Good Ol Astro-Turf

[krimy123]

Hello everyone ,
Haven't been here a while , a lot of different stuff going on in the background,
One of the things going on is that I am currently making events / racetracks in my area ( Quebec City, Canada )
I am looking at different materials to do it. in my general area ( about 2-3 hours drive from where I am ) people usually make tracks out of dirt / clay , a few uses carpet but it's pretty rare since most track are outdoors and we have snow 5-6 months out of the year so carpet isnt really a smart move for outdoor track.
I am looking into making mine out of Astro-Turf or any type of turf for that matter.
I had a few questions about it :
1 - AstroTurf is a brand , does other brand turf do the same type of job or is there something different about Astroturf ?
2 - If I were to use other brands , what type of turf should I get since there is like 20-30 different type out there , some for sports , some for indoor gym , some for outdoor yards , etc. etc.
3 - Could I just use like "basic" turf out of Homedepot ? or I need to get more highend ones ??

Thanks !

 

[DavidB1126]

Welcome back! I have 0 knowledge about astro turf since there is no local turf tracks in my area but I know some stuff about carpet if you want to hear it. I seen 1 outdoor carpet track which is out in California (its always sunny and warm so no problem for them). A few people do outdoor astro turf tracks but not sure on what it would do due to the rain/snow. One of my favorite RC youtubers: Mark Santa Maria, built a small outdoor turf track in his drive way for mini/micro 1/16 - 1/28 RCs and its pretty cool but your doing 1/10 right?

Here is other videos about outdoor turf track video he did:

He has many videos about his local outdoor turf track. Hopefully that helps!

I seen one indoor turf track. Another RC youtuber: Roach RC did a couple videos about turf. https://www.youtube.com/@RoachRC/videos

I had found a couple of websites/articles that might help too.

https://returf.com/turf-for-r-c-race-tracks/
If you want to see some carpet action here is my B74 4wd 13.5 stock buggy on my new local carpet track. They had just expanded it. I believe the straight is around 70ft. They are using grey EOS style carpet. There is other carpet called black CRC carpet. Black CRC has more traction. grey EOS has less traction. I also believe that EOS is more stronger than CRC in the long run.

This was back before the track expansion:

This is more for fun but they are setting up a carpet drag strip. Right now it is 86ft and an extra 20 for braking:

 

[krimy123]

yeah basically I'm looking at either a big 1/10th or even possible 1/8th electric buggy / truggy.
I saw some of those videos as well , figured I would ask here since our winter conditions are quite harsh lol ( we just got 7 inches of snow today again lol )

 

[DavidB1126]

yeah basically I'm looking at either a big 1/10th or even possible 1/8th electric buggy / truggy.
I saw some of those videos as well , figured I would ask here since our winter conditions are quite harsh lol ( we just got 7 inches of snow today again lol )

Lol. For 1/10 there is alot. There is clay, packed/sealed dirt, dirt, carpet (black crc or grey eos) and turf. For 1/8 I mostly seen outdoor dirt or a dirt track over a hanger.

 

[krimy123]

yeah Like I said most of our tracks here are made of dirt / packed dirt and clay , but none of them are actually covered for winter , so we dont really have much place to run once winter comes over.
I was looking at making a track that was at least covered , maybe not fully insulated but at the very least covered for the winter. I just think that dirt / clay will be a real pain the bottom to maintain in the winter once temperature goes to minus 30-40 celcius ..... ence why the turf I thought would be a way better option.
I know at the end of the day the best thing is to actually have an indoor spot. But as of right now I can't build of the lot at least not until next year. so I'm looking at just making a roof over it and call it a day for the 2023 season.

 

[DavidB1126]

Well here is the thing. With dirt or clay you would need heavy machinery do change the layout. Unless its sealed dirt/clay.

With carpet / turf you can have the same carpet / turf and just switch around the ramps and lane markers to change the layout. Lane markers could be PVC pipe or like my new local track which uses fire hose.

It also depends on what you want to do with maintaining the track too. What ever track you do I would build a hanger over it or like a pavilion or something like that. It would be better if you could do it in a barn or all indoors.

Also depends if you want more high traction or lower traction. Carpet / astro turf are more high traction and most people use slipper clutches with thicker shock oil and diff oil. For carpet I use Schumacher Cactus / Jconcepts Swaggers on my B74.

Dirt and clay are lower traction and use a center diff (for a 4wd) or a ball diff (for 2wd) Thinner shock oil and diff oil. Dirt uses a a pin like tire. Clay uses a slick type tire and a traction sauce compound for more grip. For indoor clay I use Jconcepts Ellipse front and rear and tire traction spray. I would also use Jconcepts smoothies (slicks) with tire traction spray.
Oh you already mentioned stuff that i said. Lol.

 

[krimy123]

well I do really enjoy more traction type tracks , so carpet / astro would be more interesting for me personally and since we don't have any indoor carpet or astro track anywhere near ( unless you go onroad ) then it would be a different ball game for everyone.

I really want to make an indoor place , but like I said I probably wont have the money for this coming summer in order to build a massive place that fits codes and regulations in order to make it "legal"

As far as lane markers , I was looking at fire hose and other types of flexible tubing so that we can change the layout quite easily.

 

[Bogda89]

Hello everyone ,
Haven't been here a while , a lot of different stuff going on in the background,
One of the things going on is that I am currently making events / racetracks in my area ( Quebec City, Canada )
I am looking at different materials to do it. in my general area ( about 2-3 hours drive from where I am ) people usually make tracks out of dirt / clay , a few uses carpet but it's pretty rare since most track are outdoors and we have snow 5-6 months out of the year so carpet isnt really a smart move for outdoor track.
I am looking into making mine out of Astro-Turf or any type of turf for that matter.
I had a few questions about it :
1 - AstroTurf is a brand , does other brand turf do the same type of job or is there something different about Astroturf ?
2 - If I were to use other brands , what type of turf should I get since there is like 20-30 different type out there , some for sports , some for indoor gym , some for outdoor yards , etc. etc.
3 - Could I just use like "basic" turf out of Homedepot ? or I need to get more highend ones ??

Thanks !

Just get cheapest green turf option. Some tracks run grey or black office carpet but that surface is much harder on tires and they don't last as long as green turf type of carpet