Off to the races...

[AoD]

Well the hours are ticking down.. Tommorow my RC10GT is headed for it's first venture into off-road racing. Of course, I'll have to wait my turn for the 2-wheel drive competition. But.. I don't know what I should do yet.

Here's the conditions so far. Partially wet expected. Dirt/mud. One huge two stage jump and a few smaller "whoopdy" type jumps and a few turns. Most of them are left. Tommorow is a "Money" race so we are racing for the pot. My friend will be racing his newly named "loud maxx" and he'll have the first shot at it.

So far we know this. There will be at least 20 T-maxx's in the T-Maxx division. And 5 of them are older style with .21 platforms. My friend is going to be pretty much stock, other than the aluminum bulkheads and rpm front arms. Well, his dual rear exaust might bring some attention.

As for me, I'm in for the crowd. So far I know there will only be ONE other RC10GT in it. There will be 4 losi's for sure and 2 rustlers. Those I won't be afraid of, since I know they won't handle the track. Wish I had a camera for that one the other night. He could of won the gold medal in the wrecking competition. There is ONE losi I'm really worried about. It's an older XXT and the bad thing is it's got a picco .15 and quite a bit of the hopups. As for the others, mostly aftermarket engines and one will be bringing an OS hyper .15.

What I've got going for me... my RPM a-arms, just coming off a new shock rebiuld. I have a TRX .15 pro, and It's running pretty good, I'll lean the poop out of it if I have to. It hasn't boiled the water trick yet, I'll make it do it tommorow. The temperature will be in the mid 40's. I'm running a pair of duratrax diamond diggers and the stock fronts, I may have to switch fronts with a set of my friends 2.2 fronts. My stock ones are unbalanced.

Here's what I need to know first thing. How should I setup my suspension. I need to be able to take the turns at high friggin speed. I should just go buy a 13T clutch bell. There ain't NO way I'll be able to hit top speed anyways. I want the acceleration and I need it bad. I can't have the suspension setup so I go flipping off the jumps. What can I do to make sure of that. I need some recommendations. This may only be 100 dollar pot but still. My first race, and I want to make it memorable.

 

[mjanwo]

on my local trak...i run soft springs and 30 wt oil in the shocks on my gt,we have alot of jumps and its soft enough to soak up the landings and not too stiff to launch it on rebound...all i can tell you is go to the track and ask around,most guys will help you untill you start beating them...lol..also,concentrate on not flipping or getting involved with crash's...the man with the least mistakes usually wins or finish's well.

 

[ImBroken]

Keep your wheels on the ground & good luck...

 

[mjime714]

Good luck and have fun! Take a picture of yourself with the prize money when you win and post it up. :bling:

 

[Rob D]

Good luck hope ya win and dont have to many crashes there were a ton of wreck outs today when i was at the races

 

[Çh®i§tiªñ]

Go with soft springs in the front and med/soft in the rear. Use 25-35 weight all the way around. You pick. Problem is, I'm only giving you a baseline to go by. Your caster, camber and ride height adjustments will all have to be made during practice at the track. This is only a baseline.

Good luck and get someone to take pics!

 

[mjime714]

Çh®i§tiªñ, I was always told to put the softer springs in the rear, or is it different for off road.

 

[mrfatride]

i have always took it that on the 2wd's that is stiffer front and softer rear as well. also learn to roll the throttle so the rear doesn't break loose.

 

[Çh®i§tiªñ]

Well I guess it depends on how much squat you have at the line. If you have stiff in front and soft in the back, and a high torque ride, you will lift the front end up too high and loose steering. The track doesn't have any big air jumps and no hairpin turns which also keeps me with the soft in the front and med/soft in the rear. Ride height plays a big role as well for stadium trucks. I tend to keep my front angle 1-2 degrees downward and the rears as level as possible.

Now if it were high jumps and hairpin turns you would have to do some trial and error. Even then, a majority of stadium truck weight is in the back which causes a heavier spring to be put in the back. However, I would up to a medium all the way around and possibly a heavy in the rear. Depending on a majority of the turns being either left OR right and not both, you might find yourself changing 1 of the fronts to be softer. Again, all depends on the track. With these conditions I would look to keep the arms as level as possible with MAYBE 1-3 degrees of lift, or downward angle on the rear.

25-35 wght oil usually plays hand in hand with the springs and even sometimes the temp. As a rule of thumb, that I use anyhow, the softer the spring the lighter the oil. And the colder, the lighter the oil. I tend to believe that 100 wt oil with light springs actually is counter productive and prevents from a true tuned suspension.

These are nothing more than my opinions. If I was at the track and had a hanful of runs on it I might change it completely.

Some EXCELLANT reading, and I suggest anyone who is really into suspension tuning get this, would be the XXX-Main tuning guide. Even though it is geared towards onroad, you can apply the same fundamentals to offroad. Stadium trucks are by far the best handling on a 10th scale track. Yeah, i know, buggies are great too, they just spend more time grinding the chassis

Hope this helps. Then again, I just confused 2 people, I might confuse you too lol.... I need another beer.

