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Hello everyone,
long time I was last here but finally my Apex arrived from the US.
During the wait time I read a lot about this little capable truck and watched nearly every video I could find. As always, I'm rooting for a little bit of tuning and modding because it's just fun to work on the car and hopefully even results in better performance too. Long story short, I came across the so called "free stretch mod" for the Apex and I immediately saw that it has potential. I put on my upgrade parts (from Injora) and did the free stretch. Here are just some pictures right after finishing everything.
Which parts did I exchange (as mentioned everything from Injora due to easy availability here in Europe):
> Brass links set
> 53mm shocks limited with a rubber band in the front
> 59mm shocks in the back (for a better fit due to the stretch)
> 1.3 aluminum wheels and Cling-On tires with yellow soft silicone inserts additionally vented inside, whereas I exchanged the aluminum rings with brass inner rings on the front wheels
> brass servo mount and 11kg servo with brass steering links
> stainless steel drive shaft
That all resulted obviously in heavier build but with a nice 61:39 weight balance
Since I don't want to use the bed and anyway had to make sure the rear shocks don't hit the rear mounting system for the bed, I removed the brackets completely as you can see in the pics.
I fiddled around to find the ideal mounting point for the rear 59mm shocks to keep the truck as low as possible by still keeping a good articulation in the rear.
My first in-house tests actually turned out excellent... with my limited experience with the Apex. Time and real outdoor testing will tell if that all was worth it. At least the +/- 10mm wheelbase stretch and the tires look cool and fit the Apex well.
You can hopefully see the new mounting locations of the rear upper and lower links in the pictures. Only thing is that the rear drive shaft is now also stretched by about 10mm and I hope that doesn't have too much of a negative effect?
EDIT: Even though I show this mod with upgrade parts, you can achieve the same with the parts you already have on the stock truck itself. Then it's the real "free stretch".
long time I was last here but finally my Apex arrived from the US.
During the wait time I read a lot about this little capable truck and watched nearly every video I could find. As always, I'm rooting for a little bit of tuning and modding because it's just fun to work on the car and hopefully even results in better performance too. Long story short, I came across the so called "free stretch mod" for the Apex and I immediately saw that it has potential. I put on my upgrade parts (from Injora) and did the free stretch. Here are just some pictures right after finishing everything.
Which parts did I exchange (as mentioned everything from Injora due to easy availability here in Europe):
> Brass links set
> 53mm shocks limited with a rubber band in the front
> 59mm shocks in the back (for a better fit due to the stretch)
> 1.3 aluminum wheels and Cling-On tires with yellow soft silicone inserts additionally vented inside, whereas I exchanged the aluminum rings with brass inner rings on the front wheels
> brass servo mount and 11kg servo with brass steering links
> stainless steel drive shaft
That all resulted obviously in heavier build but with a nice 61:39 weight balance
Since I don't want to use the bed and anyway had to make sure the rear shocks don't hit the rear mounting system for the bed, I removed the brackets completely as you can see in the pics.
I fiddled around to find the ideal mounting point for the rear 59mm shocks to keep the truck as low as possible by still keeping a good articulation in the rear.
My first in-house tests actually turned out excellent... with my limited experience with the Apex. Time and real outdoor testing will tell if that all was worth it. At least the +/- 10mm wheelbase stretch and the tires look cool and fit the Apex well.
You can hopefully see the new mounting locations of the rear upper and lower links in the pictures. Only thing is that the rear drive shaft is now also stretched by about 10mm and I hope that doesn't have too much of a negative effect?
EDIT: Even though I show this mod with upgrade parts, you can achieve the same with the parts you already have on the stock truck itself. Then it's the real "free stretch".
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