RC Truck

The market for RC trucks has come a long way in the past 30 years.  From the bedrock of yesterday's limited range battery powered trucks has emerged a larger and much more powerful range of vehicles.  While the original battery powered electrics still dominate overall sales, the performance market of gas powered RC has emerged for those wanting more power, speed, range, and dirt climbing fun.

What you'll find with most of the performance RC trucks is size.  Bigger tires.  Bigger frames.  Bigger scale models (1/8 scale is the norm) and much more powerful engines.  The performance models are clearly intended to take a lot of abuse - these aren't the weak plastic models that fall apart after a week of use.  Most of the monster truck modeled vehicles are gas powered - which means more torque and power distribution to the wheels is constant.  They design these to shoot up dirt hills and tracks - and once you try one its hard to walk away - they're nearly unstoppable.

Remote control Truck features:

RTR trucks stand for Ready to Run.  Most of today's trucks and buggy kits are designed to work straight from the box without assembly.  Some hard-core enthusiasts still like to build from scratch, but the trend has certainly shifted to assembled trucks that are ready to go.  While the battery powered inexpensive vehicles are intended for casual use on flat surfaces and pavement, Nitro RC cars and trucks are built to have greater clearance and easily go up just about any surface - from rocks, grass, gravel, and dirt.

Featuring powerful gas powered engines with speeds that can reach up to an

amazing 40mph, these trucks really fly.  The hobby market has really come of age, making today's vehicles easy to use without losing any of their mega-performance.  A giant aftermarket exists to upgrade to different body styles, wheels, custom decals and more. 

There are over a dozen big brands making gas rc - which has helped bring average prices down to the $198 - $300 range for some awesome deals.  Top brands include Traxxas, HPI, and Tamaiya.  The biggest selling monster truck of them all is the Traxxas Tmaxx 4WD RTR.  Gas wins every time - and once you see one you'll never go back to an electric again.

Read our review of Nitro RC trucks to learn more about gas powered RC.

The most popular RC Trucks are the battery powered electrics.  Inexpensive and available at just about every local mega chain (WalMart, ToysRUs) they're a decent starting point for kids, teens, and are popular as gift items.  Made of plastic and with short lasting charge, electrics offer rechargeable batteries and costs typically range $25 - $100.  Chassis clearance is fairly limited, so other than driveway or pavement you'll be pretty limited in use.  Battery life is typically 20-25 minutes with normal use.