Build Thread Jerold's Rlaarlo Build

[Jerold]

Ride Height Update
I found out why the front is so stiff and the rear is so soft. My shock limiters are too tall and the front is all ready bottomed out. If you look at the picture, you can see the limiters are just about touching and only leave a sliver of travel.

The front and rear shocks are the same length with the same spring rate. However, the front springs install height is about 1/8" which takes up the gap. It's a little cushioned and would be fine for running on glass, but I don't have the road. So I'm going to have to change the front limiter to something shorter.

More adjustments coming.

 

[bozo]

I received my metal RTR yesterday, here's some initial thoughts...
The body is sweet- great paint and sharp molding details. It's not a direct paint pattern match to the Gulf 917, but it still gets the concept. The wheel well cutouts are wonky- uneven and not matching the shape of the real car. Easy fix, I sketched in the approx. proper cuts needed. This should also reduce the front wheels rubbing on the body.

The white roundels and Rlaarlo stickers are pre-applied, the roundels are in the right locations but they missed putting one on the rear top. The rest of the markings are paint. I removed the Rlaarlo stickers and am looking for some 1:10 Gulf livery stickers- anybody find any yet?

One of the problems noted on the tubes is tires rubbing front and rear. I believe (at least on the metal version) they used wheels with too much offset. I have a set of 1:10 foams I put on (26mm wide front, 32mm wide rear, 0 offset) and they fit perfect. It seems like the car was meant for this size. Plenty of clearance by the spoiler and clears the body much better.

I replaced the TX/RX with a Dumborc X6 with lighting option. Adds a gyro and now I can wire up some more lights.

The chassis seems well thought out but rushed in final assembly. My ESC was totally loose out of the box, and the antenna wire was tie wrapped to all the other wires. Front wheels are really toed out but all the adjustments are there to set up the suspension geometry. The sway bars don't seem to do much, and as Jerold has shown the shocks are really not optimal without some mods. Yeah Racing makes shocks in 55 and 60mm that come with extra springs with different rates. https://www.amazon.com/Yeah-Racing-..._2?keywords=Yeah+Racing&qid=1683895595&sr=8-2 I'm going to get a set, still up in the air about length. Stock is 55mm, but I think the 60mm ones will allow more tuning. My build is not a speed runner but a road car. A little more suspension travel will be a good thing.

Now about the stance- all wrong. the wheel cutouts are too small and the body is too high on the chassis by about 3/8". The body posts are really nice, very adjustable with pivoting pads.

Besides the radio upgrade I'm keeping the rest of the stock electronics for now. I'm going to focus on the suspension, tires and stance first and getting it to run stably and reliably before any other mods. I kinda wish I would've got the carbon- better ESC, adjustable motor mount and split driveshaft are desirable. I'll be ordering the motor mount and split driveshaft components from Rlaarlo to make it easier to try out different motor/ESC combos.


I looked at Traxxas 4-Tec and Tamiya TT-02, but decided on The Rlaarlo. Cost was a big factor and even with the price of upgrades it's still a cheaper option. I really hope Rlaarlo opens a US based parts supply chain, as waiting on China shipping is a pain. Final thought- I like it and it's A 917!!!

 

[WickedFog]

I removed the Rlaarlo stickers and am looking for some 1:10 Gulf livery stickers- anybody find any yet?

Like these?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2657994716...NCCKxqlTp2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

There are these as well
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2545031987...NCCKxqlTp2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I looked at Traxxas 4-Tec and Tamiya TT-02, but decided on The Rlaarlo. Cost was a big factor and even with the price of upgrades it's still a cheaper option. I really hope Rlaarlo opens a US based parts supply chain, as waiting on China shipping is a pain. Final thought- I like it and it's A 917!!!

I can guarantee you that just looking at the Rlaarlo, it is WAY better than any TT02. It's a great looking car. I will probably be grabbing one soon. Thanks for the breakdown.

 

[bozo]

Like these?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2657994716...NCCKxqlTp2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Exactly, thanks! Ordered.

 

[Jerold]

Spring Update
It's nice outside. The weather is warming and the snow is melting, if we had any. Ok wrong spring.

I pulled my bumps from the shocks and raised it back up to full height. At the same time I ordered smaller springs that will fit over the shock shafts and inside the coils to add more spring rate. It's a bit of a guess on proper the rates ordered a few different ones.

