[JoeLansing]

I just bought a Tomy AFX Big Block Battlers set for my 4yo who is car nuts. It's 4' x 7' so my plan is to mount it SOMEHOW? to 4 x 8 covered plywood. Is that a realistic plan? Hide the entire thing in another room so the kids won't kill it when I'm not around. Now I have the 4yo and a 3yo girl, and I know these cars aren't going to last forever. I'm sure their early life will be fairly tough. Should I pick up 1-2 extra cars now, and maybe some type of parts for repairs? If so, just Ebay? Ebay stinks, I have problems finding cars there that aren't just a body. I also don't know what parts I may need to cure fly off the track constantly repairs. It's an HO Super G+ set if that helps. Is HO, just HO? Does Super G+ mean anything?

tyvm for any insights you might have.

- Joe

 

[LeeRoy98]

Go to Greg Braun's site:
http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/
Read and absorb... check out some of the tracks in the Layout link. I did the Tuckaway 25 and have posted pictures on my website:
http://www.marioncountyraceway.com/
Not to beat my own drum, but my website is entirely supported by me with no advertising. And has what I think is an excellent links page to a lot of HO slot car information. (If anyone has suggestions to a link I may have missed, please let me know!) Nothing for sale at my site, just my personal site for my passion for slot cars.
Hang on to the Super G+ cars, but check out some of the other options available before spending a lot of money.
Post your location and perhaps someone will be close enough to give you some suggestions regarding local people to help along with a local racing group.
Slot cars are a blast, just remember there will be as many different opinions regarding what is "best" as there are people. Listen and then decide for yourself and your personal circumstance. And don't feel shy about asking for assistance here, this is a great group.

Gary
AKA LeeRoy98
www.marioncountyraceway.com

 

[gonegonzo]

Welcome to the BB Joe ,

Gary / aka LeeRoy is right , this is a great group of hobbiests to be associated with. They are informative , innovative and they all add to making this hobby fun.

There are HO groups in Ill. look them up online for info .

My 2 cents would be this suggetion. As Gary said , hang on to your Super G+ cars. They are a high middle of the road car as far as quality goes and they are bullet fast . Faster even when tweaked. The bad thing about the super G+ is that they don't take head on hard hits well if crashed hard into a wall etc.

I'd look at a well stocked hobby shop and buy a couple Auto World Magna Traction cars. They com in many body styles and I'm sure you'll find something you like. These cars are lower end cars but great for starting out with and learning to drive. Somtimes they do get finiky but if so , jump on here for help . I want to say they cost in the $15.00 range.

Keep the speed down for the kids so they're not chasing cars more than driving them. That will help hold their interest and yours too.

I hope this helps and as I said , it's just my opinion.

Gonzo

 

[slotcarman12078]

Cool!! Another Joe!! :lol: There is a wealth of information here in the great Hobby Talk library always at your disposal. Most any question you would want an answer to is here somewhere, usually one or two searches away. One of the greatest benefits you'll find here is the open sharing of knowledge. If you do ask a question, we are always happy to answer. One thing you will need to look into is matching your controllers to the cars you plan to run. Different chassis run best on their designed power systems. Some chassis call for 90 Ohm controllers, some 60, 45, 30, etc. The voltage requirements vary too. It's better to address this issue early on, so you can make informed decisions on what to buy. It's always better to research before you purchase, ( I learned the hard way) so you can be better prepared and not disappointed in your new cars.

For simplicity's sake, for your power supply, I would suggest getting an AFX tri-power supply. This way you can start the kids off a little slower without making a huge investment. It'll plug right into the power track for the set you have. I have no experience with the new AFX cars, but I think just by design the non formula 1 bodied cars might prove a bit more durable for the kids. They will still be fast though. The AW Xtraction cars ( as gonzo suggests) should work too, and they are a low cost alternative. There are plenty of body styles to choose from, and they are plenty durable from a crash perspective. Welcome to HT and hope you have some fun with this!! :wave:

 

[trackman]

Wow , The AFX system are now releaseing a BIG BLOCK BATTELER with Mega G's.

As you say you have Super G's I would recommend getting a couple of the Super G tune up kits for when the shoes wear or fly off and you can't find it.

I would highly recommend before you ever put the set together to get a 2 pack of the big erasers found in the stationary department of most any store and go over each rail on each section of track to clean them good from one end to the other, it will save a lot of hassel and make the first experiences a better one.

If you buy extra cars of a different series or model I would also buy at least 1 tune-up kit for each car, and be sure to keep the different types seperated as many tyes do not work with other types of cars. You may experiment and modify maybe but don't mix and match in a pile/container.

Have you thought about useing 1/2 " or 3/4" 4' X 8' sheet of styrofoam found at most lumber yards and building supply stores instead of plywood, It would be a heck of a lot lighter and can be cut with a knife or X-acto knife..

I have used that many times on small temporary tracks and just use a hot glue gun to barely tack the track sections in place until you find is that the setup you want or not.

I would also highly recommend the adjustable (TRI- LEVEL) power pack, especially with the younger kids. Actually some series of cars will stay on the track at full throttle on the 8 amp setting and the New type Mega G's do really well at the 12 Volt setting. There's a lot of throttle action with most any car at the 22 Volt setting as it will be with the power pack that comes with that set (The 22 VOLT pack)

 

[JoeLansing]

I have a lot of reading to do for sure. Examples:

tune up kits for when the shoes wear or fly off (cars have shoes?)

adjustable (TRI- LEVEL) power pack, especially with the younger kids (now this sounds excellent!)

