How young is too young?

[slotcarrod]

I dragged a box of old Hornet parts out from the loft and built it up for my Son when he was about three and a half. With a couple of parts kindly donated by a friend and an improvised shell made from a squash bottle, it only cost me the price of a new set of rear tyres.

He's pretty please with it as you can see (photo taken before new tyres arrived):


Again to save money, I just used my old Futaba stick transmitter but copied what my dad did for me with his boats when I was a little lad - clipped a lanyard to the transmitter and put it around his neck. That way he doesn't need to worry about holding the weight of it, just keeping it steady and moving the sticks - he got to grips with it straight away.


He'll love being a part of Daddy's hobby.

Fantastic, and a cute kid to boot! I love the Squash bottle body as well, it actually looks cool! Are you going to paint it?

[kaiser]

thats too cool. my 3.5 year old is dying for some rc action, but all the pistol radios are too big.
i never really thought about a stick radio. might have to try that.

[Groomi]

I love the Squash bottle body as well, it actually looks cool! Are you going to paint it?

That was the plan, but after spending over £20 on paint for his chosen rainbow colour scheme, the wife managed to lose the paints! As soon as we find them, I'll paint it.

[Lonestar]

that's an awesome set of pics

[jwscab]

I gave my 4 yr old my old grasshopper with duratrax esc and venom crawler motor. it crawls along nicely. I used a tower 2.4Ghz radio on the advice that the pistol is pretty small. He had a tough time at first but is definitely better now. Biggest thing is to impress upon him to get off the throttle when it's jammed under or on something. I also picked up a rc18 late model on clearance at the associated warehouse last year. The NiMh battery is total crap so I'm waiting on a lipo in the mail for it. I was thinking of maybe having him use a 2 stick; one thing we do is split the controls, he'll steer, I'll throttle, or vice-versa. He has had a bunch of cheapie toy rc's that he's also used.

[bxlt]

Wow great advice! Thank you all. Its to late for Christmas to buy him a car but maybe I will put the beater body back on my lunchbox and throw my 55 turn motor in there and let him have at it and see about getting him something for his birthday in May. I got started when I was 12, my parents got tired of giving me a car on Christmas and after the batteries died I would have the car torn apart.

I've been to afraid to let them drive any of my cars for fear of having to replace too many parts but since they are still making the lunchbox and I remember the abuse that took at my hands, and I think a detuned one might be a good way to let them enjoy the hobby as much as I do.

[CAT3K]

thats too cool. my 3.5 year old is dying for some rc action, but all the pistol radios are too big.
i never really thought about a stick radio. might have to try that.

I found a pistol radio that is fine for my girls little hands, the Flysky GT3C. It's much smaller than the radio i had for her originally. It also weighs nothing due to having a 1 cell lipo built in

[kaiser]

it's the throw of the trigger that's a pain. that new company arma (aarma?) has a neat little pistol but same as all the other it's the foward/reverse/brake throw thats too much for a 3.5year old.

[GreenHell]

I started my son off with a Losi micro-t at age 2. It’s actually pretty durable for its size and the battery lasted about as long as his attention span (5-10 minutes). We both have a ton of fun with this thing!





At age 3 we bought him a 1/10 Traxxas Grave Digger for his birthday. The kit radio is heavy, bulky and other than trim has zero adjustments, so he got upgraded to a Airtronics 2.4 MX-3X. It’s much lighter and easier for him to hold plus I can easily manipulate the throttle end-points if I need to slow him down. So far no broken parts.





He just turned 4…

And lately I've been taking him to the local indoor track on practice days that aren’t too busy. I let him run my SC10 with the end-point turned down to 60-70% to slow him down. He does really good until there’s other cars on the track, then he gets distracted. I figure with a little more practice he’ll be ready for the sportsman class. He’s always asking my wife to go racing with dad.

[flipwils11]

You might want to check this thread out.

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=25811

[slapshot1979]

The teather for the 2 stick is a great idea!! Never thought of that.

[bxlt]

Again I want to thank everyone for the advice. I am going to get my old lunchbox "beater" ready and let the boys have at it. I already have a broken but working Tower 2.4ghz radio that the boys broke the antenna on so that can go into the Lunchbox and let them drive it.

However it will be awhile before I let them drive the bigger cars like this one

[flipwils11]

Here's why I think a Slash is a great choice for kids.

http://e12m535i.com/MISC/radio-control/declan-jumps-4-24-11.MOV

[ireg]

My youngest son when he was 6yrs old (wearing green muscle shirt) and now he is 14yrs old


and he's brother was 7yrs old (wearing brown shirt) and now he is 15yrs old


playing with TT01 and TA05 respectively
before they shift to Offroad