ORIGINAL: Ziggy46802
Two of my shocks have been bent so far and I was thinking about upgrading to aluminum piggy back shocks. Will these new shocks not bend as much? Also, are my shocks bending because I'm using the wrong shock oil? So far my T-Maxx 3.3 has had about a gallon through it and I've been using the stock shocks and haven't oiled them. What type of shock oil should I get if the roughest stuff I go on is low grass (like a football field). Should I get different springs too? I am using the stock red traxxas springs on all 8 shocks.
P.S. The bending isn't like a 90 degree angle, it is just a slight bend which causes my truck's steering alignment to go off and is bad for the other shocks.
Any bend in the shock shaft is a bad thing. Worse, bending them back by hand or even with the assistance of a vise and pliers is near impossible. As for oil, no, oil weight had very little or nothing to do with your shocke shafts bending. Somehow, you crashed such that the shafts took a side loading and the resulting bending moment i what bent them.
As for the new piggy back shocks, I suggest you do not buy the Integy ones. Integy's chinese subcontractor who actually make them uses inferior metals. Sure, the shocks look pretty, but they are not functional as far as standing up to what your stock shocks took. In your case, I highly suggest you simply buy replacement stock shocks from the local RC store; they are probably cheaper than Integy ones, will take more abuse than the Integy, and are very easy to replace.
CEN has some great piggy back shocks, they will take some serious bashing abuse before bending and breaking. You might have to do some mods to your T-Maxx to get them to fit and you might have to get much weaker springs, the CEN shocks will be much more stiffer than the Traxxas one. Check out the Traxxas forums, they have guys in their who modified ther T-Maxxes in crazy ways, including mounting shocks from all sorts of various makers.