Hey all,
I am a frustrated heli flyer/crasher for several years. Iam finding that Iam spending more time trying to repair and get these things back in the air then actually flying. It is not fun anymore, if it ever was. So I thought if not by air, maybe by land or sea for that matter.I am not saying surface is easier, but I think that I could have more control over two dimensions then three, leaving me more driving time then down time. It has been an emotional ride and an extreme test of my patience over the years. So here I am.I am looking for a good surface starter. I have a ton of 3s lipos and a dx7 so if those can even be used I would love to find something along those lines. With helis it's align, eflite, etc...With cars/trucks I have only heard of Traxxas. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. I haven't looked at anything yet so I know absolutely nothing about the RC car/truck universe. Thanks in advance.

well depends on the batteries you have if they can be used
What are the batteries C-rating, and mAh ratings? The only helicopter I owned (crashed after 15 mins, and never repaired) the battery was so low rated it wasn't good for anything else.

As for vehicles heres a few other companies(ones I own RC's by) that make good vehicles. HPI: www.hpiracing.com Ofna: www.ofna.com Tamiya: www.Tamiyausa.com
go to the sites, and browse around if you find a RC that catches your eye go to youtube, and type in its name and I'm sure you will find a bajillion videos of them. Or you can generally ask here on specific models.

If you like building kits Tamiya is one of the few places that make complete kits still. HPI is all RTR, and Ofna sells a few Almost RTR (80% assembled)

Other big RC companies (I don't own RC's from.) Associated, Losi, Duratrax just to name a few I could think of off the top of my head

if you are purchasing go off a hobby shop site and not the manufacturers page(well in OFNA's case they got some damn good deals) so you don't pay MSRP(specially for tamiya there models are like 2X more on their site than say towerhobbies.com).

Although many people get along fine with stick radios, I would suggest a pistol grip. As a person who is perfectly capable with both, I much prefer pistol style. The basic rule of thumb is that for steering control you go pistol, for throttle control you go stick. Of course there are plenty of people who are good at both facets of the radio they use, but I find my throttle control is better with sticks, and vice versa. The batteries should be usable, but of course it depends on their size (and C rating as menioned, 25c is a decent C rating for most surface applications). In general, car batteries are 150x50 (As a maximum), height (or rather fatness) is less important, depending on the car of course.

As for cars; for overall satisfaction, it's hard to beat the HPI Savage Flux HP, it is all things to all people, and a car that every surface enthusiast should own at some point in their RC career (my opinion). I have one (actually I have it's ******* brother, the Savage Flux 2350, but that only runs on 4s (2x2S batteries), whereas the HP runs on 2x3S OR 2x2S so may be of more interest) and out of over a hundred cars I've owned, it's still the most satisfying, despite not being the fastest or the strongest (both of those privileges are reserved for my 1/8th truggy, which is an absolute beast). If you run it on 2x3s batteries, it will be savagely (no pun intended) fast. You may want to consider picking up a few 2s batteries to tame it a bit to start with. It will also break more often on 2x3s batts of course. If 1/8th is a bit big, you can use those 3s batts in a 1/10th application, such as a buggy or a short course truck. Once again though, most 1/10ths are designed to run on 2S and most are savagely (sic: virtually uncontrollably) fast on 3s. Maybe a short course truck would be a good way to go. Get a motor with a nice low KV and run it on 3s.

Well I need to start learning some car lingo I guess,I am use to swash and aelironThe lipos Ihave are 3s ranging from 2200-2500mah and between 25C and 35C.I have a polycharge 4 and love it. I was just going to store away my heli stuff but would love to have some overlap if I could save some money. I like the look of that HPI Savage Flux HP.I definately would be more interested in something that could go from street to dirt to grass if needs be. Is there something else that separates the 1/8th, 1/10th etc... besides size? Is there a general rule of thumb (ie heli language 250s use 2s, 450's use 3s, micros use the 1s)?

The mAh of those heli batts is a bit low unfortunately

Store them at 60% charge with the rest of your heli gear.

OK, here's a plan...

