chunkrc

Hello all! I am new to RC in it's enirety and obviously new to large scale RC cars. My son has been playing with RC cars for a couple of years now, mainly what you guys seem to call 'on road' cars. He came to me recently though and asked if I could buy him a large scale car for Christmas. I wonder if you guys could give me some pointers as to what I should be buying for a 9 year old. He's very good with normal RC cars and currently races around with a Kyosho Mini-z Buggy. How much of a difference is there when you move to large scale cars? And is there anything I should know when I am talking to a dealer, or just shopping around? Just trying to do mny homework here before I go wasting tons of money and getting taken for a ride.

Thanks in advance
Pete

shandy123

hi pete this is only my personal opinion but i think a large scale car for a 9year old is a no no.these are not toys and apart fron the weight they can do ridiculous speeds and in the hands of a child they can be quite dangerous.they cost a good few hundred pounds if you want to buy something good not your 3 to 4 hundred pounds ones plus of course a killer bee engine cut out another £50.as i said this is only my opinion and no offence meant,i'm sure you will get further advise from other members.

chunkrc

Thanks shandy123. I have actually been looking at a few videos of these cars in action and they really are monsters! I didn't know how fast these things could go. So now I'm thinking that maybe I will wait a couple of years before trying him on something large. Do you know of anything "mid-range"? Like a stepping stone between small cars and 1:5? Or am I being too picky? Any advice is good advice!

DarkFire989

Depends if you want nitro or electric. A good start is 1/8 scale. HPI Racing makes a Savage X4.6 or a Savage Flux. Both are amazing trucks.

Largescale for a 9 year old is a dangerous idea.

46u

My Feedback: (3)

All so large scale is much more expensive then the smaller scales. For now I would get him a quality brand name hobby grade smaller scale and see how he does with it.

chunkrc

He's done really well so far with that Kyosho he's got. I'll take a look at 1/8 then. Thanks all for the advice!

Foxy

Get an MT4 G3 from Thunder Tiger. Sickest MT in history, and it will soon be revered as the MT that knocked the Savage off its perch as the most durable platform out of the box. Not to mention it is equal in performance if not better, and costs 2/3rds as much. Can't recommend these highly enough from what I've seen. Despite already owning a heavily upgraded Savage Flux, I have one of these in my wishlist. Can be run on 6s for Dad's fun, and on 4s for the young un.

willclark77

My Feedback: (2)

I also have to agree that 1/5 is just too big for someone that age.  Pictures and videos do not do their size justice.  After experiencing my first (and last) runaway a year or two ago I gained a new respect for how dangerous a 35 lb projectile going 40+ mph.  I don't think I could feel comfortable recommending any 1/5 to be operated by someone who couldn't appreciate how badly it could injure another person, pet or property.  Kudos to you for reasearching first!  I think you and him both will be pleased and happier going 1/8.  Cost aside, they fly much better than 1/5 from jumps and handle all around better.

Also, I would suggest checking what your local hobby shop stocks if you have one.  It's much simpler to run there and grab a part off the shelf after breaking an A arm the day before a race vs waiting a week on it to come in and miss the race.  I can't comment on any cars mentioned.  I don't own them.

Just for size reference of a 1/5 scale.  Taylor could easily ride it.  Hmmm 

chunkrc

Oh good Lord that's huge lol

Yeah, I think I'm gonna wait a few years for one of these, I think even I'D be a bit nervous about operating one of these things. So I have found the TC6 from Team Associated, it's 1/10 scale, and apparently goes like the clappers. Anyone had any experience with this car?

mike_humphreys

I'm going to put the cat among the pigeons here but I disagree that largescale cars are to big for a 9 year old.

I think that with sensible coaching/supervision that they are fine. In 2008 I was racing at the on road European championships in Luxembourg, on the rostrom next to me was David Perez - at 9 years old, they youngest person to compete...... He's now one of the Genius team drivers.

