arsenal_addict

At the moment I have an electric car which I use a lot. I am thinking of swithcing to nitro to get more speed and also get rid of the hassle of re charging batteries. I was thinking of getting a traxxas nitro sport as i dont want anything to complicated to start. How hard is a nitro car to mantain compared with an electric one as i dont one the maintence to be to high.

drewmaloy

My Feedback: (7)

nitro is more time consumming. breaking in the engine, then toning the engine. good luck. peace

quietnas1

Nitro is more time consuming but in my opinion not by much. The breaking in and tuning process can take up to an hour but thats about it. You have to buy more things like fuel and you still have to charge your batteries but not as frequently. For the Nitro sport you can buy some rechargeable AA batteries and you will be good. As far as cleaning and maintenance goes. I run my Jato on and off road. After every run I spend about 10 to 15 minutes giving it a quick clean. About once every 2 months I will tear it down and give it a thourough cleaning. If your going to go long periods without running then it is a great idea to use after run oil or WD40 in the motor to prevent moisture and corosion. In my opnion its more fun. Once you start running out of fuel just refuel and go. I have run my car for almost 3 hours straight. Since the Sport has the Easy Start i would also roccomend just buying some spare glow plugs and a bettery for the Easy Start wand. If this sounds like to mmuch then Nitro is not for you. If you can handle it then I beleive you will have alot more fun with a Nitro. Good luck on your decision.

GlassBullet

My Feedback: (1)

I run nitro, but this still sounds like a lot when it's all written down. It's not nearly as much as this seems, or at least it doesn't feel like it is

ro.sniper

I run 2 nitro trucks, and having an electric on-road coming (HPI Cup racer)... I love nitro, if you find yourself to be even a little bit of a gearhead then nitro is for you as all the tuning and tweaking is part of the fun. Cheers and good luck with your choice.

Kodiac400

I love nitro.........hands down. Love the sound...........smell and messing around with the mechanics part of it. Just do your homework as to what best suits your driving style. Fuel can be a bit expensive but that comes with the hobby.

Later

Chris_RC

A nitro car is a lot more maintence than an electric. There is the clutch which shoes and bearings need to be repalced every gallon, the engine which needs to be tuned almost every run or change in temperature/humidity, the cleaning and it is very time consuming. If you arent willing to work on it 60% of the time and run it 40% of the time nitro is not for you. After you buy it, you will have to repalce glow plugs (couple times a gallon), fuel, and a bunch of other parts. The EZ-Start is a hassle to start IMO, I would much rather have a pull start than the EZ-Start.

If dont want a complicated, high maintence vehicle then nitro is just not for you. Brushless is way faster than nitro anyway. And batteries can get anywhere from 20-45 minutes of runtime.

GlassBullet

My Feedback: (1)

For me, it's not nearly that much maintenance vs. run time. it's like 25% to 75% or lower. And most of that is cleaning. That is, if you get a quality car.

dittch

Here's my opinion....and let me give you my background. I have been running nitro and electric cars for over 20 years. I currently own 7 nitro vehicles and 2 electrics. Nitro is much more simple than some people make it to be. It is very simple if you take the time to learn about how the engine works. Do your homework and understand how they work and you will have few problems with nitro. i run every other weekend with 3 other people (over 15 nitro vehicles among us) and we don't have problems. The only issue I have is having to stop every 10-15 minutes to refuel. The people who say you need to tune every 5 minutes don't know what they're doing. I can run all day and only tune about twice....because the temp changes during the day...and this tuning takes a whole whopping 2 minutes of my time

Educate yourself and you will be way ahead of the game when it comes to nitro.

As far as speed is concerned, nitro will give you more than enought speed. There comes a point where speed is so extreme that you can only go in a straight line....both nitro and electric are capable of getting you to that point. These nitro vs. electric speed discussions make me laugh because of that. Don't make the choice based on top speed...unless you are into drag-racing and only want to go in a straight line.

BlindObject

My Feedback: (11)

You should start up with something easy to work on and of quality like Rustler or HPI Firestorm.

quietnas1

The clutch and bearings do not need to be replaced after every gallon. When I do completely tear it down I wash my bearings 1st and let them sit in a small cup of WD40. Going on a year and a half now with the same bearings. And I went almost a whole year with the same clutch. As far as tuning goes within a 2 hour run I dont have to tune. Actually I run ,y car almost every day and may do very slight adjustments about once a week. 2 minutes tops. As far as cleaning I use a small paint brush just to take off the dirt that builds up on a run and again take fully apart about once every 2 month to clean the engine and the rest of the car with soap and water. It takes me about an hour and a half to tear it down fully clean it and build it again. The Easy Start has worked out great for me and again have not had an issue with it in a year and a half. Yeah you got to buy fuel. So, its part of the ho, its part of the hobby. Again I run my Jato almost every day and I run it a whole lot more than I work on it. Nitro is fun. I love the sound, the smell of fuel, and I love testing my tuning skills. Anybody can plug in a battery and go but Nitro is much more than that. I will never go electric.

Chris_RC

Trying not to get offtopic but clutch bearings should be butter smooth. For new ones you need to take motor spray or an air compressor and blow the grease out and give it a couple drops of oil. I buy my clutch bearings by the doens. I have to tune my engine every run, but for example the last race I was in had 340 entries so I ran at the head of the day and then at night. Needless to say the needles were way off and I flamed out. I am always going for the absolute maximum power, as too rich is bad for your engine.

