Droop,Rear end roll ect....

[godale03]

Hey Guys,

Another Newbie question. I hear alot of talk about droop settings ,rear end roll, Positive and negative camber. What the heck does all of this mean and how do you check your RC's for all of this? I have an XTerminator Pro, and a Tmaxx 2.5. Are these settings apply to both or just the buggy? I know this is a very loaded question, but I need to ask so that I may be able to understand what I am reading in the posts here. I will admit, I get lost real quick in here sometimes. If I don't understand it I can't apply it to my rides if it applies. If that makes sense? Anyway I submit this question to the esteemed staff and members of this most excellent site.

Tom

 

[jcongerton]

Dont know all of it but here goes, first of all you may need to buy some setup equipment to measure some of the things you mentioned.

Droop is when you pick up your ride and watch the the front and rear swing arms travel downwards, how far they go down is the amount of droop you have, more droop for rougher tracks - on my hyper this is adj. by turning a grub screw on the bottom susp arm.

Positive and negative camber, this is applied to the wheels if you look at the wheels from the front and they lean in (towards centre of car) at the top this is negative camber, if they lean out at the top (away from car) this is positive. This aids the ride through cornering as the car leans in a corner the camber will keep more tyre on the ground, negative camber is almost always used i run -2 to -3 degrees at back -1 at front.

I'm not sure about rear end roll, but this maybe where the backwheel can lift through cornering, anti roll bar and stiffen up the rear suspension can sort that out.

XXXMain do a good book on the setting up of touring cars, i know you have a buggy but this gives you all the why's and where for's into car setup xxxmain.com/bookz.shtml

 

[godale03]

The reason I am asking is because my stuff handles like crap. I am reading all of this information and it is all great stuff... or at least it all sounds good. I just don't understand any of it. This hobby is alot more complicated than it used to be when I was a kid, it was just a little super glue and a good :hammer: was all it took to fix things right! So how do you adjust droop if your buggy doesn't have the grub screws?

 

[vgibbens]

here is a site that explains what each of those are and how they work.

http://users.pandora.be/elvo/

 

[jcongerton]

to be honest i can't remember the last time i adj the droop, i would expect it to be something else, droop alone wont make your buggy handle like crap, so what is you actual handling problem.

Can you explain the problem i.e when conering does your car drift outwards (pushes) or steer to quickly (loose), does it bounce all over the place etc

Its such a vast learning curve many things can change a way a car handles, weight distribution, shock setup, ride height, camber, rear and front toe in, caster.

If you can get the xxxmain book i mentioned this will tell you about all the effects of the above, i.e if your car pushes through a corner, your probaly not transfering enough weight to the front wheels, if it is loose your transfering to much weight, but these conditions apply to every aspect of a race i.e you enter a corner off power and the car is pushing, however when you exit on power the car may become to loose.

Do you bash or race? If you bash i would worry about your rear and front toe in, camber and suspension stiffness. With these right you should have a decent enough handling car.

 

[godale03]

to be honest i can't remember the last time i adj the droop, i would expect it to be something else, droop alone wont make your buggy handle like crap, so what is you actual handling problem.

Can you explain the problem i.e when conering does your car drift outwards (pushes) or steer to quickly (loose), does it bounce all over the place etc

Its such a vast learning curve many things can change a way a car handles, weight distribution, shock setup, ride height, camber, rear and front toe in, caster.

If you can get the xxxmain book i mentioned this will tell you about all the effects of the above, i.e if your car pushes through a corner, your probaly not transfering enough weight to the front wheels, if it is loose your transfering to much weight, but these conditions apply to every aspect of a race i.e you enter a corner off power and the car is pushing, however when you exit on power the car may become to loose.

Do you bash or race? If you bash i would worry about your rear and front toe in, camber and suspension stiffness. With these right you should have a decent enough handling car.

I do a little of A and a little of B, but mostly just A. My buggy is tight in loose off, and does bounce around alot. My local track is definitely not blue groove so a little bouncing is to be expected. I am running the stock white springs that came with the XTerm and I am not sure what shock oil is in the shocks themselves. I have the small sway bar in the rear with no swaybar in front. I hope this helps.

Thanks guys,

Tom

 

[vgibbens]

no swaybar up front will definitely give you more steering and a lot of weight transfer. I noticed when I took mine off it seemed to want to keep turning after the turn. read through the link I sent you, it has helped me a lot. Not only does that site go through the physics of how the different aspects work, if you click on the "buggy setup" link, it breaks it down in more of a simplified easier to understand way.

 

[jcongerton]

i agree with vgibbens, have a look at that article, you will soon find there will be many reasons your car is tight in and loose out, try and find out what shock oil your running and how hard the springs are, you will need to know if you want to do it properly. Try and find out what other people use at the track, they will be more than willing to help.

You need to get a good set-up tool for ease, at first i tried using cd's on the wheel hub and measuring point a subtracting point b to get figure x after which there was no time to actually run the car......... They can be quite expensive, but if you want to do it easily they are good.

 

[Plaidfish]

I got a hudy set up station so I can try different settings...they are expensive but the best way to read what some pro on track type x is running and set your car according to that....the set up stations are about 60 bucks but save you HOURS in learning how to set your buggy up.....I lucked out and got a 1"x24"x24" acrylic sheet to use as a base for 10 bucks......you don't need that but it gives you a definate flat surface to use the station on.....

 

[jcongerton]

pmb racing do a nice kit which includes set up station, shock station, and perspex board for measuring track chasis length and is a good surface for the set-up station

https://www.pmbproducts.com/ecart/view_product.php?product=PMB01001 is the link

 

[Revo Rancher]

This months Xtreme RC mag has a great beginners article on chassis set up. They cover droop, camber, toe-in/out, etc. It is mostly geared for road cars but it does cover all your issues and has a few tips for off-road as well.