Go for this radio (it will let you buy more receivers for just 7 bucks each when you need another for another model) and can store settings for up to 10 models, it's a real bargain... http://www.hobbypartz.com/79p-gt3b-carradio-lcd.html

Get a Savage Flux 2350 (no need to spend the extra 150 for the HP, it's more than enough on 4S and you will already have the 2.4Ghz radio above)... http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXABLW**&P=ML (you can get a further $50 off at tower) its the same car as the HP, just with cheaper electronics (4s only, whereas the HP can take 6s, but there will be breakage ) and a cheaper radio (which you will chuck away anyway having ordered the one above), needs NO upgrades out of the box, tires last forever and are good on all surfaces

And some of these from the same site that you got the radio... http://www.hobbypartz.com/98p-30c-5300-2s1p.html They're cheap enough to take away the pain of putting your existing 3s batts away, which sadly, won't do for anything but a 1/16th or smaller.

so for $600 you got one of the best cars in the surface hobby, a 2.4Ghz radio that will see you good for all your surface hobby needs forever, and a set of batts that are ideal for the Savage and a lot of other models down the line too (such as a short course truck if you wanted later). You'll get 90 mins of solid fun from 2 pairs of those batts in the 2350. If your charger can do 10A charging, you'll be able to keep going indefinitely (you'll be able to charge a pair in less time than it takes to run them out).

Honestly, I think I would be remiss to give you any different advice. Having said these items, I'm absolutely sure that I've steered you in the direction of complete satisfaction. Of course I don't know you, and you may be satisfied with something smaller or cheaper, but like I say, with this stuff I can GUARANTEE your happiness.

As for the difference between scales, yeh it's mainly size. Gear pitch usually differs (though less and less lately), but mainly it's the size of the vehicle and the size of the electronics.

Get a boat... those things never break unless you smash them into a dock, and damage is rare even then. A boat with a handfull of replacement props will last forever.

I've smashed the living turd out of my 2350 and still no damage whatsoever But yeh, boats are cool if you've got somewhere to run them. Cars you can just throw on the ground outside your house.

well electronics you use in the RC scales vary bigger RC's the costs for parts can go up dramatically.
Like I can run a $60 Brushless motor, and ESC combo in my tamiya DF-02(1/10th scale) but my savage (1/8th scale) has a $200 BL and motor combo

your current batteries would only be able to power as foxy said a 1/16th scale or maybe a light 1/10th scale with a low end BL setup. And fitting the batteries might be an issue in the smaller setups.

Plus yea savages are like those girls on talk shows like jerry springer, you can beat them all you want, and they keep coming back for more.

While we do have to worry about crashing into immovable objects, the ground not so much.

My suggestion is to do some looking around so as to be able to have some semblance of a basis of opinion and brand knowledge on your own before asking others, as you can get all levels of advice and run into all kinds of brand-ho's on forums like this (some good, some not so good, and some downright poor).
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hey talk for yourself my savage has crashed into the ground with its bumper more than anything else
Sad thing my savage has also went higher in the air than my one attempt at helicopters, and was probably airborne longer [:@]

Bummer to hear about my batteries, charger, transmitter, etc... but such is life.I appreciate all the advice so far and will look into these suggestions. It's a lot to learn after spending such a long time in the air world. A boat would be cool, but limited access to the water and I agree with the idea of being able to drop this thing down on the front lawn and getting to chase the kids around. I think I would enjoy dropping the boat on the driveway once and it would soon lose its flairThanks and keep the suggestions coming! How bout a sim for winter time?

charger should be fine BTW

For the winter if it snows a lot by you, you could get a cheap airboat, and let it glide on the snow Think tower has a cheap ass RTR one for like $100 or so.

Found it http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...I=LXZUG7**&P=7 I was tempted to get one for the hell of it

Too funny about the airboat, I will definately keep that in mind. Toledo Ohio area some winters are harsher then others. As for the charger, I think it only charges up to 3000mah which won't cut it for these 3s 5000mah lipos it looks like I am going to have to invest in unless I'm wrong then I would love to know.

good point didn't see you mentioned your charger
assuming you have a 12V power supply (specs I saw on the poly didn't mention it having an AC adapter built in) that can pump out at least 5 amps you can just pick up a cheap turnigy charger from hobbyking for around $24
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...ehouse%5F.html
I use 2 of those hooked up to a cheap server power supply. So far they have been working great for me

Savage?
That's like being a proud Slash owner, no?
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Any thoughts on the savage flux xs? Looks like a good size starter for the money. I hope I'm not opening a can here

There's a huge discussion going on about it on the "mini" section of this forum,
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10681583/tm.htm
but since it's so new it's really hard to have an opinion either way.

To me I see three potential issues: 1) it's a monster truck, and monster trucks seem to have a buzz of popularity upon their release and then die off quickly, 2) literally any mini struggles getting around very well outdoors, so even grass is considered an obsticle and hinder them running, 3) hpi doesn't have the best track record of keeping vehicles on the market for long, so getting replacement parts could become an issue and few hobby shops carry their line.


