Indoor RC Rock Crawling in Milwaukee

[schmenzer]

Guys,

With colder weather closer than I'd like to think I am working in an Indoor Rock Crawling track in Milwaukee. This track will be available on a limited basis most weekends, and possibly a weeknight or two, during the cold months. I basically plan to have it going from September through April. This works well with the Mini-Z and 1/18th scale track I am running in the same facility.

The location is Mini Speedway in Milwaukee and is just across the river from Shorewood in a Multi-use Loft Space with most other tenants being artists, painters or light manufacturing.

The available space is about 18 x 20 feet.

I am building the course in the corner so I can utilize the other space for part of an RCP track we run Mini-Zs on.

So far I finished painting the floor, built 4 "troughs" to hold rocks, made a couple of risers and have collected up a bunch of rocks.

The "troughs" are 30 inches wide. 2 are 8 feet long and 2 are 10 feet long. The center riser is 5 feet square.

It takes a bunch of rocks to fill the "troughs"! I have some good rocks and construction debris in the 2 8-foot troughs and I am happy with how the course crawls so far. With only the 8 footers mostly filled, the course I've been trying in it is about 32 feet long, would have 8 gates and takes about 2 minutes to run. Of course this is not 1/2 done yet. I expect the final course to be about 70-80 feet long and take 6 to 8 minutes with 10 -12 gates.

I plan on having competitions with 2.2 rigs and a "Spec" class with the new Losi MRC.

More as I go.

Greg

[oicu812]

Just ordered a losi! Winter is rough. Ill be there! Are the mini z's stock? Im in for that too(dont own one yet)!

[newbie8324]

thats looking pretty nice. cant wait for the first comp!

[Stormin2u]

Nice idea good luck with your venture. The Losi mini truck will be pefect.

[MrNate]

Sweet! I just drove by a place that had a huge pile of free rock and I thought some of it looked like it might be good for a rock garden / crawler course. PM me if you want to know where it is or I may be able to possibly pick some up and deliver it, depending on where your course is at.

[schmenzer]

Dave and I got more rocks on Saturday so I filled in a bunch of spots. Pix soon. We will need more rocks plus we are working on a rebar chicken wire and concrete deal for the corner.

I am open to ideas for artificial terrain. My original thought was to be all rock but, for elevation gain I'd like to add some other materials.

[schmenzer]

I found this thread with a decent looking course.

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/virginia/113262-hobby-town-lakeridge-indoor-crawling-course-post1253250.html

I like the idea of using real rocks along the flats and artificial for the transitions and high lines. Will incorporate some ideas in my course.

[John]

Originally Posted by schmenzer

I found this thread with a decent looking course.

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1253250

I like the idea of using real rocks along the flats and artificial for the transitions and high lines. Will incorporate some ideas in my course.

Let me know if you need any more RCP track.

[Ced RC]

Very cool, I may have to make the drive up this Winter.

Thanks Greg

[Mnster]

Looks great, just keep in mind that you will have to be able to change the course up at the start of every comp. Having a single run through the rocks is great for just having fun. But, on the comp circuit it's cheating. No driver should be able to prerun the course. You might have that already in mind but going by the pictures...

[schmenzer]

Originally Posted by Mnster

Looks great, just keep in mind that you will have to be able to change the course up at the start of every comp. Having a single run through the rocks is great for just having fun. But, on the comp circuit it's cheating. No driver should be able to prerun the course. You might have that already in mind but going by the pictures...

Thanks, good point about the lines. My plan is to set up the course for a Comp and then leave it pretty much as is until the next comp but I am also working on several artificial elements that I can add at various points. I think the variety will be fine. Even though it is in the same basic area the lines and obstacles will be different.

Some courses will use a double gate so the obstacle may be the same but the direction will be different.

Got even more rocks today! Also some new sections, Silicone Valley for instance. BTW, that is about $20,000 worth of old Macs in the Valley. I wonder if anyone else has this much invested in their indoor course!

[MrNate]

Nice usage of old computer equipment! Looks pretty good so far. Can't wait to see how the mesh / concrete wall turns out.