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Best First R/C Car for Kids

October 8, 2018 by justin 5 Comments

My son and I got 2wd Slash trucks for his birthday and Father’s Day respectively. Since my daughter is left-handed, I would occasionally swap out the radio for the left-handed Arrma ATX-300, put the ESC in “Training Mode” (50% speed) and let ‘er rip.

Swapping out the radio was getting old. Plus one time I left the ESC in training mode when I hit the track. You can imagine my surprise when I’m getting passed in the back straight like I’m standing still, wondering where all the power went 😵

Something Smaller

Why not get her a car/truck of her own? Something smaller and better suited to a 5 year-old. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cars, Electric Off-Road Tagged With: battery, brushed, kids, LaTrax, RTR, SCT, short course truck, training, Traxxas

Left Handed RC Transmitters

September 24, 2018 by justin 11 Comments

My daughter is left handed and she also loves to drive R/C cars with dad and her brother. To make sure she has a good experience, she needs the appropriate tool – a proper left handed RC transmitter. I’ve seen several lefties use standard right-handed transmitters. They hold the grip in their right hand to work the trigger, and the steering wheel faces away, so they reach around the front to work the steering with their left hand.

My left-handed daughter instinctively did just this with a normal transmitter (Tx). Even at only 5 years old, her brain told her to steer with her dominant hand. While it works for many, it’s unfortunate. Left-handed transmitters are not widely available for people entering the hobby, so they try to make it work with a right-handed Tx. By the time they can afford a model that can be converted to left-handed, they’ve already gotten used to contorting themselves, so what should seem natural feels strange.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cars, Electric Off-Road, Electric On-Road Tagged With: budget racing, Flysky, kids, left handed

Speed vs. Consistency

September 10, 2018 by justin 2 Comments

This is an anecdote addendum to my story arc as an RC driver. I’m still not great, but I’m getting better, and in the last month I earned three 2nd place spots at club races 🏆 I’m going to be honest about how I wound up there, but it’s really a commentary on consistency.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cars, Electric Off-Road, Electric On-Road Tagged With: budget racing, training, VRC

3906 E-Maxx CVD Upgrades

August 13, 2018 by justin 2 Comments

After doing a lipo battery upgrade to my friend’s 1st gen (3906) E-Maxx, we discovered that if you went full reverse followed by full forward, the truck would basically do a flip in-place.

We didn’t consider that this is very unfriendly to the drivetrain. After about 10-20 flips (or attempts) the E-Maxx was now front wheel drive.


[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cars, Electric Off-Road Tagged With: E-Maxx, throwback, Traxxas

E-Maxx 3906 LiPo Battery Upgrade

July 30, 2018 by justin 1 Comment

My good friend Joe has an old E-Maxx – not wanting to miss out on any bashing and crashing fun, I had him dig it out. It’s an oldie but a goodie. A 1st Generation E-Maxx with dual motors, dual batteries and a 2-speed transmission. It’s the one with the chassis that looks like this:

It’s also a bit of a relic. NiMH batteries, brushed motors, and AM radio aren’t exactly state-of-the-art. But I don’t want to upgrade everything, I just wanted to get it back on the road – so where do we start?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cars, Electric Off-Road Tagged With: battery, E-Maxx, throwback, Traxxas

Flite Fest Ohio 2018

July 16, 2018 by justin Leave a Comment

Flite Fest Ohio 2018 is on the books – we went, we flew, we crashed. Here’s a little brain-dump of lessons learned from our second year.

More Stick Time

My first year I spent a lot of time building a project that ultimately didn’t fly. For me it was a disappointment. So this year I did a build ahead of time and planned to do much more flying. It turned out to be much more crashing because I didn’t have all of the bugs worked out of my plane. It did fly, and it helped me achieve my goal of more stick time at the event. However, the stick time paled in comparison to the time I spend in the bean field looking for my plane after a crash. You haven’t fully experienced Flite Fest until you’ve gone looking for a downed plane in the bean field.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cars, Electric Off-Road, Fixed Wing, Flight, Rotor Tagged With: FliteFest, FliteTest, jump, kids, SCT, short course truck, Slash, Traxxas

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Meatball Racing

Cars, kids, and crashing since 2006. Let's talk about having fun, and being inclusive not exclusive. They're just toy cars after all. More about Meatball Racing.

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