As someone mentioned earlier, I think it really comes down to your interest, plans, and your planned use. If you're wanting to run primarily in the street in front of your house, or if you plan on going to the local track and race, or maybe you're wanting to zip around in the basement, you're talking about entirely different product choices, Some guys like cars, others are into trucks and mud, so again it really depends and should have something to do with your considerations.<br type="_moz" />

Those are interesting points. Ideally I am looking for something that I can run around in front of the house on the street and up onto the lawns maybe chasing the kids around so it has to run fairly well on grass. I like the idea of brushless, lipos, fairly fast. How long will the typical battery run me just messing around? My heli lipos last me all of 7-10 min. Interesting point about hpi. Not a big fan of just cars. Looking more for an all-terain something or other that can jump around and land relatively upright....is this too much to ask for?

I agree with the first point, monster trucks do tend to dwindle after the first surge of buyers, but the savage brand is still going strong in all forms. the savage xs is not so much a mini as it has more ground clearance than a short course truck and the tires are like ST sized. Also my firestorm has been in production for 4-5 years now with so many models sold there is almost and endless supply for parts on ebay.
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1? Ever look at the HPI MT forums its probably the most used forum on the ground based RC section
2 can't say much but if it has 1/10th ST tires like it sounds it should get over most obstacles no issue, and do decent in grass
3...
HPI Nitro RS4 2(originals arms dogbones, and a few other parts), HPI Nitro RS4 MT, HPI Nitro RS4 MT2, 80% of parts are interchangeable and they were made since 1998, and the MT2 seems to finally be getting discontinued with the release of the bullet. Trust me on their compatability I've slapped the original nitro RS4 arms, C-hubs on a MT2 with the shock tower off an EVO 3 to make a rally car once. It all bolted straight together with 0 mods needed.

A good majority of the savage's parts are compatible from the .21 till the flux. So virtually I'd say 90-95% of savage parts are interchangeable for around 9 years... Yea discontinued fast... When I was making a flux I took a savage .21's transmission, diffs, arms, well basically everything but the TVP's, and slapped on a few flux parts, and had a flux (eventually changed the diffs to a flux's). There are 4 different savage models on the market, and like I said around 90% of their parts are the same part. Guess what the savage flux 5t they are coming out with the only difference will probably be the TVP, body, and drive shafts(seeing that was the only difference for the nitro savage 5t from the X).

Well I guess when you have a place like traxxas that sells the same exact RC for over 15 years or so with no real modifications except chassis color, and a few metal gears.

I will say there are a few vehicles HPI did bomb on like the Brama series that RC was a giant stain on their reputation. Which in all honesty is one of the only ones I can think of that has almost no parts support that I can think of.

Most mini-monster trucks have had serious over-heating issues because of the oversized tires. Not saying this one will, but grass would definately add to it.

He's asking about the mini-savage, not the 10th scale version. I could be wrong, but it doesn't make much sense that it has any parts compatiblity with the 10th scale model.
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The 'mini' savage is still a decent sized car, it runs on 1/10th scale electronics, while its theoretically a 1/12th. It uses a 4000kv 4 pole 540 motor, and is phenomenally fast on 3s. People have been having ESC breakdown issues, a lot on 3s, but stillla couple on 2s. It seems the Sidewinder Sv2 is being asked to do rather a lot, still, those who have had no problems say the car is astonishing. It sure seems virtually indestructible in soe of the vids I've seen. There's a big discussion going on about it in the mini forum, check it out, many pages of info.

well that was in rebuttle to when you said
not on the xs in particular just that you said HPI Doesn't keep vehicles on the market for long
did think of one other vehicle that didn't do well the cyber 10b most hobby shops I went to never even saw one even after ordering them(oddly they got replacement parts though...). Outside that and the brama I've not seen a issue with parts support.

@foxy yea issues from what I read seem to stem from how much the ESC has to cycle the power for the 4 poles CC didn't think this motor through very well IMO

For what it's worth I use a 2.4ghz air radio on my touring car. I've got the Elevator channel running throttle/brake and the rudder channel handling the steering servo. I muuuuch prefer it over my old pistol grip radios, I have better steering AND throttle/brake control with it. I'm using an AR6110e receiver and DX5e transmitter. 'Long as you're flying 2.4ghz there's no pesky FCC rules between you and using your air radios on the ground like there is with FM and AM.

That's good to hear that Imight be able to use some of my heli stuff. At least I would have some options. I would love to use my AR7200 and add some lights or something else but I am getting ahead of myself for sure. I have been eyeing both the HPI Savage flux 2350 (maybe the XS, but not sure if it is having "problems" and might not handle grass real well) and the Traxxas E-maxx (brushless might be a little too expensive, but I like the speed idea of the brushless).Any other companies out there or options that might satisfy what I am looking for? Something with a good parts support, big enough to handle grass and electric?Thanks again everyone for the advice!!!!