1/2 " or 3/4" 4' X 8' sheet of styrofoam (now that's a great idea! The solid pink thick boards of it. I'll probably go with at least the 1" though. The set is 4 x 7 so I might have to cobble it into a 5 x 8 mounting board.)

I'm in Lansing Michigan. We have a Ryders Hobby, Hobby Hub, Hobby Lobby.. I should go there and pick brains. I did the RC gas airplane thing for a while and brain picking at the hobby store is a good thing.

TYVM for the help sirs!

- Joe

 

[slotnewbie69]

adjustable power supply for sure.this can be simply done by finding some cheap used a/fx wall warts and splicing the connectors to a lower voltage wall wart.say 9 volts.for the kids.also for when your buds come over,the dual power terminal track is great too.individually powered lanes.search the threads,all the info you need is right here at ht!

 

[1976Cordoba]

My best advice is to hang here and read a lot. :thumbsup:

 

[kiwidave]

What Doba said!!!

 

[trackman]

It's an HO Super G+ set if that helps. Is HO, just HO? Does Super G+ mean anything?


- Joe

As stated by others here Reading here on this board is a place to gain alot of knowledge, Many threads about (stinking) Ebay right here in the Ho section of the forum.

Ho scale has been named and size comparisons has been changed over the years. There is 1:87, 1:74 (or is it 1:75) and 1:64 scale's that are all in the HO scale qualifications. Seems I read somewhere that 1:64 is actually a S scale (Someone correct me if I'm Wrong about the scales).

Just right off hand Super G's mean That is a AFX brand car and has been around for a while and is a really fun car. Super G's come in road course, F-1 and nascar series and also has a police car in some of the super g makes.

Super G's has a magnet for track traction But the AFX SRT's have a stronger magnet where as the new type Mega G's have a even stronger magnet for traction and the cars due to magnet down force actually have a little stronger and faster motor or is it a stronger magnet due to a stronger and faster motor..

The same applies to different brands names like, Life-Like (LL), Autoworld (AW), AFX(Racemaster) and each brand has different series and makes of cars. Personnally I like the Life LIke Fast Tracker Nascar's running at 8 and/ or 12 volts. It would be really hard for a young kid (3 to 6 years old) to keep a life-like fast tracker on the track @ 22volts.

 

[AfxToo]

If you like the Tomy AFX products it's not a bad idea to periodically check the AFX Racing web site for Blow Outs. You can pick up some great deals on cars and parts. http://afxracing.com/

 

[JoeLansing]

I'm bidding on a set of 8 Life Like cars. $34 so far. The seller told me they'd toss in some free tune-up kits if I won them.
http://cgi.ebay.com/8-HO-Scale-Slot-Cars-w-engines-4-5-11-24-24-44-48-48_W0QQitemZ260510785522QQcmdZViewItemQQptZSlot_Cars?hash=item3ca7a71ff2 Looks like a good pile for the little ones to start out with.

It looks like a new tri-power transformer will be about $32.

- Joe

 

[trackman]

Joe ,
You Have PM (private message), Sign in and look at the

Welcome Joe and your Private message at top right of the board.

 

[rbrunne1]

Track Building

Joe,

It sounds like I'm only a few months ahead of you. Check out my build thread to learn from my experiences http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=257356. Be sure to read/search through the Track Building Forum as there are several great builds to draw inspiration from (Sort the forum by the number of replies to quickly find the most extensive threads).

I've attached a Word Document with all the links I've found related to track building and HO slot cars in general (Thanks to 'Doba for many of the HobbyTalk links :thumbsup

My girls are 13 and 10 and we found most cars (T-Jet 500, X-Tractions or SG+) difficult to control with the stock transformers. The controller was like an on/off switch

I swapped out the stock transformers for a 13.8V, 15A power supply that I had. What a difference! The cars are now easily controllable as the full-range of the controller is usable

With the reduced voltage the girls like the SG+ or LifeLikes the best. They're fast and with the strong traction magnets, they're easy to keep on the track making long runs possible. The T-Jets and X-Tractions are too slow and take too much patientence to drive around the track without de-slotting :freak:

I converted on of my T-Jets to a "Fray Style" T-Jet and the longer axles really improve the handling, cutting a whole second off lap times from an un-modified model (Note the independent front axle and longer rear axle) :drunk:



Read as much as you can, don't be afraid to experiment or ask questions and, most importantly, have fun :hat:

Bob B. :wave:

 

[old blue]

Also consider that you are making memories for your kids. How much or how little you allow them to choose and grow and learn will last with them throughout their life. I did not realize until after my father had passed away that he supported my fascination with the tiny moving cars without interfering. Some of the best memories I had was going to the hobby shop and standing in front of the glass case full of new shiny cars and picking out the one I really wanted without any criticism. There are lots of life lessons in a slot car set, like, things you take care of last and things you don't, don't. Other lessons about electricity and car maintenance will also stick with your child. I wash and wax my 1:1 cars now because I maintained my slot cars. I know it sounds sappy, but this is a rare hobby that gives you face time with your kids and one day you will be thankful you had that time together.