Post your biggest RC blunders, mishaps, and mistakes
 

Like the title says post your biggest RC screw-ups. It can be a funny story, advice to help other members avoid the same mistake, or other words of wisdom.

My biggest RC blunder thus far was buying the Losi Mini and Micro vehicles when I was first starting out. They were an impulse buy because they seemed inexpensive and there was a certain cool factor of the small vehicles. Little did I know I had a rude awakening ahead!

Sure the RTR vehicle was cheap, but I dropped a HUGE amount of cash on hop-ups, better electronics, etc. The fun factor wore off in about a month, and I realized how limited the vehicles were. Almost immediately I needed something bigger that could actually bash off-road. The resale value of the two vehicles was far less than a 1/10th or 1/8th scale vehicle, and I threw a bunch of cash down the drain.

Now I have full-size RCs and I wish I would have done that from the very start. Could have saved a lot of time and money. Live and learn!

Driving without a brake :lol:

My dad and me went to a parking lot with my Brushless LST which has mech brakes. First I drove a round in the parking lot (I didn't use the brake) Then I let my Dad drive, he was trying to do cool by going 50% speed towards me and then brake so it'll make a stoppie in front of my feet. Well, because some screw got loose from the servo it didn't brake at all! I had to jump to the side, I was a bit scared once the LST passed me. I thought wtf is my dad doing that idiot... (That thing weights 7 kilo btw...)

Anyway, nothing happened except I had to tighten the screw on the servo again :lol:

i got one. 2 people, 8 cars, 6 brushless, 7 escs. All the escs are dead. and the non-rebuildible brushed motors are dead in the brushed.

Another one is when I realized my MMM was on brushed mode with a brushless motor. things got hot really fast. nothing dead, just hot. That never happened again. The next would be when the bottom black casing from my MM fell to the floor. it got stepped on.

One time at our track, there was a bunch of potholes and stuff from the ground being incredibly dry, and the monster trucks eating it up, and some people tearing up the track with a quad. I was racing my frankenrustler. 3s, with the old old stampede tires with no foams, the thing spun out everywhere. everybody elses truck blew up that race. it was me and one other person. while trying to maintain decent speed, I hit a wet patch on the ground, just before the double. the rustler launched through the air, and broke an a arm on the landing. the last survivor just did donuts and practiced the triple, and then finished the race with 2 laps. and won.

I got a good one:
I was at the state stadium truck chamiponchip at a local track. Every sponsor for the event was there, and also hooters. Well I was trying to make a name for myself so I got my xxxt all preped. The race is about to start, I run onto the drivers stand, and tell my buddy to turn it on and set it on the track. I was running a castle esc so I took a second to arm and then I went tohit the gas and it took off. Flew right into the wall and I busted a front pivot block before the race even started. Turns out my novak switch was on one channel and my rx was on another(had to do some switching around as most of the channels were taken with all the people there).Lets just say it was embarrasing to say the least to walk down the drivers stand infront of everyone and pick up the pieces of my broken car.

Thanks for the laugh, I needed that :lol:

A good friend of mine,who is a very experienced RC'er was installing his M.M.M. in his
LST2 conversion and soldered his Deans plug on backwards. He didn't notice it.
ZZZZZZZZT ! cooked the ESC and a Loner 4s Lipo of mine . DOH !
Castle replaced it for $70.00. Leason learned. No matter how experienced you are, Sh*t Happens

lets go down the line...

The biggest one was Me blowing up a 3s zippy lipo. it slid into the spur gear on my truggy and got munched...

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...3090832_01.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...3090834_01.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...090834a_01.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...090834a_01.jpg

then there was the time i put a drill bit through my hand

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...0711092234.jpg


Then there was the time I let Eovnu87435ds's GF drive my truggy- and she floored it in reverse and hit my shins..

Then there was another time where I was running my slash (mm 5700/3s) and the radio glitched and it went WOT into a mailbox where it stayed WOT roasting a set of bow ties while i ran toward it.

Got to love the drill bit to the hands/fingers. Thats always fun. Done that quiet a few times. lol

I never got a RC against my legg or something, but does it really hurt that hard?

Once I also saw a RC car which crashed into a shin on youtube. I think it was a Rustler doing speedruns or something. I can't find it anymore... Does somebody know which vid I mean?

11lbs at 25 mph... hitting with a sharp wing.. do the math.:mdr:

My biggest mistake:
Buying nitros.

Some others:
Was filming a video of my rustler with a sw/5700 combo on 2s, . My friend was driving and he had his idiot little brother with him, I think he was 11 at the time. I was filming. Well, this was in a parking lot and there was a 4' ramp leading to a small upper parking lot, which if you hit the ramp at a good enough speed, you can fly a long 60 feet to the other side of the lot, the truck being ~4ft off the ground. Without me knowing (I was on the back side of the lot, where your car can fly to, at full throttle.) I was taking a pee, but that's not important. Anywho... he floors the rusty up the ramp and I was looking away, it takes flight, and flies 60 feet into the back of my neck. I got knocked out cold and woke up in my friends house, on his couch with my destroyed rustler sitting next to me, 3 hours later...

Driving my truggy with a 75mhz radio, glitched, and floored into me at 50mph, 12lb truck don't feel too good on your ankle!

February socal bash. Tuclai (member here) (I think?) was driving his baja 5t off a jump, and it hit me in the calf at 30mph.

Making a servo actuated on switch for my MMM, but forgetting that you can't actuate the servo if there's no power going to it...

Trying to make an e-savage durable.

Picking up a white-hot welding rod.

Oh I got another one.

