Radio Shack has a 7.2V radio controlled boat on sale now for $39. We have a small lake nearby with few people and free, easy access. What I'm wondering is, do these normally have some kind of warning for when the battery is low? I would hate to buy a canoe or a raft just to get it out.

I think when the battery is too low for it to come back you'll know before you put it in the water, I mean, I doubt it could make it far enough away from you before you realized it had hardly any juice in it. DC motors will just get slower as the battery drains, they won't just stop on you.

At that price it will have no failsafe, etc. I think it will start acting up when the battery goes low and more than likely the damn thing will just go in circles. I'm in to RC cars and was interested in a boat but I kept wondering, what if the batteries go bad out in the middle of a lake? Well, you will need a real boat to go get it. It is a bit silly to require a real boat to fetch a toy. Someone suggested fishing line to be able to pull the RC boat back but that sounds like a bad idea to me. Too much possibility to get tangled.

Every RC boat I have ever seen has a safety device to return it home to the remote....They call it RTS, return to shore, and it will bring it back as close as it can to the controller.
Now thats the boats I have wanted or thought about getting but never found the place to use them so I stayed with Cars trucks and planes and helicopters......
Not sure about the radio shack boats......I would look into it cause i know the the RTS is getting more popular in RC boats....

A 39 dollar boat?

A 39 dollar boat?

I should get a trailer and a hitch for the Camaro and back it into the boat drop.

http://www.q45.org/gallery/d/386-2/101_2042.JPG

That would be cool. Or you could use my M3 bodied car to pull it. It may throw the boat around a bith though.

How about a second RC boat to push the dead one back to shore? ;)
We have a few guys in the sailing club that have RC sailboats. You still have to be able to manage the sails and rudder to harness the wind.

I had the old Tyco Riptide when I was a kid. Funner than hell. Even back then they would return to shore. I wouldn't worry about it...just go for a swim. It was seventy degrees outside here yesterday, perfect swimming weather!