How do you make a backyard RC track?

Answer 1

There's a few tricks that i have found that are pretty common for making your own backyard track. I, like you haven't found any helpful resources online which is quite surprising, but by looking at pictures of other peoples tracks have come up with a few conclusions.

First you need to evaluate the area that you want to turn into your track, and sketch up a rough layout of how you want the track to run. I went as far as measuring the area and using graph paper to keep it as accurate as possible. I decided to make the lanes 8ft wide so that when friends come over to race there is plenty of room. Club tracks will run between 10' and 20' wide lanes for larger groups of racers.

The second step is to decide if you are going to just cut the grass really low or take it out completely. If you take it out the cars won't roll over as easily in the corners, you won't have to mow, and you will get faster speeds and a little better battery life. Taking it out isn't as easy as just finding a shovel, especially with a larger course (mine is 100'x32') because that is a lot of area to cover. Some people have recommended spraying grass killer on the entire area and after a while I'm told you can just rake out the dead grass in piles. I found the easiest, although not cheapest thing to do is just go down to an equipment rental place (tates rents or Home Depot) and rent a sod cutter. They usually run around $40/hr.

Jumps are pretty easy, I just dug an area up behind where I wanted the jump and mounded the dirt up in front of it. It's a good idea to have your car available for testing as you go so you get the angle right and spacing between them, that way you don't waste a couple hours building only to have to move everything around. You can also use plywood for making the jumps, which works best if you use some dirt to ease the transition onto the wood. I also used plywood for a hairpin banked turn by angling the plywood and building the dirt up on it. Extra dirt I had got packed into little mounds spaced pretty close together which are really fun to try and maneuver around.

Corners are pretty easy to do. I started out with a couple 2-liter bottles filled with water. Dig a hole and bury it halfway up, mounding the dirt around it. After a few hits from the cars they will work themselves out and you'll have to do it again. I ended up taking out the bottles and doing basically the same thing with some old tires. They are really good because they bounce the cars off of them better with less risk of damage and won't need to be re-buried after just a few impacts.

Lane dividers also has a few different options. You could mound the dirt up between the lanes, leave grass as a divider, or use plastic tubing. Most hardware stores carry this 4" black drainage tubing in 100' sections for under $50. It's a flexible tubing that can be used for outlining your entire track and it does a good job at keeping most cars in the right lane. They usually have it in or around gardening.

There are some other obstacles you might try incorporating into your track. I put a 10' long gravel pit filled with 3/4" rock which is pretty fun. I have heard of people doing some sort of water hazard between jumps or on the inside of corners. I wouldn't recommend this unless your cars have waterproof electronics. Inserting a bottle neck where the track lane gets really narrow can add to the difficulty.

The main thing to remember as you are building your track is that it's going to take time to get it just right, and you may end up making a lot of changes. So just have fun, don't be afraid to make stuff up as you go, and get to it!

Oh yeah, and don't forget to call DIGLINE before digging, you don't want to risk hitting a gas or underground power line, or worse take out your cable tv!

-CelicaCraZy