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Top things newbies do wrong.

IronArcher

Rock Stacker
Joined
Apr 19, 2023
Messages
70
Location
Sheboygan
So, I have been involved in a bunch of hobbies
Ham Radio
Motorcycle Road Racing
Competitive archery
Practical Pistol competitions and many more.

Most often, I end up teaching others how to progress in these hobbies.

Almost always, I can tell a newbie from actions more than questions, and usually can spit out a top 5 things newbies do that “experts” don’t.

In your opinion, what are some of the top things newbies do in RC crawling, that more seasoned hobbyists/competitors don’t?
In their driving, and/or their builds, or anything else. You know like, newbies post lots of new topics on the forum, or whatever [emoji23]
 
I personally don't think there's a right or wrong when it comes to trail trucks per-se. There's a lot factors that go into it. Might have been a more salient question back in the kit build days, but now with the RTR world we live in, most people buy a kit, head into the woods and have a capable rig. Mod as you see fit. Some people like scale goodies, some prefer to go the performance route. All good. Variety and customization is all baked into the hobby.

I will say there's some trail etiquette that comes into play. We are guests on other peoples property and in this "I don't give a shit about anyone but myself" era we live in, there's some things people need to learn. Don't litter, leave the place you run exactly as you found it, be respectful of other people you run into enjoying nature, don't run into other peoples rigs, and for Gods sake don't finish your trail run by bringing along your 6S basher, ripping around the parking lot and spraying rocks everywhere. Crap like that gets us kicked out of places.
 
They come into the hobby with more enthusiasm than restrain and burn thru a lot of money on "upgrade parts" before getting to know their rig and addressing their actual needs. Noobs generally don't read and research enough and generally wind up thinking that some random dude on youtube knows best. It's hard not to start spending when you have the cash in hand but possessing patience and gaining actual knowledge and driving experience before buying a lot of parts is the way to go imo.
 
They try to find or build the "perfect rig." That unfortunately doesn't exist.

As I'm sure you know with guns, there is no perfect rig. They each have strengths & weaknesses.

The better approach is to buy something you like and take the time to learn it's strengths & weaknesses. Then try to exploit the strengths and try to mitigate the weaknesses.

But that means you have to spend time, which newbies don't want to do. They want the perfect rig yesterday. Experts know the perfect rig only exists in the future. And once you finish it, your wife will run it over!
 
HAY YOUR PLAYING WITH YOUR TOYS WRONG

whats this practical pistol comparisons
do you lay say 10 pistols out on a table then compaire them with each other and decide which one is more practical
how many judges are there in these practical compitions what catagories make a pistol practical say more so then another one
as a profesional practical competitor what pistol is most practical
how do i make my pistol more practical
if im going for practicality should i start with a .40 or a 9mm or should i go for the old tried and true .38 special or would a .22 be more practical
in compatition
 
HAY YOUR PLAYING WITH YOUR TOYS WRONG

Exactly. :lmao:

It goes like this:
1. Newbie joins forum/community.
2. Newbie receives knowledge from Important Experts, either by asking them or being shamed by them.
3. Newbie learns which toys are OK to like and what is the correct way to play with those toys.
4. Newbie has now become an Important Expert who will go on to impart knowledge/shame upon the next generation of Newbies.

Replace "toys" with cars, guns, motorcycles, bicycles, video games, etc. as needed depending on the forum.
 
Yeah, perhaps the biggest mistake is joining a forum and then doing what others tell you to do instead of doing what you desire to do :ror:

We are a bunch of adults playing with adult toys. This might be our biggest mistake :ror:

...but seriously, to my recollection, the first mistake I made was throwing a power hungry Savox servo into a stock Wraith. Esc did the old 'pop and smoke' before driving itself into the lake. It was my first RC electronics lesson
 
Taking things too seriously.


These are TOYS and they are supposed to be FUN.


I know that there are a number of people here (and out there in teh world as well) that make a lot of money out of this hobby but most of us just spend money.


