Ok, time to clear up some confusion. In the world of RC trucks and cars you are likely to hear of three power sources, gas, nitro or electric. Gas and nitro are often used interchangeably and in most cases when someone is talking about a gas powered RC truck they mean a nitro RC truck. However, there are trucks available that do actually run on gasoline as opposed to nitro fuel so when talking about gas RC trucks we need to be clear what we are referring to as they are quite different beasts.
Gas powered RC trucks and cars are generally much larger than their nitro equivalents. Expect to see trucks in the region of 1/6th scale up to 1/5th scale with engines in the region of 23 – 26cc. By comparison, nitro rc trucks usually only come as big as a 1/8th scale and go down to 1/18th scale. As a result, gasoline trucks are much more expensive than nitro so you need to have a much bigger bank balance to finance the hobby.
With the use of a standard gasoline powered engine these trucks are generally able to run for longer between refuels. Expect to see run-times or around 30 minutes compared to approximately 15 minutes from a nitro truck. The trade-off is that these bigger heavier trucks are usually not able to match the high speeds offered by nitro trucks, usually topping out at around 40mph whilst 50+ mph is not uncommon in the nitro world.
Since gasoline trucks generally cost more than the average beginner is looking to spend, this blog will mainly focus on nitro RC trucks. Where gas powered RC trucks are mentioned this will be made clear to avoid any confusion. Thank you for listening to reading this public service announcement!
Check out the video below. In amongst the insane jumps being attempted by the HPI Baja 5B RTR Gas RC Buggy you get to see some size comparisons between it and a RC nitro truck (at 1m 07 secs).
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