Originally Posted by
Johnny Wishbone
After thinking about this for a while, seeing cwoods setup, and reading the lack of love for the one that xray has. Especially the problem with the servo moving from the torque of the servo itself. Cwoods multi-mount seems to address the moving problem, but may induce a little less flex due to the steering post mount, but thats still to be determined. It just makes me wonder if using the stock setup is as good as all these alternatives, when I use mine the servo is about 1mm off the chassis, just using the thickness of the servo tape as a cushion.
Now another thing came to mind, seeing all these complex over the top systems, I started thinking, why not just float a plate on the bottom of the servo. You could use the existing holes and servo mounts, but use a 1mm spacer on the center mount screws. The plate would cover the entire width of the servo and use the outside mount as well. To keep the unit from twisting a second existing hole down the center line of the chassis could be used to secure the bottom plate. The thickness of the plate itself would keep the up/down flex to a minimum, but you could probably put a small spacer at the outer most point to keep the flex down as well. The thing about this mount is it keeps all the hardware down low on the chassis.
Sure wish there was a way to measure the twist of the chassis pre and post doing these mods.
Just something to think about any discussion?
Thanks
The servo would sit a little higher with a plate under it as opposed to how mine is mounted. My servo sits just under 1mm above the chassis.... if you had a plate and shims, it'd be 2-3mm above, at least if I am visualizing it correctly. As you mentioned though it would keep more hardware lower on the car. My goal was just to use stock mounting locations.... if you found a way to do this with a lower plate, I believe it would work just as well! Regardless how it is done, NOT using the outer mount makes a difference.... it's only a matter of securing the servo so that you aren't relying on tape or only one mount.
An easy way to offset any flex that could be reduced in the chassis is to just slot the upper deck, or "fork" it, in about an inch or more. Ironically enough I've wound up doing this to every TC I've owned..... it just seems to smooth the steering out a hair everywhere without sacrificing traction.
The layout at the already small local track was incredibly tight..... just big enough to make passes in some turns. I had the Snake out for a bit after racing was over...... even with numerous hits against traffic and the boards (and the accompanying bricks that hold them) the steering stayed exactly where I set it in the pits. Previously, with either the stock plate or one mount and tape, a hard enough hit would require resetting the steering trim.
Although the setup I had thrown on the car was too stiff, the steering stayed consistent. I typically set my full-lock as the front wheels being about 1.5mm from rubbing the front shocks while turning.... I ended up with the steering rate at 85% and still had enough to navigate the turns.
If you noticed in my pics, I drilled out a hole in the middle of the steering rack between the ackerman screws, and attached the steering link there..... making it MUCH shorter than stock. I noticed a big difference as compared to the feel previously..... it seems like my setup now uses a bit more steering throw, but it is more responsive throughout. When a more forgiving layout is down I'll be able to actually burn some packs up, but so far so good!