Also I turned on the gryo, which should help with stability. Finally hooked up my voltage feed to the RX, which means I can see if from my TX.

The springs won't be here until Monday, but hopefully I can get out this weekend and get a little bit of testing int.

 

[Jerold]

Still to do

• Alignment - There is a fair amount of toe out that needs to be removed.
• Tune suspension - Ride height, shocks limiter. Stiffer springs if I can find them.
• Mount the antenna tubes. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet.
• Calibrate the ESC. (I think?)
• Center the servo.
• Setup the radio.
• Setup the gyro.
• Clean up wires.
• Mount Switch.
• Stiffen Springs
• Mount Foams
• Replace discs with standard hexes.

Radio Setup
The radio is setup. Nothing special. RC6GS V2 with R7FG RX.

Servo EPs are at 60% both directions.

Throttle Speed is currently at Speed1 Mode & 54. There are more options for this setting but I'm not 100% sure what they do. With this setting I hit the throttle and it ramps to 100% in about 1 sec. AT a value of 0 it takes about 2 seconds to reach 100%. My thought is it should keep me from ramping to fast and getting over current. Which seems to be an issue. I've seen over current, when running the ESC at 100% power. It was just barely over current but still over current.

When I run the car, I set the steering D/R down to about 40%, depending on the car. It keeps me from yanking the wheel and crashing. This limits the amount of travel I have the steering. I saw someone on YT that had th D/R set to a 3-pos switch. With that option you can leave it at 100% while driving down to the launch zone, then flip a switch and reduce it to whatever value you like. Unfortunately, this is an option on the V3 and NOT the V2. Bummer.

Fail Safe is set to steering straight and no power on the motor. Always test this feature, it's important.

The Alarm is set to 6.2V for the TX and 11.1 for the battery. I'm running 4S; however, the voltage will drop when I run it and I don't want it cutting out. I really only want to see the voltage on my TX and don't really care about the alarm and I would set it to 0V, but it's not an option.

The Gryo is setup on the VR knob and I will have to play with it to figure out what I like. On the Limitless I turned it on but found it's very stable without it and a little bit too much the car oscillates.

I updated the Firmware as well. The first video I saw said "Cancel the Format Drive request when it appears". But I can't do anything with the drive then. However, on the Radiolink website I found another video and written instructions that both said to format the drive, then drop the file into that drive. When I did that and and my radio came up with a blank screen when I turned it back on. Uh Oh? I went back through the instruction and did everything again. Then I figured out I had the V3 file and not the V2 file. Crisis averted.

Stiffer Springs
I ordered some smaller springs that will fit over the shaft and inside the stock spring. I wasn't sure what spring rates to get so I got three different ones.

All I know is that the back has to be very stiff and we don't want it to drop lower than the front. I ended up adding the 18 lb/in spring up front. In the back I added both the 18 lb/in spring and the 7 lb/in spring.

Rear: 11+18+7 -> ~36 lb/in
Front: 11 + 18 -> ~29 lb/in

It may be too stiff, I don't know, but it's an experiment.

Getting the one extra spring in there wasn't bad because the diameter is much larger than the shaft and it's not to bad to squish down to put the rod end and spring cup back on.

In the rear it's three springs. I put some heat shrink over the smaller one to avoid binding on each other. Than I realized that they are far enough apart it shouldn't happen. But it looks cool and that count's for something.

It's a lot stiffer but it can still bottom the pan if there is enough force. But I'm going to run with it and see how it works.

I adjusted the droop screws to level it out and get the back slightly higher than the rear. Part of the issue is the shocks in the back need to be a bit longer, maybe I can find some longer rod ends.

 

[Bogda89]

Still to do

• Alignment - There is a fair amount of toe out that needs to be removed.
• Tune suspension - Ride height, shocks limiter. Stiffer springs if I can find them.
• Mount the antenna tubes. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet.
• Calibrate the ESC. (I think?)
• Center the servo.
• Setup the radio.
• Setup the gyro.
• Clean up wires.
• Mount Switch.
• Stiffen Springs
• Mount Foams
• Replace discs with standard hexes.

Radio Setup
The radio is setup. Nothing special. RC6GS V2 with R7FG RX.

Servo EPs are at 60% both directions.