We have young lads & dads racing at largescale nationals on road and off road.

Yes a largescale car hitting someone/something will hurt but so will a 1/8th buggy/MT

Find a race track/club to have the right sort of safe controlled enviroment to run your car.

46u

My Feedback: (3)

That is why I will not run mine with out a remote kill switch and never have in the 3 plus years I been running large scale just to much of a liability not counting the damage to your vehicle. I am guessing you now run a remote kill switch or I sure hope so.

mike_humphreys

I've never run an on/off switch, kill switch or plug in fail safe. I have 3 servos, a reciever, a pt, a 4600nimh battery pack and my 3pks and I've never had any issues. My radio has a built in fail safe which has kicked in once or twice dut to interference but thats about it. All my linkages and settings are right so there is very little to go wrong. poor set ups, crappy gear and driving through water are not the best way to go and while I think a kill switch is a good idea when you're not running on a track, I think other things need to be addressed first.

Johnnysplits

Hey chunkrc -

Your kid is not too young for a 1/5 scale. I would suggest getting a cheap one...dare I say clone. It would be ideal for a beginner to large scale. First off, if he loses interest, your not out a lot of money. Second, you have the ease and reliability of a gas engine ( Being that you and your son have no experience with glow engines, I would stay away from them...very expensive to operate and need constant tuning)  Third, you can set the end point on the throttle servo from 0 to 100%. That way you can limit the top speed and advance it as he gets to be a more proficient driver. A couple of "must haves" would be a 2.4 Ghz radio system and a remote kill switch from Killer Bee. One of the guys in the group I used to run with when I lived in NY had his 5 year old son driving a $1500 FG. Now he didnt let him run on the track with us, but he ran it around the parking lot and had a blast. 9 year old too young??  please

mooman007uk

it's funny, a 9yr old on a dirt bike is fine (many start at 5-6yrs old) but is too young for a 1/5th with supervision...something wrong with that picture....i agree with Mike and Johnny 9 isn't too young at all...at 8-9 we were as kids allowed to drive a go cart that did about 40mph without supervision and managed not to run ourselves over

@Mike, wait until a small stone lodges itself in your th linkage when it's wot then tell me you don't need a killswitch...i've had it happen to me before but averted disaster by simply hitting a button.
You wont need one until the one time you do and then it's too late and for a measly 40bucks i see no reason not to have one

madmax123

@mooman
as far as i read mike said (and while I think a kill switch is a good idea when you're not running on a track)so he wasn't disagreeing with what you said was he[&:] i agree i have never used a killswitch and i think they are a waste of money and only needed when other things may be set up wrong or if you are a novice or if you can't set the car up right,for onroad definatly not needed and for offroad just use a good radio too with a decent built in failsafe,in my offroad car i had a killswitch and it was a pain in the behind,any time i ran the car in any sort of moisture it just gave trouble,wouldn't reccomend,they are cheap for a reason cause they usually are crap

mike_humphreys

Because of the enviroment I run my cars in i.e on race tracks, I don't think it's worth tha hassle and risk of it going wrong. Say for example you're running on a big field and you have "issues" then you might have the time to hit the kill switch button, the engine cuts out - if you're lucky then eventually the car will come to a stop. while you're wriggling round hair pins and chicanes you wouldn't have time to fumble for the kill switch if there is a problem - in that time, the marshall would have got to the car and switched it off.

A big problem that many people have is that they don't know how to use the equipment or it's not of a quality to let you make adjustments.

46u

My Feedback: (3)

BIG difference between a fail safe and a remote kill switch. Hope you never do have a problem but if you do could be a BIG liability. To me $60 or $70 is cheap insurance on if nothing else but protection for the 1k to 5k RC vehicle. I know of one person that wish the had one. The law suite where it hit someone was much higher then replacing the RC vehicle. But each to there own. The tracks I run you cannot run with out a kill switch on a large scale and they do check.

