What do you think

[gutterboy]

I dont know if this has ever ben brought up or thought about but why dont they make a custom bumper were it would take most of the crash. Take for instantance, two stock t maxx bumpers. Mount like some kind of spring or foam in between the two then mount it up. That way if you run into something it will give it more cushion to absorb the hit. Just an idea, probably sounds stupid. I am going to make something just to try it anyway to see how it might work. What are some of your thoughts?

 

[El Pirata]

Make it happen #1. Inovation is 10% inspiration and 90% persperation.

 

[gutterboy]

El Pirata, your words inspire me. Hell you probably dont like that idea anyway, remember you are the Master of Disaster!:worship:

 

[kwong2001]

Problem is momentum. Touring cars run foam bumpers, but don't really have a lot of weight so when they hit something, it's not as severe.

Monster trucks, compared to touring cars have a lot more weight, which equates to a lot more momentum. The trick is to find the right kind of material that would absorb the impact just right.

It's possible to come up with something like that, there's a lot of R&D that would need to be done. I'd imagine you'd want it to be foam, similiar to touring cars, but of a much harder compound.

Quite frankly, you'd be better off just reinforcing the hell out everything that would be affected by a severe crash.

 

[El Pirata]

Originally posted by gutterboy
El Pirata, your words inspire me. Hell you probably dont like that idea anyway, remember you are the Master of Disaster!:worship:

This is true but I do have many ideas that work but most have not been able to live up to the Master of Disaster's bashing.

 

[gutterboy]

I was thinking about some springs. At my work they have different types of springs that are the perfect size. They are the same size as the stock t maxx spring but alot more stiffer. I figure if I cut them down to about an ich and put 4 in between the bumpers were the four lines are on the t maxx bumper. That should give take some of the impact from the hit. Thanks for the comments though. It helps to have people thoughts.

 

[lykan]

You know my first MT was a electric one, I think called the big bear something like that.

It had tough plastic bumpers. The bumpers were mounted to a solid part of the fram,e with the same kind of spring design you're describing.

They were stiff. Almost hard to compress with your hands. They also had a stop on them, so they had a bit of pre load.

I actually took off the ends of the bumpers in crashes. I never broke the frame body shocks, etc. Those springs absorbed mass impact, not once, but over and over again.

Instead of the truck shattering when hitting a brick wall(by all means it should have at those speeds), it would slap. On a head on with a wall, the rear tires would lift off the ground, about half way vertical it would spring back an inch or two.

I broke drive train parts from the sudden stop, but never the frame or chassis peices.

I think the best idea is lots of spring and absorbtion, with minimal rebound. Also mounted to a spot that would spread the impact over the whole chassis, instead of one crucial point.

I am amped to start my own one day, shows us picks if ya do it.

I didn't want to swipe his pictures, so I tossed in a link to his auction.
**edit**
You can see the bumpers on this rcHERE

You can see the bumpers on this rcHERE

**Ok really odd I hit reply, and it adds it to my post like i edited it..odd**

 

[gutterboy]

nice links lykan. That is what I am going to try but instead of two there will be four. What do you think if instead of mounting the bumpers regularly like you would on a t maxx, how about facing them up at a little bit of an angle. That way if when you do hit, you might not bounce the rear end up like you said and that might also dampen it a little more.

 

[lykan]

Well, if you could get the front to skip up it might work.

Say you hit a wall dead on. instead of all the impact on the chassis, with the angle of the bumper, it would sort of ramp up the wall, that would work. It would relive a lot of the impact.

Instead of stopping dead on curbs, the front would lift. It would kind of skid over them. I would go for that.

Actually, I see a reason for only two springs. If only one side of the bumper hits. It will fold that side of the bumper, deflecting the impact, and allowing the truck to spin sideways. The spring that takes the impact would compress. The other spring would stretch. The bumper would move in kind of like a teeter totter. Like below in my terrible attempt at ascii art.

    /___           |___
   /               |
  /                |
 /_____            |___
/                  |

With four spring it might be too stiff to deflect on a corner shot, or a nick on the bumper.

 

[gutterboy]

Good point sir. I am going to fab something up in the morning. hopefully I can get a dig cam so I can take some pics to see what yall think.

 

[lillightingboy21]

The springs just mit work.

 

[El Pirata]

Originally posted by lykan
Well, if you could get the front to skip up it might work.

Say you hit a wall dead on. instead of all the impact on the chassis, with the angle of the bumper, it would sort of ramp up the wall, that would work. It would relive a lot of the impact.

Instead of stopping dead on curbs, the front would lift. It would kind of skid over them. I would go for that.

Actually, I see a reason for only two springs. If only one side of the bumper hits. It will fold that side of the bumper, deflecting the impact, and allowing the truck to spin sideways. The spring that takes the impact would compress. The other spring would stretch. The bumper would move in kind of like a teeter totter. Like below in my terrible attempt at ascii art.

    /___           |___
   /               |
  /                |
 /_____            |___
/                  |

With four spring it might be too stiff to deflect on a corner shot, or a nick on the bumper.

What is that little drawing?

 

[lykan]

Look at the one on the right, the vertical line represents the bumper. The horizontal lines represent the springs/bumper mounts.

The drawing that has the slant represents what happens when you hit one side of the bumper.

 

[gutterboy]

What I am going to do is put 3 springs in between the bumpers. Two on the edges and one right in the middle. The two that I am going to set on the ends are going to a little softer than the one in the middle. That way it will should still do what you were talking about lykan. Plus the curves of the front bumpers should help out too.

 

[El Pirata]

Originally posted by lykan
Look at the one on the right, the vertical line represents the bumper. The horizontal lines represent the springs/bumper mounts.

The drawing that has the slant represents what happens when you hit one side of the bumper.

Let me put my glasses on.

 

[gutterboy]

It is kind of hard to figure it out but the shorter horizontal line is showing the bumper hitting something on that side and flexing back.

 

[cyba888]

I think there was a car that had spring bumpers, not sure if it was the Wild Willy from Tamiya but it was some kind of 4x4. One other reason is because they want you to bang it up so that you can buy more parts :redbuggy:

 

[olds97_lss]

I used a rubber grommet. May not look the best, but for head on colisions on the skate park, it works really well. I hit a pillar in my skate park at almost WOT (bad depth perception) and not a thing was damaged.

Although, last night I had a horrible incedent driving it at work. Where our loading dock meets the street, there's about 3/4" lip. I came out of the dock at WOT, the truck landed right at this lip. With the shocks compressed, the front RPM skid plate connected with this lip. The front lip of the skidplate. It pealed it off like a prybar. Ripped my threads out of 1 bulkhead completely, the other bulkhead had 2 screws snapped off. I also bent the lower hingepins (titanium) and the aluminum steering bell crank posts. Not sure why the posts bent... nothing hit them.

Stopped at the LHS and spent $60 on replacement parts on the way home. This kind of sucked since I havn't had a chance to drive in a month. I was only driving for like 10 minutes.

 

[gutterboy]

This is what made me start thinking about this idea. I saw your gromet and thought about using springs. I guess your the inspiration of this thread, lol. I havent had a chance yet to try it out, but will int he next cople of days.

 

[olds97_lss]

I tried a spring, it didn't work as well as the grommet. I probably should have used a stiffer spring.

Also, on the bolt that holds the grommet, I left it floating. As in, if i hit something, the grommet will compress and the bolt will push in. I did a solid mount the first time i did it, but after hitting something, it dawned on me that it was defeating the purpose.