Kids and Krawlers

[OSRC]

It's taken 9 years, but I finally got my little one out on a trail run!

Quick backstory....I'm the only Y chromosome in the house...wife, 2 daughters, and even 2 female cats. (Oh, and 1 bathroom btw.) I've got lots of cool toys, but the girls really are girly girls. Nail painting, lots of pink, LOL dolls, etc. So they don't have much interest in daddy's toys. I've tried though - for my oldest daughter Carissa's 8th birthday I picked up a Kumammon DT02 kit, and we built it together. Every now and then, we'll go out in the backyard or to the park and tear around, but that's about as far as it got.

Fast forward to this past weekend. My 5 year old made the comment that she gets lots of daddy time (I'm a stay at home dad right now) but no mommy time..so as an offhand comment, I said I'd take big sister out trailing with me on Sunday morning and she could have mommy all to herself. My older daughter Carissa said sure, but didn't seem enthusiastic about it per-se. Later in the day, my wife commented that Carissa was talking about it all day and was over the top excited. Huh. So apparently, I can't read women of any age!

So later we went down in the shop, put on some Mythbusters (she's crazy about that show) and figured out what she could drive. I built a "mud and snow" CR01 which was kinda waterproofed up and had some large mud tires...perfect for a mucky warm winter day trail run. She helped swap the motor over to a 35t and gear it down, as well as WD40'd up all the joints and bearings. CR01's are tanks, and with the waterproofing, I figured it was perfect for a novice driver. Swapped in her DT02 receiver and it was good to go.

So Sunday morning I dragged her out of bed at 6:30, stuffed her with a few poptarts, loaded up the truck and we headed out to meet some friends.

The CR01 was powered up and I explained all the trail rules - don't crash into anyone's truck, pull off to the side when not driving, watch out for the pile of horse crap, and pretend to not hear the inevitable bad words I drop when in the company of friends.

Initially we did a follow the leader type deal, but she caught on quick and was soon ranging around, trying to find stuff to drive over.

Trail was icy initially, though thawed a bit and started getting muddy later as temps rose to the upper 40's. If there was ice and water around, she was in it.

2/3 of the way around the loop a friends Cross rig ejected a drive pin from the front CVD, so as we were digging around looking for it and working on a trail fix, I let Carissa explore. A few minutes later, I look over and see the roof of the jeep sticking out of the creek, and she's sitting on a rock relaxing. Inward groan..... By waterproof, the truck is really splashproof - the non-waterproof ESC was wrapped in a baggie and zip tied as tight as possible, and the receiver is in a TT02 box....so not exactly submersible. I have no idea how long it was in there, but figured we were going to be carrying it home. She drove the truck out and amazingly, it somehow survived and kept running...So I explained not to go boating, and only do water up to the tires...which she did for the next 10 minutes or so while we finished up the Cross truck.

After 4 hours or so, the truck was still running fine, and we made it back in 1 piece. She did great!! Can't tell you how happy I am that she wanted to come trailing...and that she actually enjoyed it. She keeps asking when we are doing it again.

Now I have an excuse to build her a truck. Something clearly 100% waterproof this time. I told her she could pick out the body and we'd paint it whatever color she liked.

She said "any color but pink" - ATTA GIRL!!! "thumbsup" "thumbsup" "thumbsup"

 

[skinnyj]

Like I mentioned in another thread, my 15 year old step-daughter seemed interested in the Ascender kit I brought home. Once I get it running, we'll see she is interested in taking it out.

 

[Peaker]

Dont have any kids myself ( thank god )
But when we are out driving i do my best to shove my transmitter into the hands of whoever, so i have had kids barely able to walk drive my car ASO.

Often the parents are OMG what if he/she brake it, but i just RPLY if they manage that they have done something i have not been able to do myself, and i drive worse than what your kid do now.

Some older kids mostly boys quickly become bored with the scaler as it dont drive fast, and i had some old guy ( 60+ ) totally loose connection with the world, so while me and my friend sad down to relax and eat a little that guy was wheeling my TF2 for 30 minutes or so totally in a world of his own.

Also nice to see kids into something else then the usual stuff "thumbsup"

 

[OSRC]

Like I mentioned in another thread, my 15 year old step-daughter seemed interested in the Ascender kit I brought home. Once I get it running, we'll see she is interested in taking it out.

My 16yo niece has 1 interest - her phone. Doesn't seem to matter where we are, it's all she cares about. Damned if my kids are going to be like that. Best of luck with it! Really made the trail run fun yesterday.

Some older kids mostly boys quickly become bored with the scaler as it dont drive fast, and i had some old guy ( 60+ ) totally loose connection with the world, so while me and my friend sad down to relax and eat a little that guy was wheeling my TF2 for 30 minutes or so totally in a world of his own.

I get the kids getting bore thing. Her attention waned from time to time - she is 9 of course - but she was into it the whole time.

As a follow-up, before school today she asked if she could go downstairs and clean the truck. Lol! Think I hooked her. We'll see. "thumbsup"

 

[Jim85IROC]

that's great man! My 8 year old son has been into RCs since I got him an ECX Circuit when he was 3 or 4. My 5 year old daughter hasn't had the same enthusiasm. This year I got bit by the crawler bug and grabbed myself a Bomber kit that both of my kids ended up enjoying. I picked up a Gen7 for my boy to use, and we've gone out on a couple crawls. He's absolutely loved it! My daughter wants to go now so I just picked up a Clone Hammers that I'm going to start upgrading.

