Nitro vs Electric (had to be done)

[azzachaz]

I have 4 Nitro cars but noticed a few of you guys are into the electrics.

What is the cheapest way for me to experience some good electric action?

Would I be satisfied with the performance after having Nitro's?

I have a nice charger (supernova), heaps of AA batteries, radio so I would only need a car/battery.

[Willo]

You can get your thill out of an electric car but you'd proabably wont get much running time out of it...

I'd like a nitro car but they are so expensive...

[Matt]

ooooooohhhhhhh good thread. flame/war time!

i LOVE electric - cleaner, neater, no spillage on the carpet. no noisey bumble bee sound to piss off the neighbours... but bad run times, not as quick.

i think a nitro car will generally give better bang for buck but theyre a pain in the arse to start, warm up, not reliable where an electric setup is just "plug and play" (go away bill gates).

to get into electric is easy, there are ready built kits out there which include radio gear for $290-ish ... but i really recommend buying a nice motor so its fun to drive... allow for $80-ish for that. www.frontlinehobbies.com.au is a real good site to navagate about. search for Traxxis Bandit or Kyosho Ultima. theyre two entry level machines and you can buy _without_ radio gear for about $160 (still includes motor)

its funny though, im such a fan of electric but like you, id like to buy myself an entry level machine of "the other type" to dabble with... i would like to buy a nitro car, just a simple one, to tinker with.

at the end of the day, its electric for me baby. quiet, good for the environment (nyuk nyuk), clean, can be as quick with a 11 turn motor (nyuk nyuk again).



e107_files/public/4_im000416.jpg

[azzachaz]

Could I just strap tha radio gear from one of my other cars on it?

I have spare servos and stuff lying about.

Are they different for electric? Having a speed controller rather than a throttle a guess they are

[Matt]

nope the radio gear is all the same for electric and nitro.
same servos, same receiver.
its the same.

the manual speed controller in an electric car operates just like a throttle. the servo connects to the speed control and rotates the head of the controller one way for forward and the other way for reverse.

there are electronic speed controllers starting at $100, but thats for later. it removes the need for the throttle servo, gives much much better response and a brake. but, its for pro stuff later.

yes, radio gear is all the same.

[Adz]

im the sorta person who definitely enjoys the thrills of nitro..
half the fun *well i think* is setting it all up.. countless hours tuning/running in..
BUT
definitely wanna get maself one of those electric drifters.. look like a heap of fun
as for the hi speed stuff.. nitro for me is the go 8)

[BALISTC]

If you want to go fast, Nitro....

You can go fast with Electric, but you have to spend big money on no limit ESCs, low turn motors, packs, and even brushless motor and ESC setups.

I love my electrics for drifting though, nothing beats them ;)

[Dlux]

This is an old thread, but........

I'd like a nitro car but they are so expensive...
that is arguable. I started on nitro and my mate runs electric. He has spent way more on his than I have on mine. I run both and I'm not fully set up for either but my electric bill (pardon the pun) is up there.

I think this site is dominated by the bayswater club (electric) which I'm a member of. So i think it's healty to have the pros and cons with this Holden v's Ford kinda thing happening.

[opAsx]

i have both, i prefer to spend time working on the electrics now as im a big girls blouse who is sick of getting covered in nitro and grease and oil...

nitro are great, i will be keeping my nitro on road and one of my nitro off roaders, i have just bought a 2 stroke monster truck and i have a 2 stroke buggy, i have a few electrics with a couple more on the way.

the 2 stroke leaves the nitro for dead. top end it pisses all over the revo/savage/LST's eccelaration its not as good but its a heap heavier and alot bigger and runs less expensive gear too :P.

electric i can tune and play around with inside, the nitro i should be using outside (i can rebuild it inside but have to start outside for obvious reasons)

after watching my mini t with a 3 cell 11.1V lipo and its mamba 8000 i am soooooo in love with electrics atm :)

i want a 1/8 4wd electric soonish as they look like heaps of fun when brushless :)

[KingBob]

I have nitro and electric, and have run both at various times. Realistically, theres not a lot of difference price-wise if you take the hobby seriously. Both will cost a fortune. Entry level for both will cost about the same.

Really it's a matter of what you prefer. Nitro is a LOT more maintenance, but honestly for some that is half the fun, the tinkering and tuning. I used to spend triple the time tuning as running.

Electric obviously is more or less plug and go, but considerably less runtime.

