Help with purchasing
 

I am looking to put in a dirt track at my church as kind of a community outreach to kids and young people around our church. My initial budget is $1000. Thinking of buying like 3 vehicles chargers and a handful of batteries. I am not currently in the sport so I am not sure of a lot of things. I was thinking of the 1/18th scale because I thought the track could be smaller. The current design is (25'X25'). I have more room so that is optional. My real factors are simplicity and durability. I talked with the local hobby shop guy who recommends the Evader Ext and have looked at them in the forums. I have looked at the Losi Mini-t and the LST2. I really have no direction. I am trying to get away from having to buy something and then put all new shocks on it and put in new motor and yadayada. Thanks for you input.

RE: Help with purchasing
 

For a smaller track I would definitely stick with 1/18th scale. 25' X 25' is kind of on the small side, even for 1/18th. I would look into buying one or two MRC SuperBrain 977 chargers or Duratrax Onyx 230's, maybe 240's. Both of these chargers are great chargers, but are on the cheaper side and they can charge two batteries at once. That way you can buy two chargers, but be capable of charging 4 batteries. Both Losi and Team Associated make good 1/18th scale vehicles that come with high quality components. I'd say with a budget of $1000 you could get two chargers 4-6 good NiMh battery packs and 3-4 1/18th scale vehicles.

RE: Help with purchasing
 

Thanks Barber for the tips - I will look at expanding the track size and check on those chargers. David

RE: Help with purchasing
 

If you can go bigger on the track,10th scale would be good...
The evader is a good car, like your LHS said.....duratrax is offerin a rebate too!
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXSGU7**&P=ML
or the traxxas rustler for a few more $$...very durable!!
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXNJH9**&P=ML
or for an 18th scale...to keep it simple,the mini-T
http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...oducts_id/8549
whatever you wind up gettin, be sure to get different radio frequencys on all your cars !!!

RE: Help with purchasing
 

you could spend a bit more get a slash. i've been jumping mine 2-3 on concrete had a board bigger than it and other thing and it still wont break.

RE: Help with purchasing
 

Hey, for a small track..i would get Mini LST2, Mini Desert Truck and Mini Slider from Team Losi... it would be cool!

RE: Help with purchasing
 

I think you should make the track a bit bigger, and go with the Slash....18th scales are harder to drive, and if you have some jumps and such, the Slashes will be fun to watch as well as to drive. You might attract others to get involved, and maybe donate some more cash for more trucks, and other parts and such....

Another idea is since it's for a church group maybe you could check with a local shop or distributor and see if they'd offer you a discount, or maybe some free gear.....You might have to put up an advertising banner, but a couple of banners would ad to the atmosphere...

Good Luck

RE: Help with purchasing
 

Thanks for all the replies - so it looks like maybe I should make the track bigger and go 1/10 scale. I checked around on the slash. It looks like they are around $200 so maybe I will try and get some cash donated and make it better from the jump. There is a reality that nobody shows and this ministry get Slashed :) That was another reason for trying to start small and scale up as needed, but after a little thought it should not be that big a deal. I suppose they all have similar resale value. Thanks again, for the suggestions so far.

RE: Help with purchasing
 

They race the Slash at the local track here, and I've never seen one break.....18ths on the other hand I've seen Mini-Ts, Mini Late Models, and RC18Ts that break all the time....I'm betting you'd rather be helping kids learn to drive them than learn to wrench on them....:D

RE: Help with purchasing
 

It really is too bad you can't make a bigger track and just run the Traxxas Slash. It won't break very often, and the vehicles themselves are cheap and come ready to run. Traxxas Slash are about $200 each. You can buy battery packs for under $50 a piece, and chargers for under $50 a piece and you would be in business at that point.

RE: Help with purchasing
 

mattnin, I am going to try to see if I can swing your solution. Does anyone want to throw out some dimensions of 1/10 track that I should be looking at?

RE: Help with purchasing
 

I am also trying to come up with how many batteries I will need to race for X amount of time. Can anyone give me some general numbers for the Slash for example. So if I buy this battery I should be able to run three 5 minute races out of it or whatever.

RE: Help with purchasing
 

My personal track at my house that my friends and I run on is approximately 100' X 50' with four lanes. It's big enough to race 1/10th with, but are lanes are only 6-7' wide so it takes pretty skilled drivers to make it around the track without crashing consistently. It's loads of fun, and we love the challgenge, but it would take people some time to learn how to drive properly on a track that size. We all run 1/10th buggies and Stadium Trucks on it. We also run 1/18th scale on it and occasionally a 1/8th scale MGT will make its way out there. You could build about a 100' X 30' track and run it as an oval with some jumps and a chicago box or two and that would provide wider lane widths that would make it much easier to drive on. I'd say for beginners driving 1/10th scale you'd want at least 8' wide lanes, probably 10'.

RE: Help with purchasing
 

Holy smokes Batman, 100 feet. I am not sure I have that much room. I will go measure my field and see what it comes up with. Thanks though for the suggestion.

RE: Help with purchasing
 

Yeah, I have LOTS of space at my place. We could've built it to be 150' X 100', but when you're doing ALL of the work by hand in the blazing sun all summer long, 100' X 50' is big enough!:) It took us about 2-3 months of HARD work to get the thing built using lawn mowers, shovels, wheelbarrows, etc... This summer we're going to finish it off and that'll probably take another month of work, but it'll be better than most sanctioned tracks then. You could maybe try 75' X 40' or something. Just take a look at how big 1/10ths are, know that you need to have at least 8' wide lanes, prefferably 10', and then walk around your possible track area and see what you can make happen.

RE: Help with purchasing
 

I would think if you have around 50x80, you could build a simple offroad track....or and oval and put a few obstacles that have to be driven around, or jumped over....