Throttle Speed is currently at Speed1 Mode & 54. There are more options for this setting but I'm not 100% sure what they do. With this setting I hit the throttle and it ramps to 100% in about 1 sec. AT a value of 0 it takes about 2 seconds to reach 100%. My thought is it should keep me from ramping to fast and getting over current. Which seems to be an issue. I've seen over current, when running the ESC at 100% power. It was just barely over current but still over current.

When I run the car, I set the steering D/R down to about 40%, depending on the car. It keeps me from yanking the wheel and crashing. This limits the amount of travel I have the steering. I saw someone on YT that had th D/R set to a 3-pos switch. With that option you can leave it at 100% while driving down to the launch zone, then flip a switch and reduce it to whatever value you like. Unfortunately, this is an option on the V3 and NOT the V2. Bummer.

View attachment 165499​

Fail Safe is set to steering straight and no power on the motor. Always test this feature, it's important.

The Alarm is set to 6.2V for the TX and 11.1 for the battery. I'm running 4S; however, the voltage will drop when I run it and I don't want it cutting out. I really only want to see the voltage on my TX and don't really care about the alarm and I would set it to 0V, but it's not an option.

The Gryo is setup on the VR knob and I will have to play with it to figure out what I like. On the Limitless I turned it on but found it's very stable without it and a little bit too much the car oscillates.

I updated the Firmware as well. The first video I saw said "Cancel the Format Drive request when it appears". But I can't do anything with the drive then. However, on the Radiolink website I found another video and written instructions that both said to format the drive, then drop the file into that drive. When I did that and and my radio came up with a blank screen when I turned it back on. Uh Oh? I went back through the instruction and did everything again. Then I figured out I had the V3 file and not the V2 file. Crisis averted.

Stiffer Springs
I ordered some smaller springs that will fit over the shaft and inside the stock spring. I wasn't sure what spring rates to get so I got three different ones.
View attachment 165501

All I know is that the back has to be very stiff and we don't want it to drop lower than the front. I ended up adding the 18 lb/in spring up front. In the back I added both the 18 lb/in spring and the 7 lb/in spring.

Rear: 11+18+7 -> ~36 lb/in
Front: 11 + 18 -> ~29 lb/in

It may be too stiff, I don't know, but it's an experiment.

Getting the one extra spring in there wasn't bad because the diameter is much larger than the shaft and it's not to bad to squish down to put the rod end and spring cup back on.
View attachment 165502View attachment 165503

In the rear it's three springs. I put some heat shrink over the smaller one to avoid binding on each other. Than I realized that they are far enough apart it shouldn't happen. But it looks cool and that count's for something.
View attachment 165504View attachment 165505

It's a lot stiffer but it can still bottom the pan if there is enough force. But I'm going to run with it and see how it works.
View attachment 165506

I adjusted the droop screws to level it out and get the back slightly higher than the rear. Part of the issue is the shocks in the back need to be a bit longer, maybe I can find some longer rod ends.

Still to do

• Alignment - There is a fair amount of toe out that needs to be removed.
• Tune suspension - Ride height, shocks limiter. Stiffer springs if I can find them.
• Mount the antenna tubes. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet.
• Calibrate the ESC. (I think?)
• Center the servo.
• Setup the radio.
• Setup the gyro.
• Clean up wires.
• Mount Switch.
• Stiffen Springs
• Mount Foams
• Replace discs with standard hexes.

Radio Setup
The radio is setup. Nothing special. RC6GS V2 with R7FG RX.

Servo EPs are at 60% both directions.

Throttle Speed is currently at Speed1 Mode & 54. There are more options for this setting but I'm not 100% sure what they do. With this setting I hit the throttle and it ramps to 100% in about 1 sec. AT a value of 0 it takes about 2 seconds to reach 100%. My thought is it should keep me from ramping to fast and getting over current. Which seems to be an issue. I've seen over current, when running the ESC at 100% power. It was just barely over current but still over current.

When I run the car, I set the steering D/R down to about 40%, depending on the car. It keeps me from yanking the wheel and crashing. This limits the amount of travel I have the steering. I saw someone on YT that had th D/R set to a 3-pos switch. With that option you can leave it at 100% while driving down to the launch zone, then flip a switch and reduce it to whatever value you like. Unfortunately, this is an option on the V3 and NOT the V2. Bummer.

View attachment 165499​

Fail Safe is set to steering straight and no power on the motor. Always test this feature, it's important.

The Alarm is set to 6.2V for the TX and 11.1 for the battery. I'm running 4S; however, the voltage will drop when I run it and I don't want it cutting out. I really only want to see the voltage on my TX and don't really care about the alarm and I would set it to 0V, but it's not an option.

