Choosing Your First Remote Control Truck

If you are thinking of buying your first remote control truck, here are some things you need to keep in mind. I would advise you pick yourself up an RTR (ready to run) kit to begin with. These RTR RC trucks often come fully assembled, or require only minimal assembly like gluing the tires to the wheels. Most of these models now also include a 2 channel radio and the servos pre-installed, saving you the hassle of trying to match a radio to servos.

A lot of dirt gets accumulated under the chassis and it affects the screw heads. To clean the screw heads under the chassis, spray denatured alcohol on screw heads and then pick the dirt with the help of paper clip. It is recommended to use denatured alcohol as it seems to work better than the simple green or motor cleaner.

Ready to run kits may be slightly more expensive than their basic unassembled kit counterparts, but if you do not have the building experience, it will save you weeks of work in assembly time, frustration and errors

Keeping spare starter batteries and giving a rain check on your tx, rx, glow starts before going out with your car also helps. This is a must when your batteries or lights etc have been in use for a while.

Some more experienced racers, or even some very adventurous newcomers, may want to build their RC monster truck from scratch, so that they get to know all the components and how they are assembled. But even with a RTR model, you will gain this knowledge anyhow by maintaining, modifying and tweaking your truck once you start to use it. If you do plan to build your own truck then allow yourself 3-5 days to put it together.

You can expect to pay $50 - $100 more for a ready to run RC nitro truck and you will probably be looking at paying $300 - $500 for a good level reliable RC truck.

To fully get going right off the rails, you will need some extras which you should remember to add to your order, or you won’t get your truck out on that first day! You will obviously need some nitro fuel and a fuel bottle is a better option for refuelling to avoid any fuel spillage. As well as this you will need a glow plug heater and you may need an electric starter pack if your truck does not have a pull cord start. It is also recommended to have some oil for routine lubrication maintenance after its first run. All in all these extras should not cost you any more than $50 - $100.

Most major manufacturers now produce fully ready to run monster trucks including Traxxas, CEN, Tamiya and Team Associated.

Yes, this can be an expensive hobby, but weigh this up against the adrenalin pumping action of these RC monster trucks and there is no contest! After all – it’s only money!

About The Author
Alan Chestnutt is the webmaster of www.bestrctrucks.com where you can find news and reviews of the latest ready to run RC monster trucks as well as online buying advice.