moggywoggy

I'm sure this has been talked about alot, but i haven't found much from searching the posts here or seen much in fresh posts either.

I'm looking for websites that have articles on car adjustment. Articles on things like: brake adjustment, diff and shock oil choice, battery charging, tire choice, driving tips, adjusting servo action from the radio..... You know, the stuf the pros do to win!

I know i want it all, but i've spent well over US$1000 in a short time upgrading, servicing, cleaning , repairing my buggy, etc. and none of that is much good if you have a lousy brake set-up and don't know how to tune and service your shocks.

The guys at the track just tell me that brakes are very hard to adjust and not to worry too much.

Any articles out there on setting brakes to have the same kind of reaction as regular car's brakes: a smooth linear braking response? So that when i push the brakes half-way, i get exactly 50% and all the way gives me 100% braking power, ie. the wheels lock up.

Is this how the pros have their brakes set, or am i just dreaming?

Thanks.

MassiveMods

Well that all depends ... generally you would want a sort of 65/35 front to rear bias or even 60/40 front to rear , you will know if your car does a spin when you brake hard.. that means you have too much on the rear.. you want the nose to plant more in braking and the rear to just have a gentle slow... try this on *****umen to egsaggerate the effects.. then try it out on your surface.. also you will notice that the car may pull to one side on heavy breaking.. this is either your diff or toe or castor settings causing drag on one wheel more than another.. ( IMO )

ok general set up for dirt, say semi loose clay..
Oils 40 front 30 rear
Tyres; Crime Fighters or Dirty Harrys
Medium Shock springs with 2 hole piston

that should get you started

Good Luck !!!

moggywoggy

Thanks, that's helpful!

I've seen very short springs between the brake pads that is suppossed to give very accurate breaking. I guess that as the brakes are applied, the brake pads close on the disc more slowly and force more power from the servo to fully lock up, thereby providing a more linear braking action.

Do you know what i mean? Have you seen this on any buggies?

Cheers

livthemoment

don't a lot of people run (at least in the U.S.) more rear bias than front. I run 80%rear brake and 20% front, so i can carve through turns by allowing the rear to slide slightly(thus additional steering).
I am unsure if Taiwan has sweeping grass field tracks or high jumping dirt tracks (for the latter i would run more rear bias)

moggywoggy

The tracks in Taiwan that i've been to are hard packed dusty dirt, but not particularly high jumping. The guys here have even bias or maybe 60/40 front/rear bias. None of them seem to have a rear breaking bias, perhaps because our local track is hard and dusty and not very high grip.

Any thoughts on this?

Any good websites with pro tips?

monte100

try this

http://www.twf8.ws/new/tech/tip/setup/epa.html

moggywoggy

Thanks Monte

Come on guys! Anymore sites that offer these kind of tips?

Much appreciated

MassiveMods

i guess if thats your style of swingin the rear round to turn. it would slow you down a tad though.. generally i like to scream on the straight, break before the turn, coast around the first half of the turn as close to the corner as possible then accelerate out of the corner..

pcengine

This [link=http://users.pandora.be/elvo/]web[/link] is great that I get everything I need to know. On chapter 6 where is about power distribution that may help on how to setup brake. I run 10/90 front and rear brake ratio with other setup to transfer as much load onto the front under braking as to utilize the momentum to push, swing and drag into and out of corner since there are alot 90 & 180 sharp turns on my track that is low traction, hard packed and bumpy. Rear wheels may be locked depends on how hard braking is but front wheels are rather in power to drag into corner and cause the rear swung at the same time that help chaning direction of car. Center diff is setup to release load more easily as well. But there is also disadvantage on do so that I'm used to be blamed against hitting and pusging other cars out of the corner when they are running by mine side (probably my next intentional [>:]), and is rather difficult to handle when my car is running far away from control platform that I cannot see it clearly.

I would say differentail and brake are about power distribution while other adjustable components are about momentum change and transfer that having these things understood should help to consolidate for an expected behavior and get the most fun

moggywoggy

Thanks for the help. Massivemods, i guess i need to concentrate more on my driving style and find the best line and not be overconcerned with the braking response. But when i push the car to try the brakes, they start responding slightly at about 40% travel of the throttle/brake trigger. Then at say 50 or 60% travel the brakes come on full and the wheels lock up. Is this how your cars are set or do you have a more uniform control over the brakes response?

Pc engine, what do you mean by, "Center diff is setup to release load more easily as well"? What do you mean by 'releasing the load more easily' and how do you set up the centre diff to do that?
What oil are you using in the front/centre/rear diffs?

Thanks for your help again, by the way. After i went to the 'Ji Lai De' track int Jia Yi i found that there is a more interesting one at Guan Ying Mountain only 35 minutes drive from my house. It sounds very similar to your track, this climate makes for hard, dry, dusty tracks, doesn't it?

Thanks for all the help

MassiveMods

Yes drive line is so important. Have a go at an excersize with your friends. get one of your friends to have a race with you on the track. get him or her to go fairly quickly and you go a little slower but try to keep the best racing line you can. close in on the corners .. you will be supprised at how much time good racing line helps.. Also with your brakes, get them so when you slam them on the car dips in the front and the rear stays in control.. then just get used to how they work. The feel on your controll should be smooth and precise. Not random or excessive.. Remember less is more and slow is fast .. I have my cars brakes so that you can get the rear wheels off the ground when you slam them on , i have a Tri brake system.. 2 disks front 1 rear .. just experimenting with it, works well..

Diff oils i recommend 7 k front 10 k center and say 1 or 2 k rear.. this will give nice pull in the front to get you round corners.. if your track is particularly technical you can even lock the front diff.. you will tear around them corners !!

good luck !!

pcengine

I run 2k diff oil for both front and center differential and have rear differential just greased. The center differential in such setting will sacrifice certain accelaration ability on the straight but suitable for tight cornering and enough for speeding up at corner exit, since the heavier the diff oil will have the less the diff effect, resulting pushing at corner entry. And the overall setting of my car will act and react stronger on my bumpy track.

My 2 cents, don't border to get fine brake adjustment. Instead, do more excersize to keep your car tracking all the way on the same best driving line as MassiveMod told and get yourself known when, where and how to brake and you will eventually know what sort of brake setup you need as long as building up your own driving style. Entering into corner at different point on the straight end will take different way to brake (ie. hard or light, shuttled or continuous, that is all about how your finger moving on the trigger).

have fun

moggywoggy

Thanks, pcengine. My diff oils are 3k, 5k, 1k (front to rear) right now. I think i'll try 3k, 3k, 1k next time and see how it works.

have fun at the track today!