Electric vs. Nitro (let's hear your opinion)

[motomadd]

well somebody had to start this thread so it might as well be me......

just opinions only guys, no flaming!

game on!

well i am kind of on the fence as to my fav power source.... i'm a hardcore nitro guy and have been for a few years now..... but the new technology available from the electric side is , well, phenomenal

my vote for realism and fiddling around with (which we all know nitros can give you high blood pressure if the have trouble) different things, not to mention all-day runtimes, pour and go.......nitro

my vote for plug and play, now high power and crazy speed with relatively easy maintenance and also much CLEANER vehicles......electric

so really i can't give a one sided vote right now........i'll call it

UNDECIDED

what's your opinion guys?

moto

[BoostCrzy]

if we are weighing advantages and disadvantages...heres how they stack up to me....

Electric Advantages:

1. Cleanliness
2. Power/Torque
3. smoother ride quality
4. less expensive to operate
5. less equipment needed to operate
6. ease of use/tuning

Advantages of Nitro:

1. no charging of batteries(except radio)
2. cool smell/sound
3. .......well....thats it. LOL

now the disadvantages:

Electric: ......
1. no cool sounds or smells.....
2.the hot rodder spectators wont like you as much.
3. Charging batteries is never fun.

Nitro:

1. MESSY
2. Tuning is constantly changing with weather
3. ....30bux a gallon for nitro!!...
4. loud
5. makes your eyes tear and your throat hurt...lol
6. slow ;)
7. more parts
8. do i need to go on?...



......it all boils down to preference with nitro...I LOVE my T-Maxx...but i can honestly say that when you weigh the advantages to disadvantages with Nitro vs. Electric .....Electric has the upper hand.

-Jack

[e-maxx owner]

I'm mostly an electric guy because for the same price as about 2 or 3 bottles of the nitro stuff, you can get a battery that lasts for a couple hundred chargers. But then again, with nitro you have a much longer run time if you keep filling your tank and almost no time is wasted charging the little batteries.

[e-maxx owner]

oh ya, and if anyone wants a fairly new e-maxx, go to the buy and sell rc stuff thread, about $320, also for sale is 2 custom made 7 cell 4200 nimh batteries, about 140-150

[motomadd]

6. slow

coming from a guy with a 100+mph electric eh Boost?, lmao

good stuff guys, keep it coming

moto

[BoostCrzy]

you knew i had to say it!.....:p

[motomadd]

you knew i had to say it!.....

i would be disappointed if you didn't bro,.... you've earned some bragging rights!

moto

[asloss701435]

i like nitro personally

the smell of the fuel and the really loud noise to wake up the neighbors at night

lol

[liquid1]

I'm a gear head at heart..So tuning on the Nitro is as much fun as Tuning on My harley.HE HE...
It is cool to just charge up the Heli and go But with Heli's theres always crashes and Maintenance..
So I woulsd say I like them Both and My wife dont want me to have either...he he
She keeps preaching to me to Grow up..Never I tell ya..

[gr8taz nitro]

Nothing wrong with either choice, although with the new lipo's that are becoming available runtime isn't a nitro exclusive anymore. I got out of electrics years ago and swore I'd never go back, but I've been watching the guys have fun at the local tracks with slash trucks and I'm actually thinking about buying one.:rolleyes:

[markv]

I just finished converting a Losi 8ight-T to electric. Comparing it to an RC Driver review that was recently published in RC Driver for the 8ight-T 2.0 with .28 engine my conversion is a few MPH faster and accelerates to top speed in less than half the time/distance. I think I prefer motor braking where the entire differential system is giving a kind of traction control too. My other pro for electric is that I am running an 18 tooth pinion, but I can slap on up to a 25 tooth if I want to go faster. Right now I am happy with the 18 tooth since it is comparable to nitro and my average amp draw gives me 30-40 minutes of theoretical run time.

There are still some downsides to electric that seem obvious to me. I am confident it is more expensive initially. Between the RC monster motor mount, the Neu motor that cost more than an O.S. .46 nitro engine, the Castle Creations ESC which also costs more than most engines, and the $230 battery it was expensive. Since I also fly electric planes and helicopters I already had an appropriate charger and I stole the battery from a .46 nitro to electric plane conversion I had already done so that saved some money. The other issue is the danger of lithium polymer batteries. If you overcharge the batteries, or if the cells get out of balance so that just one cell gets overcharged, they tend to catch fire. If they get punctured or otherwise short out they also catch fire. Since Lithium is a metal fire extinguishers generally just push flaming material around and make it worse instead of putting out the fire. I think these batteries will actually continuing burning under water. You might want to check out YouTube for some videos of lithium polymer fires. Keep in mind these are the same batteries that got so much attention with the laptop fires. Airlines now have restrictions on how much litium can be in a bttery for carry on due to the fire risk.

Nitro has some obvious downsides as well. A nitro engine pretty much runs well in a fairly limited RPM range which limits the torque band whereas electric has full torque all the time. There is lag time between when you make throttle changes and when the additional fuel begins to combust to give that power increase. Fuel is easy to spill. Tuning an engine can be an art in itself. Engines can stop unpredicatably -- this is a bigger problem in aircraft. You have to make sure no air gets in the system or fuel stops feeding. If you want to make sure fuel feeds you have to use a pump -- not sure if car engines have this option.

My final opinion is whatever you like that is the best.

[e-maxx owner]

for gr8taz nitro, instead of spending 200 on the slash, 70 bucks on the battery, and another 70 on the charger, I would just upgrade your nitro car 340 dollors worth

[FPVSummit]

Simple....... 10,000 mah Lipo..... 95+ minutes of run time.:D Electric all the way.