 

[Rob D]

That is quite informative christian and ill have to pick up guide if i can ever get to track to race ill try some of it out and here ya go :beer:

 

[AoD]

Good idea. As a matter of fact, I picked up a great idea for my shocks. By one of the local winners around here. He drives a totally customized losi XXXT. He showed me a few things today. One thing he recommended was (Which I couldn't believe) to say screw the silicone shock oils. He ran pure mineral oil in the shocks for lightwieght cold racing. Anything above 50 degrees tho, he'd break out the silicone. He usually hits the top three in the 2wd class here. So maybe he knows what he is doing. And as for that, he said to ditch my TRX. He made fun of it and about died laughing when he saw it. He told me what to get exactly. Now I don't know why but this is what he said.

"First, drop the gearing on that, get a 13 or 14t clutch bell and run the stock 66 spur, or get a robinson racing 66. Get a set of proline holeshot 2's and get a new set of steering tires. He recommended prolines stock fronts."

He also did give me one bit of appraisel by having medium duty springs in the back, but then again, he made fun of my for having heavy duty's in the front. So I placed the stock rear ones which were EXTREMEMLY light, and he said it was good. He also pointed out the fact that my entire engine setup was crap, specially the fuel lines and compresion line. He helped me fix what we could.

And last but not least he said to get this.

"Drop the TRX piece of S*** and get yourself a .12 OS CR-X"

I didn't want to piss him off or anything, but why would I want to drop to .12?

Well, that's about all he told me. I don't know, but I hope I do good. I'll take the digi camera, just hope the stupid thing works. I think I have it ready now. Grm... nervous lol

 

[Rob D]

the os 12 will way out run the trx 15 and usually the 12 will give little more top end and 15 little more grunt for like a tmaxx ..if hes wining that a good one to listen to ..

i run the os 12 cvx in my losi and i think its faster than it was with the mach 15 but maybe its just me

Good luck rob

 

[AoD]

Well... How is the TRX .15 pro rank in the engines? Can you give me a list of the best to least that you know of? I mean... For a stadium truck

 

[Rob D]

I've only used the os 12 cvx and 15 cvx and pro scrap 15 i worst I've use is pro 15 I've had 3 of them my os 12 has out run the pro 15 by 2 gallons so far other people can pop in

 

[Çh®i§tiªñ]

Well good to hear I wasn't given you bunk info hehehe...

Get some recent pics when its done. Want to see the ride height and droop etc....

 

[mjime714]

Hay Çh®i§tiªñ, I'm a little confused, but I always thought that the harder the spring in the rear, the more likely you will lift the front end and the softer spring in the rear will absorb the weight transfer rather than the axels making the cars front end lift.

Or is it that the softer spring in the rear will allow the car to bottom out earlier.

 

[ImBroken]

This might give you some insight...Suspension tuning

 

[Çh®i§tiªñ]

I agree with you on the stiffer in the rear. However, in an on-road setup vs. off road setup you will find two dramatic differences. 1 is the height of the vehicle and 2 is the travel length of the shocks (the balance points are a lot different too between my tc3 and my stadium). I'm not trying to eliminate squat by putting stiffer springs in the back, just reduce it so it doesn't cause understeer. Especially on a 2 wheel drive stadium truck where most of the weight is in the back. I am simply trying to keep the ride level on take-off. If you go too stiff in the back, you will cause the front to lift more giving you no steering. So if you balance it right, you will get some squat, some weight transfer to the front for traction AND the ride will stay close to level. This is the trick. I'm just posting what works best for me and the conditions I run in. This can be different from track to track and ride to ride.

Anyone else here running a similar setup? Eddy? someone?

 

[mjime714]

Ahhhh, I get it now! Thanks for the class and thanks for the link

 

[AoD]

Well..
It's done...

Honestly I think it sucked.
I placed good enough to keep racing for three of three races in the open class. Since there was only 3 two wheel drives that actually made it to run.

First race, first lap.. turnbuckle snapped off and I was running with basically three legs. Still placed third. Here's the results..

1st Custom Losi XXT
2nd HPI 4 wheel drive stadium
3rd Me
4 T-Maxx with .21 conversion
5 Stock T-maxx
6 Duratrax ST?

Second race sucked even more..

1st Losi
2 HPI
3 Tmaxx .21
4 duratrax
5 Me
6 Stock tmaxx

The tmaxx stalled first so I got 5th, got to stay in

3rd (Main)

1 HPI
2 Losi
3 Tmaxx .21
4 duratrax
5 Me Two laps before crashing into puddle across the first turn
6 Stock tmaxx Didn't make a single lap

First of all. I would like to say this. I had a very hot running truck if it wasn't for the steering problem. I started side by side with the losi, blew it off the road, then came around final turn beside the .21 tmaxx and was able to pull out in front by a few feet. The HPI, we were usually neck and neck, but I could handle the big turns a helluvalot better. Three people from the open came and told me I would have won all three if it wasn't for my steering problems. Each race I popped one off, SUCKED ANUS badly....

Ohh well.. When he brings the oval back, I will dominate. heheh

I'll get the pictures uploaded soon They aren't good my camera sucked ass today.