rolland

The towers look great and can't wait to get mine. I sent the money and shipping info this evening.



rolland

Scouser

Don't think I will be polishing mine. If I put something that shiny on my CEN, it would make the rest of the truck look KNACKERED. They look awesome though, can't wait to get mine. First one to get them fitted, post some pics yeah?

Dr Honda

My Feedback: (4)

Rolland...

I just PM'ed you. Your towers will go out tomorrow.

poor judgement

hmmm, thats a good point mate...

maybe polish them up then throw them down the street a couple of time before fitting them...? lol, u gotta polish them up man! im sure they will blend in with use/abuse.

wont be long til they arrive now, with a bit of luck... cmon mr postie, here boy!

alvinl

Poor Judgement, you mentioned we could use 1/8 buggy shocks with these new towers. Do you have a brand or part number that will work? I am putting together another parts order (Tower is getting so much of my money lately it aint funny) and might buy a set to try out.

Scouser

Alvinl, any buggy front shocks will fit these new towers. There are loads to choose from.
PJ, I will have to see, you know how it is, one bit looks brilliant and the rest looks a bit tired. Next thing is I will be getting a shiny new chassis plate, then a new cooling head, pipe, manifold, shocks and wheels! Suddenly you realise that everybody will be getting ÂŁ5 M&S slippers for crimbo 'cos you have blown all your money!!

poor judgement

sure thing - i have a pair of 1/8 buggy FRONT shocks on the front and back of my mt. they are from the ofna ultra lx i believe, the hard anodized ones, but i believe most will fit, just be careful of the shocks overall length. i know that mugen shocks have been fitted to a FF mt and worked well... they want to for the price!

i got my ofna shocks from ebay, i forget what i payed tho. i do know that the stock black springs are a little stiff on these tho, so be sure to find a supply of springs to suit ur driving style/terrain.

oh - i had to move the lower shock mounts outwards to get the ride height low enough for my liking - my shocks measure 105mm from hole centre to hole centre, for ur reference. only other issue is getting the shock bodies to clear the shock towers - spacers or longer stand offs are all u need iirc.

pics shows unmodded lower mount on left side and alloy rc10gt steering servo mount used as shock mount on right side. note the top shock mount positions on the tower, and compare with DrHondas towers, that should make it easier to see what im tryin to say! rc10 mounts i got from www.asiatees.com

hope that helps

azzman

You can also move the standard lower shock mount by moving it outwards so that only one screw will line up, then mark and drill a new hole, worked well for me. This also helps the stock lower arms nor bend so much on harsh landings and breaking axles...sortof!

alvinl

Took the MT2 to the park today and did a little jumping. Got home and the new ARO shock towers came in the mail today. Got the front installed. What do you think? Aint she perdy?

Now to do the back. The 3rd hole in on the bottom row lines up with the stock location of the shock. Seemed this outer hole gave me just a little more ground clearance. I also used loctite on the aluminum pivot balls on the top of the shock when I installed them on the old tower. Oops! They are NOT coming off. Good thing I have more.

alvinl

OK, did the back and cleaned my air filter. The only problem I see with the back is the body mounts don't line up quite like the stock tower with the back. But, it's such a small offset (and I assume the JT Towers were probably the same way) it probably will not effect the way the body sits on the chassis. If it does, I can always move the mount to the bottom of the tower, like the front, and extend the body posts to compensate. Either way, good job DrHonda. Love the new towers.

mulletman

that trucks looks great with those polished beauties under the hood

dustin7837

My Feedback: (1)

WOW. Those look pretty sturdy and real trick to boot. Very nice job Dr Honda. You da man!!!!!!

Dr Honda

My Feedback: (4)

Alvinl…

Hey… they fit !!! Well…. I figured they would… but since the tolerance on the bottom hinge pin holes is about 0.0005”… I wasn’t sure how tight they would be. (I don’t own a Fun Factor) But I saw your rear body mount fit and I got mad at my self… I thought, “How did I screw that up?” Then I looked at the JT tower, and noticed that it didn’t have a set of top holes for the mount. And, the holes I made were meant for a set of 1/8th scale shocks. Then, I looked at fun factor picture poor judgment sent me… and saw that the rear mount was bolted in the same place as the front, and just had the posts pulled up.

Oh well… I guess as long as it works.