[racinghenry]

Simple....... 10,000 mah Lipo..... 95+ minutes of run time.:D Electric all the way.
Since i love to protect my eco system...i wud go for electric....
but sometimes i wud like to go for nitro......because electric can never give u that...power..... [:)]

[racinghenry]

Since i love to protect my eco system...i wud go for electric....
but sometimes i wud like to go for nitro......because electric can never give u that...power..... []

[firstracerboy]

Electric Advantages:

1.Powererful
2. clean ...not much pollution
3. smoother ride
4.less operative costs
5. less equipment needed
6.tuning is easy
disadvantages of electric: ......
1. no cool sounds or smells.....
2.the hot crowd wont be very pleased
3. the time taken to charge batteries

Adv of Nitro:

1. no charging of batteries required(except radio)
and also cool smell...and also cool sound

dis adv of Nitro:

1. MESSY
2. Tuning is constantly changing with weather
3.more fuel consumption
4. Noisy !!!
5. makes your eyes tear and your throat hurt
6. slow
7. more parts required to operate


so guys!!! u can see....as henry said electric is the best ........

[markv]

Concerning electric not giving as much power as nitro: consider nuclear warships as they are all electric. An aircraft carrier seems to have quite a bit of power. Most modern cruise ships are also electric. All submarines have been electric since fuel needs air to combust which would require the submaries to always run at snorkel depth. Electric has lots of power, but the energy density of the batteries is still lacking compares to gasoline or other IC fuels.

My 1/8th conversion generates 4 HP. An OS 28XZ produces 3.32 HP according to their website. (http://www.osengines.com/engines/osmg2074.html) The 28XZ also costs $329 which now makes my Neu 1515/1Y seem like a real bargain at $250. (If anyone is wondering I came up with the horsepower for the electric by looking at the total generated watts and dividing by 750 since 750 watts is equivalent to 1 HP.)

[racinghenry]

hey Guys..theres one more update......
recently a eco system analyst called John Barter came to our locality to do some research.....he stayed for almost one and a half month....doing research on electic and nitro cars....
finally he came to the conclusion that...nitro cars dont cause much pollution than the electic cars...
its just little bit more than electric cars...the heat dissipated to charge an electric was almost equivalent to the heat emitted by nitrous cars...
so there the conclusion is
regards
racer

[firstracerboy]

yeah exactly Henry...i have heard a lot about that analyst John......hes an expert in these things....and his word is final in these matters.....

so its concluded that it doesnt make much difference whether u ride an electric car or nitrous car
regards
racerboy

[Drock5]

I would have to pick nitro. im all about the sound maintanance power and every thing els that goes along whith the nitro.but i still enjoy driving my stampede some times

[rillzhu]

oh, my god, so flexible

[dustin98]

i'd have to say electric i have a rustler vxl brushless edition and it goes 70and beyond and nitro rustler goes 50 a regular rustler goes 35



my opinion,
Dustin

[glenjack4u]

Nothing wrong with either choice, although with the new electrics that are becoming available runtime isn't just nitro anymore. , but I've been watching the guys at the local tracks with nitros all my life and I'm actually thinking about buying one.

[xtownrc]

NITRO. Theres just something about the sound of the engine and the smell of the fuel. And the feeling you get when its tuned just right and every jump feels effortless.

I like electric, too.

[Mr. Burpsalot]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying both! Some people just don't have the patience that is required to maintain a properly running nitro. They each have their favorable characteristics. My nitro experience
dates back to the mid 70's, though, and I have seen the good and the bad.
I say, lets cut the nitro vs. electric debate and enjoy the best of both worlds!

[motomadd]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying both! Some people just don't have the patience that is required to maintain a properly running nitro. They each have their favorable characteristics. My nitro experience
dates back to the mid 70's, though, and I have seen the good and the bad.
I say, lets cut the nitro vs. electric debate and enjoy the best of both worlds!

i would say that's the most insightful answer so far!

moto

[asloss701435]

i completely agree

Sloss

[dustin98]

I"d have to go for electric.I like nitro because of the loud noise, but most of the electric go faster. I have a rustler vxl brushless edition.

[nitrorcman]

The brushless motors like the one in the traxxas ruster vxl brushless is rated of 70+ MPH. that is on a staduim truck.The traxxas 4 tec 3.3 is an on road touring car and the ground has to be like fresh blacktop for it to even run good because it sits so low to the ground.I own a nitro and it is so noisy Its a duratrax Raze st it has a .27 engine. I ran it through the break in stage. Sometimes i still have trouble starting it. My next one will be brushless. Nitro is a lot of fun once you get it going though. Just so much preperation.

[17.5 sedan man]

I ran nitro for a while but I ended up livin in a neighborhood and got a few complaints. I bought an electric and it is much better. I have to say electric.

[Dez]

No contest, electric.

[RcNitro1]

I like electric because its clean but I like nitro more becuase of the sound and no battery charging.

NITRO

[jarodsavagen]

if you're young and/or just beginning in the hobby electric is great, lots of fun and almost nothing to go wrong. but if you're more experienced or going for the REAL experience of racing nitro is no contest!

[Kemo]

electric all the way... nitro just sucks!

[jrowles91]

Nitro will never be able to keep up with electric off the line and I'd say electric has top speed too.

[JuicedRc]

I drove my first nitro last year...even though my past is masami's and joel johnsons. Then got lost when someone said li-po 2s 5000mah...anyways to answer i am still liking to drive the 1/10 kyosho (new ultima) light agile, very fast with lipo and brushless. I am really starting to like the real engine sound and sheer grit of the teeth hauling down a straight away at full rpm...yup on the fence on this one. Why can't our nitro's and electrics just get along :D then messed me all up when someone put a lipo in the 1/8...