Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

I don't have a lot of experience with 4WD buggies, but from what I recall, the 4WD makes up for the lack of ground clearance with more clearance and better steering. What are your thoughts & experiences?

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

You don't want any kind of 1/10th buggy on grass.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

Honestly, it depends on the exact vehicles you are talking about.

My 1/10 2wd stadium trucks didnt do too well on thick grass. My 4wd 1/8 buggy handles it much better, and my savage handles it great. I havent had any 1/10 4wd vehicles to compare to other than a t-maxx though.

One thing to keep in mind when running on grass is that usually the heavier the r/c is, the better.

Eric

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

i would think that the 4wd would bet better. at least in my experience it has been. in my case, since i dont own a working buggy, im comparing my brushless rustler and t4 ot the wheely king, nitro revo, and emaxx. now that i think about it, the rustler does pretty good on grass with the masher 2000's. just gotta watch your gearing

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

You have to be more specific, like what kind of powerhouse? Nitro or electric? Brushless or brushed? What kind of 4wd buggy, 1/8 or 1/10 scale? What kind of monster truck?

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

The title in the poll says 1/10 scale...

I used to practice/bash on a friends grass track all the time. I've had a T4 truck and a XXX4 buggy on that track. Surprisingly (to me) the 4wd buggy handled it quite well and definitely out-performed the 2wd truck. On some days, the XXX4 was the fastest vehicle out there. The "silent killer" is what the guys at the track called it (they were all running nitro trucks and this little buggy was whoopin' them). The downside is that I also spent the most time of anyone fixing stuff. Grass racing is hard on a 1/10 4wd buggy.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

In my experience, this depends on many factors. Generally speaking, if the 2wd has enough clearance and good traction (tires, weight, etc), then the 2wd could be much better. 4wd helps a lot, but if it's a 1/10th scale buggy then you're dealing with pretty low ground clearance. The length of the grass plays in this too, freshly cut and short grass could make things even between the two.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

A 2wd mt with good tires would be better than a 4wd buggy in grass.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

Buggies, whether they be 2wd or 4wd, are more track-intended race vehicles whereas monster trucks are more go-anywhere, do anything vehicles.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

Basically grass is all about ground clearance and 1/10th buggies just don't have that. They are made for racing on prepared tracks only. The 2wd monster truck (ie. 'pede) will do a better job. If your ground clearance isn't good enough, the bottom of your chassis basically drags along in the grass and won't be able to do much at all. I've been there.

When I ran a B4 (2wd 1/10th scale buggy) in well-cut grass, sure the speed could hit around 40mph but the runtime was a whole 4-5 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1a1kHW7eh0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vklm5D6Z-HU

4wd isn't going to do much better b'cos you are still basically dragging the chassis through the grass.

Compare it to the 'pede
http://www.youtube.com/user/AccessAc...C23BE1A9D082E1
drift setup or no it just a better idea for the grass.

An 1/8th scale buggy is a different beast and it can be turned into a truggy which runs decently on grass. 1/10th buggies are not like that.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

I agree, and most of my running is on grass. Basically the larger the tire, the better. The 4wd is also better, although a 2wd Baja 5B is fine on grass.

I can't comment on 1/10th buggies, but with smaller tires, yet with 4WD, it's problbly a close match to to a 2WD MT.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

Well, it isn't ALL about ground clearance, but it is a factor.

For instance, the Stampede has to keep the front wheels rolling against that grass. Whereas on a 4WD buggy, the front wheels are not only helping to pull it along, but also to steer.

When I ran a stock Tamiya Fire Dragon against my stock Stampede XL-5, the Fire Dragon was just as fast, despite having about 1/2 as much motor. The grass was probably 3-1/2" high. Much higher than at the park you're bashing at.

cummins driver also made a point to me via PM that weight helps too, because it allows the vehicle to smash through the grass a bit more and get a better bite. Of course the drag is slightly worse too...

