RussF

iTrader: (22)

Unfortunately it didnt. I tried both Green and Blue on the rear and Blue and Dbl Blue combinations on the front. All had too much front steering. Granted it could be other factors such as springs and camber and caster and toe and ....... I'm still experimenting and learning as I go. But the tires I mentioned before are the best so far on our carpet. Good thing about spending tons of money on different tires (if there is a good thing) is that I have just about everything on hand to try. BTW Pink rear Purple front worked pretty good too. My next things to try after all the front suspension changes will be maybe softer front springs but really the harder ones decreased the over steer I was having so I think it worked.

DesertRat

iTrader: (2)

I feel your pain, but I think there may be an easy solution to mid-corner oversteer. I would get a pair of the soft AE or yokomo side springs which are much softer than those used by CRC and give them a shot. You could even make a quick practice run without any side springs at all.

Softer tires does not always mean more grip, especially in unusual carpet like you described.

RussF

iTrader: (22)

Yes I'm starting to believe that. With my TC I keep going stiffer front springs to reduce steering and I think its getting more. Time to go the other way.

I will try the no side springs deal and see how that feels. I just bought some Xceed 25 shore rears and some Jaco White to see how they do. Thanks Guys!

DesertRat

iTrader: (2)

Another thing you should know is that in bad conditions Ulti Z compound tires are like bolting gravity to the back of your car. The downside is that they are $20 a pair instead of $12.

RussF

iTrader: (22)

Good to know. I was looking at those but with no clue what the different compounds were I chose to hold off. I really think my problems are setup related and will work towards that but I am collecting quite a variety of tires to test.

gmintimidator

iTrader: (3)

Does anyone have a link to info showing how to set and check the droops that are talked about in the setups? I'm not sure about the front droop and how the rear pod droop and uptravel are set.

Thanks

RussF

iTrader: (22)

Up travel / droop in the front is how far can you lift the front of chassis until the tires lift. Its adjusted by the king pin length. Pod droop is how far does the pod drop back when the chassis is lifted. Its adjusted by the length of the shock till it stops the pod from dropping more. At least thats how I understand it.

imprsme

iTrader: (91)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=suI3uKzmwew


Watch Edward's videos. Some of the most informative vids on YouTube.

Hope this helps.

vafactor

iTrader: (6)

There are so may tire alternatives out there that you can drive yourself nuts (and spend a whole lot of unnecessary money in this process) hunting for a tire combo that will mystically transform your car. Especially on "iffy" track conditions, it is often best to stick with black fronts and either grey or yellow rears. That combo is about as docile and easy to tune and drive as any. And on occasions where the track's grip level is good (especially on the newer black CRC carpet), many of the very best drivers have come to realize that the purple stripe spec tires are an excellent choice....often just as fast or even faster as anything else. My advice to you would be to discontinue the tire research and stick with blacks/yellows for "iffy" track conditions and go with specs for when the track offers plenty of grip.

biz77

iTrader: (47)

For pod droop I place the car on a level surface, compress the suspension, let the car settle and measure ride height at front of the pod. Now grab the shock's rear ball cup on the top pod plate and lift it up until the rear tires just touch the surface the car is resting on. Slide your ride height gauge in until it hits the bottom of the pod plate at this new height. The difference between those two measurements is your droop. You adjust this on the CRC by adjusting the length of your rear shock with the ball cup attached to the shock shaft.

For the fronts I like to remove the front tires and use two stepped ride height gauges, one under each kingpin. I like the Associated .5mm stepped gauges as they have a large platform at each step to do this. Pick a step that is close to ride height, say 4mm, and rest both kingpins on the gauges on the 4mm platform. Compress the suspension and let it settle. With your eyeballs look to see that you have an even gap between the top of your lower arm pivot ball and the bottom of the steering block. I usually shoot for about a .5mm gap here (that is the amount of droop). You can gauge this pretty well with your eyeballs by comparing it to a .5mm step on a ride height gauge. If you wanted to get super fancy and accurate I suppose you could find a feeler gauge set to .5mm to stuff in between the lower arm and steering block. You adjust this on the CRC by first loosening the small brass set screws in the steering blocks and then by loosening (less preload and more droop) or tightening (more preload and less droop) the kingpins.

biz77

iTrader: (47)

Five years ago I would have agreed wholeheartedly. This was a super safe bet 95% of the time and you could get fairly dialed with a combination of setup changes and saucing on yellow rears and black fronts and it was always going to be forgiving to drive. With the advent of the newer JFT-style green and blue foams I just don't see the need for the Black, Gray, Yellow synthetic foams any longer. I would argue that Green rears and Blue fronts are the new yellows and blacks and they have the advantage of more grip, less wear and they are less prone to chunking and peeling. Anywhere you go blue or green rears and blue fronts should work.
That said, we now (past two years IIRC) run stripes at my local track on old dirty gray rug and as long as we have some kind of groove, they are really good. I have played with other combos and haven't found anything that is much if any faster than the stripes on our track.

Setup that works great on our track:
Front:
168mm width
5* reactive caster blocks
1 shim forward, two back
.45mm springs with .5mm droop dry = no lube on kingpins
1* camber
1.5* toe out
No brace or roll center adjusters
3.25mm ride height
CRC stripe tires 41mm 1/2 SXT 3.0 sauce for 30 minutes

Rear:
170.5mm width
35 weight oil in shock
CRC copper spring
CRC .5mm side springs
10,000 weight tube lube
3.25mm ride height
2.5mm droop
CRC stripe tires 41mm full sauce for 30 minutes
BMR12 body (Strakka body frees the car up a bit for more steering)

One word of caution: This is on a very small and very tight track. I would probably run a lighter rear spring (CRC Red or green), 30 weight shock oil and reduce droop by 1 - 1.5mm on a more open track for starters.

DesertRat

iTrader: (2)

I am sure this is a perfectly good setup and drives just fine, but my personal setup couldn't be more different despite running on a similar surface with the same tires. That's just the nature of 1/12 racing, what's good for one racer doesn't work for them all.

I do like the purple stripe spec tires though, they may not be perfect or even the fastest tire possible but always make a car easier to drive. They are also tough enough to withstand multiple modified runs even on an old, abrasive rug.

DesertRat

iTrader: (2)

I swapped my Altered Ego over to the new-ish CRC aluminum main chassis and new low profile slider pod, and it worked great. I came within a tenth or so of equaling the fast lap on track even though I was running on purple stripes and my competitors were not. The only downside is that the car is heavy, now some 25g overweight with the CRC rims and tires, and I'm not sure if there is 20g worth of stuff in the car that can be cut out.

RussF

iTrader: (22)

I've been thinking about getting the new lower pod. I was rebuilding / checking everything on my car recently. I noticed my rear pod was quite tweaked when I took it off. In rebuilding it I was able to get it very flat with the lower plate and aluminum upright side parts but as soon as the top plate is attached the bottom plate starts to rock on the glass. All the parts seem ok when checked individually on the glass but once the top plate is installed it rocks a little diagonally. I put a 1mm shim under the single mounting point on the side opposite the spur of the upper plate and it seems to help. Since something seems messed up anyway with one of the parts of my pod I may just get the new one. Where a good place to get it?

DesertRat

iTrader: (2)

I would check each piece of the pod on your piece of glass, its likely just one pod plate that is bent, or just the slider bearing holder.

Less to buy, unless you want an excuse to upgrade to the new pod. In that case, Stormerhobbies has them.