It is money well spent if you have fun with what you are doing, even if you do it like me and have a TRX4 that is set up to crawl decently but also fly down trails way too fast when I hit a straight section. :shock:
 
HAY YOUR PLAYING WITH YOUR TOYS WRONG

whats this practical pistol comparisons
do you lay say 10 pistols out on a table then compaire them with each other and decide which one is more practical
how many judges are there in these practical compitions what catagories make a pistol practical say more so then another one
as a profesional practical competitor what pistol is most practical
how do i make my pistol more practical
if im going for practicality should i start with a .40 or a 9mm or should i go for the old tried and true .38 special or would a .22 be more practical
in compatition


LOL! Like most other hobbies, you decide what is most “practical”.
There are various different categories to shoot in. Similar to Class 1 (mostly stock looking guns) Class 2 (Maybe has a magwell and/or optics) Class 3 (ridiculous versions of guns that have huge magazines, optics, mag wells, compensators etc.
The focus is on how well you can draw, reload, move, and of course shoot accurately.
It really is very similar to RC hobbies in many ways.
How man and machine work together determine your score.
Hell, adding brass for weight is a pretty big thing there as well[emoji6]
 
Great responses so far… and I see I clearly am being well described here [emoji1787]

How about the actual driving skills? Are there things newbs tend to do “wrong”
I don’t mean, just lacking skill, but just the way they approach the driving side.

Example for motorcycle racing:
Newbies almost universally turn into a corner WAY too early, don’t use the whole track coming into a corner, and make lots of corrections in the middle of corners.
More advanced riders will have reference points for everything. Brake markers, shift points, turn in, apex, exit.

Do newbies make the same kind of driving “mistakes”?
 
the thing about crawling is its slow skill isent that big a role in driving vary slow

when your racing you get heckkers talking smack and when your new at it theres alot to point out alot of smack to through down

crawling is more like hell ya nice line or i dident think about hitting that line on that rock everything is kinda slow motion and real easy to see what the other guy did and then try it not alot of heckling

basicly people wont think your a newb when your out on the trail no that never happend
they just think your stupid for playing with toy trucks in public

no one is ever gona walk by and say damb that dork is driving that toy truck real good they just stop at dork and leave it at that lol
 
I would argue the only way to do a hobby "wrong" is when it comes to things related to safety. Motorcycle racing and guns are two good examples where there are some safety basics noobs need to get right from the start. But in R/C the only thing I can think of is treating LiPo batteries with enough respect that they don't burn your house down. But besides that, if a new guy is driving a crawler poorly but still having a good time, then he's not actually doing anything wrong.
 
Two things that I see more often than not.



Thinking that what works in full scale rock crawling transfers to 1/10 or smaller scales. Weight is a huge factor. If you truly scaled down a full size to 1/10 it would weigh in excess of 100+ pounds to be scale accurate. So we tune to a different factor to fit our scale.



The thinking that throwing the best /expensive parts at a rig will make you a better driver. Back in my comp days,i competed against guys who had mostly stock rigs that were setup right and they walked circles around nearly all competitors. You don't need $500 dollar axles to be competitive. Plastic slides over rocks much better than aluminum! Setup and practice are the keys!
 
Avoid cheap tools, beginners often start with them (I did). Cheap tools often lead to stripping bolts due to a sloppy loose fit. Pretty minor but it could save you some headaches.
 
I learned a lot from this forum, 1 year ago i bought a 1/8 scale crawler and didn't even know how to set the charger, it was expensive to start this hobby, that's for sure

Second the tires and rims were confusing at the start, but you guys helped explaining details

Thirdly we rolled the RC so much it almost became a basher , we stoppen doing that and use it properly

I started reading a lot & kept on repairing the RC ( we broke a lot and it cost me a arm and leg ), now we can use the RC endlessly without breaking, and if we do then i already have spares

So this forum gave me great help ... Not many people on this forum have YiKong rc's .... These things are strong mate ..

Guess the most important thing for newbies is explain the things & YOUTUBE i learned so so much from that

Sent from my CPH1937 using Tapatalk
 
Weight is a huge factor. If you truly scaled down a full size to 1/10 it would weigh in excess of 100+ pounds to be ...

A 1.500 kg 1/1 crawler would be 1,5 kg scale weight in 1/10, that's ~3.3 lb.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-A600FN met Tapatalk
 
The two biggest things I'd like to see newbs stop doing is buying everything they can find in aluminum or brass, when 90% of the time the stock plastic part is more than sufficient. The other being "stuck" in the mindset that they should just get whatever brand electronics/batteries matches there brand of truck. This mostly applies to Traxxas and Horizon products.

If I had to pick a third "mistake" it would be buying Amazon special servos because they are cheap and have "really good specs".
 
The biggest problem is usually listening to other noobs that don't know their colon from a storm drain that are always quick to point out that a product is "the best I've ever used!" While not questioning whatever else they've used. Sure pretty colored alumargerine parts off of eBay or Amazon are enticing but 98% of the time it's soft junk so they end up buying again and again.

Anyone that recommends desert licker shocks to someone absolutely falls into the ignore their advice category.

Most rigs need minor upgrades to be fun but if you spend a little more up front it'll save a lot in the near future more often than not.
 
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