shannow

Hello ,

I have already looked and posted sometime ago (a year ago) but I still need some advices on some specific details .

I'm unfortunaly back to fast moving cars ... (crawlers are not popular in France no local club for them ) .

The nearest (and best mood) club has an indoor track with polished sort of hard cold rubber floor (and with sweat being a gymnasium) .

I have run last year a B44 , ZX_5 FS and a RB5 but it was a real pain on that sort of grip, especially with only 4x4 running around on it ...

I preferred the ZX to the B44 , I found it more predictable but I got disappointed a little with the accessibility of some stuff (the changing the pinion on the motor , batteries clamping system to low, rear suspension fight with the rear wing ...)

Anyway I tried several setup . The softest spring with the softest oil / piston seems to be the way to go (not a lot of jumps , 1 or 2 max) .
I machined myself a little weight of a 100gr between the batteries (very low) to compensate the Li-po / Ni-mh weight difference to see what would happen ... and basically I had a horizontal pendulum at each corner . The rear would pull outwards the car while turning .

I had time to think about all this and now I'm thinking that on that type of track I should try to get the lightest car possible ...

Do you agree with the idea that if I got much lighter batteries (mine are nearly 300gr and I can find cheap bar one at 200 or even less gr) I could improve the cornering abilities of the car by quite a lot ? Bearing in mind that they will still offer plenty of current for my 10.5t motor .

For the tires I tried mini-pins and mini spikes (yellow Schumacher) the mini spikes worked the best . The weird thing about them is that after a 2hrs session they lost a lot of their grip . There's no obvious wear on them , do you thing it is just dust and sweat sticking on them or I am missing something ?
I have a set of full spike I will try to give them a try for curiosity's sake .

It's been a long time since I went to the club now (really got put off because of the lack of grip of the track but I miss the guys there) ... if I do go back I'll probably get a new chassis , I just love assembling and setting up a new car sorry for my wallet . The cat sx2 seems nice (I can get spare parts and everything easily) . I like the idea of it , very similar to an onroad car , seem pretty accessible and well thought .

Thanks again for the help

Jonathan

Ps: I underlined the questions because I talk too much

Ps2 : Another reason with why I'm not keen on my kyosho chassis is the price and availability of the spare parts is unbelievable .

Brainanator

My Feedback: (1)

The tires could have become "polished" with track material. Take a strong cleaner (simple green is popular, but I used a clorox kitchen cleaner) and scrub the heck out of your tires. It is supposed to "refresh" the rubber to give you better traction. I'm not a racer, but I scrub my tires every once in a while.

Here is a pretty good video on tire cleaning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzgjd511Aa8

RobbieP

You need to consider that by going to a lighter battery pack that you're going to further soften the set-up you're using.

Schumacher makes softer compound tires (white) and you may want to try them on the rear to give yourself more rear traction.

Also, the pores in rubber tires become clogged with dirt/dust, so they need to be washed. Iwash my tires after each race meeting (using a scrubbrush and alanolin-based soap like a shampoo), and sometimes during a race day if the track is dustier, to maintaintraction.

dug44

My Feedback: (2)

http://www.amazon.com/Totally-Awesom.../dp/B0017KT3IM


Use this stuff. Makes the tires really sticky....It will work "AWESOME"

RobbieP

The problem with degreasing products, ANYdegreaser, is that they tend to dry out the natural oils that exist in rubber/petroleum-based products. Not good.

Any soap will clean, and bring back the stickiness, of a rubber tire. While ones with lanolin tend not to be as harsh, on your hands too(if you notice simple green or the one above do a number on your skin), and want to replace any oils taken away by washing.

shannow

Thanks a lot for the input I do have Trichloroethylene wich degreases quite efficiently , perhaps too much lol . (Used to use this to remove the glue on the tyre for my touring car)

The 100gr less throught the batteries is quite a lot , why I can't find post of people looking to lose weight of their car by this mean ? I see a lot of folks drilling and cutting stuff but not gainning 1/3 batterie weight by just considering different brands/size/capacity Mah . The races only last a few minutes you never really need 5000+mah exept training .

Thanks again

RobbieP

Since most people have gone to Lipo batteries, and away from NiMH style packs, any drastic weightloss measures have been pretty much abandoned (because its decreased weight tremendously) and people have been looking for ways to add bits of weight here and there (whether it be alloy battery trays, or GHEA brass bits) so as to increase traction and to be able to stiffen up the suspension a little (since the cars have gotten so light, and the required set-ups have been so soft, that there's been little adjustability). Personally I'm waiting to see the next generation of softer-yet tires to come out.

hasek1616

sorry to change the subject but i need some answers following robbiep postings on the turnigy thread that was recently locked, otherwise i would be posting it there, so what do u have to say about this neat little observation by yosh, and lets not try to shy away from the question by calling me a troll or a stalker ok

<meta charset="utf-8" />

quote:

ORIGINAL: RobbieP

Well, was at the track today and had my fourth (4th) Turnigy, POS, pack die on me.
Twofullminutes left in the second qualifier, I come onto the main straight, and my car goes to quarter-speed. Went from being on TQ pace, to finishing 5th. LOL

You see, all the idiots here have been trying to say I didn't have any, had no experience with them, when in fact I did.
None of these packs were a year old, same mAh rating, bought seperately so 3 of the 4 were out of different batches, all had limited runtime on them, all had been charged using the 1C method, all were regularly balanced, all were stored as per recommended minimum voltage.None had been abused, or neglected.
I've been waiting for this last pack to die, and today was the day.

THAT'S why I'm not a fan of Turnigy. You get what you pay for, buy cheap and get cheap performance. That's what I get for trying to save a buck.

What is this crap? I'm pretty certain his nose is growing as we speak.

Earlier in this thread......

quote:

ORIGINAL: RobbieP

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cleared2Engage

quote:

ORIGINAL: RobbieP

The most complained about packs I've read about on all the forums I read or participate on this last year was Turnigy.

You ever tried them?

Seen enough bad reviews that I wouldn't waste my money.

hasek1616

FahrtAutoRC

Simple Green works wonders

RobbieP

Grow up

shannow

Thanks again

How would you compare the kyosho Zx 5 Fs with the Cat Sx2 pro on a very low grip conditions ?

shannow

Hmm the CAT SX2 isn't convenient presumably because of the height of the Lipo's to fit in them (24mm) and all new lipo's are 25mm

One big question about low grip :

I have bought for my FS a one way shaft .
Where should I put it ? My instinct would put it on the rear so that when entering a corner I'll have traction rather then propulsion .
Would it improve the control while sliding (you always slide on the track except straight lines)

Thanks

shannow

update ,

I have tried my ZX5 FS in the living room with rear one way axles . I've got slippery tiles but not as slippery as our track and can only do one cornering at full brake. Not really convincing , I think I'm just loosing a bit of break without gaining anything with the rear one way .

I went through Xray setup book and I tried a solid front axle with rear diff . Gave it a quick try it's better , although the real test is on the track here it's just a glimpse of what I could expect .

The track we have is ,on top of being very slippery , very technical with many many sharp corners and U turns . Do you advise the front solid axle ?

Thank you again