The Gryo is setup on the VR knob and I will have to play with it to figure out what I like. On the Limitless I turned it on but found it's very stable without it and a little bit too much the car oscillates.

I updated the Firmware as well. The first video I saw said "Cancel the Format Drive request when it appears". But I can't do anything with the drive then. However, on the Radiolink website I found another video and written instructions that both said to format the drive, then drop the file into that drive. When I did that and and my radio came up with a blank screen when I turned it back on. Uh Oh? I went back through the instruction and did everything again. Then I figured out I had the V3 file and not the V2 file. Crisis averted.

Stiffer Springs
I ordered some smaller springs that will fit over the shaft and inside the stock spring. I wasn't sure what spring rates to get so I got three different ones.
View attachment 165501

All I know is that the back has to be very stiff and we don't want it to drop lower than the front. I ended up adding the 18 lb/in spring up front. In the back I added both the 18 lb/in spring and the 7 lb/in spring.

Rear: 11+18+7 -> ~36 lb/in
Front: 11 + 18 -> ~29 lb/in

It may be too stiff, I don't know, but it's an experiment.

Getting the one extra spring in there wasn't bad because the diameter is much larger than the shaft and it's not to bad to squish down to put the rod end and spring cup back on.
View attachment 165502View attachment 165503

In the rear it's three springs. I put some heat shrink over the smaller one to avoid binding on each other. Than I realized that they are far enough apart it shouldn't happen. But it looks cool and that count's for something.
View attachment 165504View attachment 165505

It's a lot stiffer but it can still bottom the pan if there is enough force. But I'm going to run with it and see how it works.
View attachment 165506

I adjusted the droop screws to level it out and get the back slightly higher than the rear. Part of the issue is the shocks in the back need to be a bit longer, maybe I can find some longer rod ends.

I didn't even know that those smaller springs existed but it's a brilliant idea.

Soon I will work on diy 2wd xo1 conversion and I will need stiffer springs than stock for ultra shocks. Where can I buy this smaller springs?

 

[BarnFabRC]

Still to do

• Alignment - There is a fair amount of toe out that needs to be removed.
• Tune suspension - Ride height, shocks limiter. Stiffer springs if I can find them.
• Mount the antenna tubes. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet.
• Calibrate the ESC. (I think?)
• Center the servo.
• Setup the radio.
• Setup the gyro.
• Clean up wires.
• Mount Switch.
• Stiffen Springs
• Mount Foams
• Replace discs with standard hexes.

Radio Setup
The radio is setup. Nothing special. RC6GS V2 with R7FG RX.

Servo EPs are at 60% both directions.

Throttle Speed is currently at Speed1 Mode & 54. There are more options for this setting but I'm not 100% sure what they do. With this setting I hit the throttle and it ramps to 100% in about 1 sec. AT a value of 0 it takes about 2 seconds to reach 100%. My thought is it should keep me from ramping to fast and getting over current. Which seems to be an issue. I've seen over current, when running the ESC at 100% power. It was just barely over current but still over current.

When I run the car, I set the steering D/R down to about 40%, depending on the car. It keeps me from yanking the wheel and crashing. This limits the amount of travel I have the steering. I saw someone on YT that had th D/R set to a 3-pos switch. With that option you can leave it at 100% while driving down to the launch zone, then flip a switch and reduce it to whatever value you like. Unfortunately, this is an option on the V3 and NOT the V2. Bummer.

View attachment 165499​

Fail Safe is set to steering straight and no power on the motor. Always test this feature, it's important.

The Alarm is set to 6.2V for the TX and 11.1 for the battery. I'm running 4S; however, the voltage will drop when I run it and I don't want it cutting out. I really only want to see the voltage on my TX and don't really care about the alarm and I would set it to 0V, but it's not an option.

The Gryo is setup on the VR knob and I will have to play with it to figure out what I like. On the Limitless I turned it on but found it's very stable without it and a little bit too much the car oscillates.

I updated the Firmware as well. The first video I saw said "Cancel the Format Drive request when it appears". But I can't do anything with the drive then. However, on the Radiolink website I found another video and written instructions that both said to format the drive, then drop the file into that drive. When I did that and and my radio came up with a blank screen when I turned it back on. Uh Oh? I went back through the instruction and did everything again. Then I figured out I had the V3 file and not the V2 file. Crisis averted.

