Hi all, I am the director for a nonprofit that uses outdoor recreation to work with underprivileged at risk youth. I know little about rc and so I thought I would come to you pros for advice and help.

We are developing a program using fly fishing adapted with therapy (trying to get teens off the couch and outdoors) . To make a long story short we want to use some remote control cars that we will make look like a fish covered in Velcro so our participants can practice casting to a moving target that when they hit can actually fight like a fish. This would be used away from water (in a gym or on grass) when we are teaching the basics.

I have been looking for some cars that are extremely maneuverable, as well as can drive on grass, heavy enough to put up a fight (like a fish), and ideally can drive even when flipped over. It doesn't need to go very fast but low gears and power would probably be important. Do you all have any recommendations for me? I've been trying to research and found two cars that I think would work great but can't seem to find them for sale anywhere.

Tonka Ricochet RC Vehicle 4 X 4 RC 27MHZ I liked this one because its big, can run with a low center of gravity, all 4 wheels turn (even looks like a fish when turning back and forth), can ride upside down.

Cyclaws Remote Control Vehicle, looks like it could really do well on and off road as well as put up a good resistance.

Thanks in advance for your help

Nate
WeArePals.org

Well that is a pretty cool idea the issue is see with those cars is you wont be able to get parts when they break .Notice I did not say if they break.

The driving while flipped over is going to be a challenge for any hobby grade vehicle .Grass is always tough on a remote control truck or car. I like the idea of using a gym you could use a 4wd touring car it would give you plenty of traction and you could simulate a fighting fish. Outside on a grass a 4wd truck might be the ticket. I don't know what your budget is but along with the cars your going to need a good charger and batteries. This could get a little pricey. I like the idea though.

A 4wd buggy might be a good choice.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXVZB2&P=0

Originally Posted by mredzadventure

Well that is a pretty cool idea the issue is see with those cars is you wont be able to get parts when they break .Notice I did not say if they break.

The driving while flipped over is going to be a challenge for any hobby grade vehicle .Grass is always tough on a remote control truck or car. I like the idea of using a gym you could use a 4wd touring car it would give you plenty of traction and you could simulate a fighting fish. Outside on a grass a 4wd truck might be the ticket. I don't know what your budget is but along with the cars your going to need a good charger and batteries. This could get a little pricey. I like the idea though.

A 4wd buggy might be a good choice.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXVZB2&P=0

Thumb up for 4WD. xD nice pick.

Thanks for the response, breaking cars was one of my concerns. If I can make this work I think these cars will get a lot of wear and tear. I figure the two options are buy cheep and just replace them a lot or get a few nice ones and hope they don't break. I think we could probably come up with a couple hundred dollars per car if we found a good one and they could last at least a year. My only potential concern with the buggy is weight, and speed. More specifically will it be heavy enough to pull the line Instead of the fly line just pulling the car all around as well as will it be to fast of a car for us (armatures and volunteers) to controle while fighting a fisherman?

The reason I liked the idea of being able to drive upside down is I can see the fishermen pulling a car over with the fly rod quite often, if the car could drive both ways then it could just keep going. But from the sound of it, if I'm hearing you right, is that's kind a "gimmick" only found on cheep cars.

Thanks again for the feedback, very helpful. Would love to hear any other recommendations anyone has.

And can you give me an idea of a decent 4 wheel drive touring car as well as a truck. Again doesn't need to be fast or overly special, just tough and quality enough while keeping the budget as low as possible.

Nikko has a car that can drive when flipped over. But if it can handle grass well enough, I don't know, as grass puts much strain on drive train and motor.

i think it is realistic to modify a 4wd hobby quality r/c to run flipped over. the nice thing about the hobby grade r/c is the ability to gear it for slow speed & high torque, longer run times and they are repairable. there is a column in the classifieds for free stuff. you might be able to take your cause there. it looks like your in Utah. if i lived there i would volunteer my skills as hobbyist/machinist to build what you need.

If you take a hobby grade car, you will have to find a solution for the car having throttle reversed when flipped. I believe the Nikko has auto-switch for this.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HPI-RACING...item2c6b67461a


looks like this is close to running upside down

as long as the vehicle has proportional forward and reverse with 50/50 on the tx it doesn't mater.

Originally Posted by hexonxonx

as long as the vehicle has proportional forward and reverse with 50/50 on the tx it doesn't mater.

Fact is most ESC have reverse delay and will brake first when moving the throttle the other way. Then you need to center the throttle before having reverse power. In a fast paced game, this delay can be a nuisance.

alright then

I would suggest you to go to local RC track/local hobby shop to take a look. my TT01E on-road car, which I think use pretty old design, is pretty heavy. I heard my my car is a pretty tough car. It used a lot of solid strong plastic o.o and it has a form bumper in the front.

Visiting your local RC track/hobby shop is a very good idea. This way you can get more visual stuff to understand...don't buy it off immediately=。= that's how I got ripped off from my local hobby store=.= people on the track should be nice o.O oh. maybe buying a used car is a pretty good option too.

You guys are great, thanks for all the feedback. We actually borrowed one of those cheaper "toy" cars that flip over today. The results were encouraging. After doing some test runs it appears that our idea is going to work. We were able to apply pressure just like a fish, run out line, and break off when the tension was applied to strong, and when the throttle was taken off the fishermen could reel in the car.

Things we learned were that the ability to flip over no longer seems as important. That may change as we have more time testing but today the car never flipped over during our test.

The other thing I learned is weight also isn't as much as a concern, this toy car had plenty of weight and power to give a good fight.

The good news is this should open up our options quite a bit.

Other things we learned are that we will need good fenders. This car didn't have any and the line got wrapped up in the wheels a couple times.

We also learned that controle is very important and the abuility to drive on the grass is also important. As we guessed high speed is not important and even made it more difficult to controle.

I will be tracking down a rc hobbie shop this week and ill report back on what I find. Thanks again for all your help. I'll be sure to post some video of these kids fishing to rc cars when we get them going.

So now that my options have opened up, what do you all recommend, buggy or truck? (Sounds like those are my options for being able to go on grass and indoors?)

Originally Posted by hexonxonx

i think it is realistic to modify a 4wd hobby quality r/c to run flipped over. the nice thing about the hobby grade r/c is the ability to gear it for slow speed & high torque, longer run times and they are repairable. there is a column in the classifieds for free stuff. you might be able to take your cause there. it looks like your in Utah. if i lived there i would volunteer my skills as hobbyist/machinist to build what you need.

Thanks hexonxonx. Very cool of you and I wish you were here to help us as we'll. Gearing a car for slow speed and torque sounds like what we will need to do.