Planning a 1/24 indoor track- your thoughts.

[PaPa K]

Been crawling and bashing around outdoors, also built indoor crawler course for use in the winter. Recently purchased a Losi Micro B and have been thinking indoor course in my garage or bonus room. Read through @Xraycer and @DavidB1126 and others posts on their setups. Still have a few question for those who run on indoor tracks.

Surface-have polished cement in garage and smooth LVP flooring in bonus room, neither gives great traction with the stock tires. Looking and interlocking 1/2” smooth foam tiles or outdoor carpet…pros/cons and thoughts?

Size- of course bigger is better, thinking 8x12’ to start, what would be a reasonable lane width for several micros at a time? Playing with several layouts in my head.

Lanes barriers-thinking 1/2” PVC, possibly wrapped in pipe insulation if need? Other options?

Sorry for the long post, looking to the RCT brain trust for ideas and things to watch for.

 

[ahr43]

@ PaPa K. My though is it's a good idea. Will give you and all-weather, all-season crawling course.

Here was my crawling table from back 7-8 years ago. Gone now, but it was a good exercise. Two 4x4ft reinforced tables built from 2x4, 2x6 with 1/2in plywood base. Used real rocks so need a strong surface. Also raising it made it easier to enjoy the experience. My RCs at the time were 1/18 1.9 comp crawlers. Probably too big for the 4x8ft course. 1/24 had not come on the scene at that time, but now think that size table would be ideal for that scale.

Here's my table set-up. Also put blue lamps in the overhead fixture to give me a 'night crawl' with lights out after dark in the workshop. Good lluck with your project. Hope you give it a try. Cheers. -AC

 

[PaPa K]

Nice course @ahr43. I have an indoor crawler course now, looking to build a road course for the Micro B for indoor road racing. I should have been a little more specific

 

[9x19]

@Xraycer used some of those interlocking foam squares (sold as exercise and children's play area mats) to create a road course in his garage. Barriers could be pool noodles cut and secured with double sided tape or a bit of hot glue or RTV.

Thread 'Garage Micro Track'

Dec 17, 2024

I've been really getting into micro racing, and have been using my garage quite a bit as a track. So far, it's been just running on the concrete floor, and using cones, pvc pipes, and pipe insulation as track walls/borders.
I've decided I want to step up my game a bit and set up a better track surface.
RCP tracks are available, but they are very pricey and aren't quick to set-up or break down. There are a numerous videos on YT with people using foam floor tiles for mini z tracks and the consensus is very positive. After searching around, I found the best deal from Walmart.com: 24 2'x2'...

• Xraycer
• Replies: 26
• Forum: Mini & Micro RC

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[ahr43]

Yeah, you being in North Idaho, winters can be long, cold and dark. An indoor course is a definite plus up for the RC hobby.

Think you said your grand-children are into RC with you. If a long term indoor garage course is in mind, perhaps a non-skid surface on the garage floor would be easier to maintain? Not having to lay down and pick up would be an advantage? Perhaps research on-road courses and see how they surface the track? Use of traction additive sauce may end up getting tracked into the house - not a good thing.

Anyway, that's about the extent of my thoughts on the subject. Good luck. Cheers. -AC

 

[PaPa K]

Dragging it back up….thoughts on lane width for running micro b sizes, thinking 12” or a bit wider for side by side racing. Overall all size is looking 10x12’ minimum maybe as big as 14x18’?

 

[ahr43]

Hey PaPa K. 12" is o.k. Perhaps a bit wider if you can squeeze it in?

Rule of thumb used for minimum on my back yard track was to place two principle runners end-to-end across the lane and add 1" on each side.

Micro-B measures out at 6.8" long. Using the above, that works out to 15.6" lane width. How does that sound?

Good luck. Looking forward to seeing the finish track. < AC >

 

[PaPa K]

Thanks @ahr43 sounds like a good start. Let me work on the layout I have and see what that does to the overall size. Pics when it happens…