Harold Bascom
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 293
In a litigious society like ours, the fear of a heavy, run-away 1/5 scale car—smashing into limb and/or property, is an unbeatable marketing pitch to owners of large-scale RC, gas trucks/car.
But seriously, now! … How likely is that to happen? The thought to pen this point-of-view came to me, on the way home—prematurely—from a parking lot where I run my Redcat Rampage XR. I was driving home prematurely after my XR just stopped dead on the parking lot, and sat just there idling. I applied throttle. Nothing. It just sat there fretting. I squatted, looked at the throttle linkage, and saw it was full on the brakes. Then it hit me! The battery in the car was low and close to dead. The fail-safe had kicked in perfectly as it was designed to—depriving me of further throttle control. The car just sat there idling.
On the way home, I began thinking of RC run-away fears, and the need for a ‘kill-switch’. My car didn’t run away on me back there. So, what exactly can cause an RC car with a fail-safe, to by-pass the fail-safe and take off—maiming the innocent and destroying property? Hmmm. …
The ‘Super Bee’ promotional literature says: ‘The SuperBee kills your 2-cycle gas engine on command, during a radio glitch, low battery, or total battery power loss.’
But I had a low-battery situation and a subsequent ‘total battery power loss’ on that park, and I immediately lost control from my radio because the fail-safe in the battery box immediately kicked in. The engine didn’t die, but neither was it able to take off by itself: The wheels were locked, and the engine was just idling. Idling engine don’t just take off like that. Maybe they do, though I don’t know the scenario for such a happening.
So… do YOU need a ‘kill-switch’ on your engine? I don’t; and maybe you don’t too, if you do the following things: #1: Make sure that your brakes are calibrated correctly—that the linkage is set correctly, and when you push on your throttle trigger, the brakes are applied. #2: Take the time and hook up that very inexpensive fail-safe that comes with your truck/car; and that when you turn off your transmitter, the brakes are applied.
I’ll end on this note: If there are any large-scaler on this forum with a gas truck/car who had a had a ‘run-away’ situation, despite having proper brakes and a fail-safe installed, please share the experience.
PEACE!
But seriously, now! … How likely is that to happen? The thought to pen this point-of-view came to me, on the way home—prematurely—from a parking lot where I run my Redcat Rampage XR. I was driving home prematurely after my XR just stopped dead on the parking lot, and sat just there idling. I applied throttle. Nothing. It just sat there fretting. I squatted, looked at the throttle linkage, and saw it was full on the brakes. Then it hit me! The battery in the car was low and close to dead. The fail-safe had kicked in perfectly as it was designed to—depriving me of further throttle control. The car just sat there idling.
On the way home, I began thinking of RC run-away fears, and the need for a ‘kill-switch’. My car didn’t run away on me back there. So, what exactly can cause an RC car with a fail-safe, to by-pass the fail-safe and take off—maiming the innocent and destroying property? Hmmm. …
The ‘Super Bee’ promotional literature says: ‘The SuperBee kills your 2-cycle gas engine on command, during a radio glitch, low battery, or total battery power loss.’
But I had a low-battery situation and a subsequent ‘total battery power loss’ on that park, and I immediately lost control from my radio because the fail-safe in the battery box immediately kicked in. The engine didn’t die, but neither was it able to take off by itself: The wheels were locked, and the engine was just idling. Idling engine don’t just take off like that. Maybe they do, though I don’t know the scenario for such a happening.
So… do YOU need a ‘kill-switch’ on your engine? I don’t; and maybe you don’t too, if you do the following things: #1: Make sure that your brakes are calibrated correctly—that the linkage is set correctly, and when you push on your throttle trigger, the brakes are applied. #2: Take the time and hook up that very inexpensive fail-safe that comes with your truck/car; and that when you turn off your transmitter, the brakes are applied.
I’ll end on this note: If there are any large-scaler on this forum with a gas truck/car who had a had a ‘run-away’ situation, despite having proper brakes and a fail-safe installed, please share the experience.
PEACE!
servos failing, lack of killswitch - Cheap radios like mine where the failsafe just puts the brakes on, will slow it down, might not stop 4+Hp @ 14k rpm though. Edit: That's if the servo is even working.
