Hi, i am building this cap 232 and have noticed that the dual elevator pushrods are held on by a plastic clips that clamps down on the rods with bolts, has anyone had any problems with this, or is it successful, im just not sure whether to trust it?

You can always add epoxy when you put it together.

I just put together a .46 size ARF that had that. I put those things together with epoxy and they seemed strong enough. Of course, I roughed the contact points to help the epoxy hold. After threading the "Y" into those angled tubes, I pushed and pulled to see if they would bind. They did. After all, what else could they do. It looked to be a pain to adjust that out (which can be done) and the entire idea seemed to be more of a cheap and dirty solution to putting a connector between the elevator halves. That's the mfg's choice of their convenience/cost over our installation/operating problems.

I took 5 minutes and made a piano wire connector that had a tube bearing on it. I used a single pushrod. It works lots easier, the elevator halves started out dead equal and won't ever change, I only have to adjust one elevator instead of two halves (if that's ever needed), the model is carrying less weight, there is less drag (very minor to be sure, but true nonetheless), I have no worries that the plastic thingie will lose grip on metal rods (even with the epoxy), I have a bulletproof hinge that is massively strong right where strength is needed, and the other pushrod tube was used for the RX antenna.

I figure it's just another glaring proof that the guys who're designing some of these ARFs don't fly RC.

thanks for your help, i guess i shall add some epoxy to it then to help it out...

BTW, one detail about "plastic parts".....

Right now there doesn't seem to be a dependable glue that works on plastic to other type materials. The deal is that most times we don't know what plastic the plastic is. Sometimes when we do, there is a glue for that and it'll work ok for the other material.

The problem is that a bunch of the plastics that're popular with mfg's nowadays defeats a lot of the glues that we still can legally buy.

I just had the chance to disect a beautifully mfg'd ARF that came with the surfaces already hinged. The hinges were the nylon pin-hinge kind. Those suckers give excellent freedom of movement and are strong as a bull. They're the ones that have a bunch of holes drilled in the flats. The reason the holes are there is because most of the glues that appear to grip on installation will lose grip over time. The plastic either resists some glues, or it dries away from some other glues, or it continues to release solvents that release the original grip the glue had. So the hinge people started putting holes in the flats so any glue could possibly bridge the balsa on one side to the balsa on the other and create lots of little locks through the hinge flats.

So anyway, this busted up ARF is lying there and the rudder is obviously not connected too good. I pulled at the bottom hinge and it popped the rest of the way out. Turns out that the ARF plant was using what looked like 3-minute epoxy or maybe hot glue to put in those excellent hinges. The glue appears to have been setting or cooling as the hinge was inserted. The glue blobs smoothed out over the hinge flat, sealed the holes it got to and then the glue cured before it had a chance to stick to any wood. Two of the rudder hinges were basically worthless. And there were only three. The glue didn't work well enough for the components and the installation technique.

Plastics work ok if they're backed up with a structural connection. That clamp doesn't have that. And knowing if there is a correct glue that'd help the connection isn't a given either.

I put mine together and then slipped a piece of shrink tube over it and shrank it to make sure it couldn't seperate. No problems so far.

Wrap the plastic assembly with sewing thread and drip some thin CA on it.

I have that Model too. That system seems to work just fine, I don't have any binding going on or anything of that nature. I do think that the last two suggestions sounds like good safety measures. I might do that to mine.

Hi guys i have the same model and i flew it today for the frist time it flew great and i had no trouble, i didnt put anything on the ele.holder and it held great i also added larger wheels and it seems to do well in the grass but i do like the heat shrink and i will be doing that but over all its a good model it flew well and it landed great no problems it seems really well made so just follow the direction when building it and have a great time trust me it will do well. pay attention to the throws they must be as directed in manual.