any of u guys tried drilling the jt chassis? man, its hard! its the hardness that is the prob in this case, good to a point... it should be possible to soften the towers, thereby making them tougher, by heating them til they are cherry red then leaving them to cool. depends on the grade of alloy as to how effective it will be tho. repeating the treatment should soften them more - just remember its alloy! dont melt them if u try it!

rolland - i would make sure jt racing are aware of the circumstances when the tower broke, u never know, they may replace it for free... worth a shot?

Definitely worth a shot. When I ordered mine, they were brilliant and really helpful and knowledgable. This is a competition chassis afterall, its supposed to be able to take the abuse of a full seasons' racing!

is this where urs broke rolland?

Yep thats the spot. If you look real close at the metal it looks like the machine tool that they used heated it up too much and the metal cystalized. It might also have something to do with how the anodized it. And by the looks of your picture it is almost an identical break, but my truck didn't go running across the county into an imovable object in fact it didn't even flip and I drove it back to where I was standing.


rolland

i have emailed jt racing and got the short reply - "we are out of stock of that item"

so unsurprisingly i sent a mail back asking when more will be in/made and how much they will be to the uk for a pair. will keep u posted.

hey scouser u wanna get some spare while i am at it - if they do get some more done? will save on postage i reckon, maybe...?

Definitely, keep me informed and I will paypal you whatever it may be.
I posted this link in the .28 thread aswell, http://www.highpath.co.uk/ I called these guys ages ago, before I got the JT. Looks like they are putting a bit more into the rc arena now. If we get no joy from JT about spare shock towers, you might want to consider sending these guys the rear shock tower with the dimensions you want and see what they quote.

the tower was twisted round and back quite a bit rolland - i am not surprised that it snapped to be fair. the impact really was a lot harder than the damage suggests. i expected the tower to snap off when i bent it back to where it is now, it was bent nearly 90 degrees back.

the bare alloy i can see at the break, is very crystaline, but then id expect that from this higher grade of alloy tbh. not certain on what grade it is - anyone know?

Apparently the JT stuff is 7075 T6 hardened. I guess this is why it snaps and not bends. Its what most top buggy chassis' and shock towers are made of. Thing is though, buggy shock towers are about 5/6mm thick!

cheers scouser, i will try to find my material specs folders i borrowed from some previous jobs i did - just out of interest to see how it compares to other alloys and whatnot, in case we have to go custom made on these things. dont see why we should have to tho really, jt should be able to sort it.

I would have thought so, they seemed real helpful in the past anyway. As for the materials, I remember the guy at Highpath being rather sceptical about 7075 T6 as the right ali for the job. If you notice on their website, the Savage chassis is made from a completely different grade material and I am sure that if you give them a call they will suggest looking at alternatives that may be more durable. They really do seem to know their stuff, and it helps that they are into rc!

I haven't recieved a reply to my e-mail.

My tower didn't bend, in fact if I hold it together it matches up and shows no sign of bending.

Unfortunately I think it is probably best to have a custom set made that matches the rest of the hardware. JT will probably use the same materials and I particularly don't want to keep replacing shock towers.



rolland

i hear u rolland, but i am thinking u had a bad un there. i can see on mine that it bent a long way before it snapped.

i havent had a reply back yet with regards to jt making some more towers. im getting the impression that they have other priorities...

renegade have just got back to me.

they have no towers in stock either, but he will see what he can do for me.

do u still want a tower or 2 scouser? if so let me know asap, and how many do u want? i dont have any prices yet, but i am hopefully going to get a pair.

rolland, might be worth dropping renegade an email while he is looking into it, heres the address he is using mate, [email protected]

If he is getting some in, I will take a pair also. Let me know what he says about time scale etc and I will sort out the payment straight away. Cheers.

no worries, will let u know. gonna mail him back now. i dont want any cash til he asks for it tho mate.

No problem, let me know when you get some info back from him. Cheers mate.

he seems helpful enough, shouldnt be long before i know something.

in the mean time u can dribble over this ebay item number 5992416444

Aye, I saw that the other day, £170 is very tempting. Reckon that's anyone from here? Might give us some discount!

the owner used to use the wildhobbies forums, cant remember his username tho, think he was on here for a little while too.

its a very nice truck, has been well looked after - only run on a flat, short grassed park i believe. if postage wasnt so much i would have it straight away. i do have some friends who live in perth, wa tho...

Thanks for Renegades address I will e-mail the right now. Hopefully they can get some.


rolland

right, i just spoke to renegade on the phone, he says the towers are on back order and will be 2-3 weeks... bummer, but at least they are coming. renegade take paypal too, which is nice.

these towers seem prone to breaking from what he said on the phone - "JT Cen chassis? aaah you will be wanting shock towers then eh? along with everyone else..." says it all really... but then i guess the towers do take a hammering more than any other parts in inverted landings etc, so i am still gonna get some.

Thats a far from reassuring comment don't you reckon? I wonder if JT are actually aware of the problem. Its surprising that he seems to think the problem is isolated to the CEN chassis, I thought all JT Racing chassis' were made from the same stuff. If the CEN towers are snapping, shouldn't all the rest of them aswell?

probably, if its down to the material, if not then its the design of the cen towers.

must remember tho, mine broke on a heavy crash and bent a long way before it snapped, not sure if thats clear in the pics i posted, as i bent it back as best i could. rollands sounds like a defect part to me, going by how my fronts coped as well as the rear... considering... my fronts bent about 20 degrees and ive just about got them back straight.

are the cen jt towers thinner than say a 1/8 buggy jt tower? the 7075 seems to be used a lot for this kind of thing btw.

The CEN towers are thinner than a 1:8 buggy towers. Theirs tend to vary between 4mm and up to 6mm thick. The CEN ones are only 3mm. Maybe you and rolland were both just unlucky. Strange though that two should go in the space of a week.

i cant complain mate, it was a big crash, tbh i am thoroughly impressed with how it held up. the standard chassis would have easily been a write off (done 3 of em before) and that would have led to more damage to other parts.

rolland however, has most certainly been unlucky...

ha, u watch, if these towers ever turn up, i will no doubt go out and snap one on my first flip/jump/pebble after sayin all that... i bet i do n all!