Imitation rocks

[pdxrcunderground]

Hey everyone. New here. I own an offroad carpet track in Portland, and was thinking about adding either a rock racing course or a crawler course. It would have to be moveable between other races. Wondering if there are any lightweight fake rocks or systems available.

Any help would be awesome. There has never been an indoor rock crawler/racer space in Portland that I know of. I would love any help

Thanks

Kevin

[crashlot2]

something like this https://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Essen...80345497&psc=1

[hillbillyrc]

There was an indoor crawler place out in sandy,or for a few years.

Something made of wood and expanding foam carved in to rocky terrain and such might be doable. I believe there is a lhs in se portland that has a demo display that they bring out to some bigger car shows at the convention center and expo center and let people drive stock scx10s on it to try them out.

[Brake Weight]

For any sort of U4 or racing at speed I would think the rocks should be real so that they have some weight to them.

There are several threads going where people have made backyard courses. I can’t remember what sub forum.

[elRayRay]

Originally Posted by pdxrcunderground

Hey everyone. New here. I own an offroad carpet track in Portland, and was thinking about adding either a rock racing course or a crawler course. It would have to be moveable between other races. Wondering if there are any lightweight fake rocks or systems available.

Any help would be awesome. There has never been an indoor rock crawler/racer space in Portland that I know of. I would love any help

Thanks

Kevin

I'm also in Portland and would love it if there was an indoor crawling spot. If you want to do some market research, head down to Elk Rock Island Saturday or Sunday mornings, or probably any morning/early afternoon. There were at least a few dozen of us out there on Easter Sunday, until church(es) let out. Then the place got swamped with people enjoying the beautiful weather and surroundings.

The issues with ERI:
1) The Willamette sometimes prevents walking over the land bridge to the island itself (where the best/vast majority terrain is) if it's high enough
2) It's an absolutely beautiful area that I have been enjoying for years before having a crawler. Therefore, sometimes I feel guilty for not always "treading lightly" and going off-trail
3) It can definitely get crowded and not everyone likes the sound of a dozen drills surrounding you

The terrain is unbeatable in the greater Portland vicinity...lines for days. Spending 4+ hours there does not get boring. If you want to go out sometime, hit me up.

:beer:

[nightcrawler48]

One way to build a crawler course and to make it portable is to use 4 ft x 4 ft pieces of plywood to build sections. If you make the driving surface flat at all the outside edges of the plywood then you can also change the locations of each piece to have a different course layout every time you put it back together.

One way to build the crawling surface is with a framework of some kind, wood or styrofoam, add and shape the contours with metal mesh and cover with a mortar or concrete mix. It will be a little heavy but that will help keep the pieces butted together where they meet.

[Inspector86]

I assume you mean Portland, OR not Portland, ME.

[hillbillyrc]

Originally Posted by Inspector86

I assume you mean Portland, OR not Portland, ME.

Yes.

I don't think portland, me is referred to as PDX. Since That's the airport code for portland, or.

[GCi in ATX]

If there are climbing gyms in town, hit them up for old worn out or broken holds. You could make something similar to a climbing board, just for crawlers.

[pdxrcunderground]

Thanks everyone. I'm actually thinking outside the box a bit here and want to make a rock racing course out of different materials. It has to be light and moveable, as this is a indoor offroad track 3 days a week. I remember when they said that no one would race offroad rc on carpet, and now its the fastest growing area in rc racing. I'm thinking of building or finding alternative things to rocks. Just have never done this, so looking for scale. I think some of our jumps would actually be cool with some obstacles on them. As it rains 9 months out of the year here, might be something cool to build a community for.

[Brake Weight]

How much are you willing to spend? Do you have a pallet jack? Would a pallet jack even be maneuverable on the indoor course? Is there space for an outdoor course?


Costs. Maybe donations from a local landscaper/block and brick company. Maybe locals could bring in some local rocks and stuff from off-road/path excursions. Put an ad on CraigsList for any personal yard relandscaped refuse. Couldn’t hurt.

Modular obstacles/terrain could be easily handled by a pallet jack. A regular appliance dolly could be modified with stiff arms/outriggers to carry a pallet or sheet of plywood at a near vertical angle. Harbor Freight has D ring anchor point on the cheap.

An outdoor course could be built on donations and if the driver’s box was covered people would still race. Maybe even do like a NASCAR road track with a faster outer loop and a technical infield. Workers flipping cars back over could be in bright yellow slicker suits. LOL.

[ferp420]

spray foam wire mesh and aircrete
aircrete is light enuff to float
the spray foam would make shaping the course easy enuff
the wire mesh helps hold the aircrete together you can lay your courses out on plywood or just mold handles in to the rock shapes you build but having a good base would keep things together

cut your plywood to the shape of the track you already have then build your rock course on that 2 people should be able to move each section with out to much work

a crawler course could be made out of anything you dont have to use rock but you could use the rock racing couse peices as part of the crawler couse when its not set up for rock racing prop up one end to make things harder lean them against the walls you could even build a crawler couse us8ng shelves mounted on a wall if the floor space isent available ckrc had som3 shelf mounted sections on there outdoor couse makes a great way to get elevation changes in a flat space

you can you tube aircrete people are making there own on the cheap ill bet this is 5he best choice for a strong light wheight course

[Brake Weight]

Shelving is a great idea. Some of the industrial kind at Lowe’s have stainless grating you could build on and not oxidize for years.

[hillbillyrc]

https://www.pdxrcunderground.com/

After checking this out shelving for a crawler course is likely the best option Around the pit area. Rock racer some sort of rock type panel that can be placed on sections of the track and be stacked out of the way on normal track days.

[pdxrcunderground]

This isn't going to be a crawler course, it's going to be a U4 racing course. We don't have the space for rock crawling. We want to do rock racing. Using the existing course and adding "rocks" in different places for a night of fun.

[ferp420]

Originally Posted by pdxrcunderground

This isn't going to be a crawler course, it's going to be a U4 racing course. We don't have the space for rock crawling. We want to do rock racing. Using the existing course and adding "rocks" in different places for a night of fun.

putting some rocks on a race course isent realy rock racing maybe build rocks on folding tables anynway you can make elevation changes on the track will make it alot more fun and alot more realistic