Archive for October, 2009

Filed Under (Petrol RC Cars) on 25-10-2009

 

This is a magnificent setup for a petrol RC car jump. A steep take off onto a soft landing so your RC car doesn’t get damaged. If you are building an RC jump, then this is the sort of site that you should look for. There is a lot of fun to be had going over jumps so get stuck in and experience it for yourself!

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There are many ways that you can enjoy off road petrol RC cars, from racing it round a track to doing jumps with it. What is even more fun is doing both at the same time! Speeding round a track with jumps and tight corners. This is an absolute must for anyone who owns a petrol RC car, so in this post I am going to guide you in building an excellent track that should satisfy your needs for weeks, perhaps years to come.

The first thing that you need to do is find a suitable place to build a track. It will need to be fairly large and almost devoid of trees or large bushes. A few trees can make the track, well, interesting, if you happen to be a skilled driver (or aren’t to concerned about your car!). Also make sure that no one will mind you building the track in the place tat you’re planning. Ideally this means building it on either property you own, or where ever you can gain permission (A friend’s place is a good first point of call). Building a track isn’t an expensive task, all you need is a spade, wheelbarrow and access water to make the jumps. The main thing that you will require is that most valuable of things, time.

To make a track that you will be happy with, and to ensure that you will not be confronted by too many unexpected problems and/or surprises, you should draw up a plan. I would suggest that you build a looped track, i.e. a track where you can have laps, not a simple get from A to B as fast as possible kind of track. You can make it any shape that you want, depending on the area available and whatever takes your fancy at the time. After deciding the shape, think about where you wish to place the jumps, trying to use any natural bumps or tree roots in your area if possible, and mark them in on your drawing. Don’t put too many jumps in your track as they are fairly time co-consuming to construct, and will also slow down the top speed you can reach on your track. Also decide on the size of the jumps. It is important to make them big enough to get some air, but not to big that they will cause damage to your petrol RC cars.

Once you are satisfied with the plan, you can start actually building your track. Clear the area first of any leaves or anything else that may get in the way. Next mark out the route as per your plan so you can see if your planned track is practical. To do this effectively, you can either peg it out or use spray paint to really give you a good idea of your track layout. If it is not quite how you imagined it, revise your plan until you’ve got a track you are happy with. At this point you should examine the ground surface of the track. Any especially bumpy or boggy areas should either have a jump placed over them or smoothed by either taking away or adding dirt.

You are now ready to build the actual jumps. Building jumps correctly is important as you do not want them to break or collapse when you drive your petrol RC car over them. I am going to instruct you in how to build a tabletop style jump.

There are two ways that I suggest you use to build this type of jump. The first is that you use a couple of logs as the center of your jump. This will lessen the amount of dirt you need and time spent on the jump. The second way is for if you can’t find any logs, in which case you can just build the jump without them, entirely from dirt. If you do have logs, put them in the place where you want the jump, at both ends, perhaps a metre or two apart (between this dirt will be piled up to produce the “tabletop”) and perpendicular (at right angles) to the direction the cars will be travelling. Now you need some dirt. Take this first of all from the perimeter of your track to make a drainage system to help your track survive come rain, hail or storm. Once you have made the drainage system such that it encloses the track, take dirt from anywhere that you please, so long as it is not from where the cars will (eventually) be racing. Pile the dirt on-top of your jump until it is about 30cm (one foot) off the ground along its entire length. The incline of the jump will dictate the height and distance achieved, and a bit of experimentation will be needed here to get this incline to cause the car to make he jump. It will have to have a slight lip at the end of the incline to make it easier to get air. Once that is done, you will need to water your jump. This helps keep the jump intact as mud will pack down the dirt into a more solid structure. Don’t put to much water on though as this could potentially erode the jump. Wait until it has dried before using. Congratulations, you have just made your first jump. Repeat the process until you have made the desired number of jumps.

You should now have a track for your petrol RC cars that will last for a long time (providing you do basic maintenance every now and again) and that will keep you entertained for hours. If you ever want anything new, you can just modify bits of it , add in new jumps or change the terrain a tad. The possibilities are endless.

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  • Starting the Hobby

    If you want to get a foothold into the world of RC cars, I would suggest that you start with a small,  but very nimble electric RC car such as the Radline Fang 1:24 RC Buggy

    This is what it looks like:

    Not only is it very impressive out of the box, it is fully upgradable, making it the perfect car to enter the hobby with. What's more is that it comes at a bargain price!

    Enter the hobby today!