiar with things so we can start some inner family competition. I suppose for now it'll be on my dime though..LOL!

Always welcome. :) I hope your kids get everything out of the hobby that i did at their ages (actually your little one will have a year on me, i started at 8). :)

Hey boo......,

A lot of good advice and suggestions here. Here is my .02 worth.
Visit your local hobby store(s). and see what brands they support. You are going to need parts, and having to order online can be a pain. Then you have to wait who knows how long.Most hobby stores I have been in all carry Traxxas parts. While Traxxas may not be, and I say " may" not be the greatest or the fastest, they do run well enough and fast enough out of the box for beginners. My 6 year old grandson started with a stock Rustler, now its brushless and running with lipos, and extremely fast and he does good with it. He is even driving my 5th scale HPI brushless. If you should travel to another part of the country to get out of that nasty California weather (LOL) ,you can take your cars with you , because "Most hobby stores I have been in all carry Traxxas parts". The Rustlers have a lot of parts that are interchangeable with other Traxxas vehicles, so you have a better chance of finding a common part that you might need. They are upgradable to lipos, brushless motors, aluminum parts, etc.
Using NiCad and nimh batteries has its pros and cons. PROS: Beginner friendly, easy charge and go, less exspensive , Prophet makes a dual charger. CONS: not beginner friendly (adult supervision while charging) less run time than a lipo, but with more non-lipo batteries you get same or more play time , just have to change batteries, cant leave them along while charging. Even though my grandson can do the charge process on my lipos I don't let him. He watches me.
As for chargers get the best you can get in your budget. I personally use all FMA/ Cellpro chargers. Super Nova 205's for my NiCad/NIMH and 4s and 10s for my lipos. A little old school I know, but I don't have or use multi-chargers (chargers that do lipos and NiCad/nimh) . I have seen first hand what can happen when you plug a lipo into a charger inadvertently selected to NiCad/NIMH . Its not pretty.
Sorry to ramble here!! What ever you do you and your kids are going to have a good time !!

Thank you Jetdktr for chiming in!

Just an update everyone..
I ended up going with (3) Rustlers. They should be here next Tuesday. I'm really excited for my boys. I'm also very appreciative of all the suggestions and advice that everyone has provided me with. I received a larger than expected response to my post, so I suppose I'll stick around and build my knowledge base on r/c's even further :)

Happy holidays everyone!!



-Craig

Only thing I see you did wrong - was forget the biggest kid - where is yours?

have fun, should be a blast. Merry Christmas!

bump

Hey Mr STi !! I drive a 06 WRX wagon! Welcome!

The Thunder AC6 is a great charger, but they also have the AC680. Same price, but the AC680 charges at 6 Amps and Storage Charges at 2 Amps. The AC6 can only storage charge at 1 Amp. (Max out: 5 Amps) When you have several packs to charge, that makes a big time diff. And being able to charge at 6 Amps as opposed to 5 Amps will get you outside faster. Hell, for the price, you can buy THREE of the AC680 for the price of the Onyx. One for each kid!

I also started in the hobby with the Evader. It's a great starter truck that can be upgraded as your skills increase. I would HIGHLY reccommend ordering the Evader BL front bumper for all three cars. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...FVGCQgodrn4Ahg I've never understood why DTX doesn't include it from the get-go. They did with the BL Evader (discontinued) but not the EXT. Go figure. If the boys will be running in your yard around trees, or any other hard objects, you may also want to get some small orange safety cones and some cheap sleeping pad foam. Cut the foam into 10in-wide strips long enough to wrap around the tree, then place cones between the pad and the tree. The cones direct impact forces UP while the foam provides padding. When you're learning to drive these things, you tend to HIT what you LOOK at, and you tend to look at the trees. The DTX Stress-Tech Warranty is great, but you cannot rely on it to get you replacement parts quickly. They take forever. So I would hope your local hobby store (LHS) carries parts. (THAT can be an important aspect of what you want to buy. If you have a LHS, what do they stock?) Most hobby stores, if they stock anything, they stock Traxxas. The Traxxas Rustler is essentially the same thing as the Evader.