As for speed, well, nitro being faster is debatable. At the bunbury interclub there were nitro monster trucks racing, us electric guys saw them do a few laps, shrugged at each other, and said "too slow". The electric monsters kicked their a$$es. Better accelleration and top speed. infact i know of a mini-t which beat a .18 revo! About as opposite ends of the spectrum as you can get!

Really, it's just down to personal preference. If i could get my electric to sound and smell like a nitro, then i'd be a happy man!

[Dlux]

infact i know of a mini-t which beat a .18 revo! About as opposite ends of the spectrum as you can get!
Are you talking about BB's mini-t smokin Martin's revo at floreat. If you are, the revo actually had a wasp 26 in it that day. So that really stretches the spectrum. (Note to self, put oil on BB's tyres next time) !amazed

[Dlux]

Who makes a 1/8th electric 4WD?

[opAsx]

there is a few electric conversion kits which i was looking at

isnt the emaxx a 1/8 ? or is it a 1/10 ?

[opAsx]

i see now on its site its 1/10 :(

[Dlux]

I've been told by max'd out on the rcpics.net site, if you do a search on electric savage or brushless savage, heaps of ppl have done this conversion. Breaks my heart to see it so I haven't looked.

[opAsx]

lol, i truly dislike the savage in general. i am waiting to see what comes about of dnfvchds's LST when that gets back from germany.

[justo316]

After building a savage today, I like it a lot more than I did at first. It went together quickly and (pretty) easily. It looks tough as nails.

Nitro vs electric....why not get both. I agree that they both end up costing the same. It's just easier to get a crappy electric setup cheaply.

I like the power of electrics. They respond quicker, are better off the line and can hit "fast enough" speeds. I HATE batteries though. They are so expensive for what they are (to me anyway).

When it comes to moving big things (like monster trucks), it's just more economical and more realistic to be running a nitro engine. Once they are running and you get to know the engine they are easy to deal with. I loved it when I had my Nitro MT. I kept it in my car boot and pulled it out for a squirt whenever I came across some nice bashing spots.

[BALISTC]

If you want to go fast, Nitro....

You can go fast with Electric, but you have to spend big money on no limit ESCs, low turn motors, packs, and even brushless motor and ESC setups.

I love my electrics for drifting though, nothing beats them ;)

Oh how things have changed....Mini-T has changed my ENTIRE perspective on this hobby, to the point where I offloaded EVERYTHING except for my T ;)

[danhfvcsd]

I prefer the elecs just for the cleanliness and ease of it all. My very first rc was a nitro RS4, and i hated it - i couldnt start it, or tune it for the life of me - so i got out of rc all together for a while, and then got back into it with electrics, cause i just found em WAY easier to tinker with and tune up - not as complicated for me, although i found the LST VERY easy to tune and play with once i got the hang of it :)

Brushless advances are definately boosting electrics poularity, and when you can buy a very decent quality 1/10 brushless sensorless system for USD$260 that far surpasses the novak's sensored gear in quality and makes their $220 price tag seem pointless.

You can always run good GP nimh cells without going lipos, and it'll still give you the good power, but if you switch to lipos, you're definately gonna increase your run times. There are alot of ppl running 1/10 & 1/8 scale brushless MT's with 30+minute runtimes :)

The down side is the price of elecs for sure, but i see it as paying once, and never again ;) no extra costs unless you break something :)

My mini-t on a 2cell will keep up to a Revo with a sirio in it ;) My LST will smash just about any nitro that comes near it when it gets back mwaaahahahaaa

The original setup i was gonna use was gonna be a lehner 2230 motor that would spin to 63000 rpms on a 6 cell lipo - 3x 2 cell lipos in series - the Mach 26 only revved to 39000rpms :)

[danhfvcsd]

By the way - here's a thread by Mr Constructor, who is doing the conversion on my LST. He's bringing out the first 1/8 scale buggy electric conversion kit ever to be available to the general public :) He uses alot of high quality material like titanium and CF all over tha place - he's even patented the design of the conversion :)

http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/showthread.php?t=196185

Here's a comparison shot of a Storm buggy and an Ofna i think maybe? i dunno, one is definately an ofna tho -lol- http://www.ausrc.com/galleries/danhfvcsd/Misc/ebuggy10.jpg
http://www.ausrc.com/galleries/danhfvcsd/Misc/ebuggy03.jpg

[opAsx]

i mucked about with my mini t last night with the 8000 and a 3cell lipo, and before my pinion shot off and went awol i was amazed at how much faster this thing is compared to the revo/savage3spd/buggies of some mates. im hoping to give it a run on saturday if the weather is ok against a few here at the trotting track in wagin :)

