building a track in the back yard

[discgolfer72]

soo my back yard is pretty large
and the back half has a big sewer opening so we don't let the little guys back it that section
soo thought why not time to make a track

had my 14 yr old mow it on the lowest setting and now we are just bashing the crap out of it to kill what's left

I am going to expand it a bit more towards the house (pretty small still) , and wipe out some of the brush on each side to make it wider)


has anyone else made a track , any tips pointers to keep the grass out and build some jumps (should I just make a dirt mound , or would it be better to lay some rocks or a pipe down first and then cover it with dirt )

[XLR8]

Cool! There's nothing like having your own little test track in the back yard to try out different ideas and just to have some fun.
Mine came about mostly due to running in the same path over many thousands of laps. One of my first acquisition after returning to RC was an AE ProSC 4x4 - that thing is an animal that will throw 4-wheeled rooster tails and it quickly cleared all the grass. My home is also on a heavily wooded lot so keeping the grass out is really just a matter of running on it at least once a month. I'm tempted to build some jumps but I know that will lead to broken parts so I just run it like it is. Some of the sections are wash-outs so it's pretty rough in those sections. Anyway, whatever you do I'm sure it will be heaps of fun.

[jwscab]

so obviously, keep drainage in mind. When I made a track years ago, I built a narrow oval with banked turns. I had bricks and concrete as fill so I didn't have to shovel so much dirt, and that helped get the initial shape going.

to kill the grass and prep the surface, I had a short piece, (maybe 3x4 ft) of chain link fence attached to a riding mower with a couple of tires and rims placed on top and also tied to the tractor harness (really, any kind of weight will work as long as it spreads out). When you ran this around the track surface, it would pull out weeds and rocks and make a decent uniform surface.

I also wet the track down a bit depending on the weather. you would need to do this pretty often, usualy before you wanted to run, and it would stay pretty nice for a couple weeks.

[discgolfer72]

this one is coming out of necessity
since most of my stuff is older stuff and i have just been running everything on the road in our cul-de-sac , i have been chewing thru tires like crazy lol (finding 1/4 wheels and tires is getting a bit tough now lol)
so hopefully having this in the back yard will reduce my tire spending lol

[discgolfer72]

so obviously, keep drainage in mind. When I made a track years ago, I built a narrow oval with banked turns. I had bricks and concrete as fill so I didn't have to shovel so much dirt, and that helped get the initial shape going.

to kill the grass and prep the surface, I had a short piece, (maybe 3x4 ft) of chain link fence attached to a riding mower with a couple of tires and rims placed on top and also tied to the tractor harness (really, any kind of weight will work as long as it spreads out). When you ran this around the track surface, it would pull out weeds and rocks and make a decent uniform surface.

I also wet the track down a bit depending on the weather. you would need to do this pretty often, usualy before you wanted to run, and it would stay pretty nice for a couple weeks.

thanks

its strange that sewer drain, even during some of the super heavy rains we have had this summer has never had anything flowing into it . im thinking that they redid the street drainage and now the water is flowing a different route
all it really does is make the mosquitoes a nice birth place , and allow the raccoons a nice path to get to our trash lol

[scr8p]

This is a track I had been messing around with in my backyard. I never got around to renting a sod cutter and adding jumps to make it more permanent.

[klavy69]

Like Joe said above its nice to use some fill to get it started for jumps or banked turns. Now the LHS has a skidloader and for the last few years we just get more clay to build with the offroad finally went under to storage sheds. Still have the tri-oval/oval track so its not a complete loss but I like to use some stuff I pick up at Farm&Fleet called 100% vegetation killer. As the name states it kills everything and its kinda pricey but it works good for most of the season. A good old nonstop bashfest also keeps the grass down also though

Todd

[RC10th]

I remember as a kid we had an extension put on the house and the dirt taken out was black clay. The track was small but fast as we had the biggest banks which ware halfway up the fence. We ran a 1/8 buggy around it a few times likely to the detriment of our neighbors I had many blisters and sore arms from shoveling dirt and maintenance.

[matt1ptkn]

As mentioned already: drainage. I built a pretty nice track in my yard a couple years ago and every time it rained, the track would get washed out with some hellacious ruts. It was a lot of work to smooth it all out with having the dirt jumps to maneuver around. I eventually leveled out the entire space and built wooden jumps that were easy to move/remove for different layouts and maintenance. For me, weed growth was difficult to keep up with. In the height of my track's popularity, it wasn't too bad, but if I didn't use it for a month, the yard would make a serious effort in reclaiming it. I, too, used a section of chain link fence, but I mounted it under a wooden pallet and then I placed concrete blocks on the pallet. It worked very well for smoothing/leveling and light to moderate vegetation.
So in closing, I would say that drainage is numero uno, and routine up keep/maintenance is a close second. Some of my best RC memories are on backyard tracks. Have fun with it!!

Here's a couple photos of my track.

[discgolfer72]

thanks all for the info and pics

got some ideas brewing
loks like I will have to hunt craigslist for someone giving away some chainlink
so I can drag it around on my lawn tractor

and uproot the rest of the growth (need to have the big kid rake up the loose stuff also before any of it decides to take root again lol )

for lane with what did everyone go with im thinking roughly 3/4 car widths

[matt1ptkn]

I went with 8 - 10 foot lane width. That suited my driving style perfectly. I'd recommend using the maximum available width the further the track is from the driver's area. Depending on your track and size, it can get difficult judging distances while also trying to drive fast.

[scr8p]

Mine were like 5-6'.

[tamiyadan]

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