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

But the buggy has to drag it's chassis plate over/through the grass - while a MT doesn't touch it, just push the front wheels which are on bearings.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

In practice the traction on grass is rarely if ever a problem though. Running on dirt you are always trying to maximize traction through tire / dirt match, on grass nearly any tire can be effective with pleanty of traction to do what you want to do. I typically use crime fighters or badlands for grass but nearly any off-road tire can be pretty effective.

The primary thing about grass is ground clearance. Only once you have that should you start thinking about other things. An ST with the right size wheels can get decent enough clearance for running on grass. I spent around half my bashing time on park grass before I found an old, overgrown RC track so I have a lot of experience trying to get to a decent speed on grass and the short runtimes that typically result. The optimum grass setup is rather different than dirt, you are typically running less damper in your shocks, softer springs, etc. And if you can get 10 minutes runtime doing ~40mph on grass you are doing really good.

Also with 4wd you are forced to run the same diameter tires all around which is sometimes not optimal for a grass setup.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

40 mph on grass is VERY fast. That must be short grass or very big tires. (looks like short grass from your videos)

I'd be happy to hit 15 mph in the 3-4" grass around here, hehehe. (I'm not yet running any brushless setups either)

I'm expecting great things (comparatively speaking) from the E-Savage I just ordered.

Thanks for all your thoughts on this. I almost weakened and bought a 4WD 1/10 buggy. But then I realized that quite a lot of my bashing is on tallish grass, so the 1/8 4WD MT makes more sense, even if it is going to cost me more in batteries.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

What about putting some taller tires on the 4wd buggy when running in the grass??

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

This might be the case with really short grass, but my Nitro HPI Firestorm spun all over the place in the grass in my yard with almost new stock tires, and if you tried to hold it at full throttle it only spun faster instead of going faster. This is where the weight comes in. The heavier the vehicle, the less agressive tire you need to maintain traction because instead of the vehicle partially riding on top of the grass, it is heavy enough to mash it down and get a bite.

In your video's the grass is very short. Best i can tell it doesent even come up past the sidewall of the tires on the buggy. If you get into some 3" tall grass that buggy will hate it.


You just cant beat a heavy 4wd vehicle with good ground clearance and meaty tires for running on grass. They just do the best.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

Yeah it was cut regularly, like once every 1-2 weeks. 1" to 1.5" no more. But 3" grass even a 'pede with MOABs is going to have a lot of trouble. The only "1/10th size" vehicle that might be able to handle it is something like a WK. 3" grass is like summit territory for me.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

An e/t-maxx would probably do fine or the E-Savage like he bought because even though they are labeled 1/10 scale they are almost as big as an 1/8 and weigh about the same.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

For what its worth I always found grass to be boring to run in....unless its extremely short or dead it just causes too much drag... I much prefer dirt...

Anyways with that being said I did do alot of grass running in my time..

heres about my favorite grass conditions..

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?doc...97284940363929

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

That's why I said "1/10th size". WK actually calls itself a 1/12th scale but it's a "1/10th size" vehicle. The *-Maxx monster trucks, Revos, Savages, etc., may be referred to as being 1/10th scale but they're like 1/8th scale size vehicle. You get the same basic problem with aircraft. If my friend has an 1/8th scale piper cub and I have a 1/16th scale Boeing 747, my 747 is going to be much larger than his cub.

And yes as a surface dirt is more or less preferable in every way to grass. You don't really get the excitement running on grass compared to dirt.

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

I can only say that I don't have a 1/10th mt/buggy/truggy but I have a few 1/8 buggies and they zip through grass. All of mine are 4wd nitro and I've never had a problem getting through some pretty thick grass/brush. I would certainly think that clearance would be a factor as stated before as well as chassis height. Also the point of a slightly heavier chassis would help in propelling the car once the wheels grabbed.

Do it right and save yourself headache and get a 1/8th nitro and you can pretty much go through anything. Just my $0.02

RE: Which is better on grass: 1/10 4WD buggy or 1/10 2WD monster truck
 

very good input IMO [sm=thumbs_up.gif]