GlassBullet, 25 to 75 runtime???? You seem like someone who doesnt maintain their cars as suppose to. I do about 90% maintence/10% runtime but I always need to have my cars looking new.

djzachtyler

My Feedback: (4)

as someone who lives between the nitro and electric world, I have to say that aside from there being only a very slight amout of additional maintenance after breaking in a nitro, it is only a very slight amout as many people here have already pointed out... here's the thing that keeps me more enthusiastic with nitros, it is the greater realism behind driving a vehicle with a nitro engine. it keeps it more closely related to haveing a real mini car, the roar of the engine, the handling characteristics, the tweaking and tuning to get the most out of the vehicle... Nitros are what got me back into RC after a hiatus, electrics are cool, but a quiet wheeeeee just doesn't compare to the little roar of the engine, and "the smell of burnt nitro in the mornin" lol

2 points to be made as far as speed differences, the only difference I have noticed between nitro and a brushless system is during acceleration. nitros seems to smoke a brushless on acceleration if tuned right. the flip side of that is with the newer programmable ESCs you can tune a brushless to have that eye popping acceleration also, but it just isn't the same as hearing a real engine rev up, then drop in RPM as it engages second!

Top speed comes down to this no matter what, you will seldom ever see top speed unless you have a hell of a lot of straightaway bottom line.. and you can bet dollars to dimes that if you do hit your top, you better have a faill safe cuz that sucker will get out of radio range really fast, and forget about turning , you'll be doing nascar flips all day...

another point to be made is this what area of nitro do you wish to go??? there are many all of which are fun in their own way. there's back yard bashing, tearing it up around the neighborhood streets, hitting dirt tracks, or going out to a dirt lot and just thrashing, finding mountain bike trails to go do some off road racing and jumping, on road racing, the list goes on.... the best advice i could give you is to think hard about what you want to do, then review these forums for ideas as to what vehicles are good, what ones are sturdy, what ones require more or less maintenance than others, My personal recommendations for first nitros??? Traxxas are super durable and with the 3.3 engines fast enough to give you what you are looking for, DuraTrax are less expensive and ALOT easier to maintain than others, Assciated, Losi, OFNA,HPI are all wicked and range in price and complexity, and difficulty as well... I currently own vehicles from all of these manufacturers, and love them all, but am also a total gear head and do not mind the maintenance.... for a first nitro though I would have to lean towards a Traxxas, it really nails down the aspects you are looking for IMHO...

worstluck

honestly i would go with an associated rc10 t4 nitro costs way more in the long run get a couple lipos and youll be runnin for at least 1 1/2 hours non-stop tune free.

dittch

I bet GlassBullet maintains vehicles very well. I've been running nitros since the late 1980's and I'm at about the same percentage of run time. My cleaning time is maybe 10% total time spent on the car, and all of my vehicles are clean and run excellent. I currently run over 6 nitro vehicles and they are run about 2-3 times a month with a group of friends who own at least 4 nitro vehicles each. All run excellent and with minimal time spent on maintenance. It sounds like you're very anal about your vehicles.....good for you, but that practice isn't necessary for keeping a nitro running tip top for a long time.

Bottom line, if you're spending 90% of your time on maintenance then you have a lot to learn about nitro. The majority of people who run nitro are spending a fraction of that time on maintenance.

MadManAndrew

Yes, Yes you should.

quietnas1

I completely agree. My down time is about the same 10%. I have been doing this for 15 years and have never had a major issue due to maintenance. Oh and by the way my bearings are butter smooth after soaking in WD40 for awhile. GO NITRO YOU WILL NOT BE DISSAPOINTED.

Chris_RC

I run once a week, probably 5-15 runs on Saturday. After I get home, I take the engine/radio parts out and clean/make an order. Same thing almost every week.

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

Nitro is awesome once you learn how to properly tune, start, and maintain an engine. Im a real gearhead though, so it is 2nd nature to me, but after recently switching from electric to nitro, I would rather let my nitros sit than go back to just running electric. Its just not nearly as fun.

Id say my downtime is also 10% or so. Replace some bearings and clean/replace a one way bearing every now and then along with the cleaning of the vehicles, which is the part i dislike the most, but electrics also get dirty.

The sound, smoke and realism of a nitro just cant be beat, especially if you love engines.

djzachtyler

My Feedback: (4)

that says it all right there!!! only time I spend more than 10% is when I get a used vehicle and tear it apart and rebuild it to make sure everything is kosher, and make sure I get worn parts replaced, once I have a vehicle running good, there is little to do with the maintenance other than clean it and drop after run oil in the engine... if you sre spending more time doing maintenance, it is cuz you are beating the snot out of the thing when you run it, or cuz you are racing it all the time...

Chris_RC

I dont know about anyone else, but I am not the kind of pe4rson who runs it, then thorws it in the corner and runs it the next day, then again and again. I take pride in my cars and I have never had a maintence part fail, or a screw fall out for example.

GlassBullet

My Feedback: (1)

Well, as you can see from this topic, there are many ways to go at nitro. You can have your car in perfect shape all the time, or you can take the more casual approach and do maintenance only when it's necessary. Both ways are fine, and they are both fun, depending on what you like doing. But i think you should go nitro. It's tons of fun, part of which is cleaning/fixing it

dittch

I'm very similar to you in that, but I only have to spend about 10% of my time on maintenance to be there

maxxmastr

x2 on the 10% no need to do anymore IMO. i own 4 nitros and their all maintained very well but i only do it when its needed.remember always use after run oil and dont put it through the carb.i red one post about changing clutch shoes every gallon.thats crazy i got a gt2 that i have had for 2 years and never changed the shoes and it runs fine.im not against it but that seems awfully extreme and yes i do race my gt2 with very good standings.