Stiffer Springs
I ordered some smaller springs that will fit over the shaft and inside the stock spring. I wasn't sure what spring rates to get so I got three different ones.
View attachment 165501

All I know is that the back has to be very stiff and we don't want it to drop lower than the front. I ended up adding the 18 lb/in spring up front. In the back I added both the 18 lb/in spring and the 7 lb/in spring.

Rear: 11+18+7 -> ~36 lb/in
Front: 11 + 18 -> ~29 lb/in

It may be too stiff, I don't know, but it's an experiment.

Getting the one extra spring in there wasn't bad because the diameter is much larger than the shaft and it's not to bad to squish down to put the rod end and spring cup back on.
View attachment 165502View attachment 165503

In the rear it's three springs. I put some heat shrink over the smaller one to avoid binding on each other. Than I realized that they are far enough apart it shouldn't happen. But it looks cool and that count's for something.
View attachment 165504View attachment 165505

It's a lot stiffer but it can still bottom the pan if there is enough force. But I'm going to run with it and see how it works.
View attachment 165506

I adjusted the droop screws to level it out and get the back slightly higher than the rear. Part of the issue is the shocks in the back need to be a bit longer, maybe I can find some longer rod ends.

Way cool idea with the coaxial springs!

 

[Jerold]

I didn't even know that those smaller springs existed but it's a brilliant idea.

Thank you, I told my wife I was brilliant but she didn't believe it.

Those came from McMaster. The link for compression springs is below. They don't sell junk, it's all high quality stuff and targeted for professional & technical trades. They have thousands of springs to choose from. Everything I've ordered has been in stock and shipped the next day. You do have to pay for shipping but it's very fast. Amazon has spoiled us with free shipping included with Prime.
https://www.mcmaster.com/products/springs/spring-type~compression/

If your not picky about the spring rates you can get a box of springs from Amazon for $10-15. Search for "Small Springs". They are very inexpensive but they typically don't tell you the spring rate and they don't have ground closed ends.

To be fair, this is an experiment and there are limitations. It may end up in complete and utter disaster.

Those springs don't actually compress enough to get full shock travel which limits them. They will compress from 1/2" to 1/4" and I have 3/8" of shock travel. Which means I've lost an 1/8" travel. Because they are shorter is the reason I had to double up for the back. Technically it's 36 lb/in total but it's only a 1/4" of travel and it can only support 9 lbs max load in the rear.

They do have confined space springs which lay nearly flat when compressed. That's an experiment for another day.

Looking at the whole car, the suspension can carry about double weight [car (6lbs) + down force] from the stock configuration before it bottoms out. This doesn't include dynamic force from bumps, which I have no way of estimating. Hitting bumps and bottoming out means the car will bounce and that's bad.

Probably more than you wanted to know and like I said it's an experiment.

 

[Jerold]

I did a little testing with this setup and it's little bit bouncy, but it also was low speed. So it could bounce more at high speed or just dampen it. No way to find out until I do a full send. Also it did not chassis slap which is a big plus.

The gyro has to be turned way down. It was like at 15% to start and it was uncontrollable. Although it drives fairly straight, the bumps and twitchy steering make a difference.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

Nice build so far.
As an FYI the castle ESC fan is controlled by a internal temperature switch and only comes on when the ESC gets hot.

I believe Rx gyros and futaba gyc gyros are quite different in overall function at higher speeds. I hope the setup you have works well for you.

 

[Dan B.]

I did a little testing with this setup and it's little bit bouncy, but it also was low speed. So it could bounce more at high speed or just dampen it. No way to find out until I do a full send. Also it did not chassis slap which is a big plus.

The gyro has to be turned way down. It was like at 15% to start and it was uncontrollable. Although it drives fairly straight, the bumps and twitchy steering make a difference.

To get rid of the bounce you should increase the shock oil viscosity. Usually necessary when increasing spring rates. Also, I would still install limiters in the rear as a failsafe.
Nice ongoing build, and the info you’ve provided so far has been outstanding!

 

[Jerold]

Radio Update, Foams, New PB and NOT Traxxas Tough

Radio Update
I made some changes to the radio. It's still drives very twitchy so I turned down the steering D/R more and found I couldn't make a U-Turn in the street. Since that won't work I turned the D/R back to~30% and then I turned down the steering speed to 75%, which is a lot better. But still twitchy (for shadowing).