Thanks for your approval on the part. Hopefully this will be just the beginning of more to come.

alvinl

Yea, I think the JT Towers were made to have the body mount bolted at the bottem. I don't have the JT Chassis setup, so I bolted it where the stock one goes. It's good for now, but I will do a little swapping around tomorrow. Thanks again for your work.

poor judgement

Arg! I completely forgot about the stock towers body mount point due to the lack of the option on the JT towers. Also I just use the diff casing to mount the body mounts and use a longer upright - it seemed to flex more and save a bit of damage on the shell.

Many apols to anyone who really needs to use the stock towers body mount position, but u should be able to use the diff casing mount point with no probs.

My towers arrived this morning, looking good, will fit them this afternoon with a bit of luck. Those extra holes for the shocks are just where I needed them, so the handling on the 1/8 buggy wheels could be even better with these!

Great job, DrHonda.

Scouser

Got mine today. Brilliant, thank you so much, they look great and are so much stronger than JT or stock.

poor judgement

the towers do look nice on there scouser - urs looks pretty much stock, well, nicely hopped up at least with the colours matchin and all that. those extra holes are just the job eh mate?

good to see them out there, and our troubles (hopefully) are over - no thanks to either CEN or JT Racing.

Scouser

The CEN has mainly factory hop ups and diff strengthening. Reverted back for reliability after getting lots of other toys to muck about with. Can't wait to test them out, they are awesome pieces of work, so glad I got them.

alvinl

Just so I have my logic correct on these shock towers (sorry, I have absolutely no experiece with shock placement, tuning the suspension, etc...). I assume the further in on the shock tower you mount the shock, the lower your suspension rides giving a lower stance. The further out on the shock tower you mount the shock the higher your suspension rides giving a higher clearance and stance. Is this correct or do I have it backwards? Hope I got the terminology correct.

Scouser

Thats pretty much it yeah. You are basically trying to take as much compression off the shocks as possible so they are 'relaxed'. This lets the truck settle lower. If you were using your truck on really rough ground, making the shocks compress by moving them outwards will make them push down on the lower a-arm, thus increasing the ride height and ground clearance.

alvinl

That's pretty much the way I thought it worked. One more question if you don't mind. For jumping, and I do not do anything insane, is it better to have a more relaxed suspension or a stiffer suspension? I am leaning toward a stiffer suspension, but I am just not sure. I know the relaxed suspension will give much better handling and cornering, but I am not sure about what works best off a jump.

Scouser

For bigger jumps it is best to have a slightly higher shock setting, maybe pop a few spacers in on the springs to give them a bit of extra tension aswell. Try to make sure though that the chassis will still slap the ground on landings. If the shocks bottom out before the chassis hits the ground, you will damage the shocks, a-arms and possibly the hinge pins and bulkheads too.

alvinl

Gotcha. Thanks. I am going to play with it a little today and see if I can find a good setting, then I may have to take it out and test it. I have been getting 2-3 feet of air, not major. I am still getting a handle on controlling these trucks off jumps, but it is a blast trying. My MT2 is actually easier to control in the air than my Savage. I am thinking because the breaks work so much better they move the truck more in air when you tap them.

Scouser

The CEN is definitely more agile than the Savage in the air, I pretended that I meant to do backflips but really just pegged the throttle and forgot to lift off after the end of the ramp!
DrHonda, ever thought about getting some decals made up? I reckon you might be a busy man after more people get a look at these towers!
By the way, how many set did you end up making? I ask because I may get a second set for the JT chassis and also I want to tell my mate that this is one of only seven (or however many) CENs in the World with these towers!!

Dr Honda

My Feedback: (4)

For big jumps, I like a spring that just holds the weight of the truck… but then I run heavy oil to dampen the impact. (like 70wt) And I also set it up so the chassis hits the ground. It saves the shocks, and stabilizes the landing.

Scouser…

I wound up making 20 towers. A couple went to the scrap pile… two of them are over drilled, but usable (going on eBay) and I still have one good pair. So… I sold 7 sets (14 towers) total to this group.

But, now that I have the tooling fixtures made, and the CNC program is proven… I can make a set quickly if some one needed them. I still have a small amount of aluminum left. Probably enough to make 2 or 3 sets.

And… just as an FYI… I only broke one cutting tool. Unfortunately it was a ½ in cobalt endmill. Oh well… It only cost $18. (it broke because of a glitch in my control) But the surprise of the day was that for all the towers… I used ONE 1/8 inch cobalt drill bit!!! There are 33, 1/8 inch holes in each tower… that’s 660 holes! And it’s still sharp enough to use!!