Balanced Chassis vs Minimum Weight
02-11-2009, 07:15 PM
#1
Balanced Chassis vs Minimum Weight
Hi all,
Now that brushless and Lipo technologies are the new flavour of the month in 1/10 touring, I have a question regarding the priority of weighting.
Is it more important to have a chassis balanced from side to side, which often involves going over the minimum 1500gm weight, or leave the car unbalanced to stick as close to 1500 as possible?
Which approach do you feel would give the most benefit for rubber tyres on asphalt.
Now that brushless and Lipo technologies are the new flavour of the month in 1/10 touring, I have a question regarding the priority of weighting.
Is it more important to have a chassis balanced from side to side, which often involves going over the minimum 1500gm weight, or leave the car unbalanced to stick as close to 1500 as possible?
Which approach do you feel would give the most benefit for rubber tyres on asphalt.
02-11-2009, 09:17 PM
#3
Well, I think you can get both. My car is 1506 g with a speed 6 lightweight body and balanced R/L. I had to play around with battery & electronics positions a little bit and 2 well placed little pieces of lead, but I got it there.
02-11-2009, 10:06 PM
#4
IMHO a balanced chassis is more important than having your car at the minimum weight from my experience...
also, it doesnt hurt to carry a little more weight than the minimum weight as a lot of chassis handle best being slightly heavier..
my TA05MS with 5 cell nimh (1430gm minimum) was able to be balanced left/right with no weights, but under the 6 cell or lipo (1500gm minimum) i need to add about 176gms of weight to balance the chassis, and because i was running mod, give the chassis a rear weight bias..
ready to race, my car weighs 1555gms
my chassis has the following..
- TA05MS
- short arms 416 uprights and c-hubs conversion
- TC Spec ESC
- Spektrum SR3000 Rx
- Futaba 9551 servo
- Losi 10.5 brushless
- LRP 5300 hardcase lipos
- 16 ball custom diff (non-wide pitch pulleys, extra balls in the diff, larger plates etc)
to assist with balance..
- 46gm lipo tray (offset to fit taller lipos)
- 80gm forward of layshaft on left side of chassis
- 50gm behind battery on right side
this gives the car a 55-60% weight bias on the rear of the chassis with perfect balance left/right.. my main aim was to balance the chassis WITHOUT the ESC installed as I sit this behind the motor (this is the 80gm), then I weighed the ESC and added a weight to counteract that on the opposite side (this is the 50gm) which pushes the weight towards the rear..
my car handles MUCH better at the higher weight than it did being >100gm lighter under the 5 cell rules..
</2cents>
-Mark
also, it doesnt hurt to carry a little more weight than the minimum weight as a lot of chassis handle best being slightly heavier..
my TA05MS with 5 cell nimh (1430gm minimum) was able to be balanced left/right with no weights, but under the 6 cell or lipo (1500gm minimum) i need to add about 176gms of weight to balance the chassis, and because i was running mod, give the chassis a rear weight bias..
ready to race, my car weighs 1555gms
my chassis has the following..
- TA05MS
- short arms 416 uprights and c-hubs conversion
- TC Spec ESC
- Spektrum SR3000 Rx
- Futaba 9551 servo
- Losi 10.5 brushless
- LRP 5300 hardcase lipos
- 16 ball custom diff (non-wide pitch pulleys, extra balls in the diff, larger plates etc)
to assist with balance..
- 46gm lipo tray (offset to fit taller lipos)
- 80gm forward of layshaft on left side of chassis
- 50gm behind battery on right side
this gives the car a 55-60% weight bias on the rear of the chassis with perfect balance left/right.. my main aim was to balance the chassis WITHOUT the ESC installed as I sit this behind the motor (this is the 80gm), then I weighed the ESC and added a weight to counteract that on the opposite side (this is the 50gm) which pushes the weight towards the rear..
my car handles MUCH better at the higher weight than it did being >100gm lighter under the 5 cell rules..
</2cents>
-Mark
02-12-2009, 03:27 AM
#6
Balanced = Predictability
Unbalanced=Unpredictable
Easy choice for me......"Lighter isnt always=to being faster"
Not knowing what your car is going to do going into a corner is a miserable day at the track.....If you dont believe me put tweak in your car and run it around the track....I am sure everyone enjoy's the fun of a car pushin left and loose right car its the best......
Side note I get my car balanced and to make weight I will add sho-goo and strips of clear servo tape on the body evenly on both sides as low as possible to make weight ....Shoo-gooo on the nose of course.....
Unbalanced=UnpredictableEasy choice for me......"Lighter isnt always=to being faster"
Not knowing what your car is going to do going into a corner is a miserable day at the track.....If you dont believe me put tweak in your car and run it around the track....I am sure everyone enjoy's the fun of a car pushin left and loose right car its the best......
Side note I get my car balanced and to make weight I will add sho-goo and strips of clear servo tape on the body evenly on both sides as low as possible to make weight ....Shoo-gooo on the nose of course.....
02-13-2009, 03:07 PM
#9
Very interesting topic. I have fought this for a while, but simply for me a balanced car is better then a light car.
My car is 1510grams and is perfectly balanced on the bench, and drives great on the track.
The keys for me:
~getting all electronics and wires are low as possible and as close to the center line of the chassis
~changing the top deck screws to aluminum made a big difference (14gram reduction)
~trimming front bumper to reduce weight (about 5 grams)
~getting the weight on the battery side as low as possible in the car (I am using the manutech racing LIPO plate under my LIPO)
My car is 1510grams and is perfectly balanced on the bench, and drives great on the track.
The keys for me:
~getting all electronics and wires are low as possible and as close to the center line of the chassis
~changing the top deck screws to aluminum made a big difference (14gram reduction)
~trimming front bumper to reduce weight (about 5 grams)
~getting the weight on the battery side as low as possible in the car (I am using the manutech racing LIPO plate under my LIPO)
02-13-2009, 03:23 PM
#10
I agree, you can do both. I run a corally PHI with lipo/BL, our minimum is 1525g but, I can easily get it to 1500g and keep it balanced.
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