My 1st propper run ending with my first BIG crash. :) :) :) (Long post)-

[TheSweeney]

First of all I gotta say, holy moly. Crashing your pride and joy is a LOT more fun than i expected.

Well today I took my smartech Winner sport ( I know its a CHEAP car but its all I could afford and its a LOT better than I expected)over to an empty parking lot for its first High speed run. Its only just been broken in and this was the first time I was gonna give it a thrashing :madface:

So I get to the car-park and try to start the thing up. It wouldnt start and sounded like it wasn't 'fireing' at all. I checked the plug and that was A-OK. I leaned it in a bit and eventually got it going.
BUT it was reving up and going nowhere (I need help with that one later). I gave it a little push and it kicked into action. 'SWEET' I thought.

So I'm driving it round, at full throttle for a lot of the time, and then my worst nightmare, I went to apply the brake but it appeared that My Rx and Tx had lost contact! The buggy started hurtling forward at full speed, heading for a for a very sturdy Steel fence and it still had a good 100m to the fence in which it continued picking up speed!

For a split second I felt a little sick LOL I then, rather stupidly decided to run after it hoping that I would come into range again. After maybe 3 steps I realised it was a futile attempt. Then as quickly as the feeling of nausea came and went, I realised that The buggy WAS gonna crash BIG and there probably wasn't going to be much left of it and there wasn't a thing I could do about it.

AsI realised this, I thought what the hell, I might as well enjoy it! =devil

The next few seconds seemed to go In slow motion while my buggy was travelling at what seemed like mach 1.
I stood there with a big cheesey grin on my face and braced for impact..............BANG the car it the fence so hard it looked like it went through it. It hit the fence and cartwheeld off it about 3 foot in the air.
Immediately I got a rush of adrenilin (Sp.?), and maybe shock, and burst out laughing. But the feeling of nausea returned just as quickly as the car landed on its feet, engine still at 101% throttle, and started heading for the fence on the other side of the car-lot. Luckily it hit a bigish rock and flipped allowing me to get close enough to it to apply the brakes which, for the first time since owning the buggy, killed the engine.

I got over to the buggy expecting to find a pile of nuts and bolts, especially after all the smartech hroror stories. It was covered in mud (it went through a puddle immediatley before hitting the fence), but the car seemed totally unharmed!!! I couldnt believe it! I was also very impressed with the speed it reached before smashing head on into the reinforced steel fence LMAO.

I took it back to our 1:1 car and tried to restart it and it started 1st pull. Unbeleivable. But I put it on the deck and it tested it only at min. throttle, and it seemed to go out of range at about 5ft away!!! could this be because the reciever is wet???

Anyways I decided to call it a night right there.

Moral of the story is, Crashing IS FUN. LOL
I suppose the moral of the story could also be.....
Learn the operating range of your radio gear! or
Dont use cheap batteries for radio gear! or
FIT A FAILSAFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which is what I'm gonna buy next! Please dont lecture me about not having one already, We all make mistakes. I just can't believe how much of a laugh it was to learn from this mistake WELL WORTH IT IMO :madface:

Now, back to my buggy problems:
What could have caused the wheels not to move when I'm giving it plenty'o'throttle? This also happened when I got the car home and started it again.

What is the average operating range for some cheap radio gear?

Could poor Tx batteries have been the cause of it losing contact with the Rx?

Do you think the 5ft range problem will resolve itself when the electronics dry out?

I dont know why I'm asking so many questions, I'm sure most of you got bored half way through reading this and quit already

I think I'm still in shock, so I'm off to open a can and kick back for a while.

See ya.
TheSweeney.

Oh yeah, Is there anything I should check for after such a bad crash???

 

[militarymaxx]

Same thing happened to me after a hard land. The landing was hard enough to knock loose one of the receiver batteries (have since upgraded to a NiMH hump-oack), and as we all know, the last signal received is what the buggy kept doing. Yup, full tilt southbound with the hammer down!!! Good news is that a dirt bank kept the damage down to a minimum, bad news is that it took me so long to get to it that the over-reving damaged the engine. You said it, FAILSAFE. I put one in the very next day.
I hear tell that even with the cheaper radios, the range is still pretty significant but yes, weak batteries (both in the rcvr and tx can greatly reduce that range. Check the condition of you antennae wire. Verify good length and thet it's not broken internally. Thouroughly dry out the trons before you turn anything on. What is happening to your cluthcbell and/or spur gear when you are applying the throttle ? Need more info. As you work through this try placing it on top of something, get it off the ground. You can still check steering and throttle at different distances without it running away from you. As far as what to check after a crash like that.....check everything. Some things might be so minor you may never see them without some disassembly. Oh yeah, did I mention FAILSAFE.

 

[nitromaniac]

Oh yeah, Is there anything I should check for after such a bad crash??? [/B]

Yes! Check all your screws, check your clucth out, It may have binded causing it to not move. check to see if all your electronics are completly dry before you run again. Check your batteries and/or get new ones, low batteries without a failsafe is just asking for trouble. check your throttle and brake linkage and make sure they move freely and properly,and most important! check into getting a fail safe and throttle return spring! even with this small amount of insurance, things can still go wrong. here is a link to my first really bad day! good luck!

https://www.rcnitrotalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8515

 

[tbsleeper]

it sounds like u never broke the engine in before you used it?!?! i hope i never experience anything like that because it almost happeaned wen my car ran out of batteries and i started it:devil:

 

[cajunVFR]

THROTTLE SPRING!
I can not say it louder. It will save your ass.
Failsafes are good too but I like the spring.
Cool story, hope your car is ok.

 

[Diver6127]

I put a failsafe in before I even ran my NTC3 as a "just in case" thing then put the TRS in after the "storm chaser" story of Nitromaniac.

Check your electronics after drying them out completely. If they're still good or even if you buy new ones, waterproof with balloons plastidip. Do both if you're neurotic about it.

 

[Ta Da Maxx]

Another reason for he car not going right away is it being rich. By the way u described it, that's wat it sounds like to me. Get a temp gauge and do some fine tuning before u buy any new driveterrain parts. See if u can't find an old spring somewhere that u can hook up to your buggy as a trs, that's wat I did, and it's saved my T-maxx's ass 3 times now, failsafe also. due to dead RX batts. As people have said, look over EVERYTHING. It just seems too odd to me, for that big of a crash u broke nothing on a smartech buggy. But it could be I don't know, just look over it real well. Just my .02