HobbyPartz.com is great! I recently ordered an EXI servo from them. After only a few battery packs, it started misbehaving, slow, no power. I contacted them and said that I think I just experienced an "infant mortality failure" and would like to arrange for an RMA exchange. They replied, "So very sorry for the inconveinience, sir, we will send you out a replacement right away, no need to exchange." !! It should be here Tuesday. So yes, HobbyPartz stands behind what they sell. I've bought both my motor systems from them http://www.hobbypartz.com/ezrun-35a-9t-3650-motor.html and all my batteries http://www.hobbypartz.com/98p-40c-50...-hardcase.html and all works great! That motor system is PERFECT for the Evader IMO. Fast, but not so powerful that you're stripping stuff all the time. Can't beat the price/reliability. I even use the same motor system in a Hyper TT 4wd truggy.

The only complaint I have about the Evader is the placement of the steering servo. Kind of a pain to get to, and a PITA when you're trying to get the servo horn centered properly after installing a new servo. Granted, not something you do very often.

Once you upgrade to brushless and lipo, there are a few pins you'd want to upgrade so they don't fail on you. But the Evader is a great starter car. Rustler is more $, but might be more available locally.

Hey EXT2Rob!

Thanks for the write-up. That's cool that you have an 06 wrx. I used to own a built STi (hence the screename) :) I own a protuned forester XT now ;) I'm actually not too far from you - Elk Grove to be exact. There's going to be lots of time for me to upgrade these kids in regards to batteries, lips, etc. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be having them practice at a school next door. There's a huge oval track on campus.

I appreciate the feedback regarding hobbypartz.com too. Everything I've read about them for the most part, were positive reviews. The only LHS that I know of is RC Country in Sacramento. I do know that they carry parts for many different manufacturers!


Kistner:

I will be purchasing myself a little something with my tax return next year.. Don't you worry about that! haha

-Craig

I can just imagine the smiles when u get them..... I wonder who will be more excited? u or the kids? :)

Ive been a bit lazy and haven't read much into this thread so I don't know if its been mentioned....

Just a heads up on the Rustler's 12t Titan motor.... they are a bit of a hit and miss... some last, some don't...
I would highly recommend running the motors in so the brushes seat correctly onto the comunicator....its not going to prevent problems but it will defiantly reduce the chances of having problems.
If u need we can link some youtube videos on different methods?

and only other information that might be usefull is....
Kids been kids like to go fast, and they crash.... sometimes big crashes. The Rustler has little to no front end protection in the event of a crash. From my experience (rustler,bandit,Slash,LCG Rustler/S/ash) I found it generally brakes one of the front suspension arms or castor blocks in a big crash.

So saying that, I cant stress enough how good the RPM front bumper is... its amazing. the amount of force it can absorb is crazy. and I highly recommend them.
Allso if it was to brake under normal conditions RPM products have a life time warranty... condition do apply tho.
For $7 a piece it could save u money later on with repair bills


Wide Front Bumper for all 2wd versions of the Traxxas Rustler & Stampede
(fits the Nitro Sport and Bandit as well)
Give that Traxxas Nitro or Electric Rustler, Stampede, Nitro Sport or Bandit added protection with the RPM wide front bumper. This bumper stands six inches wide and adds an extra 1-1/2" worth of bulletproof, RPM protection to the front end of the vehicle. RPM designed this bumper with the backyard basher in mind by making it with our guaranteed unbreakable blend of nylons and is molded in black to give it that stock-looking appearance, or in optional blue or green to match the line of Grave Digger and Son-Uva-Digger chassis and body paint schemes. These bumpers will help reduce front end damage during head on collisions with curbs, trees, etc.! Nothing surpasses the protection gained when your Traxxas vehicle is protected with an RPM wide front bumper!
http://www.rpmrcproducts.com/product...mall/81162.jpg

Not really. IMO, a higher C-rated pack (which means it can deliver more current) should have a longer useful lifetime than one with a lower C-rating, because it won't be as stressed. I say this because I noticed that lower C packs get warmer under use than higher C packs. In electronics, heat is bad.

My buddy EGbasher live in Elk Grove! Maybe you guys can meet up at your school bash spot.

