Heavy Maxx shock setups

[Lessen]

another recent thread got me thinking about this and I was just curious. For anybody with a heavy t-Maxx... what kind of shock setup are you using? Springs, oils, and pistons are what I'm curious about. I have a twin engine Maxx that weighs in at 12 lbs. My setup is as follows...

FRONT: Trinity xxxtra-heavy blue and Integy red 8 coil per corner. 60 wt, 1 hole piston in all four
REAR: Trinity xxxtra-heavy blue and Integy green 7 coil per corner. 50 wt, 1 hole piston in all four

Does this seem excessive?

 

[R/C Madman]

Does it work? If so then it is not excessive!

 

[Lessen]

yeah, it works. It's just I always assumed that having too much dampening is what causes shocks to blow on a large landing. I've never read anybody using as much dampening as I am.

 

[jon2]

On my old 12 lb MGT I replaced the shocks with 8 UE super maxx shocks. w/ white springs and 30 wt oil and that worked great for me. I took jumps at WOT and had 20-30 ft launches and landings were great. My original shocks I did that and had 4 blown caps.

 

[olds97_lss]

I ran 4 UE with black springs on my maxx with 60 weight 2 hole pistons. I now run 4 on my savage with 65 weight, black springs front, navy blue rear. I get normally betwee 6 and 10 feet of air under it for hours at a time.

 

[NCNitro]

On mine I run Dynamite/Losi shocks, Trinity blue springs all the way around, 60wt Losi oil, with RPM dual stage pistons. It handles great and takes big air with no problems.

 

[Holty]

what about the Proline Powerstroke shocks? I'd like to hear about those.

 

[Temlon]

I have a T-maxx that probably weighs 12lb or more. It's about 90% hardcore racing and I slapped the Pro-Line PowerStrokes on it. I noticed that in my garage I could drop it from about 2 - 3 feet up and the thing would not bottom out... that was with the stock shocks, springs, and oil that came with the setup. I have not actually ran my Maxx since I bought these things about 2 months ago, so as for handeling, I can't answer it, but I know it will keep the maxx from dragging on the ground or bottoming out like it did before on every little bump. I just ordered the Sirio .23, should be here this week, I plan on playing with it then, so I'll have more answers about the shocks after that...

 

[Lessen]

i thought about getting those before I got the Integy MSR5's. But I noticed how wide they were and realized they would interfere with the movement of the sway bars.

 

[Holty]

i have the powerstroke shocks now as well, and i too have not gotten a chance to try them out, but they do like nice

 

[Temlon]

One thing I did notice about my setup is that in the rear, I can't raise the truck to it's highest setting... I have the Unlimited Engineering SuperMaxx EXT Suspension kit (http://www.unlimitedengineering.com/cgi-bin/store/13100.html) with the Sirio TX-18 engine. When I try to move the shocks down on the shock tower, the screw / nut that holds the shocks into the shock tower hits the header on the engine, and there isn't room to get it all in there... I don't know if this will change when I get the Sirio .23, I can't imagine it will make a difference, but I who knows... I'm not sure who's fault this setup is, whether it's UE with the alignment of the holes on the tower, or TeamTrinity with the engine / header, but regardless, my shock placement is kind of limited and not as adjustable as I would like...

 

[olds97_lss]

I had that problem with the stock setup and the XTM 21 conversion. My header got all dented and eventually had a hole punched right through it from the bolt that held the shocks on.

I ended up running a 4 shock setup (UE Supermaxx shocks) so the shocks were only on the rear of the shock tower. Then I cut the shock mount extension on the engine side off the RPM tower and used a short bolt to hold the shock on. This gave me about 3/4-1 inch of room between the tower and the manifold.

 

[Lessen]

I have the same problem as you guys had, but mostly my fault. my .26's wouldn't fit the chassis that I bought so I had somebody I knew make me one. Engines fit but severely limited my choice shock mounts. Fortunatly my shock towers offer a crapload of mounting positions. one of these days this hobby is gonna lead me to a new MIG welder, when that happens I'll probably attempt a couple custom headers.

 

[Mike02vr6]

on my maxx I use Integy MSR4's w/ Rc Raven dual rate springs (I believe theyare 7lbs/3lbs) w/ 60 weight oil. I am not a hardcore basher but I jump stuff. This seems to work very well on my maxx with handling and jumping. My Maxx weighs in around 11.5 lbs.

~Michael

 

[NJRC]

If you want something really tight and springy no matter what weight oil you use then try the Trinity dual rate spring set up.

 

[scottm]

On my 10.5 lb Cybermaxx, I use traxxas big bores with 2 hole pistons, 40 or 50 wt oil, and either all black springs or 1 black/ 1 blue at each wheel, depending on driving situation. I think 1 hole pistons and 60 wt would be so stiff that the caps would pop off or the shaft seals will blow out. The last time I tried 60 wt I had the c-clips pop off the shafts, allowing the pistons to slide down. Does it work well on yours?

 

[Lessen]

Does it work well on yours?

unfortunatly, because the project took so long to finish I never really got enough time to tweak the suspension settings. I got the engines broke in but was still in the process of tweaking needle settings and fixing my two-speed settings before it started to get really cold and raining a lot. So honestly I don't really know how she'll react to some good bashin. I did some "toss tests" in the living room when I was building the shocks. Just dropping and tossing it around, letting it land at different angles to see how it reacted. From about 4 ft. or so. I was happy with it when it got to the settings as stated in the first post. I was just kinda concerned because I haven't really read much of other members using such aggressive settings. I guess I'll find out int he spring...

 

[visioneer_one]

on my maxx I use Integy MSR4's w/ Rc Raven dual rate springs (I believe theyare 7lbs/3lbs) w/ 60 weight oil. I am not a hardcore basher but I jump stuff. This seems to work very well on my maxx with handling and jumping. My Maxx weighs in around 11.5 lbs.

~Michael

Hm. I tried a similar setup on my maxx - MSR4s w/ piggybacks, RCRaven d/r springs, 50/60 wt oil front/rear. I found that the springs were too stiff - the truck would land jumps without bottoming out, but would lose control due to the rebound.

It was also very difficult to race it with this setup - too topheavy.

I'm now using the original springs that came with the shocks. Race handling is much improved, but the truck bottoms out easily...

Perhaps I need to try one-hole pistons.

(BTW - the truck weighs 10 lbs, 8 oz. Hoping to get it under 10 with a lightened chassis plate...)



visioneer_one,
dropping weight

 

[SkyMaxx]

Your set up does not sound over the top. If you want to take it to the next level, try running 1/8 scale buggy shocks (the UE supermaxx shocks are basically buggy shocks with a label slapped on).

When I ran 8 shocks on my T-Maxx, I used 60 wt silicone at all four corners and ran with a mixed bag of springs. Trinity blue on the four front shocks and Trinity black on two of the rear and Trinity blue on the other two. If I needed more oomph in the rear suspension, I would replace the two blues with blacks.

My Maxx was not nearly as heavy as yours so I'd say going with all blacks is not a bad idea. Also, I was prone to flying my Maxx and never had problems with my shocks. I did install a cheap and effective upgrade on the shock shafts. The upgrade is known as a bump stop and consists of a fuel tubing sleeve cut to about 3/4 inch length. It is installed on the shock shaft between the lower rod end and the bottom of the cylinder outside the shock cylinder. It effectively stops the shock from compressing all the way thus stopping the truck from bottoming out from the suspension going to full compression. Worked very well.

 

[ToRqUe]

What is damering and when your shocks blow out is when the caps pop off ???