kzimmerman

First, I am not dissing rock crawling. I was just wondering what the draw is to this? It seems to be gaining more and more popularity, and I can't for the life of me understand why. I've never driven one, but it looks to be fairly boring. But given the popularity, I know that I am missing something, so what is it? Is it a particular challenge to be able to hit the gates right? Or is it more that it's challenging just to take the lines without flipping? The setup and building of a crawler? I've been involved with rc for a long time, numerous airplanes, sailboats, powerboats, swamp buggy's, nitro and electric off road trucks. But I can't see the draw to crawling. Once again, I'm not dissing crawling, I'm just wondering what it is about it that draws people to it.

t9dragon

My Feedback: (11)

Because going slow is fun..................

K_B

It's not for everyone. I think it's popular mainly because it appeals to an entirely different crowd, for the most part. So it's jump in popularity might be due to the fact that it's bringing in people who probably have never been involved in RC or only very little.

Our club runs off-road racing and crawling events. There wasn't a whole lot of overlap between the two until some of the crawler guys started coming to the off-road events. Now many of the crawler guys are participating in the racing side of things. The crawler guys usually have a monster truck background; just something to mess with and get outta the house on occasion. They usually aren't in to competitive racing.

Crawling is a whole different mind-set. It's playing chess with the rocks. You're always thinking one move ahead. You don't rely on reaction time and twitch skills as much as you do strategy. Every move you make effects the next one and you have to continually adjust as you progress through a course.

Anomie

That may be tough to explain to your satisfaction.

My take: Just like other facets of the RC hobby, this one is merely the challenge of creating and controlling a rig capable of making the builder happy either in the backyard or in competition.

adale4130

Crawling is probably more fun than any other form of RC i have been involved in. Once you try it out, you will know why.

Going slow, is the way to go.

andybenton

well in my opinion it is similar to a chess game, (thank you kb)

youve got to stratagize and plan more efficiantly than you do for racing. it requires a different skill set and a different mind set to do.
youve got to be able to patiently handle a situation and sometimes it gets very technical.

so crawling is a different kind of challenge, whether its rc or full size. thats why a lot of people get into it.

for instance, like you, youve done racing, youve flown, youve done nitro and electric, youve done some of it all. and its safe to say that you still enjoy them all. but lets say your looking for a new kind of challenge, well rock crawling is that new kind of challenge. scince you cant apply techniques from anything else ouve ever done before to this its a totally different ball game.

Alpha Male

My Feedback: (11)

I like the scale appearance. I've owned various monster trucks, CORR trucks, crawlers and trail trucks, but tend to gravitate toward rigs that look and move more like 1:1 vehicles. Similar axles, realistic wheels and tires, a body that is recognizable, and all of the details that seem to be missing in faster trucks can be found in a crawler. Plus, you get to really look at the articulation and posture of the vehicle as you drive over and across obstacles.....watch the tires spin and see when they get traction, that kind of thing. Heck, I can even install lights that won't get ripped out the first day and run-time can last for hours with just a couple of LiPo batteries. [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Another thing is that the risk of disaster is lower. Your axles, links, chassis and body get scuffs, but there is no slamming into a tree or another driver a top speed.

kzimmerman

I started with sailboats, so I can understand the "chess game" aspect of it. I won't be getting into crawling, because I live on the eastern shore of virginia, there isn't a rock for 100 miles that wasn't brought here by someone. Or any hills. Or even a slight bump. I was just curious as to why it's getting so popular. I can definately relate to the low impact thing. I'm getting tired of fixing rusty's.
Thank you for answering my question and not taking offense to it. I was kinda afraid somebody would try to start a flame war over it, but you all answered very nicely, and actually, good enough for me to get an idea of what drew you into crawling. Thank you again!