RC Crawler Course Ideas for Thrilling Off-Road Adventures 

The task at hand is to build and design the best RC crawler course, perfectly tailored to meet your off-road needs, and make your adventures much more interesting. Sounds simple, but I promise you it is not. 

I have driven on my fair share of terrains, and tracks, both local and national, and while I haven’t seen it all, I have explored numerous RC crawler courses, most have impressed me, some not so much. For this reason, I decided to create my own off-road RC crawler course in my backyard. 

It was quite a long process, tedious mostly, but eventually, I was done, and the results were incredible! Now and then, I add more obstacles, some small, like pebbles and rocks, but most of the time I add the bigger boulders and test drive my off-roader. 

Here are some ideas on how to build a thrilling off-road RC crawler course, and if you already built a course, you can use these pointers to add more hurdles to it. 

Here we go! 

RC Crawler Course Purpose 

First, you need to establish the purpose or reason (s) behind building or revamping your RC crawler course. In this article, I will focus more on establishing off-road obstacles and trails throughout your backyard. These types of trails let drivers sharpen their skills and put them to the test with their off-road RC cars. 

The hurdles on an RC crawler course are particularly integrated to test elements such as:

• Tire traction.
• Axel articulation – letting the wheel extend to grasp various surfaces. 
• Ground clearance. 
• Suspension flex. 
• Approach and departure angles – the back slopes and steepest front that an RC car can ascend. 
• Breakover angle

By concentrating solely on these technical hurdles and obstacles, as opposed to distance, RC crawler courses develop a thrilling, slow-speed skill competition perfect for intermediate and professional drivers. 

RC Crawler Course Features 

Off-road courses are unique thanks to the challenges they present: the obstacles, hurdles, boulders, and other such features that you have to navigate or conquer. While not all off-road trails can be the same, off-road crawler courses often have features such as:

• Rock gardens or gravel
• Cliffs and other similar steep structures to climb and descend. 
• Spine ramps help test axle articulation. 
• Logs.
• Water crossings and mud pits. 
• Steep climbs and rock faces. 
• Huge boulders and piles of rocks call for cautious tire positioning. 

These mana-made and rugged features are what make rock crawler courses stand out from the usual driving terrains built for a less feature-filled 4 by-4 RC car. The hurdles let highly skilled drivers with their top-of-the-line RC rock crawlers display their skills to the world. 

Having talked about the basics of RC crawler courses, let’s deliver into revamping or building yours. 

Designing Your RC Crawler Course 

Building and designing a reliable and usable crawler course takes a lot of planning. From choosing the right spot to assessing the needed building equipment, there are a myriad of factors to consider. 

Location

As pointed out, I built my RC crawler course in my backyard; you can also do the same. However, some may prefer building it indoors like in the garage or attic, while some will build it in their front yard. Whichever location you choose, make sure the location is spacious enough to meet your needs. 

However, here are a few tips on what to consider when choosing the right spot:

• Ensure it is filled with natural features, including cliffs/hills, rock formations, ravines, and other such features that will form the ideal obstacles. Look for geographically sundry places. 
• Seek out areas with huge space, perfect for hosting a wide range of obstacles and trails. 
• For those who prefer building other courses indoors, make sure it is spacious, and far from the rest of the house, like the attic or garage. 

Elements to Incorporate

The only thing that can limit you here is your building skills and imagination. Here is a list of elements you can incorporate:

Boulders or Rock Piles 

Use piles and stacks of rocks for your RC car to drive over and conquer. Choose rocks and boulders of different sizes to create different trails for various difficulty levels. 

Hill Climbs 

Create steep hills for climbing and ascending. Moreover, staggered ramps offer varying approach angles, and for a more challenging experience, integrate off-camber slants. 

Mud Pits 

Trenches and pits filled with muddy water are another wonderful feature. You can drive through such trails to improve your skills, but make sure your RC car is waterproof. Mud pits can either be deep or shallow, depending on your preferences. 

Log Crawls 

You can raise huge logs using blocks for driving your RC rock crawler. This will also help put the breakover angle to the test. 

Ravines 

These are trenches that are dug out narrowly to allow you to descend into them and then climb out. 

Rock Faces 

These are like vertical walls made of rocks. You can climb them with your RC car, but make sure they feature excellent chassis articulation and grippy tires. 

There are so many features you can integrate into your RC crawler course, and these are just to mention a few. Now, let’s delve into the fun part; building these features! 

Building 

Now that you have a rough draft of what you want to create, it’s time to build. 

Building a robust and quality RC crawler course is no simple task. You want to have visually appealing hurdles that look good in the location you chose. However, each aspect has to be designed properly to offer you a challenge that matches your skills and RC car.

Here, I will talk about the rock hurdles: 

Rock Hurdles 

Your off-road RC crawler course would not be complete without rocks as hurdles. This includes rocks of all sizes, from pebbles to boulders. 

Here are some pointers for those who intend to use boulders:

• Check the shape of the rocks and position the edges downwards to avoid puncture on your tires. 
• Bury the rocks partially on the ground for added stability. 
• Utilize heavy equipment to organize and stack the boulders. 
• Position rocks close together to reduce the chances of collapsing when navigating them. 
• Select rocks of all sizes and establish small gaps for difficulty, but ensure they are huge enough to fit your RC car. 
• You can fix the boulders together by driving bolts through them for increased stability. 
• Engineer rock cluster trails that are huge enough to accommodate numerous vehicles. 

Feel free to tap into your creativity when placing the rocks. You can construct crawl-overs, or other such creative and challenging structures for a fun time. 

Conclusion 

I hope you love the RC Crawler Course ideas, pointers, and tips in this article. The best way to establish an RC crawler course is to have a wild imagination. The moment you find the right materials perfect for your RC car, keep building your course. Eventually, you will be done and start using it!