hi , currently i am very dissapointed with my mini lst because it has too much weight (aluminum) ,too much power (brushless lipo) and too little structural integrity (CAW chassis.........), it doesnt take any abuse like it used to before i switched my chassis out to an aluminum one, it bends and bends and bends and bends and i almost never give it wot anymore after losing so much time , effort and money fixing and/or replacing the bent parts

im thinking, will a light chassis stand up to abuse better? like, carbon fiber or graphite.... normally people say these are just for racing and that aluminum is good for bashing, but not for me....my truck has long buggy/stadium truck style arms and the damage is done when one of the front wheels strike something because it twists the central chassis, im thinking if i get something thats impossible to twist (cf or graphite) this wont happen, and to prevent them from shattering instead, i plan to use plastic arms to absorb the shock, cuz my bumper is also made of plastic, so i thought they'd work the same
how will these carbon based materials react to collisions and shock? will having plastic extermities (arms, shock tower, bumper, etc) help protect a central chassis made of graphite in the event of a collision? what do the people who run setups similar to what im talking about think?

anyone even know what im talking about?

Graphite is probably the most cost effective and it will absorb the impact and return to shape unlike your aluminum. I stay away from aluminum parts except for shock towers and other heavy duty machined parts for just the reason you mention. Carbon fiber will stand the most abuse but it's pretty pricey and there's a danger of tearing out the mount holes. I have gone back to composite CVD bones too - get an impact just wrong and bend the aluminum ones and they'll shake the car like mad (which doesn't help handling ;-). The plastic (composite or graphite) arms will also absorb part of the impact energy by bending before they pass the rest on to the chassis so they will help and you'll break a less expensive and easier to replace part if you do bust something.

Those aluminum parts look great but any that are cast or made from a plate instead of machined are likely to bend so they can be a headache. The stuff that can be easily cast is a far inferior grade of aluminum to the stuff they use for machining. [link=http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/mepages/aluminfo.php]Here[/link] is a good reference for aluminum grades if you are deciding if the parts you are looking at will stand up to the abuse,

I disagree with graphite. It may be light, but is too brittle, and not elastic, like plastic. If you can get a polycarbonate, or delrin chassis, that would be better. I'm not familiar with the mlst, but you'll prolly have to make your own chassis for those options.

Hi,

Carbon Graphite (C FRP), graphite composite and aluminum parts offer rigidity, while flexibility is very limited. Among the 3, carbon graphite is the most flexible one. They are good at increasing chassis reaction. They don't twist nor flex and transmit energy right away.

Nylon composite or something like plastic provides more flexibility and good in absorbing impact from crashes. These parts are less reactive.

Your case is like paying tunes of cash and making your chassis a pain. First of all, the brushless system is too fast making it very hard to handle and with that speed, everything breaks easily. Second, your aluminum upgrade is correct in some way, but not to everywhere. You only upgrade wherever is necessary. Aluminum alloy has lots of gradings, depends on how much you pay. Some alu alloy such as 7075 is really strong. I guess you will not find 7075 parts for Mini-T as they are too expensive.

If I had a Mini-T, I would only upgrade the motor (not brushless) and it will bring lots of fun already. The parts need to stiffen I could think of are the shock towers, rear uprights and front knuckles. I will never have 2 aluminum parts sitting next to each other such as lower arms and uprights, bulkhead and lower arms. Something has to absorb the energy from crashing. I prefer breaking than deforming. I don't really like using low price aluminum parts.

Lightweight will cause less casualties but your breaking and bending is about speed. I bet you cannot get 30gms off from those parts switched back to nylon resin or plastic.

Going extreme is always another way to say goodbye, turn speed down and you should be happy again. Driving pleasure is always more important than insane speed.

Thx

Joaquim

Aluminum looks good but I'd rather have a car that runs better.
Less "Bling" and more "Zing"
I like composites more as these parts tend flex more in crashes and are cheaper to replace.
Graphite is nice but a little too brittle in some applications.

ahh thanks for the replies guys, especially the part about not having aluminum parts next to each other...im running a mini lst, not a mini t, and yeah there are no delrin chasses out....

im already buying some stock plastic arms (i think theyre nylon so theyre good for crashes), and for the parts which are not directly exposed to crashes i'll buy graphite to lessen the impact on the parts that are...

does carbon fiber flex during crashes? and are the exposed edges (like screwholes) the most vulnerable parts of the chassis? what are the things that are cf vs graphite, anyway? by the way, the graphite part that im buying is the main chassis plate which was made of aluminum in stock form,so i think rigidity has something to do with it , i.e. this is one part of the chassis thats not supposed to flex, and everything around it is plastic, maybe thats why nobody makes an entirely delrin chassis for the mlst...

before i bought my current aluminum chassis, i thought it looked cool and stuff and i really liked the extended wheelbase... but now that i used it, i realized what a low grade aluminum that its made of (you can bend it by hand) and im almost about to get rid of it.... plus ive run into a swath of problems , my screws bend and the screwholes theyre in strip, the hingepins bend and my arms no longer move properly, ive broken 3 packs of axles because the aluminum arms dont have any give at all, plus all that weight is taking its toll on the drivetrain thanks to the brushless system...

Ive had good luck with my Topcad graphite chassis.

im trying my own luck with the losi branded graphite chassis

Actually that's the one it is, for some reason they had it labeled under "topcad" on rcmart, but it is the Losi one. I have the skids as well.

You can run a little CA glue on the edges of graphite parts that have raw edges. I use very thin stuff. It helps keep it from splitting.
If I can, I also use thin washers under screws to spread the load out a bit.