Sweet, dude! Your boys are gonna be HAP_PY!!! Definately get a RPM front bumper for the Rustlers. We got them for our Evaders and they saved us many times. Then once we made the safety-cone/foam padding barriers for trees, never broke anything again for hitting a tree. The brushed motors in the Rustlers are surprisingly fast and will give them tons of thrills. Might want to start them out in 50% power training mode (The ESC can be set for half power). Once they get the hang of driving w/o hitting stuff, brushless can come later. Have fun! Happy Holidaze!

UPDATE:

The Rustler's and the Onyx 245 were delivered, along with some RPM bumpers :p. I have an AC6 charger in my "cart" right now along with there:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=AM8UWXBKQ70BE

From the suggestions given in this thread, these specs: "2S 5000mah 20C", will be more than enough for the Rustlers. My question is this, the battery that is linked above doesn't have the "traxxas" connectors. Which connector do I need?

Will this one work?
http://www.amazon.com/Duratrax-Batte...xxas+connector

BTW, my trees trunks are foam wrapped and ready to go! HAHA

that is the correct type of plug, but will not work with that battery.
some hard cased lipo packs have holes so that you can plug in your battery wire. This lets you swap battery wires quick.
The turnigy pack has the battery wires soldered right inside the case. They cannot be removed.
You can buy that lipo, and then buy just a traxxas plug, or a traxxas plug with a length of wire....so that you can splice or solder it to the existing wire.

the connector you listed will work with this type of lipo case:
http://www.hobbypartz.com/98p-25c-40...-hardcase.html

you may also want to consider this style of lipo pack, as it will fit more easy in the rustler's battery tray:
http://www.hobbypartz.com/98p-25c-40...se-direct.html

Definitely watch the dimensions on the battery. I have a similar battery, could be same one, and I had to cut/dremel out a small divider to make it fit my rustler. My rustler is old and used so it did not bother me much, but on a brand new one I could see it being an issue.

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't want to get into any type of soldering at this time. So I supposed that Tunigy pack is not going to be a viable solution. As for those connectors, they sure are pricey. I'm sure my LHS would be even more pricey - i'll have to check. I know Ebay has them too...

As for the battery, that seems to be a fair priced unit. I'm really just trying to keep things simple in the beginning. My kids will learn a lot over time, and by being active in the local r/c community.

I've heard lots of contradictory things about Venom batteries:
http://www.amazon.com/Venom-4100mAh-...ds=7.4v+2s+25c

It looks like these have interchangeable connectors. Anything wrong with using these?

Thanks kistner

Soldering is not as hard as you might think. But I bet any local shops might solder them up for you pretty cheap. Hobbyking has traxxas style connectors too. http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store...airs_set_.html
I cant attest to how good they are, never tried those.

Hey mate, you get the batteries you want regardless of plug, pick up a few packs (2/pack) female Traxxas connectors AND one pack of MALE Traxxas connectors (for the charger) and I or my buddy will come to your house and SHOW your how to solder them! How does that grab ya? ;) Really, you should know how, and I'd be happy to show you.

Indeed, do not buy a less suitable or ore expensive battery just because you wish to avoid soldering. It is something we all need to do from time to time, even those who 'can't', who inevitably get someone else to do it for them. At least you only have to solder once per battery and once per ESC. HObby shops and even electrical and hardware stores will often do soldering for free in my experience, if you lay on the charm. :)

Good morning!

Thank you everyone for all the kind words of encouragement. My kids LOVE their cars. They hit the ground running with these things and have already replaced a few parts..haha. The lhs is really knowledgeable and can recognize my kids when they come in. The conversation usually starts like, " Hey guys, what'd you break today?" LOL!!

They've already transitioned to a 25C 5000MAH battery and talk crap about their NiMH battery when they have to use it :) All three of them received xmas money and almost have enough money for an esc and motor upgrade. It's unreal how good they can drive these things. Perhaps they got it from their daddy!

I posted some pics of them on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1CphBPLnhE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAxutz_oS8Y



Again, thank you everyone for your wisdom. I think these kids are into this hobby for the long haul. Me on the other hand...since I can play with their cars from time to time, I really don't need to get one. I'm going out with a friend soon to fly a couple of his airplanes :) Wish me luck! I think that's going to be my new niche....

-Craig