The battery telemetry is now hooked up and working. The voltage on the radio is "similar" to the voltage from my battery tester but not exact. The radio read 15.8 and the battery reads 16.4. I trust the battery tester more than the Radiolink and the low voltage alarm on the radio is off.

Looking at my latest log from today I had some Voltage drop to 13.7V from 16.5V. Why I'm dropping that much voltage (according to Castle) I don't know other than throttle ramping. A cap pack may help but I still have bigger problems, like driving straight, to solve before I worry about that.

Foams
Originally I ordered 3 sets of Contact foams (26mm 37 shore) from Island Hobby.

They sent me 1 set of the Contacts and 2 sets of Corally foams. Same spec but different tire entirely. There was a note on the invoice that said "We tried to call you". Yeah OK but whatever, despite a $6 difference (not refunded nor credited) I've got tires.

Not many vendors list the wheel specs, specifically offset/backspace. These wheels have a lot of positive offset, which means they touch the calipers. It would be nice if the tire vendors had all the specs on their website: Outside diameter, rim size, aspect ratio or sidewall height, width, hardness.

There are a few solutions. The one I've seen other's do is to grind the caliper, but I'm not a fan of that method. It's ugly and the caliper is purely decorative. What I chose to do is replace the disc/caliper with a hex. Rlaarlo was smart and included a set of 4 hexes in my kit which made it an easy swap.

During the part swap I also found the slop in the rear end and corrected that. The slop comes from a gap between the hex pin and the bearing. To fix this I added a washer to fill the gap.

The wheels got balanced and put on the car.

New PB
I did a bit of testing at lunch time. Around the corner there is a street with about 800' of straight flat smooth new asphalt. During the day there aren't a lot of cars parked on the street and almost no traffic. So it's a good place to test, not looking for high speed. It's still a bit narrow and short for any type of speed.

I managed to hit a new PB of 43MPH.

OK it's not great, but I did get some interesting data. Looking at my log file I'm at about 30% of my RPM yet 88% power. Which tells me I will need some space to let it build the RPM and get the max speed. All of this means I can probably best 120MPH, but I will need some room. This run was very short (a few hundred feet round trip) and my longer street is 1700' so we will see if I have the room.

NOT Traxxas Tough
Despite my best effort to keep it going straight it's not Traxxas Tough. The car spun on braking and I over corrected with the brake (reverse). It smacked into the curb. Don't worry the curb it fine but it did break the front hub.

Ok, it's $6 in parts, but it takes forever for them to ship and this might just take me out of the speed competition. Maybe I can super glue it or something.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

Radio Update, Foams, New PB and NOT Traxxas Tough

Radio Update
I made some changes to the radio. It's still drives very twitchy so I turned down the steering D/R more and found I couldn't make a U-Turn in the street. Since that won't work I turned the D/R back to~30% and then I turned down the steering speed to 75%, which is a lot better. But still twitchy (for shadowing).

The battery telemetry is now hooked up and working. The voltage on the radio is "similar" to the voltage from my battery tester but not exact. The radio read 15.8 and the battery reads 16.4. I trust the battery tester more than the Radiolink and the low voltage alarm on the radio is off.
View attachment 165783

Looking at my latest log from today I had some Voltage drop to 13.7V from 16.5V. Why I'm dropping that much voltage (according to Castle) I don't know other than throttle ramping. A cap pack may help but I still have bigger problems, like driving straight, to solve before I worry about that.

Foams
Originally I ordered 3 sets of Contact foams (26mm 37 shore) from Island Hobby.

They sent me 1 set of the Contacts and 2 sets of Corally foams. Same spec but different tire entirely. There was a note on the invoice that said "We tried to call you". Yeah OK but whatever, despite a $6 difference (not refunded nor credited) I've got tires.

Not many vendors list the wheel specs, specifically offset/backspace. These wheels have a lot of positive offset, which means they touch the calipers. It would be nice if the tire vendors had all the specs on their website: Outside diameter, rim size, aspect ratio or sidewall height, width, hardness.
View attachment 165789
There are a few solutions. The one I've seen other's do is to grind the caliper, but I'm not a fan of that method. It's ugly and the caliper is purely decorative. What I chose to do is replace the disc/caliper with a hex. Rlaarlo was smart and included a set of 4 hexes in my kit which made it an easy swap.

