I probably have a similar story to many who get into this hobby. As a kid I got a radio controlled car for Christmas. You know the type… an inexpensive model from the local toy store. It was battery operated with a cheap pistol grip control. The range was very limited – maybe 100′ on a clear day. It was a small car, and looked like it would belong in a Speed Racer episode.
It didn’t go very fast, but did have a high pitch whine. I’d imagine it would have gone much faster if it didn’t run off of 6 D batteries. It did chew through batteries like a buzz saw, and made it a very expensive hobby for a 10 year old. In spite of all that, I did get hours of enjoyment with my very own radio controlled car. That is until one day a few months later the car stopped working.
OK, fast forward to my early 30′s. I decided it would be fun to get a RC Truck. So I headed down to the local Radio Shack and bought one of their top of the line electric RC 4X4 Trucks. Man I was happy as a clam. I got home tore it out of the box, charged up the batteries & about 4 hours later was ready to roll.
I took my new truck out into the back yard for its 1st road test. My wife called out the kitchen window to not trample her flower bed. But that was OK… trampling flower beds was for amateurs. I proceeded to have a couple hours of good fun racing my new truck around the yard & around the street. It went much faster that my old RC car & had better controls.
The next day I took the truck out for another romp around the yard. However this time my wife let our dog Red out. At first everything went fine. I drove my truck around & Red sat in the middle of the yard watching. Red was a 90lbs Rhodesian Ridgeback & Ridgebacks were breed to hunt Lions in Africa. That means they are big, fast, strong & brave.
On the 3rd trip through the yard Red casually got up & started watching the truck intently. Suddenly Red was off like a shot making a bee-line for the truck. At that point I made a huge mistake… Instead of stopping the truck, I floored the accelerator. Red just looked at that as more of a challenge & took it up a notch. He ran down the truck within a few seconds & attacked.
I had to run from the front yard to the end of the back yard. By the time I got there the damage was done. Red chewed up the antenna, & was hard at work shredding a 2nd tire. I forgot to mention when he first caught the truck he flung it pretty high up in the air.
It took awhile to repair it & it never ran the same after the “incident”. Red’s fascination with the truck limited the time I could drive it around. I ended up selling it in a yard sale a few years later.
Here we are today. Red after a long healthy 15 years is gone (RIP buddy). I got the bug again to get into RC Trucks. This time I took an interest in gas RC trucks. I really like the speed & power they have. Plus, you can now get them ready to run out of the box. No assembly required. I’m more interested in driving them around, not building them.
While doing my research I realized one thing. The information for the beginner is scattered & fragmented all over the place. So, I decided to bring everything I could find for the beginner into one location. This blog will be a resource for the beginning gas RC truck hobbyist.
I’ll bring as much information as I can find to help you get into this hobby. It is my hope you find this helpful, fun and informative. If there are any subjects you’d like to see covered, feel free to leave a comment below.