ORIGINAL: zagnut50616
Bought a Raze, runs great, no hop-ups yet. Some of you despise Duratrax and I already know your opinions, so go bash them in another thread.
I will be mostly running this on the street and looking to balance the chassis better. As most of you are aware, the engine and battery pack are located to the rear of the chassis causing the chassis to rotate around this point and making the steering "push" or understeer. It also requires one to work harder to level the chassis off a jump. A perfect chassis weight distribution would be 50/50, 50% weight in front and 50% in rear. Well, that's in a perfect world.
Now, I understand that some of that "push" or understeer can be fixed by tuning the suspension. I'm on a quest to lighten, strengthen, and balance things, all at the same time. So tell me what you think.
After comparing some pictures of parts very closely, it would appear that some OFNA and Integy parts (for OFNA) will fit the Raze. This is what I'm thinking.
In the front -
Lower front aluminum suspension arms (integy), lower and upper aluminum suspension mounts and front hinge pin brace (dtx), aluminum front c-hub carriers (integy). These will help to strengthen the front, where most impacts happen. It will also put a little more weight on the front, helping to offset the weight in the rear.
In the rear-
Graphite rear shock tower (OFNA)
Will take a very small amount of weight off the rear, helping to balance the chassis further. I'm leaving everything else in the rear stock plastic to keep it as light as I can. It's hard to slam into something and break something going 30mph backwards. So, strength is not a big concern in this area. Remember, I'm going to be running on the street, not taking 5 foot jumps.
In the center-
Graphite diff plate (OFNA)
Aluminum servo tray (dtx)
The aluminum servo tray will help to further balance the left-to-right balance, since most chassis weight is on the left due to the tuned pipe and gas tank. The servo's alone hardly balance this out. The graphite diff plate is just to reduce weight, since it's located right in the middle of the chassis, it shouldn't really have any effect on chassis balance.
This is only my second nitro RC car, am I on the right track? Opinions?
I also plan on reducing the amount of rotating mass in the drivetrain using an aluminum flywheel, lightened clutch bell and lightened spur gear, but that's another thread.
First thing look at where I used the bold thingy. That should be fine to do to the front end to add some weight but you have to also remember when you add all that aluminum strength you take away some of the flex. So if you do hit something on the front end while you are driving it the street and something breaks it will cost more to fix. Other than that your ideas look fine and should help you achieve or at least get close to the 50% weight ratio.
I do have to ask you one thing though and this is not a bash against your Raze. You are going to spend some cash to build this thing up to get it balanced out, so why don't you just spend the extra cash on a more race ready buggy?