slipper question
 

ok i just started racing electric this year after racing gas for 4 years and im on a real up hill battle learning curve on how to adjust my slipper on my kyosho sp 4x4. anyway at a race last night my sp thermeld at the 5min mark and the marshal said my slipper was way loose. now ive been told all differfent slipper set up stories. an experienced electric racer last night told me the reason my stuff overheated was when a slipper is to loose it causes the motor/esc to work harder to get up to speed causing it to get hot. and ive also heard just the opisite as to where if its to tight it will cause overheating. i do know my orion 4800 lipo had alot of charge drawn out of it. i run an orion 5.5/lrp speed control 17/78 gearing on a small track. i am gonna try a 16 tooth this weekend but my real problem is slipper adjustment. also ive been told on a 4x4 you can just crank down the slipper and ive also been told if you over tighten a slipper you will destroy the diffs. i have diff adjustment figured out but slipper adjustment im still alittle fuzzy on. so can anybody steer me in the right direction??????:weird::rolleyes:

charly the slipper being too loose will not cause you to thermal by itself. It honestly sounds more like a gearing issue since you said it was a small track.try around a 15 / 81 on that short track stuff , or if you have a little more mild motor like a 6.5, or a 7.5, or even an 8.5(8.5's are my favorite because they work great for short tracks, but you can gear the crap out of them for long tracks!!).some of the stuff you have been told is correct. If you do crank the slipper down it will take it's toll on your diffs, especially the rear one. The rear takes most of the load under accelleration and during unloaded landings off jumps especially if you are running where there is a lot of traction.in conditions like this the slipper being a little on the loose side will actually KEEP you from thermalling because it will reduce the load on the motor.I actually had a lazer, ran it with a 8.5 , and still ran some slip to keep the diffs in shape. I would set mine up so it would slip for about the first 4-5 feet when you pegged the throttle off the line on high bite surfaces.My favorite way to set it was actually on the carpet in my living room so there was no chance of wheel spin, so I could get it set acurately.

p.s.-- I have never thermalled in a race, but here lately i have seen alot of guys thermall with the 4wd cars running 5.5's with high amperage li-pos even with proper gearing.I think part of it is just the fact that the li-po flows the amperage so freely that the 5.5's just get hot.A guy I run with was running 6cell 4200's in his b44 with his 5.5 without a problem , he put in a track power 4800 li-po and now he has the same trouble thermalling at about the 4 1/2 to 5 minute mark.He changed over to a 7.5 light motor and hasnt had a thermal issue since. I would really try either a 6.5 or 7.5 just to be safe.

i am gonna try gear changes but i guess mabey i just dont even really know how to set a slipper? i dont know what to look for or hear when setting a slipper. i know after some trial and error i'll get it figured out but i really worry about smoking 400.00 worth of electronis.

If your slipper is too loose you will be heavy on the throttle trying to get the performance out of your ride. The slipper will not transfer the motor rpm to the transmission. The motor will be running at the high end of its range much more and create more heat.

b-fast thats exactly what a race buddy told me last night he said the motor would turn to many rpm for to long to soon trying to get the car up to speed. so im thinking tighten the slipper go to a 15 tooth pinion. but i still dont really understand on how to properly set up a slipper.

I learned by listening to the fast guys slippers that had the same class truck as me. I set mine to slip only a few feet during a hard launch. The carpet method mentioned above works well. Plus it should be quiter in the house and you will hear the slipper easier and be able to hear if that diff is slipping (don't want that).

you mean to tell me i may have to fork out another 90.00 for a 6.5? maaan!

charly - aside from your thermaling problem, how do you like electric vs nitro???

dude its soooo much easier ya charge a battery flip a switch and go. with nito its tune,tune,tune and ive noticed that tires last ALOT longer my overall rc bill has been cut in half. i spent some coin getting into electric but now its all bought its alot cheaper to run. and that has made racing fun again alot of fun. i need to figure out some things about electric like slippers lol but i will learn. basiclly i was ready to quit rc just cause i was burnt out bad. nitro is fun to race but its all the work and money that sucks. since lipo/brushless hit the shelfs i love electric.

by the way just to clarify I said that running the slipper a LITTLE on the loose side on high bite tracks is a good thing ,there is such a thing as too loose. second I really beleive that if you are running on a really short track that therin lies your thermal problem. 5.5 is a big motor for a short or tight track. You will get the feel for setting the slipper up to your likings, once you do you will really appreciate the simplicity of electrics. like you said plug and flip a switch. No tuning, and retuning , and retuning every time the air temp changes a few degrees.Plus you can run them in your backyard for hours on end without the neighbors calling the cops!!!:nod:

the strait away at my track is just under 120ft. then a small sweaper a double then 1 sharp turn go through a chcaine one more turn and back down the strait.

oh bye the way one track marshal said he could here my slipper all around the track, i was wearing an ipod so couldnt here but he said he could feel the heat coming out of my body, when it thermaled he picked up my car blew on the bottom of the motor and set it back down and it ran fine again. so i dont know i guess im gonna mess with it sat. at the track hopefully get it right.

1 - ditch the ipod, real race cars don't have radios to rock out while driving and you don't need one either. you need to be listening to your car while it's running like a real race car driver, not jams.
2 - setting the slipper is something that takes practice, is dependant on how much grip the track has, what kind of layout you're running on, and driver preference. but definately should be slipping the whole way around the track
3 - thermaling can also come from not have the right gear ratio in the car.

electric vs nitro
 

:nod: i'm glad to hear we have another convert who enjoys the relative silence a well tuned 4wd mod buggy makes! But i tend to disagree with the whole tuning aspect...i have loads of fun fine tuning my SP and making it faster! And then comes the frustration when she doesn't run perfect. I agree the slipper is a dilema sometimes. I run a LRP 5.5 ecs/motor combo. I have yet thermal at all,in all conditions and track sizes. i have run 4200mah nimh's first and now 3250mah li-po's. The slipper is becoming a set-back for me...only cuz i can't get mine to be consistent,which seems to greatly effect my overall handling. We run very rough 1/8 scale nitro tracks here in Canada that look bombed out most of the time! It's becoming more and more difficult to hook up and make that 5.5 handle in the rough! But i'm not giving up! I have purchased a 7.5 and am willing to give that a try. Keep experimenting with the advice given in the previous posts,it'll come...and then,don't mess with the setting!:D