12th newbie questions

[Timee80]

Thinking of having a go at 12th but need to know a few things first.
What chassis should i choose that will accept a lipo and be fairly easy to setup? (never going back to nimh cells now)
What range of tyres should i buy?
I have a 9650 low profile servo that i assume will do the job but only have larger sized esc's. Can i buy a bodyshell to allow for the extra height or do i need to invest more money in a slimmer esc?
What spares are essential to carry?
Anything else a newbie usually slips up on when starting out?
Any advice appreciated

[Chequered Flag Racing]

What chassis should i choose that will accept a lipo and be fairly easy to setup?
Best to choose one that is popular at where you plan to race. Most of today's lipo chassis cars have basic setup that will work at most tracks but then need a little fine tuning when the grip changes/comes up. BMI Link cars, RC125R's, CRC's probably being the most popular.


What range of tyres should i buy?
Depends on the venue's carpet as to which ones to get. So seek advice where you intend to race.

I have a 9650 low profile servo that i assume will do the job
Yes or you could use the Futaba 9602, or KO 947's etc


only have larger sized esc's. Can i buy a bodyshell to allow for the extra height or do i need to invest more money in a slimmer esc?
Buy a closed cockpit shell as these give you more room under the shell for your electronics

What spares are essential to carry?
lower front wishbones, side springs, damper tube lube, shock springs

Originally Posted by Chequered Flag Racing

read this all of this
http://www.carsrcracing.co.uk/?page_id=65

and go here
http://www.rcracechat.com/vb/forumdi...-Scale-Circuit

o0ple is more off-road than on-road but your lucky I swing both ways

if your really keen read all of this
http://www.rctech.net/forum/electric...-12-forum.html

[Timee80]

local to me is probably chesterfield and stocksbridge. What tyres do you recommend for there? and where do you buy the kits / tyres from?

[Chequered Flag Racing]

Originally Posted by Timee80

local to me is probably chesterfield and stocksbridge. What tyres do you recommend for there? and where do you buy the kits / tyres from?

kits and tyres from

Action Model Centre / ask for Wim Goss

Microtech / keith Robertson

there will be other shops out there

have PM'd slowone on here and hopefully he'll reply here within a day or two

[KRob]

Originally Posted by Chequered Flag Racing

kits and tyres from

Action Model Centre / ask for Wim Goss

MICROTECH / keith Robertson

there will be other shops out there

have PM'd slowone on here and hopefully he'll reply here within a day or two

Slight adjustment....

[steelie600]

Ive got a Serpent s120 setup with spares for sale (well not exactly me but its a mate of mine) enough to keep you going for a season if not more, just add receiver and go!!!

[Chequered Flag Racing]

Originally Posted by KRob

Slight adjustment....

sorry Keith

original post sorted

[Chequered Flag Racing]

Originally Posted by Timee80

Anything else a newbie usually slips up on when starting out?
Any advice appreciated

read this also
http://richardchang.com/hobby.php?topic=112setup

[Mad-Wolfie]

I've not been doing 12th for very long (only a few months) but here is my 2p worth

Originally Posted by Timee80

What chassis should i choose that will accept a lipo and be fairly easy to setup? (never going back to nimh cells now)

If you want to use LiPo, go for a link car.. end of discussion.

although if looking for a good starter car, go for an Associated L3 or L4 as these seem to be the benchmark.

You "could" go for the FTX Phantom which is basically a cheap L4 copy for about £100 as a good starter car, but i'd sooner look for a 2nd hand L4 for about the same money.

but why not run cells on 12th? a lot of people still use cells & find they get better performance, Personally speaking the only advantage of a LiPo in a 12th is run times, some people who have tried LiPo tend to go back to cells because they say the car needs a bit of weight to keep it planted & less twitchy.

