Where do you buy your RC Cars?

[Shlade]

Interested in getting into this hobby... I see some of you guys got some sweet RC cars that have some cool looking stuff done to them.

Where would a noob like me get started? Are wheels, suspension and other things customizable?

Want something to play around and drift with lol

[cet]

I'm just getting back in to it but more with the off-road stuff.

You can buy them from some of the hobby stores around town. PM Hobby on 32Ave NE is probably the largest. You could also go on-line to somewhere like www.towerhobbies.com.

With off-road everything is customizable, tires, body parts, suspension parts. You can tune your suspension for different tracks if you want by changing shock oil, spring rates, mounting locations, etc. Like i said, I haven't run much on-road, but I don't think it would be too much different.

[reiRei]

My husband gets a lot of his RC stuff from Hobby King...
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/index.rc

I got my RC truck from PM hobby, it was a build it yourself kit.. which I found really educational. If anything breaks on my truck, I can fix it :)

[Tomaz]

I bought my stuff through Eastside Hobby and PM Hobby.

TT-01 Chassis is great for starting off on IMO.

[racerjim]

There are 3 major hobby shops in calgary, and the order i go to them is Action hobby in ogden 1st, then eastridge in riverbend, and last if i have to is PM in the NE.


Hobbyking.com is good as well as A-mainhobbies.com or towerhobby.com If you have the time to wait for the stuff its way cheaper to order on-line.

[4DoorGTZ]

Also Modelland in the SW.

[EM1FTW]

I shop at PM and model land mostly.
The service at model land can't be beat, a bunch of old farts who really know their stuff.

[Unknown303]

Action Hobby is awesome. The old guy is always so angry and his wife is just a pleasure to deal with. Quite a contrast and makes going there that much more entertaining.

[clem24]

I saved a ton of money buying my Tamiya big rig from Dinball/RC Mart:

http://www.rcmart.com/catalog/default.php?language=en

Just beware they charge Paypal fees and nothing is mentioned until right before you check out. But even with shipping and Paypal, everything was significantly cheaper and in stock.

Otherwise yeah, the usual suspects as mentioned: PM, Modelland, and Action. For Modelland, go buy yourself an SUTP, but price-wise, PM is cheaper on just about everything.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Buy used is my advice. R/C stuff has VERY poor resale, and a lot of it is hardly used.

I tried to get into the hobby but it wasn't for me. I ended up selling a bunch of essentially brand new stuff for 50% of what I paid or so.

[dj_rice]

Anyone ever use those Drift R/C's indoor on hardwood flooring?Planning on buying one to play around with at home and worried it'll scuff up the floors

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
Buy used is my advice. R/C stuff has VERY poor resale, and a lot of it is hardly used.

Shipping is also very prohibitive.

When I used to be in the game, I got a lot of stuff for cheap but shipping is a killer.


Originally posted by dj_rice
Anyone ever use those Drift R/C's indoor on hardwood flooring?Planning on buying one to play around with at home and worried it'll scuff up the floors

Let's just say with any RC vehicles with speed, it's not always the tires that meet the floor.

[ercchry]

Originally posted by dj_rice
Anyone ever use those Drift R/C's indoor on hardwood flooring?Planning on buying one to play around with at home and worried it'll scuff up the floors

you will need to have a pretty damn large house to use them indoors, i took a couple laps around the kitchen with mine and it was nothing but frustrating, just banged into the fridge a bunch of times and gave up. even the unfinished basement is a little tight. driveway and front street ftw!

[Thaco]

yeah for actual vehicles i go towerhobbies.com or amainhobbies.com, they do have shipping costs, but if you sign up for their emails they will send you promo codes that generally offset the shipping to a large degree... and compared to local, it's worth it to pay the shipping..

the only place that's decent for prices local is action hobby and they don't have a lot of stock, but if you need anything they can usually have it within a week... and like i said, at a reasonable price, usually much more reasonable than PM or eastridge...

i will go to PM or action, i find eastridge to be the most difficult to deal with, their store is a mess... it's cramped, everything is behind a counter so you need to know exactly what you want... they usually have 1-2 guys running the whole store, and they usually do not know shit about RCs... and their pricing on some stuff is totally out to lunch.

