Originally Posted by
klaymon
When I was running on-road, I always used my setup station. But again, I was running Xray T4's which are very precise cars. There is no play in them.
I've never had an off-road car that was tight enough to warrant even trying to use a station. The closest I had was when I was running Kyoshos. They were good, but still not touring car tight.
Yep, I used my Hudy station to start the day with my Mugen nitro TC years ago and if I hit a board more than a kiss, it went back on. You could absolutely tell the difference.
I still use my 10+ year old Hudy 1/10 TC station on my 1/10 offroad vehicles, unfortunately not the toe gauge because of the tower height in offroad but I can at least dial in the camber accurately with a nice and slick Hudy setup board and sticker.
Its not as big of a difference in feel when fresh off the station as onroad but you can tell that's it is more balanced in the turns left to right and just seems to drive a little more true.
I agree, it does look like you are near 0 degrees of camber once the beat up tires are back on and if you roll it you may see +2° to -2° of camber but what are you going to do. At least you know that you have the camber links correct and whatever funkyness your seeing is in the wheel. Someone that's been at rc for a while may be close on my station but someone newer that goes on it can be way off, lean gauge or eyeball. Almost none are within 0.5° left to right from my experience.
If someone comes to me for setup help at the track, first step is they go on the station.
That does beg the question, if pros are using the lean a gauge against the wheel method which is obviously way off just from the wheel let alone all the other wiggle points... what do you go by when they say 1.5° camber in the rear and 1° in the front. Would be nice if it was listed on the setup sheet if it was tuned on a station or if it is close enough for horse shoes & hand grenades
If it was a lean against the tire gauge, you can just throw 0.5° increments out the door and the 1° measurement is probably more like 2.5° or 3° or who really knows. But a pro can feel what they need to be at so maybe eyeballing it is just as good for them and just drive it and make slight tweaks throughout the warmups.
A lot of good points so far in this thread, use the station for a consistent number and find your own camber number. Maybe 4° on the station is more like what the setup sheet is intending when it says 1.5°. But at least you can get a repeatable tune whether it is 1° or 4° on the station.