Pittsburgh Mills J&C Hobbies: Carpet Track and Rock Crawling!! (pics)

[dale_gribble]

I was really happy when a local hobby store opened an awesome new track in a very nice mall north of Pittsburgh. J&C Hobbies has several stores in Pittsburgh, and they are one of the few I can go to that has parts for my army of RCs. Pittsburgh has cold winters, so its great to have a place to go. It will also be good to go to the track in the summer during some of our infamous thunder storms.

Here are some pictures of the track; they have organized racing several times weekly and setup new track layouts weekly which is nice. I take my kids here when its quieter and let them run the course. I have also met maybelater29 here after work to run some laps and hope to do that more often.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/rcu/goliath/jandctrack1.JPG

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/rcu/goliath/jandctrack2.JPG

Here is the rock crawling course. It is a lot of fun and well suited to 2.2 and 1.9 crawlers. This course is a bit much for my PTI Goliath in its stock form without the rock crawler package. However, I decided to run the Goliath on the course and see how well it would do anyways.

Here is the course.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/rcu/goliath/course.JPG

Here is a course section over the doorway that exits via a very steep decline. Goliath didn't look amused.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/rcu/goliath/course1_overdoor.JPG

[dale_gribble]

Here, Goliath is laboring up the rocks on its way to the course. Goliath got high centered and isn't geared low enough to enjoy this.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/rcu/goliath/mmt_course1.JPG

Next, he is going up the back wall. This is a little more tricky than it looks because of ground clearance issues and some tall rock formations.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/rcu/goliath/mmt_course2.JPG

Goliath is taking a breather in the tunnel before going up the incline to the next level of rock crawling pain. By this time, Goliath already needed some help and wasn't sure if he could make it.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/rcu/goliath/mmt_course1point5.JPG

[dale_gribble]

Goliath made it up the hill to the bridge with some convincing. J&C Hobbies has this great poker stick to turn Goliath over when he flips upside down.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/rcu/goliath/mmt_course3.JPG

Then it's time to go over the bridge. I did get the truck over the broken section of bridges unscathed.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/rcu/goliath/mmt_course4.JPG

[dale_gribble]

Just for the heck of it, I had to try the cable crawl. The PTI didn't have anywhere near the low gearing or the center of gravity to pull this off. I got it down the crawl about 3 feet and then it tumbled into the rocks below.

http://www.intergate.com/~rpurcell/rcu/goliath/mmt_course_extra2.JPG

I just bought a 1.9 Losi Mini Rock Crawler to assume some rock crawling duty until Goliath gets some upgrades. In the meantime, Goliath is bruised and battered sitting back at home resting.

[Maxx man]

sweet thats an awsome place u got there!!!!!! wish there were hobby shops like that in maryland...

[OldSchoolRC]

looks like a great place! thanks for taking us along for the ride