[bignerd]

PM Hobby on 32nd ave. Plus you can go to Coco Brooks afterwards!

Replace any plastic suspension parts on your car with metal right away, they just break.

[Thaco]

Originally posted by bignerd
PM Hobby on 32nd ave. Plus you can go to Coco Brooks afterwards!

Replace any plastic suspension parts on your car with metal right away, they just break.

not really a good idea... it's good to replace selected parts, but not all parts, if you have full aluminum suspension... what's gonna break? probably your chassis or transmission, something that is a whole lot more work to replace than an A-arm

[Unknown303]

:werd: RPMs plastic arms are the best damn upgrades in my opinion they are almost a little elastic as they pretty much refuse to break and always hold their shape.

[clem24]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
Buy used is my advice. R/C stuff has VERY poor resale, and a lot of it is hardly used.


Yeah I dunno man... Buying used R/C is almost like buying a used car... Lots of moving parts, motors, and you never know what's been done to it if you don't know what to look for, like if some linkages are just being held by super glue, etc... Not everyone treats their R/C the same as you, and a lot of it could have been quite abused. Plus, buying stuff like cars, you often get chassis and bodies that are very scuffed and dirty as they pick up lots of dirt when used outside (vs. just indoor small aircraft). This fact alone would preclude me from buying most used road going R/C - I like my stuff minty mint.

Having said that, there are of course deals out there.

[reiRei]

Originally posted by clem24


Yeah I dunno man... Buying used R/C is almost like buying a used car... Lots of moving parts, motors, and you never know what's been done to it if you don't know what to look for, like if some linkages are just being held by super glue, etc... Not everyone treats their R/C the same as you, and a lot of it could have been quite abused. Plus, buying stuff like cars, you often get chassis and bodies that are very scuffed and dirty as they pick up lots of dirt when used outside (vs. just indoor small aircraft). This fact alone would preclude me from buying most used road going R/C - I like my stuff minty mint.

Having said that, there are of course deals out there.

We've bought a used RC car before, and really if you can find a good deal, you'd be better off getting a used one and upgrading the parts to better parts, that's what we've done with these:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/jeep.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/eternald_/esavage.jpg

You'd otherwise be spending a lot of money on something a little less durable

[Unknown303]

Originally posted by clem24


Yeah I dunno man... Buying used R/C is almost like buying a used car... Lots of moving parts, motors, and you never know what's been done to it if you don't know what to look for, like if some linkages are just being held by super glue, etc... Not everyone treats their R/C the same as you, and a lot of it could have been quite abused. Plus, buying stuff like cars, you often get chassis and bodies that are very scuffed and dirty as they pick up lots of dirt when used outside (vs. just indoor small aircraft). This fact alone would preclude me from buying most used road going R/C - I like my stuff minty mint.

Having said that, there are of course deals out there.

Plus a used RC with some issues is maybe 50 dollars in supplies to bring it back up to par. Unless its a Baja 5b. then make damn sure it's in good shape, they can be expensive to fix.

[Disoblige]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
Buy used is my advice. R/C stuff has VERY poor resale, and a lot of it is hardly used.

Truth!

I sold my 2.5 SportMaxx when I had it and I paid brand new for it. I barely ran it and included a lot of extras.

Then a few years later I got the itch to race again, so I bought a practically new (but still used) T-Maxx 3.3 for a great price with lots of extras and the guy barely ran it after the engine break-in.

I won't be selling this again :D

[roll_over]

I got a sprint 2 drift great car but im having the problem of rocks getting stuck in the rear belt so its better indoors. My next one will be a truck just seems like more fun and more places to drive it.

1+ for the guy at action is always so mad lol

[Azn_2nr]

you should cut the back off the diff case out on your sprint 2 like this
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/4984/img0822ek2.jpg
that way the rocks wont get caught and chew out your belt

[roll_over]

Is this your car? because i have done this and it helps but not much maybe i need to cut more

[Azn_2nr]

not my car but i also run belts too so i know you pain, if situation continues then the best thing you can do is sweep the area before running

edit* you could also cut underneath like this too
http://origin-images.rcuniverse.com/forum/upfiles/218531/Rm37238.jpg