Originally Posted by Timee80

What range of tyres should i buy?

i've started using Xceed tyres.. there are 3 compounds soft, medium, hard - none of this confusing coloured dot nonsence which confuses a newbie. a Medium/hard compo is roughly identical to a Pink & Grey

Originally Posted by Timee80

I have a 9650 low profile servo that i assume will do the job but only have larger sized esc's. Can i buy a bodyshell to allow for the extra height or do i need to invest more money in a slimmer esc?

yes, look at the older generation protoform shells (probably in the bargain section of the model shops these days) as they are quite tall - if it's for club racing these will be fine.

you could remove the fan/heatsink from your ESC (assuming it has one) or trim the heatsink - as it's running 4-cell/1s it shouldn't pull the same sort of juice (providing the gearing is spot on) so shouldn't get as hot as if running 6 cell/2s.

Some people even go as far as to remove the case from the ESC & shrinkwrap the PCB & stick it to the chassis.

Originally Posted by Timee80

What spares are essential to carry?

t-bars (if you buy a T-bar car), shock springs & wheel studs. Plus body pins as you tend to lose a lot! Plus tyres will be your biggest expence.

Originally Posted by Timee80

Anything else a newbie usually slips up on when starting out?
Any advice appreciated

Always make sure the ride-height is set right - use a £1 coin (or one of those shopping trolley tokens) as a basic gauge, if you can just slide a £1 coin under the car from all angles it should be OK, if not raise the car. Because as the tyres wear the ride height will drop & you may lose a couple of mm of height in a nights racing.. any lower you may find gunge on the bottom of your car which is a sure sign it's bottoming out.

Make sure the transmitter settings & ackermann are set right, it's no point running a 100% dual rate sweep & any high steering end point adjustments because the car will turn very quickly anyway & going to high will just make the car harder to drive.

Hope this helps.

[Losi..Sam]

Hi mate
personally I would go for a link car because you will find that they are in some ways easter to set up. what sort of budjet do you have, the more info we get the more we can help you
pm me anytime if you want to ask me a question. I will help you with that i can

Sam

[Timee80]

you have pm losi sam

[TrevCoult]

The only reason people say that a T bar car is easier to set up, and a car with cells is easier to drive is because that's what people have been running for years! A LiPo link car is comparatively new and not so many people at club level have much experience of them. I've been running a link car with LiPo since the start of the year and am now faster with that than I was with T bar/cells.

Anyone new to a class needs a bit of help. I suggest coming over to Chesterfield on a Saturday night and talking to a few people, it's worth far more than a few posts on a forum.

Oh, and if you're going to run LiPo DEFINITELY get a link car, as mentioned above. If you get a T bar car and saddle pack LiPo you'll be almost on your own.

There's lots of good advice in the posts above. Take particular notice of SlowOne and Chequered Flag Racing, some good experience there. KRob's not so bad too

Trev

[rocketrob]

Originally Posted by TrevCoult

The only reason people say that a T bar car is easier to set up, and a car with cells is easier to drive is because that's what people have been running for years! A LiPo link car is comparatively new and not so many people at club level have much experience of them. I've been running a link car with LiPo since the start of the year and am now faster with that than I was with T bar/cells.

Trev - isn't it possible that either way you'd be faster this year than last year?
"link" cars have been out for about 20 years now, and until they have been definitively adopted as the industry standard (and t-bar cars never stage a comeback, as surely will happen) I think it's a little early to be making definitive statements either way.

[Timee80]

I thank everyone who as given advice to me so far, its much appreciated, and for the pm's ive received, but alot of the info im gettng seems to contradict each other with regards to what to buy as a first car and which type of chassis is easier to setup (with or without cells).
It seems the T bar vs link debate is very heated

[Losi..Sam]

Originally Posted by Losi..Sam

Hi mate
personally I would go for a link car because you will find that they are in some ways easter to set up. what sort of budjet do you have, the more info we get the more we can help you
pm me anytime if you want to ask me a question

Sam

Thread above edited
I said the wrong thing :/

Sam

[Chequered Flag Racing]

You "could" go for the FTX Phantom which is basically a cheap L4 copy for about £100 as a good starter car, but i'd sooner look for a 2nd hand L4 for about the same money.

DON'T touch the Phantom. Falls apart if it so much as looks like having a crash

You should be able to get a very good L4 pllus spares for a lot less than £100