During the part swap I also found the slop in the rear end and corrected that. The slop comes from a gap between the hex pin and the bearing. To fix this I added a washer to fill the gap.
View attachment 165784View attachment 165785

The wheels got balanced and put on the car.

New PB
I did a bit of testing at lunch time. Around the corner there is a street with about 800' of straight flat smooth new asphalt. During the day there aren't a lot of cars parked on the street and almost no traffic. So it's a good place to test, not looking for high speed. It's still a bit narrow and short for any type of speed.

I managed to hit a new PB of 43MPH.
View attachment 165786

OK it's not great, but I did get some interesting data. Looking at my log file I'm at about 30% of my RPM yet 88% power. Which tells me I will need some space to let it build the RPM and get the max speed. All of this means I can probably best 120MPH, but I will need some room. This run was very short (a few hundred feet round trip) and my longer street is 1700' so we will see if I have the room.

NOT Traxxas Tough
Despite my best effort to keep it going straight it's not Traxxas Tough. The car spun on braking and I over corrected with the brake (reverse). It smacked into the curb. Don't worry the curb it fine but it did break the front hub.
View attachment 165790
Ok, it's $6 in parts, but it takes forever for them to ship and this might just take me out of the speed competition. Maybe I can super glue it or something.

View attachment 165787

I had to pull the brake caliper for the contact foams and BSR foams also. Still using the metal brake disk. I like it better than plastic hexes.

 

[bozo]

Good progress and great info on steering and wheels.
Rlaarlo needs to get some domestic distribution, a shame that the shipping time on a $6 part causes such downtime...

 

[Jerold]

Good progress and great info on steering and wheels.
Rlaarlo needs to get some domestic distribution, a shame that the shipping time on a $6 part causes such downtime...

I'm sure I could either buy print some thicker offset hexes too.

They look a lot like my Slash Hexes. I guess I have something to do tonight.

Which there are offset options, like this from eBay.

 

[Jerold]

That took no time at all.

Rlaarlo is on the left, Traxxas is on the right. Traxxas hexes actually fit a little better than the original Rlaarlo ones. The Traxxas click onto the pin tighter and are more secure.

The Traxxas hexes are about 0.031" (~0.75mm) thicker than the Rlaarlo.

The difference on the wheels, is the Rlaarlo as about 0.060" (~1.5mm) more offset than the foams. Meaning the foams are about 1.5mm deeper than the factory wheels. So you will need 2mm thicker to clear the caliper.

Doing this made me realize that it's doesn't matter because there is no way to add thickness to the disc which is the factory hex. You could run thicker hexes and keep the caliper or you can use the factory hexes and keep the rotor.

Then I was thinking maybe you could shave shave 2mm from the caliper stand off on the back of the caliper, but the disc would crash into the caliper. Doing some rough math it looks like, you can only shave ~0.027 (~0.75mm) from it before it's too close.

So you an run the right offset, or you can have aftermarket wheels with the caliper or the rotor, but not both.

I might just get some thicker hexes to adjust for the width and get more stability . Yeah, it's like 3mm total, but it's a tiny car and at full scale it would be a foot wider track.

 

[bozo]

These foam tires seem to fit perfect, with high positive offset and fit without any mods, the rears even clear that little fin in the chassis rear wheel well.
NHX RC 1/10 Alpha SH40
https://www.ebay.com/itm/195499400473
They are 26mm front and 30mm rear hardness of SH40.

 

[Dan B.]

Radio Update, Foams, New PB and NOT Traxxas Tough

Radio Update
I made some changes to the radio. It's still drives very twitchy so I turned down the steering D/R more and found I couldn't make a U-Turn in the street. Since that won't work I turned the D/R back to~30% and then I turned down the steering speed to 75%, which is a lot better. But still twitchy (for shadowing).

The battery telemetry is now hooked up and working. The voltage on the radio is "similar" to the voltage from my battery tester but not exact. The radio read 15.8 and the battery reads 16.4. I trust the battery tester more than the Radiolink and the low voltage alarm on the radio is off.
View attachment 165783

Looking at my latest log from today I had some Voltage drop to 13.7V from 16.5V. Why I'm dropping that much voltage (according to Castle) I don't know other than throttle ramping. A cap pack may help but I still have bigger problems, like driving straight, to solve before I worry about that.

Foams
Originally I ordered 3 sets of Contact foams (26mm 37 shore) from Island Hobby.

