Building an Astroturf track---Any tips???

[NitroArgi]

Hello all,

We are thinking of building a new rc track only for 1/10 electric off road racing here in Athens and I was wondering if you guys could share some tips since this will be the first astroturf track in Greece!

We will probably go with wooden jumps and maybe add some bricks in the layout...is there something we should know about building this kind of track?

Thank you in advance

Regards
Argi

[NeilRalph77]

The Lad's at Bury Metro may be able to help they've just got a new astro track and it rock's!

[steelie600]

Ive just built one out of astro, in Crewe Cheshire.

one of the biggest things is make sure you prepare the ground properly first. Put decent land drainage in and level the land properly etc and make sure you dont have any bumps in the surface.

When you lay the astro you will need machinery to do this because of the sheer weight of it. 1 roll of astro weighs over 600kg

once you have laid it all it is then prudent to go around again taking out any lumps and bumps that may have appeared, (there will be many) I personally used a trench rammer for the high spots and used sand to fill the low spots. Do not aim for a perfectly level surface remember it is off road but make sure you take out any bumps that kick you cars about.

my track build etc is on my facebook group
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=...589495917&ap=1

ask to join and ill add you, theres a plethera of photos and videos on there

my website is www.corc-online.co.uk and will have the build process uploaded there too in the next few days

[DanW]

Originally Posted by steelie600

Ive just built one out of astro, in Crewe Cheshire.
When you lay the astro you will need machinery to do this because of the sheer weight of it. 1 roll of astro weighs over 600kg

Its heavy if you use second hand sandfilled astro.

The astro turf itself is pretty light weight, its the sand that makes it heavy to handle. As well as being heavy, sandfill has the drawback that the sand comes up in warm weather and makes the surface slippery.

Non-sandfill is much lighter and can be laid by hand, but needs to be securely fixed down. Normally done by laying heavy timbers in the ground to secure the astro to.

You need a smooth compacted surface to lay on, so if the ground has a lot of rocks then you will need to do plenty of prep.

[steelie600]

Originally Posted by DanW

Its heavy if you use second hand sandfilled astro.

Well I wasnt prepared to pay £25000 for new astro when second hand astro is free!!

I agree without sand its light as a feather, BUT in my experience the sand filled astro is better for racing as it behaves like a dirt track yet you can use it all weathers! AND the sand also helps drainage.

heres a video of my track taken yesterday 2 hours after a torrential downpour. Track is finished bar piping it out and all weve got left to do is build the pitramp and finish the rostrum. SO wont be long before were open

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB818IWWWyI

enjoy!

[DanW]

Depends on your availibilty of machinery and access.

For us it was cost effective to buy new rather than try and get machinery in.

Theres a huge range of price and qaulity grades in astro, you don't need to spend £25K, but all astroturf is expensive.

Also depends on what is available in Greece.

Good news on a new track (thats not to far away) by the way.

[Gonky]

Nice video there... looks like a interesting track as well, good work!

[_valtsu_]

Hi

We are probably building first astroturf track to Finland for 1/10 buggys. Some tips would be helpfull.

-What we should use under the astro?
Sand ?
What grain size?

-Should we put sand on astro to make it slippery?

Picture of the track site:

[blue_pinky]

Hi,

We've recently finished building an astroturf track...we have a blog that documents our efforts ***HERE***. Main club website ***HERE***, and our Youtube channel also has more videos, pics and footage of things now we're completely finished and running the club every fortnight!

Main things for surface under the astro is drainage and smoothness...and making sure it's as free of organic life that WILL find a way through the astro once it's laid!

Our site was mostly gravel/dirt/mud already, we made sure we'd removed as much plant life as possible, and smoothed, raked and graded the gravel/course aggregate as much as possible before the astro was laid. Astro is painfully heavy, and you won't want to move it once you've laid it, so make sure you get things right before you do!

The sand in the astro helps keep the astro down, as it's very light without the sand fill, however, it does come out once the cars are running on it..and will always do that. Our astro was second hand, and was sand filled, and we still spend a good period of time around each meeting brushing and removing the loose stuff...in the hope that eventually most of it will have come out!

Planning is the key...good well considered track design is vital...the amount of effort needed means you should try to get it as close to what you want first time! Tricky, but possible. Think flowing shapes, nothing flat and boring...your area looks very flat to me, the challenge there will be to get some shape and height change into it!

We went for making a shaped space with rounded rolling shapes that can have the track markings laid at any position for an infinite amount of track designs...and we're loving the variety it's providing us now....every meeting the track is different...a few pics of tracks we've laid ***HERE***

Anyway...GOOD LUCK!!! Much hard work ahead

[_valtsu_]

Thanks a lot, blog helps very much.