New to Crawlers/ Scale 4x4's

[Valsmere]

Hey All,
New to this side of the rc world but not new to rc world itself. I have done Tamiya buggies and a lot of on road in the past 10 to 15 years. I currently have a tamiya F-150 pickup. I am really looking at the Axial SCX 10 Honcho. I like the kit form so if I break it I can fix it. I was just wondering if this is a good place to start this side of the RC world. I really like the looks of the "scale" trucks/truggies. I plan on doing some light crawling but mostly trail runs while my son will be using the F150.
So a few questions if no one minds:
1.Do I need LIPO batts or can I use nimh?
2.Should I shoot right for the brushless motors or start with the regular 540 cans?
3. Which transmitter, do I need to jump up to a 4 channel right away or can I upgrade later?
4. Which ESC? I have used novaks in the past but that was a while ago.
5. Anything I missed?
Thanks in advance guys I really appreciate the advice. I love some of the rigs you guys are running they look great. Oh and I can't wait to get starrted, in the next month I will be buying the kit I have already checked out RPP hobbies on line site and it looks good.
Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Valsmere

[JeremyH]

Originally Posted by Valsmere

1.Do I need LIPO batts or can I use nimh? Nope, you can run either. Just make sure that if you switch to lipo, you have the proper charger and a low voltage cutoff or an ESC with a LVC built-in.

2.Should I shoot right for the brushless motors or start with the regular 540 cans? No need for brushless, brushed motors will work perfectly fine in these trucks and will be quite a bit cheaper.

3. Which transmitter, do I need to jump up to a 4 channel right away or can I upgrade later? A regular 2 channel will work and you can upgrade later. 2.4GHz systems are quite nice versus the old MHz. I use the Spektrum DX3R for just about all of my RCs (on road and off road).

4. Which ESC? I have used novaks in the past but that was a while ago. I like the Castle Creations products. Most of them can run both NiMH and Lipo and will handle quite a bit of voltage (generally more than the Novak stuff). They will also run both brushed and brushless motors and can be easily programmed with the Castle Link via your computer. The Sidewinder is a good, cheap ESC from Castle.

5. Anything I missed? You seem to be on the right track!

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[Valsmere]

JeremyH
Thanks for the info it helps me out a lot. Now I can plan out what I need now and what I can wait on. I do like the 2.4 ghz radios they look the best. I have looked into the Castle Creations equiptment and it looks real good. Tha tradio was the one I was looking into also. Now I can't wait to drop some $$'s and start building! Thanks for the info. The RC stuff has come a long way since I first starrted. It was a long time ago!

Valsmere

[JeremyH]

Originally Posted by Valsmere

The RC stuff has come a long way

It sure has! Good luck with your build.