They sent me 1 set of the Contacts and 2 sets of Corally foams. Same spec but different tire entirely. There was a note on the invoice that said "We tried to call you". Yeah OK but whatever, despite a $6 difference (not refunded nor credited) I've got tires.

Not many vendors list the wheel specs, specifically offset/backspace. These wheels have a lot of positive offset, which means they touch the calipers. It would be nice if the tire vendors had all the specs on their website: Outside diameter, rim size, aspect ratio or sidewall height, width, hardness.
View attachment 165789
There are a few solutions. The one I've seen other's do is to grind the caliper, but I'm not a fan of that method. It's ugly and the caliper is purely decorative. What I chose to do is replace the disc/caliper with a hex. Rlaarlo was smart and included a set of 4 hexes in my kit which made it an easy swap.

During the part swap I also found the slop in the rear end and corrected that. The slop comes from a gap between the hex pin and the bearing. To fix this I added a washer to fill the gap.
View attachment 165784View attachment 165785

The wheels got balanced and put on the car.

New PB
I did a bit of testing at lunch time. Around the corner there is a street with about 800' of straight flat smooth new asphalt. During the day there aren't a lot of cars parked on the street and almost no traffic. So it's a good place to test, not looking for high speed. It's still a bit narrow and short for any type of speed.

I managed to hit a new PB of 43MPH.
View attachment 165786

OK it's not great, but I did get some interesting data. Looking at my log file I'm at about 30% of my RPM yet 88% power. Which tells me I will need some space to let it build the RPM and get the max speed. All of this means I can probably best 120MPH, but I will need some room. This run was very short (a few hundred feet round trip) and my longer street is 1700' so we will see if I have the room.

NOT Traxxas Tough
Despite my best effort to keep it going straight it's not Traxxas Tough. The car spun on braking and I over corrected with the brake (reverse). It smacked into the curb. Don't worry the curb it fine but it did break the front hub.
View attachment 165790
Ok, it's $6 in parts, but it takes forever for them to ship and this might just take me out of the speed competition. Maybe I can super glue it or something.

View attachment 165787

Yes, I guess I should just place an order for some spares and plan on waiting months. My May 10 parts order hasn’t even shipped yet. The car supposedly shipped from California on the 9th, but it still hasn’t been delivered and tracking info has not been updated since the 14th. Very frustrating indeed.

That took no time at all.

Rlaarlo is on the left, Traxxas is on the right. Traxxas hexes actually fit a little better than the original Rlaarlo ones. The Traxxas click onto the pin tighter and are more secure.
View attachment 165796

The Traxxas hexes are about 0.031" (~0.75mm) thicker than the Rlaarlo.
View attachment 165797

The difference on the wheels, is the Rlaarlo as about 0.060" (~1.5mm) more offset than the foams. Meaning the foams are about 1.5mm deeper than the factory wheels. So you will need 2mm thicker to clear the caliper.

Doing this made me realize that it's doesn't matter because there is no way to add thickness to the disc which is the factory hex. You could run thicker hexes and keep the caliper or you can use the factory hexes and keep the rotor.

Then I was thinking maybe you could shave shave 2mm from the caliper stand off on the back of the caliper, but the disc would crash into the caliper. Doing some rough math it looks like, you can only shave ~0.027 (~0.75mm) from it before it's too close.

So you an run the right offset, or you can have aftermarket wheels with the caliper or the rotor, but not both.

I might just get some thicker hexes to adjust for the width and get more stability . Yeah, it's like 3mm total, but it's a tiny car and at full scale it would be a foot wider track.

Great info, and good to know the Traxxas hexes fit. There are a million options for them out there.

These foam tires seem to fit perfect, with high positive offset and fit without any mods, the rears even clear that little fin in the chassis rear wheel well.
NHX RC 1/10 Alpha SH40
https://www.ebay.com/itm/195499400473
They are 26mm front and 30mm rear hardness of SH40.
View attachment 165812

Great link, thanks. I’ve been looking at tire options. 1/10 touring car is a new scale for me.

 

[Dan B.]

Still to do

• Alignment - There is a fair amount of toe out that needs to be removed.
• Tune suspension - Ride height, shocks limiter. Stiffer springs if I can find them.
• Mount the antenna tubes. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet.

Yo, @Jerold ! If you haven’t figured out your antenna mount yet, these have worked well for me. Allows you to make a bracket or mount them on any flat surface.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NNJFHGZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1