short course truck
 

hello everyone I am looking to buy a short course truck. it would be my first, and I want it to be electric, 2wd, 1/10 and I want to be able to race a little bit with it but I don't want to worry about it breaking if I decide to bash with it, and I would like to spend under 250$ on the truck alone. also any recommendations on what kind of battery and charger would be helpful.please reply, thank you.

RE: short course truck
 

team associated sc10 is a great truck.
Thats gonna push your budget a bit, but it is worth it for the handling of the truck.

If you are gonna bash more than race, then get the ECX torment. It is $190 RTR. That will leave you enough money for a 6cell 5000mah battery for good runtimes (stock battery is very short runtime)
That truck is tough. I had one for over a year and loved it. I switched to the SC10 once I got more into racing. The Torment is fun to drive on a track, but doesnt handle as well as a "race" truck like the sc10, blitz, durango ect trucks will.
But the torment is probly the best "bang for your buck" short course truck on the market.

RE: short course truck
 

Batteries and charger is easy.....Get a Thunder AC680 from HobbyPartz.com  $50.  Gens Ace LiPo packs....pick up a couple there too.  Being new, this may sound a little confusing to you, but I'm trying to save you some grief up front:  The mAh (milli-amp-hour) rating is unimportant...the bigger the number, the longer the run time. What you want to pay attention to is the "C-rating".  The C-rating indicates how much current (amperage) the pack can deliver.  The higher the C-rating you get, the longer the pack will last (as in lifetime) because it won't get as warm as a lower C-rated pack.

If you're looking for a short course truck, you'll want AT LEAST a 40C-rated LiPo.  50C would be better.  Short course trucks are pretty big compared to some other 1/10 scale RCs.  Bigger means more weight, which means a bigger motor system is needed. A bigger motor system means more Amp draw.  Ergo, you need higher C-rated packs.  So even with Gens Ace liPos, you're looking at $40-$48 per pack.

So your budget of $250 is pretty slim figuring your having to spend almost half your budget on batteries and a charger.
You can barely get a truck ALONE for that price.  Tower Hobbies lists a Slash 2wd for $239. And that's the BRUSHED version. Not the brushless.  You could get a Brushless Evader by Duratrax, but that's a Stadium Truck, not a Short Course. I think you'd best re-think your budget if you're set on a short course truck, or consider picking up a used one on eBay.

RE: short course truck
 

Two options I would recommend: AE SC10 brushed - can be bought for 199 on tower. It doesn't come with a battery pack, but the pack is all you'll need to rip. This is what I went with two years ago, and I haven't looked back. I recently added a brushless system to it and a new set of tires. The stock tires are pretty lousy in the dirt. but for 200, you still have $50 in your budget to put into a good set of tires.

Other option I'd go with is the HPI Blitz. it's $250 on tower, but comes with a battery pack. Though I have no idea if the battery pack is any good. i also don't know the extent of how good the tires are for dirt traction. They are better than stock SC10 tires, but not sure how they compare with a good set of duratrax SC tires.

RE: short course truck
 

Just to be clear:  If you get a truck with a BRUSHED motor system, you will NOT want to get LiPo batteries. (Unless you also buy an external LVC (low-voltage cutoff) unit.  Starting with a brushed system is cheaper to get into. You can upgrade to brushless and LiPo later.

RE: short course truck
 

The brushed SC10 comes with a lo-voltage cut off.

RE: short course truck
 

or you could just throw on a $3-4(shipped) lipo low voltage alarm that they sell commonly on ebay. I own a few of the alarms for my brushed models that I use lipo on, and IMO its better then a LVC as it starts to alarm once one of your cells hits 3.4 volts, not when the total is around 6.4V's like a LVC does where one cell could be 2.8V, and the other could be at 3.6 if they are out of balance.

RE: short course truck
 

does it? didnt know that.
I know the losi XXX sc comes as brushed with low voltage cutoff.

Truth is tho, running 2s lipo packs in these brushed sct trucks will wear out the motor in 10-15 battery packs. granted, that equates to 5-6 hours of runtime (25 minutes per 2s 5000mah pack) but still, the motors will last longer on 6cell nimh packs due to the lower voltage.

RE: short course truck
 

IMO, there isn't enough of a difference in performance to justify lipo in a vehicle with a brushed motor.

RE: short course truck
 

I thought I heard that the prices of NiMhs vs LiPo was almost at parity now. 

RE: short course truck
 

Last I looked (been some time) NiMh's cost like $40 for a decent 5000mah pack, and Lipos from HK for a 5000mah pack were at $22.

Sure you could go with the cheap chinese no-name NiMh's that cost $21, but from experience they are not that good(still better then those old Venom NiMh's though ;))