jwood7

iTrader: (1)

I fixed the Ackerman "slop" with a .2 shim. Not that it was really that bad to begin with. All cars have play in them. It's a RC car. Ive been shimming parts of my cars for years. It's really a non issue. Tamiya and kyosho both make sets of .1, .2 and .3 shims
Just finished my build and this car went together very nice, can't wait to get it on the track
One thing I would like to see someone make is a lock on wheel hex. Or does somebody already make them?

Wildcat1971

iTrader: (84)

yeah, clamping hexes would be nice. I have almost lost the pins a few times due to the m falling out.

MikeR

iTrader: (15)

All very true- alloy caps are very tricky with RE and then many samples and revisions to test for perfect thread fit and sealing. Add to the mix that the D413 was so hard to acquire- August for me!
But I'm on it now and should have a good mix of parts for the D413 starting in Dec.

On the 22 rack I had these on the market for a year before Losi released theirs (surprised actually it took that long) so I am very happy with the sales and customer demand on these although I don't think you ever picked up a set lol!

trick25

iTrader: (28)

i put grease on the pin and hex slot. a little messy on the hex but they dont fall out.

nv529

iTrader: (53)

Use a losi harden steel pinion and cap screws on the motor mount. The spur is a non-issue is usually user error. As of right now, I'm well over 100 batteries with the stock spur.

Shoe-Goo works great on the cross pins.

slasn_48

If you use a dab of shoe goo on the hex pins they will stay in until you take them out.

Shark413

iTrader: (24)

+1 on the shoe glue. I used it on my Durango and it works just as good on the D413.

Shark413

iTrader: (24)

I was sitting here admiring how beautiful the CF chassis is looking and then I thought about the first time out on the track and what all those big nasty rocks are going to do. I have run CF chassis on other vehicles, and on some I ran chassis protectors and on some I did not. CF is actually pretty tough and holds up well on smoother indoor clay tracks. So when I ran outdoor on an abrasive track I ran a protector and indoor I sometimes didn't run one. But I wanted run one on my D413. I couldn't find any specifically made for the D413 at AMain but I do have some Jconcepts clear universal chassis skins. The thing I don't like about the Jconcepts skins are they are tacky and tend to stick to the track when you bottom out or catch a jump wrong. And they leave a lot of residue when it's time to remove it. I started to trim the Jconcepts protector when I glanced up and up in the corner I spotted some old UpgradeRC 1/8 Truggy skins. I bought these skins a long time ago when AMain was blowing them out. The truggy skin is one sheet with several pieces cut out to conform to the truggy body, but I though if I cut a piece in the shape of the D413 chassis and removed it as one piece I could use it as a chassis protector. It actually turned out better than I thought, time will tell how well it will hold up.


UpGradeRC 1/8 truggy skin, I cut out a piece that had a nice design on it in the shape of the D413 chassis.


Here it is on the bottom of the D413 after some trimming. I made sure the individual cutout lines ran parallel to the chassis so they wouldn't catch on the ground.

kdeleon

iTrader: (10)

Actually, I've had the kit since April and haven't had any spur issues. I even use a TLR aluminum pinion and it is also in good condition. I just brought up the other items as things more commonly discussed as "needed" than a new chassis. I had forgotten about the locking hexes, but that was also a common request in the beginning. Personally, I'm ok with that too as I used a little grease and they seem to hold.

For me, I really wanted pistons, but I now have the rcshox ones. And I would like a wing mount that can take screws so that I can mount a thicker wing. I modified my current one enough to fit a trifecta wing, but I really don't like taking it off. And I know others have used the ones for Exotech, but I'm lazy to modify my wing mounts that much.

kdeleon

iTrader: (10)

Speaking of shock caps. For those using the AE ones, have any of you experienced them breaking. Since April, I have had to replace my stock caps once as they were starting to pop out much more. But I have been reluctant to change to the AE ones as I was worried that instead of popping loose, they would just break like they did when I had a B44.

So are they breaking on you?

Cygnus X

shock caps....yeah why is it taking so long...B5 plastic caps works, just use limiters inside shock

stock caps however in my experience build up a pillow of dirt deep in the cup preventing the ball to be seated fully....after a bad hit one of my shocks came off and the cap filled with dirt, during clean out i notice some stuff that was hardpacked in there...after removing that my shocks stopped popping...i got 20+ packs through the buggy over the last 4 days, and one one pop in a crash/hit where i would suspect other 4wd would have snapped something (i drive a LOT, my caps are still original, and i had the car since it was released, and i drive about 4 times a week)

Cygnus X

its not hard to reverse engineer the shock caps

you take the shock body, count threads per inch(TPI), measure outside diameter including threads...chuck a piece of aluminum in the lathe, drill out piece of metal to say 0.020" smaller than measured OD, put lathe in threading mode, and start....cut 0.001" test with shock body...cut 0.001" again test....rinse repeat while counting how many thousands of inches you have removed ..once it fits you take 0.020"+thousands removed=thread depth ...send info to who ever can cut custom taps...while you wait, make a cast mold to spit out blank shock caps.....mount tap in lathe...stuff a shock cap blank in the claw...turn on cutting fluid and lathe...

metal work might seem like magic/hard to most people...but really its not....the factories that spit out our stuff, can all do this easy in house....for the small support companies getting the tap made (usually in carbide which is a pain to machine cause its so hard) is probably the hard part...but hey there is thousands of people waiting for this item

AMorgan

iTrader: (5)

I wish I'd seen that Serpent cap photo a few weeks ago, I'd have grabbed those. I test fit one at the track and it seemed like it bottomed out way before it got to the shoulder, but I'm guessing it's just bad threads on the body. There seems to be a massive difference in the specs on these shock bodies (I gave up on B5 caps. I managed to get one all the way on after some effort and the next body I tried got about two threads on before it became nearly impossible to tighten any further). I can at least apply some leverage to an aluminum cap to get them going. I was afraid I'd twist the plastic ones in half.

Wildcat1971

iTrader: (84)

So I am no gear diff savant. I pulled my rear diff apart last night, to put some 3k in it. It was all gunked up. Black goo. So I cleaned up the parts with orange degreaser (JEP from home depot) and tossed them into a sonic bath of orange degreaser. Meh, honestly the orange degreaser didnt get it done IMO. but I used a brush and cleaned up all of the diff gears. I tried to soak the diff case to get the gunk out of the crevasses, but that was not all that great. How do you guys get the diff housing squeaky clean?

MantisWorx

iTrader: (28)

Why would you have a tap made? you simply CNC ID thread. (but not so simple)
Molds are VERY expensive for anything plastic.And can only be done in 3d for a cap.
Cutting .001" per pass will take forever and not needed even on a manual lathe
One thing you are forgetting is quantities, no shop in their right mind is going to manually make any RC parts and the only way to get pricing anywhere near reasonable for the consumer is to make quantities in the 1000's. (remember you have distributor and dealer pricing which is much cheaper)

How long do you think it would take you to manually make one cap? And then ask your self if you can charge that amount for it. Manual shops are 60-80 per hour and CNC rates range from 80-120. I can promise you you cannot make a single shock cap in less than an hour. Just sayin that it is not an easy task to make shock caps