It thrills me that the kids are interested, and I constantly look forward to going RCing with them. Enjoy your time with your oldest, and when your youngest is ready, bring them both out!

 

[Shinchu]

i saw this thread a while ago and lost it... glad i found it!

OSRC, great story!
my son is 9 and LOVES RC! he has a barrage he got for his b day in august. i have done the usual barrage "free mods" and he somehow managed to get some pitbull growler 1.55's on gearhead wheels. no kidding i still don't know how he ended up with those... (ok they came off a rig i got from CODYBOY who always request that people pay it forward so what better way...)
anyway he wasn't happy with the color, and i agree it gets old seeing all the tan barrages, so i sprayed it OD Green with some plasti-dip so it will flex with the lexan.
this is his genuine reaction, i think he likes it...

*haha that's a pic from my old house, believe it or not that's my RC workbench back then hahaha

servo went out the very next outing. had a spare full size i swapped in with some spacers, back up and running no problem. still want to get him a 2S lipo, but the truck has been perfect for him to learn throttle control. he had a little... incident with whisky throttle once with his grandpa's high-end yeti kit (full throttle with a castle 1406/sidewinder on 3S right into a boulder) so i was like ummmm your first truck will be SLOWWWWWWW.
and he has fully embraced scale driving! i always tell him what medic says on RC SParks: "as slow as possible, but as fast as necessary" and he's done great with that.
i even trust him with my nearly finished tribute ascender.
now he is a tuner at heart, and really CANT WAIT to start on the drifters i have that need updating. he is getting my old TT01 for a starter, same way i did.
also he wants a jeep body for his barrage, might get him a Tamiya hard body for his 10th b day?

i just love the fact he and i can get out and go do something together. he loves that too. he worries i have too much "couch time" and at the ripe old age of 38, I'm not getting any thinner. so he and my wife are both glad this hobby has gotten me off my ass, and as a bonus i spend more time with my son, doing something creative.

my daughter (his twin sister actually) is mildly autistic and has trouble grasping the concept of controlling something, but i think she might be ready. my son has a handful of the $20 Walmart RC's, and those would be perfect to see if she is ready to have a go at it. as i type this its Tuesday. we are going to my inlaw's (yeti basher heaven) on sunday... i will bring ALL the trucks and hopefully report back here with positive results!
we go to monster jam every year and she(despite also being a girly girl and is all about Disney princess stuff) LOVES the monster trucks... we just happen to have a $20 grave digger... maybe a traxxas is in her future if all goes well????

 

[Jim85IROC]

Just to update this, I took both kids out for a trail run this past Friday, and my daughter just LOVED running her Clone Hammers. After the battery died she continued to use the remote to drive her "invisible" crawler everywhere that my boy and I drove ours on the way back to the truck.

 

[Shinchu]

another update:

went to monster jam at Petco Park. my daughter loves the loud trucks, and my son had an old $20 Walmart grave digger just sitting in a box in the garage.
headed to in-laws the next day and the backyard is being re-done, dirt everywhere (literally zero lawn) and its two levels, 20ft rise with about 45 deg. slope of loose dirt/rocks and a multi-step waterfall.
its friggin CRAWLER/BASHER PARADISE.
so i brought all of the rigs. the ascender (ran great), son's barrage (front upper link diff mount ball joint popped out of the link from threaded side, fixed with blue threadlock for now), and my daughter's new (used) Walmart grave digger.
got everyone all ready, my son tore off with his barrage, straight to the bed of boulders.
i stopped and gave Tina her remote, i wrapped my hands around hers and showed her how to move forward, back, left, right (its like a game controller with sticks) and she was off! immediately and instinctively bouncing that little thing around the backyard at a 2mph pace lol but she got it no prob! she would ge to a spot and say "ready, set, GO!!!" and blast down the hill, just like she saw at monster jam the night before.

i think... i think somebody will get a traxxas grave digger as a 10th B-day gift... (and maybe with a custom monster mutt Dalmatian body? Candice Jolly is a helluva gal, great role model to girls and she runs a therapeutic horse riding place for kiddos with autism... my Tina has done that and it helps! )

** update to the update: no traxxas yet but word has gotten around the neighborhood that I'm an RC guy.
my son asked me if i could look at his friend's RC and figure out why it doesn't work after he drove it after one charge, and wont work anymore...
its a 1:18 scale Maverick DT. this little bugger is actually kinda neat in design...

so it has micro-Tamiya plugs (on an HPI Europe product? what the....) so i soldered up an adapter from an old Tamiya micro plug i had laying around and threw it on my son's dynamite nimh charger i use for his barrage.
haven't tried the car on the fully charged pack (left it on the charger until i went to bed, unplugged it before calling it a night) but i tried it about 15 min into the charge and it seemed like it was so dead, it chirped the rx to life, twitched the steering, then died in about 2 seconds.
i will update the update to the update when i get home and see what it does with a fully charged pack. i hope it works, its a neat little thing!

***
Update to the updated update... the ESC/RX on the ion is toast. not sure how, but with a full charge on the pack, i flick the switch to "on" and the servo twitches, light flashes 3 times, then... nothing. no signal, no output. dead. gave it back to the neighbor with the unfortunate news. got thanked for trying and that was it. oh well.