Thinking my revo diffs would hold up to my 2200.... :)

I guess my worst accident/mistake was sliding into a roadside power transformer with my Rustler and snapping it in two. I was going 40+, still accelerating, and hit a patch of sand on the street. *revv* *spin* *CRASH* :oops: That's when I built the Al chassis...

I need to clarify sponsor for the event not me:lol:
Fixed

Ben can vouch for me, every rc i've owned but my revo, has launched off my roof! Its my way or durability testing,

Selling my TXT-1. Of all the money I dumped into building that thing, lets just say I only got about 10% back from parting it out and selling it. Never again, too much money to kiss goodbye.

Hahaha. Thats classic. External BEC for the win.:lol:

I should have thought that one thru a little better.

Yeah, It sure as hell doesn't feel good. I got hit with a rustler VXL doing 58mph when i was radaring it, It was doing 58 in front and was still accelerating... that wasn't fun.. Couldn't walk for a day or two and my foot was swollen for a decent amount of time.. This picture was two days after.
http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Myfoot002.jpg

I feel ya man. I read on another forum that the general rule is a vehicle in good shape, well taken care of, can expect to get 50% return of what has been put into it (or at least that's a good starting price to list it at). YEAH RIGHT! Personally I haven't even got close to that. Spent over $400 on the micro, got $100 back. Spent close to $600 on the mini, got $175 back.

I look back and think "How did it seem like a good idea to spend hundreds of $$$ on those tiny little trucks?" The crazy thing is IT DID seem like a good idea at the time, in fact it seemed like a GREAT idea. It was a very expensive lesson, but now I make my RC buying decisions much more carefully.

My biggest mistake is selling my gorillamaxx since they don't make em any more.

getting a t-maxx 2.5! lol

cutting a chunk on my thumb off the other day cutting lexan for my rc boat

running my rustler with a MM7700 combo with a plastic idler

running my t-maxx into my nabors wood mailbox on the last breakin tank

running my e-maxx with a MMM2200 on 5s and FLM ex. xhassie with the stock radio!

buying 3.3 diffs for my maxx

buying a charger that everything was in japanese

hitting the throttle on my e-maxx with my thumb on the end of a cvd drive cup

Thats exactly my pic ! I can't find it on my photobucket ! Worst mistake 72 mph a guy with turretts 2 way radios and me standing at the finish line with the TX.. Same pic same foot just not as bloody. I had on sketchers lol.. True

I once bought from chris fine:oh:

Dude, hands down you win. close the thread we have a winner f-in chris fine. You said you bought from him, did you recieve it ? lol

Yea, I had sandles on.. The funny thing is I was lucky enough to react and lift my foot up just as it hit so it just grazed me and wasn't so bad. But you can still see what it did. The best part was my sandle went further then the rustler and all its parts.. I took the front end of that car down.. :lol:

pluged the eagletree in, plug the batt in, and CRACK!!!:gasp::gasp:

I should get some pics of the bullets, the outer "cage" was welded to the batt terminals:whistle:


reversed the wires on my esc, thank goodness the eagle tree was there, it accualy saved the esc:angel:

I can tell you when its going to rain in Illinois off that foot now. Good thing I hate pain killers or id have OD'ed off that. excrutiating pain. I have no health insurance so I just drank alot of milk hoping to mend my foot lol

and to beat a dead horse:

http://myworld.ebay.com/fastrc845/

fine's ebay feedback. he's disappointed 1 of 2! dunno how that equals 75% feedback rating, but watever:intello:

was it "only" milk??:whistle:

he has four feedback received. 1 of which is a negative.. 3/4= 75% positive.. His score is only 2 because a negative cancels a positive. Quite simple

Milk, Jack Daniels LOL something like that

Forget milk... Jack daniels and coke...mhmmm

-in the process of soldering deans connectors to my lipos...i had BOTH wire ends exposed and when i put them down onto my METAL table.....i had sparks galore along with a shorted out 4th cell in a brand new 5s lipo pack

-deans plug soldered on backward on the esc

-buying a blade cp pro right after i just bought a blade cx2 thinking i was an expert in rc heli's after that...well...1 month and 100's of replaced parts later it ends up going back onto ebay...lol

-numerous stripped hexes due to low quality hex wrenches leading to drilling/dremeling to save an $80 chassis..

-series is NOT the same as parallel connectors....that one definitely sucked...

oh yeah that reminds me of #2 RC fook up, my wife bought me an rc plane, brushless cheapo kind of $250 huge wings a motor that ROARED, so we take it to the park and she shoves the throttle on full as I was setting the prop up, my finger nearly fell off. again no health insurance so I used duct tape and some bounty paper towels. who needs a DR

hmmm..so many to chose from...it'd have to be....
making a 3D hydrofoam aircraft with only experience in flying the old cox 049 control line planes,,,i got it about 3ft from the ground then crashed it:lol:

another silly mistake was cutting my finger on my RC airboat (28cc 40" hull gasser) propeller when it wasn't even installed on the boat yet:lol:

jumped over a bunch of kids with the revo then purposfully landing on one of em:whistle:

Holy! That pic on the first page from uhh I forgot the name looks like it really hurted :lol:

Told ya it doesn't feel good :lol:

Bought a $600 Nitro RC, then found out I was allergic to Nitro fuel. ($125 loss)

Put my first brushless system into my e-revo while still running the crappy stock radio, took it out to the alley beside by house, which has all kinds of power lines running down it. Had the car stopped facing me, turned to talk to my wife, and it took off on its own. Turned in time for it to hit me full on in the shin. Hurt to walk for a week. I've since switched to 2.4 and refuse to run anything else.

Bought a mlst2. Breaks all the time and I hate working on it.

That's not a loss! That's a blessing.

What a wonderful allergy!:mdr: