Electric vs. Nitro

[jared1970]

I've been running a nitro stadium truck for a few years and am thinking about getting a road car. I like the nitro engine in my truck, but my only experience with electrics are the old crappy Radio Shack type toy cars that I had when I was a kid. I like the simplicity and cleanliness that electrics seem to offer. How do they compare performance wise? I know that the batteries don't last too long, but I suppose if you keep several packs charged and ready to go you can have plenty of fun. Is there anything about electrics I should know?

 

[robmob]

With today's brushless motors and lipo technology battery packs, the advantage that nitros held has been erased.

At the track where I race, I run in the modified TC class which will consistently pull lap times that are faster than the nitro TC class.

Do you plan on racing, or just bashing around? What type of speeds are you looking for?

 

[CharliesTheMan]

A lot of the rumors that you mentioned used to be true, but now with the new technology brushless and Lipo, electric race classes are just as good or better than nitro. I've got 15 RC's, one of them being a thousand dollar HPI Baja 5B SS. I've had quite a few nitros, a lot of electrics, and the gassers. I'm said I would never go with electric because I liked the power that nitros had. Well once I ran a nice brushless system, I realized that they were waymore powerful and more fun to drive than the nitros that I have. I've even converted my Revo race project from nitro to brushless electric. A few years ago guys were struggling to make a 5 minute main on one battery pack. Now with brushless and LiPo, people are getting 30 -45 minutes on one battery.

Don't let the electric fool you, just because it's quiet and doesn't have fumes doesn't mean it's slower. It's also much more consistent than nitro, which is very important when it comes to racing. Different people like different stuff, and people will argue either way. I always swoer I would never run anything but nitro, and now I've sold off all of my nitro's but one, and I'm saving it to do another brushless conversion. The way that I look at it is like this: People will argue whether nitro or brushless is faster till the end of time. The fact of the matter is it's just like cars, it depends on the drivetrain. A lot of brushless systems are faster than a lot of nitros, and vice versa depending on the size and quality of each system. BUT, the fact that people can debate which is better tells me that brushless has arrived and is at least just as powerful, or people wouldn't be able to argue their point in the debate. Don't let those old rumprs scare you off, with brushless you can have just as much or more power, only it will have MUCH better torque and throttle response on take off, instead of having to spool up with RPM, and you can get a hell of a lot of runtime out of a LiPo battery.

If you have any more questions, feel free to shoot me a PM. I don't race on-road yet, but I have 3 Novak brushless systems and two Castle systems.

 

[jared1970]

There aren't any road tracks around here anymore, so it will be just playing around. There used to be a hobby shop that had a road track set up, but they went out of business. There is an offroad track about 20 miles away where I take my stadium truck, but I spend too much money on broken parts and that's why I'm thinking about getting a road car. There are plenty of big parking lots around here that are fairly smooth that would be perfect for playing on with a road car. From what I'm hearing from you guys, it sounds like electric is really the way to go for me. 30-45 minutes on one battery, that's awesome. Plus I don't have to clean all of the nitro residue when I'm done and lube the engine for storage. It sounds like all I would really need to do is general cleaning and maintenance and keep the batteries maintained.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Yeap, you just take the batteries of the charger and plug them in and go, no tuning, no starting and after run, etc, etc... It's definitely the way to go when you want to pull some trigger time but you don't have a lot of time to fool around, which is how things have been lately with my busy schedule.

 

[itsalifeworthliving]

i agree with the hole nitro verse electric theory. its not like it used to be. electrics are silly fast and with the lipo and brushless technoligy it makes it even more fun. I'm also with you on the on-road aspect as well. i found that running off-road is way to dirty and constantly breaking stuff, wich is fun and all, but the down time kills me. the choice that i maid was to go large scale. i love the 45min run times and the size is what really gets me. the speeds really arent there. my 5b will barely hit 60mph. and that was a struggle to get it there. there is a slight price diffrence, but how much does it cost to get started with electric. between lipo's and brushless setup's and chargers. I'm guessing about $600 coins for the real fun to come out. i think that electric is a good way to go. possibilities are endless. let us know what kinda set-up your looking at. I'm completly done with nitro's myself, and am going to look into getting started in electric by the end of the summer. but I'm starting from scratch so its going to set me back a little. I'm still recovering from my on-road fifth scale.

 

[jared1970]

I'm looking at 1/18 scale cars, mostly for the low cost to get started. Right now I'm thinking about the Team Associated RC18R. It seems like a pretty decent car with big hop up potential.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

yeah I think the associated 1/18 stuff has some of the best aftermarket support of all the mini scale stuff.

 

[Brushlessboy]

They are great handling, strong cars with plenty of hopups, but have you even driven a 10.5 inch car at 60mph.
Dont close your eyes, not even to blink, or its HISTORY.......

 

[Elmerfudd]

So Charlie, which vehicle of yours runs for 30-40 minutes on a lipo battery? 10th scale? That sound awsome! I bought a RC18R and put a castle motor in it. It is fast, but like Brushboy said it is squirley as hell. Not much fun when you get the speed you want. I am looking for a 10th scale touring nitro, but am willing to go electric if I can get the runs times to 30 minutes!

Let me know

 

[CharliesTheMan]

So Charlie, which vehicle of yours runs for 30-40 minutes on a lipo battery? 10th scale? That sound awsome! I bought a RC18R and put a castle motor in it. It is fast, but like Brushboy said it is squirley as hell. Not much fun when you get the speed you want. I am looking for a 10th scale touring nitro, but am willing to go electric if I can get the runs times to 30 minutes!

Let me know

My brushless rock crawler with a novak goat system gets 2 hours of run time on a 2000 mah LiPo :yes:

 

[Elmerfudd]

I can underatand a rock crawler not using up a battery that quickly, but what about a on road racer?

 

[CharliesTheMan]

I don't have anything on-road. I have an Associated T4 off-road, with a big ole sidewinder in it, and I got 25 minutes out of the LiPo when I took it out, and it still had a good bit of juice left. 6000 mah 2S LiPo. I figure on-road might get longer out of a battery than off road, but I can't say for sure since I don't have one.

I knew the crawler would have good run time, but I sure as hell wasn't expecting that much. I was thinking that the 2000 mah was going to be too small because I was use to my race vehicles (like my brushless revo that sucks a lot of juice). Turns out I've yet to completely drain a pack (by that I mean to the voltage cutoff point), so I just ordered some 1290 mah packs that will fit better in the small corner above the axial.

 

[Elmerfudd]

Cool, how long does the Revo run for?

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Cool, how long does the Revo run for?

I haven't run it yet. It's a long term project because of the money. When I started the project, I made up my mind to work on it gradually over a long period of time. It's a very intense build, with almost on stock parts left on it. I've got a lot of the parts collected, but I'm $1500 into it and still have a good ways to go. I could have finished it in a couple of weeks, but I would have had to put all my other stuff on hold. I've gotten heavily involved in rock crawling, and I'm in a big club here that holds comps and stuff in three states, so I devote a lot of time and money to that. I'm hoping to get 10 or maybe 15 minutes out of it. It's going to be very lightweight, because I've started with a full carbon fiber chassis and worked my way up by shaving as much weight as I can and replacing all the aluminum parts on it with carbon fiber. The motor is absolutely huge, it looks like a beer can compared to a normal 540 size can.

 

[Elmerfudd]

Dang, does sound like a hefty project. Good luck with that and would like to see pics of it being built along the way if that is possible.

 

[danketchpel]

I'm pretty much a Nitro guy so here's my take on it.

Being a lover of internal combustion engines it's at the core of why I like RC models and a big part of the enjoyment for me. I love the tuning and other aspects related to piston engines. I also like being able to just put in more fuel and run and not having to wait for a battery to charge. I also like the sound and hearing the car shift gears, it's part of the experience for me.

Things I think are better (or my observations) about the new electrics are.

Zero noise - you can run in parks etc. and not get hassled

No after run procedure and chemicals (including fuel) required, no mess.

"Probably" faster and have instant torque and response. It's hard to compare a given electric motor to a piston engine. What size motor vs what displacement engine?

I think the motors will out last a Nitro engine, I'm not sure how long the LiPo batteries last and they are dang expensive.

I think a lot of it comes down to what you like and what's important to you. For me, the primary things that would motivate me to switch would be the ability to run in more places and the lack of clean up and chemicals. I just don't know how much I'd have to invest in batteries/chargers to be able to go out and bash for 2-3 hrs at time. Maybe others can fill in the that blank for you.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

If you don't abuse your batteries, they will last for years and years. I don't mean don't run them hard, I mean don't put them on a fence post and shoot them with a 30-30 and then charge and discharge them at excessive rates just to video tape them blowing up, as that seems to be the coolest thing on you tube (you tube- talk about the biggest waste of broadband that has ever been around and the most concentrated count of ignorant, stupid, mindless dummy zombies I've been able to find on the internet). As long as you cycle them about once a month and use the right charger, they will outlast most of your other RC stuff.

 

[Mattyfats420]

i started with Nitro also, and said ill never get one of those electrics. but than i got a little trinity 1/18 with a 6 cell 1100 Mah battery and was hooked from there. i had a Tricked out mini T, and now i have a rustler with a 9.6 HV battery and brushed motor and its really fast. i dont even feel the need to go brushless cuz its so fast for pretty decent on the money side. either way you go, brushed or brushless, you will have a blast with either a MT, stadium, or TC.
i still have a nitro Revo but thats what they race here so thats what i got. its going to be fun racing the Rustler also.

either or you will have a blast but if your strapped for cash and want some decently fast. go Electric