simplecj
Posts: 281
Joined: 2/10/2008
From: Cedar City,
UT, USA
Status: offline
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Some good bits about what parts to upgrade to aluminum or composites and which to leave plastic...
quote:
ORIGINAL: Jolly Roger Pirate
And then the aluminum bends in a crash and you cant bend it back because it will just crack, and then you have to pay EVEN MORE MONEY to buy new aluminum parts. Stick with the plastic for things like suspension arms people, because in the end, they will cost you less overall.
That's why you don't go ALL aluminum!! You gotta choose what parts to have as your "breakables". In a hard crash, something's gotta give, you'd better plan for it to be something cheap and easy to fix. Personally I'm staying with plastic suspension arms and a plastic chassis. All carriers, stearing blocks, camber blocks and tie-rods are metal. Also, a major one is to replace the tranny box with an aluminum one with aluminum suspension arm mounts which are separate from the tranny box. The stock plastic tranny box is all one piece in the Rustler, break the arm mount and you have to replace the whole box which is both expensive and a lot of work!! By going aluminum on the tranny, arm mounts, the carrier bocks and linkage, you isolate the weaker plastic in the suspension arms themselves. If they break, they're both easy and cheap to replace at about $5-10 per set on ebay. (alot of people will sell their new plastic ones from cars they upgraded to composites or metal)
And, I also recommend upgrading to a large plastic bumper like the one from RPM, this will also dramatically reduce shock from both head-on collisions and cartwheels... DO NOT get the solid metal front bumper like the one from Integy, that's about the stupidest "upgrade" you can make because it's got no flex and therefore completely contradicts what a bumper is supposed to do; absorb the impact! Now I just need to find a good plastic wheelie bar that will do the same thing as the RPM bumper, but for the rear end. Another RPM bumper with some wheels mounted?? That could work!
I also dremeled out a bunch of the centeral part of the chassis to give the whole frame some flex or 'give' when I wreck it and it does like 10 cartwheels or whatever... I know, supposedly a stiff chassis provides better handling, but I'm not racing and I'd rather stay a bit flexible to save myself from replacing a lot of parts.
EDIT: I really wanted to do the wide arm mod, but have decided against it until I can find cheap plastic extended arms. It's a cool mod, but very expensive if you break the arms!
< Message edited by simplecj -- 5/23/2008 8:21:01 PM >
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RE: Official Rustler Thread - 
