RE: roto start/ tiger drive for .18 motor (truck)?
Yeah starter boxes are good but personally I prefer the roto start for several reasons. Its small, light. Fits in your tool box. Heaps cheaper than a starter box and much easier to carry around at the park/track etc. The standard Tamiya style batteries last for ages in this thing too. Also most hobby shops here recommend it over anything else. Its quite diferent to tiger drive apparantly & of much higher quality than the tiger drive setups and much cheaper & less bulky than starter boxes.
Anyway I suppose its a personal preference in the end. But for me to have it start evertime at a flick of a switch is like popping the key in your car & starting it up. Its that simple.
In regards to the .18 engine. I believe Roto start will fit virtually every engine. It all depends if there is a backplate that will fit that particular engine. I had no probs with my infinity .27 & infact they installed it in a bout 30 minutes. You've also probably noticed that engines are coming out with a roto start backplate as an option. That almost tells me that this is the way the industry is going. The only engine I am aware that wont accept the roto start is the Hyper 21 8 port. But having said that I think they do their own roto start. I have also seen detailed instructions for making your own backplate to fit the roto start on the Hyper 21 8 Port. Not sure how reliable that is though. But the best thing is to take it in to your local hobby shop & ask them. Thats what I did. But in any case I'd avoid the tiger drive if you can as my LHS reckons, even though they sell it, that its gears are of very poor quality & you end up with more problems than not.
I suppose in the end anything but the pull start is a luxury. You will get the same performance out of a pull start if used carefully. With me though I have massive arms & large hands & I snapped the cord twice in 2 weeks, even trying to be dam carefull. That on top of some badly blistered fingers & constantly grazed knuckles & sweat pouring off me, forced me to look at the alternatives & I haven't looked back since! An absolute joy.
Cheers