A failsafe is certainly a good thing to have, and I recommend that you use a failsafe. The more protection, the better. But a failsafe alone is just not good enough. With a failsafe you still have many loopholes that can cause a runaway. The receiver can fail, the battery can die, the servo can go bad, the throttle linkage can bind or become loose, the carburetor can freeze. In those instances a failsafe will not stop your 30 pound large scale R/C vehicle from running away and causing major damage. When you add a Killer Bee kill switch you have a “watchdog� that will not let your engine run unless it senses that there is a good radio signal at all times. You can also manually kill your engine at any time if you see that something is wrong with your R/C. It is also very convenient to have a kill switch for engine tuning, checking spark plug color at high RPMs. And it’s just nice to be able to pull your R/C into the pit and kill the engine via the transmitter, and not have to reach down and press the kill button.

mike_humphreys

As I've said, I only ever race my car, if I hit someone during a race I'm covered. The kill switch will kick in if there is a big drop on the battery and cut the engine - loading up the brakes and steering can cause the same thing, the last thing I want is for the engine to cut in the middle of the race. It's not just a kill switch I wouldn't use, I wouldn't have an on/off switch either because it's yet another thing to go wrong.

mooman007uk

even on a track you are better off with a killswitch....i'd be none too happy if a runaway spanked into my car and bent it out of shape causing damage if it could have been avoided with a simple switch...i've 4 at the moment and none of them give any trouble, easy to hook up and zero maintenance...each to their own but to say and recommend they are only needed for novices is like saying only new car drivers need car insurance[X(] are kill switches mandatory... no ...recommended? i'd have to say yes

i agree on the on off switch...they always end up giving trouble

bbuzzard

My Feedback: (5)

I believe if the kid is trained by someone who is familiar with largescale, then there shouldn't be a problem. Here's my youngest running a Dune Runner when he was 7...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ofLrs4DEI&feature=colike[/youtube]

willclark77

My Feedback: (2)

Throttle servo failed. The sad part is I had a kill switch, just hadn't installed it yet. Never again.



Supervised any time he's playing with it would be great. I was referring to as it being his. I know what I would've done at that age. I still think it!

racetruck

I have to agree with mike 9 year old to young don't think so. i have two grandsons running 1/5 scales without any problems and have raced on a track with some help from dad and grandpa. your son can run the big gas powered cars just as easuly. the nitro 1/8 scales are to fast and more deadly. the 1/5 scales are'nt as fast and more user friendly because they will run great at low speeds and chunkrc if you have run a weedeater you have some knowage of a gas powered engine. so go ahead and go for the low end of the large scale monster truck put a good radio in it and the modified kill switch that will kill the engine if you lose battery power or radio signal and you will be just fine

My grandson at the largescalerc race

Cainlord

+1 on the killswitch. I combine its usage with my failsafe functions on the radio as well. If the throttle servo goes bad, you NEED to kill the engine. Period.

chunkrc

This right here is my problem lol How am I supposed to supervise a kid using this equipment if I don't even know how it's done? Blind leading the blind here.

willclark77

My Feedback: (2)

What did you end up doing? Christmas is almost here.

When you said "for you 9 year old son" I ASSumed it would be his car for him to play with whenever and imagined what I would've done with it. Supervised though, like others above said, would be awesome and I take back what I first said. If you ever do decide to get a large scale the folks in this forum are VERY nice, helpful, and pretty mechanically knowledgeable to help yaw out with any problems.

The kill switches we mentioned is nothing but a little device that plugs into the kill switch on the engine's ignition and into an extra slot on the receiver. You can manually kill the engine with the transmitter and it will kill the engine should it lose signal. A fail safe (I'm sure you already know) returns the throttle to the neutral position if signal is lost. Also very useful. However, if your throttle servo fails, linkage breaks, rock lodges in it, etc it will be of no help and all you can do is watch you $1,300+ RC vanish into the distance.