[danhfvcsd]

Have you filed a flat spot in your motor shaft man? Use some Locktite too ;)

[T4Trasher]

Being in the Industry full time seeing what newbies do to both and the problems they have with both. Electric is the only way to go

[BALISTC]

My mini-t on a 2cell will keep up to a Revo with a sirio in it ;) My LST will smash just about any nitro that comes near it when it gets back mwaaahahahaaa

My Mini-T on a 6 cell NiMH beat my mates HPI Nitro RS4 Type 3 SS ;)

[T4Trasher]

This may come as a surprise but speed ain't everything!!
I would rather a bit slower electric that is reliable than a stink engine that get dirty dusty and are unreliable and when the weather changes you have to tune again!!!!!!!!

[Dlux]

Before I got into the hobby, my friend was pushing the electric. But I went against his word and went nitro. At the start it was a PITA to get going because it wasn't as easy as plug and play. But we went bashing one day (and days after that) where everytime, I'd have to let him have a go cos all his batteries went and he sat twiddling his thumb. Another mate got a revo so we'd bash for an hour or two and the electric guy will go home. That is probably the one thing that made my mind up while shopping for a r/c and thats the run time. I did what justo does/did, and that was to have my truck in the boot of my car ready to go when ever I was at a place to fang it. Never got sick of it.

[justo316]

I like the smell....me and my bro stunk up the whole grassed area we were running on today. It literally looked like we were standing in a massive 50m diameter cloud....we were running pretty rich :P

[Dlux]

The fumes have got you too hey bro

[justo316]

my nose and eyes are stinging :P

[opAsx]

when tuning it rich try to avoid having the exhaust pointing in your face :( ... ruined a nice pair of my sunnies too :P

[Dlux]

WTF !!! What was your FACE doing there %-6 x) !ill !dodge !lmao

[opAsx]

my back was pissing me off so i found a nice ledge to put my gear on at aboutchest height, the exhaust on my v-one-s was pointing horizontal... at my poor face

i realised pretty quick.

not quick enough for the glasses tho, the nitro screwed the coating on them :(

[opAsx]

indeed, i cant remember whether i heard it was the oil or the methanol that did more damage.

bring on the electrics :P

[justo316]

Bah....I'm still here.

[Dlux]

I think we've learnt something here today ppl............go see a physio for a bad back. hehe. Actually wearing glasses/protective eye wear helps a bit from the nitro gas.

[justo316]

I like to live on the edge :P I smoke next to my fuel canister too.

[opAsx]

worst feeling so far with nitro is realising you cant prime the carby with a finger over the exhaust and no fuel button on the tank... so you blow into the exhaust pressue line... only to find its blocked in the fuel line and the nitro shoots right into your mouth and you swallow it :(

burns so cold :(

[Dlux]

opAsx dude thats two stories now where you've done things...........Homer Simpson would do.

[opAsx]

rc king hot exhausts dont like to be touched and my bro had run the engine dry...

i got plenty more dumb ass escapades to add to the list dlux... im a walking fking disaster zone :(

[Dlux]

I wanna hang out with you just to witness it all. Lifes too short so wanna die laughing. Can't wait to hear more along the way.

[toxxic]

I have 3 nitro's and 1 electric. I havent taken the nitros out in months,

Nitro's are the biggest PITA. 2 stroke is noisey as all f**k and hella messey.

Electric is definatly lower maintainence and faster (acceleration is anyway).

Dont bother with nitro's, go straight to elec.

[opAsx]

i have so many exhaust imprints on my thumbs from burns :(

i managed to check a glow igniter at a mates last weekend... i touched a key to it that i spat on and it sizzled so i knew it wasnt the warmer more a case of the plug, so then not thinking put the key in my mouth to hold it while i changed hands with other gear and burnt my lip :D

i am king of catastrophes.

i grow out of the clumsy stupid stage after about 2-3 months of all new hobbies so wont be long and no more probs :)

[Dlux]

I agree that electric is way more user friendly and the average Joe is going to enjoy it more. But theres something about hearing that (annoying to some) noise nitro makes. Nowadays you can plug in a 3C lipo to a mini-t and run that for 45mins, so the run time on that is fantastic but won't be the case to most other electric r/c.
There was a monster truck meeting late last year at my nitro club where a few of the emaxx guys rocked up. A comment that one of the nitro guys said to a well known emaxx driver was "Hey that things missing an engine" I hid behind my giggles. Nitro v electric is still an on going thing even amongst the big boys.