I first got interested in RC trucks probably like most… I got one as a gift.  It was cheap & poorly constructed.  It didn’t go very fast, nor did the charge last long.  In fact it didn’t take too long before it stopped working all together.  After my mom threw it in the trash I quickly forgot about it.

One day in my mid-thirties I was wandering through a local Radio Shack and there it was – A radio controlled truck.   I remembered how my truck ran as a kid and wondered if they were any better.  After reading the box, talking to the Radio Shack guy I was heading home with a brand spanking new RC truck.

Once home I took it out of the box & had to wait 6 hours while it charged up.  After the truck it was ready to go I took it out in the back yard for its 1st test drive.

A few quick laps around the back yard reminded me how much fun this hobby was.  Here I was roaring through the grass, jumping off the patio, 4-wheeling around & generally having a blast.  You could really put one of those trucks through the ringer & it would just keep right on truck’n.

That was until my wife got involved in the story…

She opened up the back door and let our 90lbs Rhodesian Ridgeback out into the back yard.  He casually wandered into the back yard, and lay down in the grass.  I was worried because Ridgeback’s are sight hunters, with a strong prey instinct.  But, he did nothing… I was relieved.

All that came to an end on the 2nd pass through the back yard.  The Ridgeback got up, and bolted for the truck.  I gave it all the power it had, but all that did was make the chase more fun for Red.  He was on the truck in a few seconds.  The mauling was thorough and complete… he strode away proud of his accomplishments.  It was quick and painless, and I was thankful the poor truck didn’t suffer.

I tried to repair the damaged, but the poor guy never ran right after the incident.  It wasn’t long before the truck was retired to the big junkyard in the sky.

It wasn’t until several years later I thought of getting an RC that could out-run the Ridgeback.  My search led me to gas RC trucks.  Nitro RC Trucks can easily outrun a Ridgeback, and they also run longer than electric.

By then my Ridgeback was gone, but I know he would have given a gas RC truck a run for its money.  And quite possibly he might have been up to the challenge…

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Here is a question from Yahoo Answers, asked often by people looking to get into the RC Truck hobby…

I’m going to buy a rc car when i get my tax return. I want a to buy a rc truck i can take off roading. i was just wondering which is better for off road gas or electric?

When I started in R/C many moons ago, I started with an electric Tamiya Dirt Thrasher. I was fun and all, but you could only get 5-7 min of run time on a battery pack and charging and conditioning multiple batteries was very tedious, taking away from the fun. My next r/c was a HPI nitro powered truck. The difference was HUGE. More power, more run time. Yes there is more maintenance involved to keep it running and clean, but I am still a nitro fan!! If this is going to be your first R/C car, go with a Traxxas T-max or Revo. They come ready to run, just need batteries and fuel and replacement parts are readily available, because you will break parts. Good Luck!

OK, here’s my take on it. It really depends on your personality. If you want to enjoy maximum speed & power you should go with gas RC trucks. They typically run longer than electric, and are a lot more fun to drive. The only thing is you need to perform maintenance. Plain and simple your gas powered RC truck needs to be taken care of. If you don’t, then your truck will have problems. Taking care of a gas RC truck is not all that difficult… but it needs to be done.

Now, if you want to skip all the maintenance issues and don’t mind sacrificing speed & performance, then go with the electric. You’ll also have shorter run times, but that is easy to work around. Just keep an extra fully charged battery around to swap out.

Personally I’d prefer the gas RC truck, but that’s just my opinion.

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Here is another take on Gas vs. Nitro. Now, it’s primary about cars, but the same points apply to trucks. He covers a couple of points about price of Nitro. And as he says even though Nitro is expensive you do get long runtimes. But, it is cheaper to run gas overall.

Another up side to Nitro is it’s easier to fuel up a nitro truck vs. a gas truck. You see gas RC trucks run off gas. The same you put into your car. However you have to mix the gas with some oil. That’s because the engine for gas RC trucks are usually two-stroke. Very similar to most power engines you see in yard equipment. For some people that can be a put-off, and for others they don’t mind.

At ezine artilces Ian Pennington has this to say about it…

Looking into RC cars as a hobby will be costly, but very worth the time and cost. There are pro’s and con’s to gas and nitro RC cars. Choosing the right RC car you want is something that might take you a while to figure out. For instance you might want to pick a RC car suitable to you. Meaning the level that you can handle. Nitro RC cars might be harder to handle because of the power they have. Gas power cars are also powerful but there lower maintenance.

Nitro gives you more power, and usually you’ll faster speeds. You can expect to run at 50+ mph. So, you are figuring… hey why not just run nitro and go faster. Not so fast – Gas tends to give you more torque. That means you can usually turn a larger drive shaft. Which brings up the torque vs. power debate… one, which I’ll not settle or get into here. I’ll just finish it by saying – It all boils down to your preferences.

You can read the rest of the article Difference Between Nitro Power and Gas Cars. To learn more about nitro power and gas cars, please visit Collecting Electronic Toys Online for current articles and discussions.

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OK, you read about Gas RC Trucks, Nitro RC Trucks and you wonder what is the difference. Well, it depends. You see there is both gas & nitro powered RC trucks. However, most everybody uses the words interchangeably. In fact most when most people are talking about gas powered RC trucks they really mean Nitro trucks. The mix-up is so common it has become accepted.

This will a first in a series of posts discussing the difference between Gas & Nitro powered RC trucks.

So, what are the differences?

Well the 1st thing is size…

Gas RC Trucks are usually 1:5 or 1:6 scale. That is a pretty big RC vehicle. They are typically 2 feet long. In comparison to Nitro RC Trucks which are usually 1:10 up to 1:18 scale. They are much smaller anywhere from 14-19”. You can see the size difference between the two at RC Hobby Universe.

Plus he discusses another advantage of gas vs. nitro…

One of the first great advantages to a gasoline powered RC Truck, Car, or Buggy, is that one tank of gasoline can last for over 45 minutes. You don’t have to worry about short run times like you do with nitro and electric powered RC vehicles…

Getting longer run times is always funnier than messing around recharging or refilling. After all we are out there to enjoy the driving, jumping & rock climbing.

So, as you can see there are trade offs with gas vs. nitro. Gas gives you longer run times, but you have a much larger vehicle. You just have to figure out what your needs & wants are in a truck.

Next time we will go over the differences between the engines & talk about the types of fuel.

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