Originally Posted by MaxxBashers

Any confirmation yet on if it is a whole new platform or if the 14 will be able to be upgraded with new parts?

Originally Posted by Wildcat1971

I am sure you will be able to upgrade....But will you want to? The center diff will most likely require a new chassis and top plate. Maybe even new bones. Plus the cost of the center diff. If it has a shorty conversion, then even more will change. Are you willing to spend 200-300 to update your car? I am just spit balling here, but based on what AE had to do to make the gear diff work, I would venture to say it will be similar.

Originally Posted by Wildcat1971

@BentKa what you say about the composite gear diff may be true. But, your missing a very important point. Performance and durability aside. Many drivers want steel gears. IMO, xray should make them and sell them as an option part. I am sure they would fly off the shelves. The whole shorty thing is taking 4wd by storm. I seriously hope the 2015 has this and is not held aside for the 2016 car. I highly doubt that you will bundle every option into the box like Incubus wants, because the costs would be prohibitive. I actually like the AE B5 model. Get the basic car and buy the upgrades you want. The base car is cheap and you go up from there. From a business perspective, I dont see how you can ignore what the customer wants. They "want" metal gears. Just give them metal gears. They obviously dont care about the inertia. I actually love the heavy feel of steel gears. Makes a 6.5 easier to drive and feels smoother.

Originally Posted by Wildcat1971

I am certain, if the 2015 does not have a shorty conversion, the 2016 will for sure. I know people that have converted their cars and love it. Shorties today have plenty of capacity for 4wd racing demands. 2-3 years ago, probably not. But with roars new rules allowing the conversions, xray would be silly to not go with it. It would be a tuning option and from what I have seen...a good one.

Originally Posted by Wildcat1971

I agree it is a tuning option. My point was, it is a tuning option people want. Same with the center diff. Neither will take you from the C main to the amain I have owned cars with center slippers and I much prefer a center diff. It just feels so much better in the corners to me.

Originally Posted by BentKa

I'm not disagreeing with you

Malin has run her center diff almost without exception now for the last few months.

She prefers it as it resembles the feel from her XB8.

I'm just saying people are hyping it up to be the "ultimate game changer".

Depending on driving style you will probably feel it is easier to drive, but you will not necessarily be any quicker with it

It's still way too difficult to be really quick with a wheeler today with all the power these now have…….center diff or not

Bent

Originally Posted by Wildcat1971

I had problems putting power down with an 8.5 in a b44.2. It was just too hard to drive. The d413 with gear diffs was very easy to drive with the 6.5. It is kinda hard to describe, but it definitely has a better "feel" to me. Is it a "game changer", probably not. But people constantly tell me that my car is making me look good, not the reverse, lol. There is a local guy that drives an xray 2014. He beats me sometimes, I beat him sometimes. But their are parts of the track, where the center diff is way better. We race on high bite clay and the center diff just turns hard and controlled.


Anyway, looking forward to the 2015 release notes. That might be my car next year.

Originally Posted by MaricopaAgent

XB4 metal gear diffs..

http://www.rctech.net/forum/electric...oad-buggy.html

I hope..

The extra drag is already overcome by my lighter weight from the shorty..

As far as the slipper set right, it is backed off as much as it can be.. maybe 1/2 turn more then it hits the driveshaft collar . no way I will get three months from a set.

Originally Posted by BentKa

From your post it doesn't sound like you have much experience in manufacturing to be honest.

You already lost me when you compared manufacturing cost in Slovakia, Europe with China, Taiwan and Hong Kong :roll eyes:

What's the difference? The denomination used to submit payment? Cad softwares today are vastly accurate across the board and unless I've missed something, numerical input fed to a machine are implemented with a variance of about .0001" which is pretty accurate by any measure. I was heavily involved in Paintball for 20+ years and in that time I had the esteemed privilege to work with the two absolute best machinists/engineers in the industry (one of which is now making some of the highest quality components/systems in all of scale RC and the other a former engineer for McLaren international), and I learned enough to know all this lack of accuracy is total BS and just a marketing ploy.




There is a reason for why almost every American manufacturer is outsourcing to the far east.
COST !
I remember all to well when my my beloved Cannondale bicycles suddenly were "Assembled in America"

And of course the cost is higher when you actually pay for the R&D behind the parts and not just produce a knock-off part.
Ever heard of 3D scanners ?

Seen the Team C touring car or their new tool line !??!?!?!?!?!?

And if you actually are serious about there not being any significant difference to the accuracy of low budget and high end production equipment you are even more in-experienced then you make out to be.

So you're saying Hudy engineered the XB4 from scratch? If that's what you're saying it's you who needs to do their research.



20 years ago I worked in the quality control department of a manufacturer of parts for Volvo, Saab and Scania.
I spent all my working days measuring, weighing, analyzing, scanning color variations etc.
And whenever we got a new machine (mostly German made) the tolerances drastically improved and the number of parts that where out of tolerances where fewer and far between.
But at the same time as our manufacturing cost went down we also had to calculate the cost of the new machinery which obviously had to be paid through the parts manufactured.
And guess where our old machines were shipped when we replaced them ?

So the machines you used to have were used to market product as "top notch" until you got new machinery which then made parts Top TOP Notch. yeah, no. As with anything, machines wear out over time and repeatability and accuracy can begin to suffer and getting new machines simply puts you right back to where you were initially. Yes more modern machines will more than likely be more accurate due to new innovations, but it's not as dramatically drastic as many would lead you to believe.



For Xray they make almost everything in-house as one of the very few left in the business.

They have only done small things as heat treatment outside of the factory (but still in Slovakia), but they have recently added on to the factory and bought the machinery to do so in-house as well.

As a curiosity mr. Hudy himself have been racing,engineering and building race vehicles for decades.
As an example he already had pillow ball suspension on his race vehicles back in -86.

I suggest you either read up on the history and facts of a company before you try to slander them or just be polite enough to stay out of these threads

A good way of actually bringing some facts to the discussion would be to enter one of the races that are being held at the Hudy Racing Arena (one of the worlds best R/C facilities) and attend one of their factory guided tours

That way you can see it for yourself and actually appreciate the work and dedication behind the products

Bent