fabrimacator21

I know most of you are gonna jump on me but bear with me here.

With a 3 or 4 shoe you actually have less contact surface on the clutcbell then the stock 2 shoe setup. So my question is what makes the 3 or 4 shoe the way to go over the stock setup. With the 2 shoe every part of the clutch shoe is touching the clutbell when expanded, giving you more contanct area and it should wear evenly, provide better grab, and last longer in theory.

ArloRogers

My Feedback: (1)

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger I have the same concerns. I'm running a new 3 piece Integy on a Revo w/ RB 523. I will complete break in tomorrow and see how it runs. Then I'll swap to a new 2 piece Integy and see what the difference is in the real world. Both are made with the same metal. I'm watching a thread asking for reccomendations for flywheels and clutches and will try what ever products get the best press there. I'll post results as I complete the tests.

nitro stan

the more shoes you run means more contact with the clutch bell= better grip.

i run a stock traxxas clutch in my BB maxx, only got it hot enough to start slipping once. there cheap and last forever

aluminum shoes require maintenance, they mushroom over time and you have to file that down, or they will start to contact the flywheel and bell. like when a clutch bearing freezes up, the truck wont run and be impossiable to start

fabrimacator21

That is my point... a 2 shoe has more contact area then a 3 or 4 shoe. So why is 3 or 4 shoe better?

nitro stan

the whole shoe wont contact the CB, just a part of it. with a 3 or 4 shoe you will have more area touching the bell, and you can run different weight springs on different shoes to tune the clutch, the alumimun shoes also leave traces of metal in the bell to. some people run 2 metal and 1 carbon. the carbon shoe acts like a eraser to remove the aluminum trace left on the bell

tunabilty and grip are why there better for racers, alot of these things wont matter on a basher

fabrimacator21

That is where I disagree... More shoes doesn't equal more contact. look at this drawing and you'll see what I mean. I didn't draw the 4 shoe but you get the idea. The 2 shoe has more contact area. Even if you were to argue that the 2 shoe doens't contact evenly it will wear itself to fit the clutchbell.

cmerritt

my guess would be because a 3 shoe clutch has more pegs which each carry less weight so the result is more "pulling" force by the shoes because it has 3 points to pull instead of 2. If that makes any sense. It's kind of hard to explain.

fabrimacator21

I see what your saying but think of it this way.

Take the weight of all 3 or 4 shoes and compare them to the total weight of 2 shoes. In the end no matter how many pegs you have you still end up with the same overall mass.

Also the more contact area you have then the more "pulling force" you have whether it's 2 big shoes or 4 little ones, and the way I see it the 2 shoe has more contact area.

I'm not trying to shoot every suggestion down here. Just been thinking about this in my head and I still don't see why more shoes is better. I run a 3 shoe setup but really, what is the advantage? Sure you can change springs to tune it but you can do the same thing with a 2 shoe setup.

nitro stan

once the shoe wears enough the make full contact, it would be into the spring, therefore killing your CB

trace your clutch bell on to your flywheel, then remove the bell and lift the ends of the shoe thill it touches the line, that will show you how much of the shoe touches the bell. then do the same with a 3 and 4 shoe set up

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

Only real difference i can see is that the 3 and 4 shoe setups dont have a spring that runs right around the center of the clutch shoes(reducing the contact patch of the clutch). But I still think they would have as much clutch shoe on the bell as a 3 or 4 shoe setup.

nitro stan

http://rcvehicles.about.com/gi/dynam...%2Fclutch.html

aznherb36

the more shoes = quicker contact because of the pivot points. 3/4 shoes can also be adjusted to take off at certain RPMs. 2 shoes may have more contact but they have more mass to to move compared to 3 shoes due to the pivot points. Nova makes 3 shoes with 2 holes for grub screws to adjust the engagement. It made it big difference with different grub screw setups.

3 shoe clutches also use a single spring around the shoes. they are not just for 2 shoes. They make different spring tensions as well.

romed

Your drawing is correct, but does NOT SHOW an engaged clutch. The centrifugal/-pedal force will drive the shoes towards the bell where (regarding the 2-Shoe-Traxxas-setup) around one 4th of the bell-faced surface of the shoe will touch the clutch-bell, thus giving indeed 3- or more-shoe clutches a better grip on the bell - just check your shoes for the worn area - you will see.

GreenRacer

My Feedback: (3)

Pure magic.


But seriously, the 3 - 4 shoe clutches are concentric when engaged unlike a 2 shoe springgy, so they make more even contact.

Edit: Also occurred to me that the 3-4 shoe clutches are made out of aluminium and no doubt last a lot longer, and are heavier.

thesouth1

That is exactly what I was going to say. I still think that a 3-4 shoe set-up (more bite, better engagement) would be best for racing, but for general bashing I would just stick with the 2 shoe set-up.

SAVAGE1108

Actually, the contact area is more like this (spent an hour calculating this). 4 clutch shoes are better then 3 clutch shoes, and 3 clutch shoes are better then 2 clutch shoes. $ clutch shoes have over one and a half times the grab/contact area then the 2 clutch shoes. Also 4 clutch shoes offer more tune ability, as pros like to use two aluminium shoes and 2 carbon shoes; what this does is when the aluminium shoe grab, they spit out bits of aluminium powder which get stuck to the clutch bell, and the carbon shoes cleans this off the clutch bell, this is the best set up. With a 3 shoe set up, you can do 2 aluminium and 1 carbon shoes, but this means the clutch is out of balance and will affect performance and makes unwanted vibrations. This is even worse with a 2 shoe clutch with one carbon and one aluminium.

BELOW IS A PICTURE SHOWING THE DIFFERENT CLUTCHES AND GRAB/CONTACT AREA PERCENTAGE: