Boys that play with cars

It likely won't come as any surprise to loyal fans that your humble narrator is and always has been a boy that plays with cars. On one of my favorite web forums they mentioned Stompers in passing. I knew they wouldn't want to hear me whine and pine over the fun I had with them so I dropped in here with you.

I think I was about 9 when they came out, or at least when I became aware of them. I lived on a muddy hillside; A perfect spot for such a rough and tumble machine. I recall marvelling at what I thought was complexity. I did pine for an active suspension but was placated by the dual sets of tires (medium density foam or hard plastic.) I recall setting up dozens of scenarios where the stomper would attempt to make it through a gully and then maybe over a bridge without falling in to the sudden death below.

In a way we never grow up. Or maybe it is that some of the things we start in childhood never end. Perhaps its that I haven't lost all of my boyhood wonder yet. I still love cars in some odd esoteric way. I have a fascination with all of the mechanics of them and how some have different ways of accomplishing similar goals. My own daily driver vehicle was purchased because it was one I think most little boys are fascinated with at some point, a Jeep. It's kind of "just like" an old CJ, only it does have padding in the seats and there's a few more inches tacked in there. There is no denying I purchased it more for the toy value than the getting groceries part. Sure, any other car would have sufficed my mechanical desires but the jeep allows one to open the hood and see everything. Open a minivan's hood. Not much to see. I can crawl under my jeep and lay in comfort while pondering what made that ding on my rear differential case. I have done this. I find it enjoyable. If I won the lottery and had nothing else to do I would certainly do this at least every couple of days (but likely I'd be looking under different cars most days.)

My eldest is now in 2nd grade and they were offered the opportunity to participate in the elementary school's science fair. They are not obligated to do a project but extra credit is granted for those that do. We all decided it would be fun to do one so we set upon the task of choosing a topic. The school had sent home a list of suggestions but those seemed so drab. We found a website on the topic and read through their offerings. None of them really grabbed his attention. He was stuck on one that made the wife and I cackle the first time we heard it:

How fast does a go-kart go?

With the knowing look we both realized: It has started.

Not having a go-kart at my disposal I suggested we could see how fast my radio controlled truck would go. This pleased him.

Plan A:
Saturday morning. Arrived at middle school parking lot to find not a car in sight. Set start line and began measuring until we had one tenth of a mile. Set markers at turns and had it ready to go. Fueled the radio controlled truck, started, warming up. Had it up to temperature and was warming the tires with some high speed runs to practice the course. Curb.

Parts run. $40.

The next day I had it back up and running again with the new parts. This was a broken lower A arm in case you're following along. I decided instead of just replacing that one I'd replace the upper and lowers on the front suspension with some better ones.

Plan B:
Since there are no curbs around my house and only traffic to worry about I decided I would measure out an area in front of my house to measure the speed. I did this Sunday and when all was set we brought the whole family out to participate in the activities. I drove the truck (It's a Tmaxx made by Traxxas in case you care,) the wife managed the stopwatch, eldest was the starter and data recorder. and little bit was a stark raving mad fan.

We managed to get 4 good runs before we ran it out of fuel and susequently decided to call it a day. We had our data and eldest and I sat at the computer with Open Office's Calc and set up a spreadsheet to calculate our miles per hour. Within moments we had our results and eldest felt it was a job well done. This was when the reality of it was only the beginning of the work was explained to him. Through much drudging we've put together a smashing presentation and even though some of it wasn't to his liking, adding in a radio controlled real-engine powered truck that eats gas and screams like a banshee, well that made it a little bit better.

As it turned out, somewhere in that long line of testings and whatnot, several other parts broke and I spent today disassembling it, cleaning it, and reassembling with non-broken parts. In the end I even found all of the screws. It was pretty hairy there for a while. :) And now I present you with a view of the truck in question, another of my horrible little boy toys. :)